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 …

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 …

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 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.

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.

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.

Philosopher And Poet Deborah Slicer To Come To Iwu, Leslie Boelter

News and Events

No abstract provided.

Learning To Live A Life That's Full, Seow Hon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

Meaning, Philosophical Discussion Group, Armstrong State University

The Philosopher's Stone

No abstract provided.

Payment For Egg Donation And Surrogacy, Bonnie Steinbock

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the ethics of egg donation. It begins by looking at objections to noncommercial gamete donation, and then takes up criticism of commercial egg donation. After discussing arguments based on concern for offspring, inequality, commodification, exploitation of donors, and threats to the family, I conclude that some payment to donors is ethically acceptable. Donors should not be paid for their eggs, but rather they should be compensated for the burdens of egg retrieval. Making the distinction between compensation for burdens and payment for a product has the advantages of limiting payment, not distinguishing between donors on the basis …

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 …

Epistemic Relativism, Steven Luper

Philosophy Faculty Research

Epistemic relativism rejects the idea that claims can be assessed from a universally applicable, objective standpoint. It is greatly disdained because it suggests that the real 'basis' for our views is something fleeting, such as "the techniques of mass persuasion" (Thomas Kuhn 1970) or the determination of intellectuals to achieve "solidarity" (Rorty 1984) or "keep the conversation going" (Rorty 1979). But epistemic relativism, like skepticism, is far easier to despise than to convincingly refute, for two main reasons. First, its definition is unclear, so we cannot always tell where relativism leaves off and other views, such as skepticism or subjectivism, …

Learning To Live A Life That's Full, Seow Hon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

A Simple Solution To The Surprise Exam Paradoxes, John N. Williams

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Realist Ennui And The Base Rate Fallacy, P.D. Magnus, Craig Callender

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

The no‐miracles argument and the pessimistic induction are arguably the main considerations for and against scientific realism. Recently these arguments have been accused of embodying a familiar, seductive fallacy. In each case, we are tricked by a base rate fallacy, one much‐discussed in the psychological literature. In this paper we consider this accusation and use it as an explanation for why the two most prominent ‘wholesale’ arguments in the literature seem irresolvable. Framed probabilistically, we can see very clearly why realists and anti‐realists have been talking past one another. We then formulate a dilemma for advocates of either argument, answer …

Consumer Subjectivity In The Age Of Internet: The Radical Concept Of Marketing Control Through Customer Relationship Management, Detlev Zwick, Nikhilesh Dholakia

College of Business Faculty Publications

In this paper, we present a poststructuralist analysis of customer database technology. This approach allows us to regard customer databases as configurations of language that produce new and significant discursive effects. In particular, we focus on the role of databases and related technologies such as customer relationship management (CRM) in the discursive construction of both customers and customer relationships. First, we argue that organizations become the authors of customer identities, using the language of the database to configure customer representation. From this perspective, we can see the radical innovation that the customer database brings to the organizational construction of its …