History of Philosophy Commons^™

Aspects Of Human Historiographic Explanation: A View From The Philosophy Of Science, Stuart Glennan

Stuart Glennan

While some philosophers of history have argued that explanations in human history are of a fundamentally different kind than explanations in the natural sciences, I shall argue that this is not the case. Human beings are part of nature, human history is part of natural history, and human historical explanation is a species of natural historical explanation. In this paper I shall use a case study from the history of the American Civil War to show the variety of close parallels between natural and human historical explanation. In both instances, I shall argue that these explanations involve narrative descriptions of …

John Philoponus, James South

James South

No abstract provided.

John Of Jandun, James South

James South

No abstract provided.

Carl F. Craver And Lindley Darden: In Search Of Mechanisms: Discoveries Across The Life Sciences, Stuart Glennan

Stuart Glennan

Carl Craver and Lindley Darden are two of the foremost proponents of a recent approach to the philosophy of biology that is often called the New Mechanism. In this book they seek to make available to a broader readership insights gained from more than two decades of work on the nature of mechanisms and how they are described and discovered. The book is not primarily aimed at specialists working on the New Mechanism, but rather targets scientists, students and teachers who are looking for a broad, philosophically and historically informed image of discovery in the life sciences.

The Measure Of Wisdom: The Soul, Society And Justice, Travis A. Powers

M.A. in Philosophy of History Theses

Following the insights of Eric Voegelin, this paper attempts to articulate a measuring tool by which Western civilization could test its health. The paper is centered on Plato’s existential principle, tracing its formulation and development through Greek tragedy and Socratic thought, first. The existential principle in its basic formulation is that a societal order reflects the type of people by whom it is composed; stated more tersely, the spirit of the people weave together the spirit of the society. An understanding of the existential principle is given by the example of when Socrates and Plato used the authority of the …

The Virtuous State: Polybius, Machiavelli, And The Idea Of Roman Virtue, Geoffrey Graham

M.A. in Philosophy of History Theses

I will consider the writings of Polybius of Megalopolis (c. 200 BC – c. 118 BC) and those of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) on the subject of Roman virtue, discussing the concept of virtue, highlighting the conduct of specific Roman citizens, as well as analyzing the Roman constitution and the wider culture from which it arose. Examining the life and historical milieu of Polybius, I'll outline his major contributions to history, and end with a discussion of his conception of virtue in the Republican Roman context. Secondly, after a brief biographical sketch of Machiavelli and listing his significant works, …

Carl F. Craver And Lindley Darden: In Search Of Mechanisms: Discoveries Across The Life Sciences, Stuart Glennan

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Carl Craver and Lindley Darden are two of the foremost proponents of a recent approach to the philosophy of biology that is often called the New Mechanism. In this book they seek to make available to a broader readership insights gained from more than two decades of work on the nature of mechanisms and how they are described and discovered. The book is not primarily aimed at specialists working on the New Mechanism, but rather targets scientists, students and teachers who are looking for a broad, philosophically and historically informed image of discovery in the life sciences.

Hypothetical Necessity And The Laws Of Nature: John Locke On God's Legislative Power, Elliot Rossiter

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The focus of my dissertation is a general and comprehensive examination of Locke’s view of divine power. My basic argument is that John Locke is a theological voluntarist in his understanding of God’s creative and providential relationship with the world, including both the natural and moral order. As a voluntarist, Locke holds that God freely imposes both the physical and moral laws of nature onto creation by means of his will: this contrasts with the intellectualist perspective in which the laws of nature emerge from the essences of things. For Locke, there are no intrinsically necessary laws in the created …

Merging The Principles Of Occultism And Anarchism, Kevin Todd Mclaren

History

"Merging the Principles of Occultism and Anarchism" is an attempt to pinpoint the correlations between occult and/or esoteric belief systems and political anarchist philosophy. The paper analyzes the works, belief systems and philosophies of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Aleister Crowley and extracts the underlying anarchist principles that are embedded within them. This established connection to anarchism through occultism is reinforced by referencing various anarchist works, particularly the works of William Godwin.

