Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Prometheus' Gift Of Fire And Technics: Contemplating The Meaning Of Fire, Affect, And Californian Pyrophytes In The Pyrocene, Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

This chapter offers a philosophical response to the devastating and deadly wildfires that have been ravaging in California in the past few years; it turns to the myth of Prometheus (as interpreted through Bernard Stiegler’s Technics and Time) for theoretical guidance. The chapter’s central argument is that the Promethean duplicitous gift—of fire and technical skills (technē)—to humanity has both led to the current tragedy of the anthropocene and may offer impetus to imagine a future beyond the anthropocene, but only if fire and technical skills come to be seen in a different light, and solicit different affects. To reimagine our …

Residential Segregation And Rethinking The Imperative Of Integration, Ronald R. Sundstrom

Philosophy

In this chapter I consider the place of the topic of racial and ethnic urban residential segregation factors into political philosophy. I begin with a short history of residential segregation and the ghetto, and their role in systems of racial domination and oppression, and remarks on the general neglect of this topic in contemporary political philosophy, including in nonideal political philosophy, which proports to take on examples of real-world injustices and inequalities. I then examine, from the standpoint of liberal-egalitarian political theory, what segregation, as a con- cept, entails, and its harms to individuals, communities, and societies. Segregation in all …

Mimesis And Clinical Pictures: Thinking With Plato And Broekman Through The Production And Meaning Of Images Of Disease, Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

This paper contends, following Plato and Broekman, that (1) seeing images as images is crucial to theorizing medicine and that (2) considering clinical pictures as images of images is a much-needed epistemic complement to the domineering view that sees clinical pictures as mirrors of disease. This does not only offer epistemic, but also ethical benefits to individual patients, especially in those cases where patients suffer from chronic, debilitating, and terminal illnesses and where medicine provides no, or limited, answers in terms of treatment, intervention, and meaning. By creating room for a theory of clinical pictures that rightfully emphasizes its pictorial …

E-Co-Affectivity Beyond The Anthropocene: Rethinking The Role Of Soil To Imagine A New 'Us', Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

Following Isabelle Stengers’ call that the anthropocene should make us feel and think differently, this paper focuses on the human task to shift its affective response. Since Stengers calls for a new “us” that seeks to participate in an entanglement, I propose to explore the material and ontogenetic functions of soil, and specifically soil pores, in reimagining a new form of e-co-affectivity. A new e-co-affective response would emphasize the usually hidden fluidity and diachronic time of pores, and, in doing so, cultivate an epistemic and aesthetic sensitivity, deceleration, and percolation.

Openness And Protection: A Philosophical Analysis Of The Placenta's Mediatory Role In Co-­‐Constituting Emergent Intertwined Identities, Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

This paper analyzes the placenta's biological and ontological underpinnings in human affectivity as it is generated. The placenta as medial boundary constitutes a place for the encounter and becoming of mother and child, not only as sapient beings, but also in their very nature. Before and beyond the difference between self and other, the placenta offers a model of affective symbiogenesis where selves come into existence in and through the very materiality of one another, contradicting the presumed "immunitary logic of selfpreservation."

The section on placental (re)presentation crafts a placentology that accounts for the possibility of ontogenetic becoming in the …

Examining Assumptions About Student Engagement In The Classroom: A Faculty Learning Community’S Yearlong Journey, Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

Over the past twenty years, the term “student engagement” has become a primary means for orienting faculty and administrators around pedagogic improvements and curriculum development. The increasing prevalence of technology in educational settings and the ways it alters more traditional classroom formats, student-teacher interactions, and research methods suggest that engagement may now look and function differently than in the past. This article describes the reflective journey of a yearlong Faculty Learning Community (FLC) at a private, urban Jesuit university on the topic of student engagement. It investigates and debates current thinking on the topic, assesses methods of measurement, and shares …

Folding Nature Back Upon Itself: Aristotle And The Rebirth Of "Physis", Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

“Folding Nature Back Upon Itself: Aristotle and the Rebirth of Physis,” confronts us with nature’s receding presence and proposes to think through a rebirth of physis. Following Aristotle’s concept of physis, this paper locates two axes along which such a rethinking of physis can take place. The first axis is vertical, and turns around the fundamental tension that each natural being faces in seeking to overcome its own matter in order to reach transcendence. The second axis is horizontal, and follows Aristotle’s ideas that physis cannot unfold unless aided, stimulated, nurtured and enforced by external factors such as one’s environment, …

Anscombe, Thomson, And Double Effect, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

In “Modern Moral Philosophy” Anscombe argues that the distinction between intention of an end or means and foresight of a consequentially comparable outcome proves crucial in act-evaluation. The deontologist J. J. Thomson disagrees. She asserts that Anscombe mistakes the distinction’s moral import; it bears on agent-evaluation, not act-evaluation. I map out the contours of this dispute. I show that it implicates other disagreements, some to be expected and others not to be expected. Amongst the expected, one finds the ethicists’ accounts of action and understanding of how agent-assessment relates to act-assessment. Amongst the unexpected, one finds the moralists’ views about …

Dignity, Pet-Euthanasia And Person Euthanasia, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

Challenging the standard argument for euthanasia, G. E. M. Anscombe holds that euthanasia does not comport with human dignity interpreted in terms of self-determination. For, were self-determination to ground any killing it would justify self-killing, not being killed by another. I articulate reasons for thinking that she correctly identifies the dissonance of self-determination with euthanasia. Additionally, I argue that the same holds, less obviously, for physician-assisted suicide (PAS, which she does not explicitly consider).

