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Toward A Theory Of Feminist Hospitality, Maurice Hamington

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Immigration, international conflicts, and world debt have contributed to rising unease over the power relations created by burgeoning globalization. Absent from much of the political rhetoric surrounding global issues is a role for the social value of hospitality. Political theorists and philosophers such as the late Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel Levinas have reinvigorated interest in hospitality. This article suggests that the work of feminist theorists such as Seyla Benhabib, Margaret Urban Walker, and Iris Marion Young on issues of identity, inclusiveness, reciprocity, forgiveness, and embodiment can contribute to an alternative theory of hospitality. Consistent with feminist care ethics, the theory …

Book Review Of, Friedrich Nietzsche And The Politics Of History, R. Kevin Hill

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of History" by Christian J. Emden.

Liberty And The Normative Force Of The Law In Montesquieu's The Spirit Of The Laws, Cory Wimberly

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The aim of this essay is explore what demands living in liberty places on citizens in Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws. In contrast to the ideas of liberty from many of the thinkers that were to follow him, Montesquieu’s notion of liberty requires that citizens subject themselves to the regulative relationships required by his normative conception of the law. For Montesquieu, living in liberty is not just a situation in which one avoids what the law forbids and is otherwise left ’free’ without interference and coercion. For Montesquieu, liberty is a positively elaborated ideal with normative demands and a …

The Joy Of Difference: Foucault And Hadot On The Aesthetic And The Universal In Philosophy, Cory Wimberly

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The intersection of Foucault and Hadot's work in the philosophy of antiquity is a dense and fruitful meeting. Not only do each of the philosophers offer competing interpretations of antiquity, their differences also reflect on their opposing assessments of the contemporary situation and the continuing philosophical debate between the universal and the relative. Unpacking these two philosophers’ disagreements on antiquity sheds light on how Hadot’s commitment to the Universal and Foucault’s commitment to an aesthetics of existence stem from their diagnoses of the present and the persistent philosophical issue of universalism. This line of analysis is especially productive to pursue …

How "Weak" Mindreaders Inherited The Earth, Cameron Buckner, Adam Shriver, Stephen Crowley, Colin Allen

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Carruthers argues that an integrated faculty of metarepresentation evolved for mindreading and was later exapted for metacognition. A more consistent application of his approach would regard metarepresentation in mindreading with the same skeptical rigor, concluding that the "faculty" may have been entirely exapted. Given this result, the usefulness of Carruthers’ line-drawing exercise is called into question.

Debord, Constant, And The Politics Of Situationist Urbanism, Brian Elliott

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the first years of its existence between 1957 and 1960 the efforts of the radical collective the Situationist International (SI) centred on its program of "unitary urbanism." This program sought to challenge the functionalist character of hegemonic forms of urban planning through novel practices of urban experimentation and contestation. Situationist urbanism arose largely through the collaboration between Guy Debord and the Dutch avant-garde architect Constant. This article explores the political dimension of situationist urbanism and the tensions that led to Constant’s secession from the group in 1960. Through analysis of the affinities and divergences between urbanism in its modernist …

Montesquieu And Locke On Democratic Power And The Justification Of The “War On Terror”, Cory Wimberly

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper focuses on a comparative analysis of the legitimate exercise of democratic power in the philosophies of Montesquieu and Locke. This analysis not only highlights a strong bifurcation in liberal thought, it also sheds light on the contemporary practice of liberalism through the example of the United States’ ‘War on Terror.’ I argue that although it is Locke who at first blush gives an account of the exercise of democratic power that is more opposed to tyranny, it is Montesquieu’s broader conception that is in many ways more effective at tracking and combating tyranny.

The Soul Of Classical American Philosophy: The Ethical And Spiritual Insights Of William James, Josiah Royce, And Charles Sanders Peirce By: Richard P. Mullin (Review), Alexander Stehn

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sharing William James’ conviction that “no one of us can get along without the far-reaching beams of light [philosophy] sends over the world’s perspectives” (qtd. on xi), Richard Mullin’s new book seeks to communicate the ethical and spiritual insights of William James, Josiah Royce, and Charles Sanders Peirce to a non-specialist audience. Mullin follows the pragmatists he studies by dropping the traditional, dualistic notion of “soul” while insisting upon the importance of carefully attending to the following issues classically treated as pertaining thereto: the self, free will, moral values, community, and our relationship with the Transcendent (xi). With the pragmatic …

Locke On Consciousness, Angela M. Coventry, Uriah Kriegel

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Locke’s theory of consciousness is often appropriated as a forerunner of present-day Higher-Order Perception (HOP) theories, but not much is said about it beyond that. We offer an interpretation of Locke’s account of consciousness that portrays it as crucially different from current-day HOP theory, both in detail and in spirit. In this paper, it is argued that there are good historical and philosophical reasons to attribute to Locke the view not that conscious states are accompanied by higher-order perceptions, but rather that conscious states constitute perceptions of themselves.

