Fiction As An Institution, 2017 San Jose State University
Fiction As An Institution, A. P. Martinich
Comparative Philosophy
John Searle and I agree about many important aspects about individual speech acts within fiction. I hope to reduce the area of disagreement by explaining how much work an analysis of fiction as linguistic behavior can do to solve the problems of truth and reference in fiction. The elements of the analysis include a concept of suspending H. P. Grice’s maxims of conversation, a view about criteria for the application of words and concepts, and the acceptance of institutions and institutional facts.
Searle And Buddhism On The Non-Self, 2017 San Jose State University
Searle And Buddhism On The Non-Self, Soraj Hongladarom
Comparative Philosophy
In this brief note I continue the discussion that I had with John Searle on the topic of the self and the possibility of continuity of consciousness after death of the body. The gist of Searle's reply to my original paper (Hongladarom 2008) is that it is logical possible, though extremely unlikely, that consciousness survives destruction of the body. This is a rather startling claim given that Searle famously holds that consciousness is the work of the body. Nonetheless, he claims that such issue is an empirical matter which could perhaps be discovered by future science. Another point concerns identity …
Searle’S Master Insight And The Non-Dual Solution Of The Sixth Patriarch: Sorting Through Some Problems Of Consciousness, 2017 San Jose State University
Searle’S Master Insight And The Non-Dual Solution Of The Sixth Patriarch: Sorting Through Some Problems Of Consciousness, Robert E. Allinson
Comparative Philosophy
The Platform Sutra, which dates back to the seventh century C.E., is one of the classic documents of Chinese philosophy and is the intellectual autobiography of Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch of Ch’an Buddhism. In the Platform Sutra, the Sixth Patriarch demonstrates that the spiritual and intellectual problems of consciousness stem from a false adherence to the dualistic standpoint. The Sixth Patriarch utilizes ingenious arguments to demonstrate how one can escape the problems of dualism. An example of a constructive engagement between Chinese philosophy and Searle is to compare and contrast the arguments of Hui Neng with those of …
Malagasy Time Conceptions, 2017 San Jose State University
Malagasy Time Conceptions, Casey Woodling
Comparative Philosophy
In this paper I discuss Øyvind Dahl’s argument (1995,1999) for the conclusion that Malagasy people conceive of the future as coming from behind them and not as being before them as most worldviews do. I argue that we have good reason not to attribute this view to Malagasy people. First, it would mark an inefficient and anomalous way of keeping track of the past and future. Second, the linguistic and testimonial evidence presented by Dahl doesn’t support the conclusion. Even though this specific argument fails, Dahl has many enlightening things to say about Malagasy time conceptions, such as the various …
Moral Practice In Late Stoicism And Buddhist Meditation, 2017 San Jose State University
Moral Practice In Late Stoicism And Buddhist Meditation, Michael Goerger
Comparative Philosophy
I argue in this essay that Stoic philosophers in the late Greco-Roman period utilized philosophical exercises and spiritual technologies similar in form to a meditative exercise currently practiced in Buddhism. I begin with an in-depth discussion of moral development in the late Stoa, focusing particularly on their theories of cosmopolitanism and oikeiōsis. These theoretical commitments, I argue, necessitated the adoption of exercises and practices designed to guide practitioners toward the goal of universal moral concern. Using insights gained from Buddhist practice, I identify passages in Stoic texts that call for and prescribe moral exercise. While much work in comparative philosophy …
Between The Internal And The External: Kant’S And Patañjali’S Arguments For The Reality Of Physical Objects And Their Independence From Mind, 2017 San Jose State University
Between The Internal And The External: Kant’S And Patañjali’S Arguments For The Reality Of Physical Objects And Their Independence From Mind, Ana Laura Funes Maderey
Comparative Philosophy
