Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Geometry Of Intuitions: Reconsidering Kantian Constructivism, Michael Mcnulty

Philosophy Honors Projects

The role of visual methods in geometry is puzzling. Though diagrams can make a geometric theorem immediately evident, current rules of proper inference suggest that diagrams are mere heuristics-simply aiding in the psychological digestibility of a proof. Securing a justificatory role for visual methods involves describing how inference from a diagram guarantees the universality and the a:priority of a geometric theorem. Such an analysis is provided in Kant's synthetic a priori account of geometry. In this paper, Kant's theory is explicated and subsequently defended from attacks related to modern advances in predicate logic, relativistic physics, non-Euclidean geometry and formalism.

Apriority From The 'Grundlage' To The 'System Of Ethics', Sebastian Rand

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Aesthetic Appreciation, Ethics, And 9/11, Emmanouil Aretoulakis

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

There have been numerous critical articles on what really happened on the otherwise beautiful morning of 11 September 2001. Beyond doubt, the bulk of the critical responses to the terrorist attacks focused on the ethical and humanitarian, or rather the unethical and inhumane implications of the atrocious act, leaving no room for any philosophical reflection on the potential assessment or reception of the event from the perspective of art and aesthetics. The few years that have gone by since 2001 have provided us with some a sense of emotional detachment from the horror of that day, a detachment that may …

The Logic Of Life: Hegel’S Philosophical Defense Of Teleological Explanation Of Living Beings, James Kreines

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

Hegel accords great philosophical importance to Kant’s discussions of teleology and biology in the Critique of the Power of Judgment, and yet also disagrees with Kant’s central conclusions there. More specifically, Kant argues for a generally skeptical view of teleological explanation of living beings; Hegel responds that Kant should instead defend such explanation—and that the defense of teleology should lead Kant to different conclusions throughout his theoretical philosophy.

I aim to avoid the sort of interpretive charity that would begin with a currently popular philosophical view and then seek to find that view in historical texts. This approach would …