Arts and Humanities Commons^™

To Hou Heneka And Continuous Change, Christopher Mirus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Beginning with Aristotle’s statement in Physics II.2 that motion must be continuous to be for the sake of an end, I argue that properly understood, continuity is actually a sufficient condition for the goal- directedness of any motion in Aristotle’s teleology. I establish this conclusion first for the simple motions discussed in Physics V-VI, and then for complex changes such as the generation and development of a living thing. In both steps of the argument, the notion of καθ’ αυτό agency serves as a key link between continuity and goal-directedness. The understanding of Aristotle’s teleology that emerges from the consideration …

Memoirs Of A Public Intellectual, Chandan Gowda

Chandan Gowda

No abstract provided.

Sartre And The Nothingness Of Consciousness, Matthew Dale Massey

Doctoral Dissertations

Sartre’s claim in Being and Nothingness that consciousness is nothingness is typically understood as meaning either that consciousness is not itself, that it is not its objects, that it is not its past, or that it is some sort of state of affairs. Although these interpretations of Sartre are often presented independently of each other, I argue that one can combine several of them in order to arrive at the best understanding of Sartre’s treatment of consciousness. Such an understanding treats consciousness as the state of affairs that is its facticity transcending itself toward its objects. One could also combine …

Natural Rights And Individual Sovereignty, Siegfried Van Duffel

Siegfried Van Duffel

Can we have a moral right to do things that are immoral? Some people have said "Yes", but others have vehemently denied the same. This paper argues how such an idea could have developed out of a completely different one.

Libertarian Natural Rights, Siegfried Van Duffel

Siegfried Van Duffel

Libertarianism relies on a natural rights theory, which takes the idea of individual sovereignty as basic. The theory is flawed because it cannot ground an obligation for different sovereigns to respect each other's sovereignty.

Epistemic Analysis And The Possibility Of Good Informants, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Edward Craig has proposed that epistemology should eschew traditional

conceptual analysis in favor of what he calls “conceptual synthesis.” He

proposes we start not from the finding of necessary and sufficient conditions

that match our intuitions; rather we start from considerations on what the

concept of knowledge does for us. In this paper I will explore one aspect of

Craig’s proposal – the good informant. It is this aspect that is central to

Craig’s epistemic method and perhaps most problematic. I will evaluate this

concept by first articulating three initial worries that some have had about

the concept and then …

Sagp Newsletter 2004.1 (December), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Programs of the Society with the Eastern Division (December 2004) and with the American Philological Association (December 2005)

Nietzsche And The Religion Of The Future, Steven Michels

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

This article examines the place of religion in Nietzsche’s writings and how it fits with the task of a “new philosopher.” Although Nietzsche opposes all otherworldly, monotheistic religions, it is incorrect to say that Nietzsche proposes atheism as a solution. Religion, he contends, is an essential part of any healthy culture. Nietzsche’s new philosophy would fashion gods consistent with the natural order of rank and the highest aims of man.

Nietzsche conceives of modernity not as progress but an unhealthy and dangerous break with tradition that he seeks to set right. Consequently, he turns to the greatness of antiquity. Nietzsche, …

Atoms, Complexes, And Demonstration: Posterior Analytics 96b15-25, Owen Goldin

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

There is agreement neither concerning the point that is being made in Posterior analytics 96b15-25 nor the issue Aristotle intends to address. There are two major lines of interpretation of this passage. According to one, sketched by Themistius and developed by Philoponus and Eustratius, Aristotle is primarily concerned with determining the definitions of the infimae species that fall under a certain genus. They understand Aristotle as arguing that this requires collating definitional predictions, seeing which are common to which species. Pacius, on the other hand, takes Aristotle to be saying that a genus is studied scientifically through first determining the …

Chapter Four Synthesis, Apperception And The Opacity Of Consciousness: A Nietzschean Reading Of Kant’S A Deduction And Prelude To A Theoretical Account Of The Relation Between The Two Systems Of Reason, Richard Lara

Richard Louis Lara

In the first and fourth speeches of Zarathustra titled "Three Metamorphoses of the Spirit" and “The Despisers Of The Body,” Nietzsche articulates his own views on themes central to Kant’s theoretical philosophy. In so doing, he articulates two systems of reason: consciousness or "little" reason, which he conceptualizes in the same way that Kant conceptualizes theoretical reason, and "the great reason of the body." The goal of this chapter is to present a faithful reading of Kant’s A deduction of the pure a priori categories of the understanding that will serve as the basis of my effort, in subsequent chapters, …

The Normativity Of Law In Law And Economics, Péter Cserne

Péter Cserne

This paper is about some theoretical and methodological problems of law and economics. I will use game theoretical insights to address an issue which is relevant both for law and economics and legal philosophy: How should a social scientific analysis of law account for the normativity of law, i.e. the non-instrumental reasons for rule-following while retaining the observer’s (explanatory or descriptive) perspective. My goal is to offer a constructive critique of both traditional law and economics scholarship and mainstream analytical legal philosophy in this respect. I will try to find out how law and economics has to account for the …

Optimism, Philosophical Discussion Group, Armstrong State University

The Philosopher's Stone

No abstract provided.

Between Dancing And Writing: The Practice Of Religious Studies, Kimerer L. Lamothe

Philosophy & Theory

This book provides philosophical grounds for an emerging area of scholarship: the study of religion and dance.

In the first part, LaMothe investigates why scholars in religious studies have tended to overlook dance, or rhythmic bodily movement, in favor of textual expressions of religious life. In close readings of Descartes, Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, and Kierkegaard, LaMothe traces this attitude to formative moments of the field in which philosophers relied upon the practice of writing to mediate between the study of “religion,” on the one hand, and “theology,” on the other.