Nietzsche's Debt To Kant's Theory Of The Beautiful In 'Birth Of Tragedy', R. Kevin Hill

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nietzsche describes Birth of Tragedy as a contribution to “the science of aesthetics”. In this paper, I will argue that a crucial influence on his emerging views was Kant’s Critique of Judgment. Nietzsche’s early aesthetic views are often attributed to some combination of Schopenhauer’s analyses of the plastic arts (inspiring Nietzsche’s conception of the Apollinian) and his analysis of music (inspiring Nietzsche’s conception of the Dionysian) along with Nietzsche’s own original insights into how these combine to form the tragic. As we shall see, the resources of Schopenhauer’s aesthetics were unavailable to Nietzsche due to epistemological commitments he had …

Globalization And Genocidalism: Fictional Discourse Without Borders (For Fun And Profit), Aleksandar Jokić, Tiphaine Dickson

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this essay we explore the relationship between globalization and genocidalism. “Globalization” is understood as “freedom and ability of individuals and firms to initiate voluntary economic transactions with residents of other countries,” while “genocidalism” is defined as “(i) the purposeful neglect to attribute responsibility for genocide in cases when overwhelming evidence exists, and as (ii) the energetic attributions of “genocide” in less then clear cases without considering available and convincing opposing evidence and argumentation.”

The hypothesis that we defend here as explanatory of globalization’s “surprising” failure to live up to its often repeated theoretical promise that it is not a …

Why Aristotle Says There Is No Time Without Change, Tony Roark

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The title of this paper is intended as a provocative (but friendly) reference to Ursula Coope's recent article 'Why Does Aristotle Say That There Is No Time Without Change?', which provides much of the impetus for the present paper.¹ For although Coope's strategy in answering this question is admirable, and although I think that her criticisms of the standard interpretation of the argument that opens Physics IV 11 hit their mark, I believe that her own interpretation fails and that something rather like the standard interpretation is correct. In the first section, I rehearse Coope's treatment of the standard …

Bonhoeffer And The End Of Christian Ethics, Thomas D. Pearson

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of, Friedrich Nietzsche, On The Genealogy Of Morality, R. Kevin Hill

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "On the Genealogy of Morality" by Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Carol Diethe and edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson

Book Review Of, Nietzsche: Ethics Of An Immoralist, R. Kevin Hill

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "Ethics of an Immoralist" by Peter Berkowitz

Book Review Of, Schopenhauer, R. Kevin Hill

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "Schopenhauer" by Christopher Janaway

Book Review Of, Nietzsche's Philosophy Of Science: Reflecting Science On The Ground Of Art And Life, R. Kevin Hill

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "Nietzsche's Philosophy of Science: Reflecting Science on the Ground of Art and Life" by Babette Babich

Macintyre's Nietzsche: A Critique, R. Kevin Hill

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In Alastair MacIntyre's "After Virtue", Nietzsche is presented as (1)an emotivist, (2) the culmination of the liberal tradition, and (3) fundamentally opposed to Aristotle. All three claims are criticized, thus casting doubt not only on MacIntyre's interpretation of Nietzsche, but also on his larger account of the history of Western ethical theory and practice, as well as on his proposal that we return to the tradition which Nietzsche has called into question.

The View Atop The Ladder: Wittgenstein's Early Aesthetics, Graham P. Conroy

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Essay which examines Witgenstein's Tractatus, especially as it serves to illuminate Wittgenstein's aesthetics, and outlines the limits of what can be known through ethics.

George Berkeley And The Jacobite Heresy: Some Comments On Irish Augustan Politics, Graham P. Conroy

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

This essay is an attempt to explain Berkeley's connections with the Augustan Circle and to mitigate the criticisms brought against him by those opposed to the views of some of that group.

George Berkeley On Moral Demonstration, Graham P. Conroy

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

An essay in which the author attempts to illustrate how Berkeley's moral philosophy shows him to be a transitional figure between 17th century rationalistic ethics and the empirical moral philosophy of the 18th century,

Berkeley And Education In America, Graham P. Conroy

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

This essay attempts to outline Berkeley's role as an educator, which the author considers to be under-appreciated and rarely acknowledged. Berkeley's views and theories are compared and contrasted with those of Locke and Hume, and Berkeley's interactions with Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth and Columbia are examined.