Moreover, Anscombe suggests that what actually occurs in euthanasia in effect equates a person to a humanely euthanized dog and, thereby, trivializes and degrades human lives …

Der And Policy: The Recommendation Of A Topic, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

If viable, DER justifies certain individual acts that–by definition–have two effects. Presumably, it would in some fashion (at the very least, redundantly) justify policies concerning the very same acts. By contrast, acts that sometimes have a good effect and sometimes have a bad effect do not have the requisite two effects such that DER can justify them immediately. Yet, a policy concerning numerous such acts would have the requisite good and bad effects. For while any one such act would lack the relevant two effects, a series of such acts and a policy governing such a series would have them. …

Abuses Of Double Effect, Anscombe’S Principle Of Side Effects, And A (Sound) Account Of Duplex Effectus, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

The Ethical Relevance Of The Intended/Foreseen Distinction According To Anscombe, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

The Tao Of Open Science For Ecology, S. E. Hampton, S. S. Anderson, S. C. Bagby, C. Gries, X. Han, E. M. Hart, M. B. Jones, W. C. Lenhardt, A. Macdonald, W. K. Michener, J. Mudge, A. Pourmokhtarian, M. P. Schildhauer, K. H. Woo, Naupaka B. Zimmerman

Biology Faculty Publications

The field of ecology is poised to take advantage of emerging technologies that facilitate the gathering, analyzing, and sharing of data, methods, and results. The concept of transparency at all stages of the research process, coupled with free and open access to data, code, and papers, constitutes “open science.” Despite the many benefits of an open approach to science, a number of barriers to entry exist that may prevent researchers from embracing openness in their own work. Here we describe several key shifts in mindset that underpin the transition to more open science. These shifts in mindset include thinking about …

Aristotle’S Voluntary/Deliberate Distinction, Double-Effect Reasoning, And Ethical Relevance, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

I articulate Aristotle’s account of the voluntary with a view to weighing in on a contemporary ethical debate concerning the moral relevance of the intended/foreseen (i/f) distinction. Natural lawyers employ the i/f distinction to contrast consequentially comparable acts with different intentional structures. They propose that consequentially comparable acts of, for example, terror and tactical bombing morally differ based on their diverse structures of intention. Opponents of DER hold that one best captures the widely acknowledged intuitive appeal of the distinction by contrasting agents, not acts. These thinkers hold that the terror bomber differs from the tactical bomber while terror and …

Double-Effect Reasoning Defended: A Response To Scanlon, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

Common morality endorses some form of an exceptionless prohibition against killing innocents. Natural lawyers employ double-effect reasoning (DER) to address hard cases involving deaths of the innocent. Current deontologists (Scanlon and Thomson) criticize DER-proponents as conflating act-with agent-evaluations. Scanlon develops this critique extensively. I respond to his criticism. He maintains that the DER-advocate tells a badly-motivated agent to refrain from an obligatory act. Thus, he asserts, the natural lawyer who employs DER errs. Instead, Scanlon proposes, one ought to assess the act as permissible while blaming the agent. I argue that DER does not succumb to this critique. Moreover, Scanlon’s …

Sheltering Xenophobia, Ronald Sundstrom

Philosophy

What is xenophobia? Why is xenophobia immoral? How is xenophobia’s conceptual and moral meaning diminished? Investigations of these questions would invigorate xenophobia as a topic in public morality and discourage the public’s acquiesc- ing to xenophobia’s new prominence. This paper focuses on the third question, the diminishment of xenophobia. In the first sec- tion, I outline a general conception of xenophobia. In the second, I explain how theories of membership in liberal democratic soci- eties relegate xenophobia to a minor moral concern. And, in the third, that the conflation of xenophobia with racism disadvantages the former. How liberal Democratic nations …

Comment On Elizabeth Anderson's The Imperative Of Integration, Ronald Sundstrom

Philosophy

Elizabeth Anderson draws the attention of moral, social, and political philosophy to the idea of integration, an idea that is most often associated with the struggles to desegregate schools and neighborhoods in the years before and after the U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board. Her book, The Imperative of Integration, is a remarkable contribution because integration is not frequently mentioned outside of debates in the fields of urban affairs and education policy, and residential integration and segregation are rarely mentioned in academic philosophy. There are, however, some concerns with her defense of her defense of integration that …

Passive Dispositions: On The Relationship Between Πάθος And ῎Ἕξις In Aristotle, Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

In many studies of Aristotle it is taken for granted that there is a relationship between the affections (pathē) and the dispositions (hexeis) with which they are associated, but how the process of passively reacting to particular circumstances (i.e. the event of a mere pathos) can turn into and generate a particular moral disposition to be affected is not explained. This paper seeks to offer a systematic exploration of the constitutive relationship between pathos and passive moral dispositions.

