Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Reflections On The Case Study: James Tuttle Vs. Lakeland Community College, Harlan Stelmach

Harlan Stelmach

As a Chair of a large academic department that supervises over thirty adjunct faculty members, I have sympathy with all the parties in this case. I have sympathy for administrators trying to maintain academic oversight of many adjunct faculty members who are often just on campus to teach their courses. I have sympathy for adjunct faculty who are under paid and often do the bulk of teaching at the general education level with very little guidance on the mission and values of an institution. As long as their student evaluations do not cause alarm, benign neglect often defines their relationship …

Kant's Critical Model Of The Experiencing Subject, Kurt Mosser

Kurt Mosser

In an appendix to the Transcendental Analytic of the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant remarks

• Leibniz intellectualized appearances, just as Locke ... sensualized all concepts or the understanding, i.e. interpreted them as nothing more than empirical or abstracted concepts of reflection. ... each of these great men holds to one only of the two, viewing it as in immediate relation to things in themselves. The other faculty is then regarded as serving only to confuse or to order the representations which this selected faculty yields (A27 1=B327).

Kant, in rejecting the positions of Leibniz and Locke, presents …

Naturalism And The Surreptitious Embrace Of Necessity, Kurt Mosser

Kurt Mosser

In this article, two philosophical positions that structure distinct approaches in the history of metaphysics and epistemology are briefly characterized and contrasted. While one view, “naturalism,” rejects an a priori commitment to necessity, the other view, “transcendentalism,” insists on that commitment. It is shown that at the level of the fundamentals of thought, judgment, and reason, the dispute dissolves, and the naturalists' employment of “necessity for all practical purposes” is at best only nominally distinct from the transcendentalists' use of the same concept.

Kant’S Logic(S) And The Logic Of Aristotle, Kurt Mosser

Kurt Mosser

In the Preface to the second edition of the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant offers his best·known- indeed, notorious- remark about Aristotle 's logic:

• Since Aristotle ... logic has not been able to advance a single step, and is thus to all appearance a closed and completed doctrine (Bviii).

I wish to explore here the following question: is Kant in fact saying that since Aristotle. there need be no more concern about logic as a discipline or a field of study, that Aristotle (with some minor embellishments, in terms of presentation) is the last …

Comments On Robinson, 'Langton And Traditionalism On Things In Themselves', Kurt Mosser

Kurt Mosser

In her Kantian Humility , Rae Langton has worked very hard to steer us back toward a traditional reading of the Critique of Pure Reason, one that would make it safe to maintain a number of metaphysical commitments in interpreting this text. In his remarks on her work, Professor Robinson points out a number of things that suggest problems with her hermeneutical recommendations, among them the ambiguity of a very crucial word at stake here, “metaphysical.” I have very few disagreements with what Robinson has to say here about Langton but want …

The Civilian Left And The Radicalization Of The Dergue, Messay Kebede

Messay Kebede

This article attempts to explain the radicalization of the military committee in Ethiopia known as the Dergue. The committee brought down the monarchy and initiated far-reaching socialist transformations of the country. Yet the Dergue had not initially shown any propensity to radicalism. To explain this conversion to Marxist–Leninist ideology, scholars have thus far provided three prevailing views: (i) the Dergue radicalized to steal the revolution from the civilian left; (ii) objective conditions caused its radicalization; and (iii) radical officers initiated the radicalization. The article critically evaluates these views and shows their serious short-comings. It suggests a new explanation involving the …

Action And Forgetting: Bergson Theory Of Memory, Messay Kebede

Messay Kebede

This paper is about the Bergsonian synchronization of the perpetual present or memory with the passing present or the body. It shows how forgetting narrows and focuses consciousness on the needs of action and how motor memory allows the imagining of the useful side of memory. The paper highlights the strength of Bergson’s analysis by respectively confronting classical theories of memory, the highly regarded perspective of the phenomenological school, Deleuze’s interpretation of Bergsonism, and Sartre’s theory of mental imagery.

The Philosophy Of Music, Andrew Kania

Andrew Kania

Philosophy of music is the study of fundamental questions about the nature of music and our experience of it. Like any ‘philosophy of X’, it presupposes a knowledge of its target area of study. However, unlike philosophy of science, say, the target of philosophy of music is a practice most people have a significant background in, merely as a result of being members of a musical culture. Music plays a central role in many people's lives. Thus, as with the central questions of metaphysics and epistemology, not only can most people quickly grasp the philosophical questions music raises, they tend …

Homonationalism: From Critique To Diagnosis, Or, We Are All Homonational Now, C. Heike Schotten

C. Heike Schotten

Judgment, Philippe Nonet

Philippe Nonet

No abstract provided.

Do You Sincerely Want To Be Radical, Phillip Johnson

Phillip Johnson

No abstract provided.