Book Review Of Dao Companion To Neo-Confucian Philosophy. John Makeham, Ed. (Dordrecht: Springer, 2010, Xliii + 488 Pages)., Deborah A. Sommer

Deborah A. Sommer

This volume includes nineteen articles by scholars from Asia, North America, and Europe on Chinese thinkers from the eleventh to the eighteenth centuries. Included here are intellectual biographies of literati such as Zhou Dunyi, the Cheng brothers, Zhu Xi, Zhang Shi, Hu Hong, Wang Yangming, and Dai Zhen. Essays are arranged chronologically, and most begin with a biographical sketch of their subject. They provide variety rather than uniformity of approach, but all in all these essays are remarkably rich and offer much new material on both familiar and lesser-known thinkers.

Augustine, Wannabe Philosopher: The Search For Otium Honestum, Allen G. Wilson

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Time, History, And Providence In The Philosophy Of Nicholas Of Cusa, Jason Aleksander

Faculty Publications

Although Nicholas of Cusa occasionally discussed how the universe must be understood as the unfolding of the absolutely infinite in time, he left open questions about any distinction between natural time and historical time, how either notion of time might depend upon the nature of divine providence, and how his understanding of divine providence relates to other traditional philosophical views. From texts in which Cusanus discussed these questions, this paper will attempt to make explicit how Cusanus understood divine providence. The paper will also discuss how Nicholas of Cusa’s view of the question of providence might shed light on Renaissance …

Resourcing The Postmodern Pastor: An Examination Of Young Pastors’ Attitudes And The Implications For Denominational Publishers, Bonnie J. Perry

Ed.D. Dissertations

This study explored the influence of postmodernity on the changing attitudes of young pastors regarding spirituality and discipleship in their adult congregants. The purpose of this study was to educate and equip Christian publishers to resource young pastors who are ministering in a postmodern culture. The study focused on Church of the Nazarene pastors 35 years old or younger in the calendar year 2012, exploring their attitudes toward Christian faith, spirituality, and discipleship. At certain junctures in the study, the young pastors’ attitudes were compared to those of pastors who were 36 years or older in order to determine what …

Toward A Deweyan Theory Of Ethical And Aesthetic Performing Arts Practice, Aili W. Bresnahan

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This paper formulates a Deweyan theory of performing arts practice that relies for its support on two main things:

1. The unity Dewey ascribed to all intelligent practices (including artistic practice) and
2. The observation that many aspects of the work of performing artists of Dewey’s time include features (“dramatic rehearsal,” action, interaction and habit development) that are part of Dewey’s characterization of the moral life.

This does not deny the deep import that Dewey ascribed to aesthetic experience (both in art and in life), but it does suggest that we might use his theory of ethical practice in conjunction with his …

Augustine, Wannabe Philosopher: The Search For Otium Honestum, Allen Griffith Wilson

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

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Improvisational Artistry In Live Dance Performance As Embodied And Extended Agency, Aili W. Bresnahan

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This paper provides an account of improvisational artistry in live dance performance that construes the contribution of the dance performer as a kind of agency. Andy Clark’s theory of the embodied and extended mind is used in order to consider how this account is supported by research on how a thinking-while-doing person navigates the world.

I claim here that while a dance performer’s improvisational artistry does include embodied and extended features that occur outside of the brain and nervous system, this can be construed as “agency” rather than “thought.” Further I claim that trained and individual style accounts for how …

Sagp Newsletter 2013/14.3 Pacific, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

“Who Do You Think You Are?” On Nietzsche’S Schopenhauer, Illich’S Hugh Of St. Victor, And Kleist’S Kant, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

No abstract provided.

Enlightenment And Catholicism In Europe. A Transnational History, Ulrich Lehner, Jeffrey Burson

Ulrich L. Lehner

No abstract provided.

The Nature Of Science: A Perspective From The Philosophy Of Science, Juli T. Eflin, Stuart Glennan, George Reisch

Stuart Glennan

In a recent article in this journal, Brian Alters (1997) argued that, given the many ways in which the nature of science (NOS) is described and poor student responses to NOS instruments such as Nature of Scientific Knowledge Scale (NSKS), Nature of Science Scale (NOSS), Test on Understanding Science (TOUS), and others, it is time for science educators to reconsider the standard lists of tenets for the NOS. Alters suggested that philosophers of science are authorities on the NOS and that consequently, it would be wise to investigate their views of current NOS tenets. To that end, he conducted a …