In the second part, LaMothe revives the work of theologian, …

Nietzsche On Truth And The Will, Steven Michels

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

The fundamental — and many would say lingering — challenge to Nietzsche concerns how he can ground the will to power, given what he says about metaphysics as a philosophic prejudice. Does his teaching not topple of its own weight/lessness? It is the standard objection to which all postmodern philosophers must respond. This article examines what Nietzsche says about the limits of truth and the role that experience and perspective have in setting standards by which we might live correctly. The will to power, Nietzsche instructs, is a claim on truth, confirmed only to the extent that it serves life …

Pre-Crime, Pre-Punishment And Pre-Desert, John N. Williams

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

The Mystery Of Lonergan, Richard M. Liddy

Richard M Liddy

No abstract provided.

The Mystery Of Lonergan, Richard Liddy

Department of Religion Publications

No abstract provided.

Technology: The Modern Messiah, Philosophical Discussion Group, Armstrong State University

The Philosopher's Stone

No abstract provided.

Solving Problems Vs. Claiming Rights: The Pragmatist Challenge To Legal Liberalism, William H. Simon

William & Mary Law Review

Recent developments in both theory and practice have inspired a new understanding of public interest lawyering. The theoretical development is an intensified interest in Pragmatism. The practical development is the emergence of a style of social reform that seeks to institutionalize the Pragmatist vision of democratic governance as learning and experimentation. This style is reflected in a variety of innovative responses to social problems, including drug courts, ecosystem management, and "new accountability" educational reform. The new understanding represents a significant challenge to an influential view of law among politically liberal lawyers over the past fifty years. That view, Legal Liberalism, …

Nietzsche, Nihilism, And The Virtue Of Nature, Steven Michels

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

Nietzsche’s view of nature and his attack on the platonic tradition has given him a reputation as a nihilist, a label he himself acknowledged. Yet what does Nietzsche mean by nihilism? and to what extent is he a nihilist? This article explores Nietzsche’s use of the term as it relates to modernity, his own postmodern project, and how it is connected with what Nietzsche calls “virtue.”

Nietzsche, The Kantian Self, And Eternal Recurrence, Philip J. Kain

Philosophy

Nietzsche’s concept of the self grows out of Kant—and then attempts to subvert Kant. Nietzsche agrees that a unified subject is a necessary presupposition for ordered experience to be possible. But instead of a Kantian unified self, Nietzsche develops a conception of the self of the sort that we have come to call postmodern. He posits a composite bundle of drives that become unified only through organization. This subject is unified, it is just that its unity is forged, constructed, brought about by domination. But if the self is a bundle of struggling and shifting drives, how could it remain …

On Skepticism About Case-Specific Intuitions, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Moral theorizing is often characterized as beginning from our intuitions about ethical cases. Yet, while many applaud, and even demand, this methodology, there are those who reject such a methodology on the grounds that we cannot treat people’s intuitions about ethical cases as evidence for or against moral theories. Recently, Shelly Kagan has argued that the reliance upon case-specific intuitions in moral theorizing is problematic. Specifically, he maintains that the practice of using intuitions about cases lacks justification and, hence, we ought to be skeptical about the evidential weight of moral intuitions. This leads Kagan to conclude that we ought …

Technology And Trust, Albert Borgmann

Philosophy Faculty Publications

We think of trust as the animating spirit of a prosperous society. Trust makes promises workable, credit extendable and contracts reasonable. If you try to make trust dispensable through a system of fail-safe controls, you end up with a stultifyingly cumbersome apparatus, and the cost of handling things would exceed the price of producing them. If there is no trust at all in the person who is buying a 50p ballpoint pen, you have to frisk the person to make sure he or she is not planning a hold-up, ascertain their identity by checking their fingerprint or retina, get at …

Cartesian Certainty And The Infinity Of The Will, Joseph K. Cosgrove

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This paper interprets Descartes' conception of "certainty" as most fundamentally a function of the human will, controlling the cognitive encounter with the world.

Natural Theology, Methodological Naturalism, And "Turtles All The Way Down", Del Ratzsch

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Natural theology has not been held in particularly high regard during the past century and one half. However, recent developments both within science and within philosophy of science offer some new possibilities and resources. In what follows I explore some areas and structures within which natural theological potential might (in principle) emerge. I further argue that the current weapon of choice against substantive science/religion mtertwining - methodological naturalism - not only fails as an inviolable norm, thus leaving the possibility of a genuine natural theology intact, but that it may even have unhappy theological consequences.

On The Philosophical Consistency Of Season Seven; Or, "It's Not About Right, Not About Wrong…", James B. South

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Capital Punishment And The Catholic Tradition: Contradiction, Change In Circumstance, Or Development Of Doctrine, Christopher Kaczor

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Frunzã'S "Filosofie Õi Religie: O Abordare Multidisciplinarã (Philosophy And Religion: An Interdisciplinary Approach)" - Book Review, Michael S. Jones

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Moore's Paradoxes, Evans's Principle And Self-Knowledge, John N. Williams

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

I supply an argument for Evans’s principle that whatever justifies me in believing that p also justifies me in believing that I believe that p. I show how this principle helps explain how I come to know my own beliefs in a way that normally makes me the best authority on them. Then I show how the principle helps to solve Moore’s paradoxes.

Michael And Me: Education, Politics, Money, Culture, And Michael Moore At Uvsc, Scott Abbott

Scott Abbott

No abstract provided.