What Is Positive Law, Philippe Nonet

Philippe Nonet

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of Representation: The Role Of The Gaze In Pornography, Jennifer Jeffers

Jennifer M. Jeffers

An accessible reader/text for beginning students of philosophy, this volume offers a broad scope of diverse classic and contemporary selections – with a narrative and format that presents difficult issues and readings in a simplified but not condescending manner. The readings are grouped around major philosophic themes: logic, ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of religion, philosophy of art, and social and political philosophy. It also offers a selection of readings from Eastern philosophy.

The Essential Functions Of A Plotinian Soul, Damian Caluori

Damian Caluori

In reading Plotinus one might get the impression that the essential functions of a Plotinian soul are very similar to those of an Aristotelian soul. Plotinus talks of such vegetative functions as growth, nurture and reproduction. He discusses such animal functions as sense perception, imagination and memory. And he attributes such functions as reasoning, judging and having opinions to the soul. In Plotinus' Psychology, Blumenthal bases his whole discussion of the soul on an analysis of these functions. He concludes that Plotinus 'saw the soul's activities as the functions of a series of faculties which were basically those of Aristotle' …

Rhetoric And Platonism In Fifth-Century Athens, Damian Caluori

Damian Caluori

There are reasons to believe that relations between Platonism and rhetoric in Athens during the fifth century CE were rather close. Both were major pillars of pagan culture, or paideia, and thus essential elements in the defense of paganism against increasingly powerful and repressive Christian opponents. It is easy to imagine that, under these circumstances, paganism was closing ranks and that philosophers and orators united in their efforts to save traditional ways and values. Although there is no doubt some truth to this view, a closer look reveals that the relations between philosophy and rhetoric were rather more complicated. In …

Une Vie De Platon Du Vie Siècle (Olympiodore) Traduction Et Notes, Nicolas D'Andres, Damian Caluori, Davide Del Forno, Luca Pitteloud, Dominic O'Meara, Jacques Schamp, Euree Song, Carolle Tresson, Martine Vonlanthen, Sebastian Weiner

Damian Caluori

No abstract provided.

Plotin: Was Fühlt Der Leib? Was Empfindet Die Seele?, Damian Caluori

Damian Caluori

Thema dieses Aufsatzes ist Plotins Theorie der Emotionen, eines Themas, das in der antiken Philosophie in der Regel im Rahmen einer Handlungstheorie diskutiert wurde. So auch bei Plotin. In meinem Aufsatz wird gezeigt, wie der plotinische Leib-Seele-Dualismus im Hintergrund von Plotins Emotionstheorie steht: Leibliche Affekte werden von seelischen Emotionen unterschieden und es wird deutlich gemacht, dass das Haben einer Emotion im eigentlichen Sinn sowohl Rationalität als auch einen Leib voraussetzt. Zwei Aspekte werden besonders hervorgehoben: 1. Plotin gehört zu den Vertretern einer kognitivistischen Emotionstheorie. 2. Im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen Kognitivisten (z.B. der Stoa) macht er aber auch in einer …

Plotinus On Primary Being, Damian Caluori

Damian Caluori

No abstract provided.

The Scepticism Of Francisco Sanchez, Damian Caluori

Damian Caluori

The Renaissance sceptic and medical doctor Francisco Sanchez has been rather unduly neglected in scholarly work on Renaissance scepticism. In this paper I discuss his scepticism against the background of the ancient distinction between Academic and Pyrrhonian scepticism. I argue that Sanchez was a Pyrrhonist rather than, as has been claimed in recent years, a mitigated Academic sceptic. In keeping with this I shall also try to show that Sanchez was crucially influenced by the ancient medical school of empiricism, a school closely allied with Pyrrhonism.

Divine Practical Thought In Plotinus, Damian Caluori

Damian Caluori

Plotinus follows the Timaeus and the Platonist tradition before him in postulating the existence of a World Soul whose function it is to care for the sensible world as a whole. It is argued that, since the sensible world is providentially arranged, the World Soul’s care presupposes a sort of practical thinking that is as timeless as intellectual contemplation. To explain why this thinking is practical, the paper discusses Plotinus’ view on Aristotle’s distinction between praxis and poiêsis. To explain why it is timeless, it studies Plotinus’ view on Aristotle’s distinction between complete and incomplete actuality. The focus is on …

Reason And Necessity: The Descent Of The Philosopher Kings, Damian Caluori

Damian Caluori

One of the reasons why one might find it worthwhile to study philosophers of late antiquity is the fact that they often have illuminating things to say about Plato and Aristotle. Plotinus, in particular, was a diligent and insightful reader of those great masters. Michael Frede was certainly of that view, and when he wrote that '[o]ne can learn much more from Plotinus about Aristotle than from most modern accounts of the Stagirite', he would not have objected, I presume, to the claim that Plotinus is also extremely helpful for the study of Plato. In this spirit I wish to …