Although coming from two very different paths, both Kant and Patañjali present similar strategies to refute the skeptic argument that denies the real and independent existence of physical objects. This essay examines both strategies through the reconstruction of Kant’s and Patañjali’s twofold refutation of idealism: one based on the perceptual distinction between the real and the illusory, and the other one based on the ontological necessity of a permanent external object to understand change. I argue that the second strategy is philosophically stronger due to its phenomenological recognition of the body as a grounding point, and that this is possible …
Neither Ātman Nor Anattā: Tapering Our Conception Of Selfhood, 2017 San Jose State University
Neither Ātman Nor Anattā: Tapering Our Conception Of Selfhood, Roman Briggs
Comparative Philosophy
I provide critical discussion of conception of and talk of psychic integration which I take to be both excessive and deficient; these viciously extreme positions are championed by the Apostle Paul and St. Augustine (and both their religious and their secular cultural descendants in the West), and by Jacques Lacan and María Lugones (and their contemporaries), respectively. I suggest that we must negotiate a Buddhist-inspired understanding located between these extremes in endorsing any acceptable conception of the self, generally speaking—a conception which, contra the strong antirealist about selves, allows for the continued use of selfhood in everyday discourse, but which, …
Editor's Words, 2017 San Jose State University
Vol 8 No 1 Contents Page, 2017 San Jose State University
Vol 8 No 1 Information Page, 2017 San Jose State University
Vol 8 No 1 Cover Page, 2017 San Jose State University
The Shingon Ajikan, Meditation On The Syllable ‘A’: An Analysis Of Components And Development, 2017 Coastal Carolina University
The Shingon Ajikan, Meditation On The Syllable ‘A’: An Analysis Of Components And Development, Ronald S. Green
Philosophy and Religious Studies
This paper examines what has been described as the most basic and essential element of Kūkai’s (774-835) religio-philosophical system (Yamasaki 1988:190), meditation on the Sanskrit syllable ‘A’. According to Shingon Buddhist tradition, Kūkai introduced the meditation on the syllable ‘A’ (hereafter referred to as the Ajikan) into Japan in the early 9th century, at the time he transmitted the Shingon Dharma to that country from China. Materials clearly showing the origin and development of the Ajikan before Kūkai’s time have either not been discovered or have not been analyzed in relationship to the Ajikan. Indeed, some researchers have argued that …
Here, Thinking, 2017 Bard College
Here, Thinking, Nicolas Ocean Shannon
Senior Projects Spring 2017
Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.
Impartiality, Close Friendship And The Confucian Tradition, 2017 CUNY College of Staten Island
Impartiality, Close Friendship And The Confucian Tradition, Andrew Lambert
Publications and Research
This paper explores the relationship between friendship and morality. Two ideas have been influential in the history of moral philosophy: the impartial standpoint and close friendship. These two perspectives on thought and action can conflict, however, and such a case is presented.
In an attempt to resolve this tension, and understand the assumptions that give rise to it, I explore an alternative conception of moral conduct and friendship suggested by early Confucian thought. Within this account, moral conduct is that which aims at harmony, understood as the appropriate blending of different elements. This suggests a conception of friendship, ‘event friendship’, …
德性、自由与“有根的全球哲学”——关于“进步儒学”与“自由儒学”的对话 [Virtue, Liberty, And ‘Rooted Global Philosophy’—A Dialogue Concerning Progressive Confucianism And Liberal Confucianism], 2016 Wesleyan University
德性、自由与“有根的全球哲学”——关于“进步儒学”与“自由儒学”的对话 [Virtue, Liberty, And ‘Rooted Global Philosophy’—A Dialogue Concerning Progressive Confucianism And Liberal Confucianism], Stephen C. Angle, Ping Guo
Stephen C. Angle
生活儒学与进步儒学的对话 [Dialogue Between Life Confucianism And Progressive Confucianism] (Part 1), 2016 Wesleyan University
生活儒学与进步儒学的对话 [Dialogue Between Life Confucianism And Progressive Confucianism] (Part 1), Stephen C. Angle, Yushun Huang
Stephen C. Angle
生活儒学与进步儒学的对话 [Dialogue Between Life Confucianism And Progressive Confucianism] (Part 2), 2016 Wesleyan University
生活儒学与进步儒学的对话 [Dialogue Between Life Confucianism And Progressive Confucianism] (Part 2), Stephen C. Angle, Yushun Huang
Stephen C. Angle
Response To Danielle Macbeth, 2016 Wesleyan University
Response To Danielle Macbeth, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
Comments On Joseph Chan, Confucian Perfectionism, 2016 Wesleyan University
Comments On Joseph Chan, Confucian Perfectionism, Stephen C. Angle
Stephen C. Angle
Comments On Joseph Chan, Confucian Perfectionism, 2016 Wesleyan University