Appealing to Categories 8, we argue that two forms of qualitative change underlie the alteration from pathos …

In The Shadow Of Du Bois: Afro-Modern Political Thought In America. By Robert Gooding- Williams. (Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 2009)., Ronald Sundstrom

Philosophy

Robert Gooding-Williams’s In The Shadow of Du Bois: Afro Modern Political Thought In America offers several contributions to political theory and African American philosophy and politics.1 His conception of “Afro-Modern Politics” sharpens our understanding of the history and tradition of African American political thought, and his analyses of W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Blacks Folks and Frederick Douglass’s My Bondage and My Freedom adds to and challenges various debates about their politics and legacies.2 Gooding-Williams applies the insights from his comparative analysis of Du Bois and Douglass to distinguish a conception of politics as rule from a conception of …

Heidegger’S Reading Of Aristotle’S Concept Of Pathos, Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

This paper takes as its point of departure the recent publication of Heidegger’s lecture course Basic Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy and focuses upon Heidegger’s reading of Aristotle’s concept of pathos. Through a comparative analysis of Aristotle’s concept of pathos and Heidegger’s inventive reading of this concept, I aim to show the strengths and weaknesses of Heidegger’s reading. It is my thesis that Heidegger’s account is extremely rich and innovative as he frees up pathos from the narrow confines of psychology and incidental change and places it squarely into the center of the fundamental changes affecting a living being’s existence; simultaneously, …

Attraction And Repulsion: Understanding Aristotle’S Poiein And Paschein, Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Worrying The Line: Blues As Story, Song, And Prayer, Kimberly R. Connor

Public and Nonprofit Administration

No abstract provided.

Arthur Pap’S Functional Theory Of The A Priori, David J. Stump

Philosophy

Arthur Pap was not quite a Logical Empiricist. He wrote his dissertation in philosophy of science under Ernest Nagel, and he published a textbook in the philosophy of science at the end of his tragically short career, but most of his work would be classified as analytic philosophy. More important, he took some stands that went against Logical Empiricist orthodoxy and was a persistent if friendly critic of the movement. Pap diverged most strongly from Logical Empiricism in his theory of a “functional a priori” in which fundamental principles of science are hardened into definitions and act as criteria for …

Review Of Michael Heidelburger And Gregor Schiemann, Eds. The Significance Of The Hypothetical In The Natural Sciences, David J. Stump

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

What ‘Biological Racial Realism’ Should Mean, Quayshawn Spencer

Philosophy

A curious ambiguity has arisen in the race debate in recent years. That ambiguity is what is actually meant by ‘biological racial realism’. Some philosophers mean that ‘race is a natural kind in biology’, while others mean that ‘race is a real biological kind’. However, there is no agreement about what a natural kind or a real biological kind should be in the race debate. In this article, I will argue that the best interpretation of ‘biological racial realism’ is one that interprets ‘biological racial realism’ as ‘race is a genuine kind in biology’, where a genuine kind is a …

The Scientist As Impartial Judge: Moral Values In Duhem’S Philosophy Of Science, David J. Stump

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Review "Anthropocentrism And The Continental Tradition: Calarco's Zoographies", Gerard Kuperus

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Fevered Desires And Interracial Intimacies In Jungle Fever, Ronald Sundstrom

Philosophy

Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever centers on a sexual affair between a black man, Flipper, and a white, Italian American woman, Angela. This pairing centers on the type of interracial relationship and pairing (black man plus white woman) typically obsessed about in discussions of interracial romances. It is also the pairing offered by Left radicals, such as Frantz Fanon in Black Skins, White Masks (1952), as the prototype of racial revolution. The title of Julius Lester’s black nationalist classic Look Out, Whitey! Black Power’s Gonna Get Your Mama! (1969), dramatically illustrates this view. Lee’s Jungle Fever upsets this radical stance by …

Suffering, Pity And Friendship: An Aristotelian Reading Of Book 24 Of Homer’S Iliad, Marjolein Oele

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

On The Value Of Philosophy: The Latin American Case, Manuel R. Vargas

Philosophy

There is very little study of Latin American philosophy in the English-speaking philosophical world. This can sometimes lead to the impression that there is nothing of philosophical worth in Latin American philosophy or its history. The present article offers some reasons for thinking that this impression is mistaken, and indeed, that we ought to have more study of Latin American philosophy than currently exists in the English-speaking philosophical world. In particular, the article argues for three things: (1) an account of cultural resources that is useful for illuminating the fact of cultural differences and variations in cultural complexity, (2) a …