The Mechanistic Approach Of 'The Theory Of Island Biogeography' And Its Current Relevance, Viorel Pâslaru

Viorel Pâslaru

Philosophers of science have examined The Theory of Island Biogeography by Robert MacArthur and E. O. Wilson (1967) mainly due to its important contribution to modeling in ecology, but they have not examined it as a representative case of ecological explanation. In this paper, I scrutinize the type of explanation used in this paradigmatic work of ecology. I describe the philosophy of science of MacArthur and Wilson and show that it is mechanistic. Based on this account and in light of contributions to the mechanistic conception of explanation due to Craver (2007), and Bechtel and Richardson (1993), I argue that …

Causal And Mechanistic Explanations, And A Lesson From Ecology, Viorel Pâslaru

Viorel Pâslaru

Jani Raerinne and Lindley Darden argue that causal claims are not sufficiently explanatory, and causal talk should be replaced with mechanistic talk. I examine several examples from ecological research, two of which rely on causal models and structural equation modeling, to show that the assertions of Raerinne and of Darden have to be reconsidered.

Conceptions Of Mechanisms And Insensitivity Of Causation, Viorel Pâslaru

Viorel Pâslaru

Conceptions of mechanisms due to Glennan (1996; 2002), Machamer, Darden, and Craver (2000), Bechtel and Abrahamsen (2005) have developed in opposition to the nomological approach to explanation. It is less emphasized, however, that these conceptions have also developed as alternatives to the causal perspective on explanation. In this paper, I argue that despite their distancing from the topic of causation, the mechanistic conceptions need to incorporate in their definitions of mechanisms the notion of insensitivity of causal relations that was examined by Woodward (2006).

Ecological Explanation Between Manipulation And Mechanism Description, Viorel Pâslaru

Viorel Pâslaru

James Woodward offers a conception of explanation and mechanism in terms of interventionist counterfactuals. Based on a case from ecology, I show that ecologists’ approach to that case satisfiesWoodward’s conditions for explanation and mechanism, but his conception does not fully capture what ecologists view as explanatory. The new mechanistic philosophy likewise aims to describe central aspects of mechanisms, but I show that it is not sufficient to account for ecological mechanisms. I argue that in ecology explanation involves identification of invariant and insensitive causal relationships and descriptions of the mechanistic characteristics that make these relations possible.

De-Colonizar A Platón: Una Relectura De La Alegoría De La Cueva En El Contexto De La Toma, Cauca (De-Colonizing Plato: Reinterpreting The Allegory Of The Cave In The Context Of La Toma, Cauca), Andrés Henao Castro

Andrés Fabián Henao-Castro

En este texto defiendo una interpretación política de la famosa alegoría de la cueva de Platón a partir de las experiencias de lucha de las comunidades negras contra la explotación minera en sus territorios ancestrales en La Toma, Cauca; interpretación que considero más adecuada a la hora de contemporaneizar la obra del filósofo griego para los proyectos emancipadores radicales de hoy, que aquella que defiende la filosofía política radical francesa.

Nourishing Difference For The Erotic Couple, Danielle Poe

Danielle Poe

Erotic relationships have often been excluded from accounts of social transformation, but they can challenge us to work together and return to ourselves. In Irigaray’s work, “the two” create new paths to reach each other and return to themselves as individuals; in so doing, they create new possibilities for others.

Philosophy: A Short Visual Introduction, Scott Paeth

Scott R. Paeth

Philosophy: A Short, Visual Introduction is the ideal path to understanding the philosophical ideas that influence Christian theology.

Scott Paeth's fast-paced introduction covers the most important movements and thinkers with precision and clarity. The major ideas are creatively illustrated by artist Joseph Novak, whose crisp, modern style brings big concepts to life for readers.

The result is an articulate, no-nonsense approach that guides readers from the ideas of ancient philosophers to contemporary thinkers and movements that impact Christians today.

Philosophy is part of the Christianity and the Liberal Arts series, which recognizes that many Christians are eager to deepen their …

Compte Rendu De _Worlds Without End_, Thibault Meyer

Mary-Jane Rubenstein

No abstract provided.

Hauerwas On Hauerwas: Review Of 'Approaching The End: Eschatological Reflections On Church, Politics, And Life', William Portier

William L. Portier

Stanley Hauerwas has achieved singular preeminence among theologians in the United States as a public intellectual. Writing on subjects from Christian ethics to law, pacifism, bioethics, and political philosophy, he has provided bountiful fodder for academics while managing to leave footprints in the general culture-he is surely one of very few theologians ever to appear on Oprah. Any new book bearing Hauerwas' name is noteworthy, and the latest one doesn't disappoint.