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Editor's Choice Underapplauded Books

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

The Strange New World In The Church: A Review Essay Of 'With The Grain Of The Universe' By Stanley Hauerwas, Brad Kallenberg

Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Hauerwas's refusal to translate the argument displayed in With the Grain of the Universe (his recent Gifford Lectures) into language that "anyone" can understand is itself part of the argument. Consequently, readers will not understand what Hauerwas is up to until they have attained fluency in the peculiar language that has epitomized three decades of Hauerwas's scholarship. Such fluency is not easily gained. Nevertheless, in this review essay, I situate Hauerwas's baffling language against the backdrop of his corpus to show at least this much: With the Grain of the Universe transforms natural theology into "witness." In the end, my …

Why Constant? A Critical Overview Of The Constant Revival, Helena Rosenblatt

Publications and Research

Recent years have seen a remarkable renewal of interest in the thought of Benjamin Constant (1767–1830). For long recognized as the author of the literary masterpiece Adolphe, Constant is now receiving increasing attention for his political writings. Paperback editions of his major works are presently available in both French and English, helping to establish his growing reputation as a founding father of modern liberalism. Constant's stature as a seminal liberal thinker has benefited from the recent climate of opinion in the Western world and, in particular, from the return to fashion of liberalism as a social and political doctrine. …

The Politics Of Samuel Johnson And The Johnson Of Politics An Innocent Looks At A Controversy, Howard D. Weinbrot

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

The Violence Of Sympathy Adam Smith On Resentment And Executions, Robert Mitchell

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

From Marxism-Leninism To Ethnicity: The Sideslips Of Ethiopian Elitism, Messay Kebede

Philosophy Faculty Publications

For many scholars, colonialism and neocolonial policies remain the root causes of Africa's numerous impediments to its progress, ranging from the persistence of poverty to the ravages of ethnic conflicts. However, the number of scholars who prefer to ascribe these impediments essentially to the persistence of traditional views and methods and to the lack of reforms radical enough to trigger a sustained process of modernization is not negligible. My position contests this either-or debate and identifies the culprit as the rise of African elitism—a phenomenon implicating the specific effect of colonialism in conjunction with internal African contributions. I take the …

Three Orientations And Four ‘Sins’ In Comparative Studies, Bo Mou

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

History Of Mathematics, An Intuitive Approach, Alejandro R. Garciadiego

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

The main goal of this essay is to discuss, informally, an intuitive approach to the history of mathematics as an academic discipline. The initial point of departure includes the analysis of some traditional definitions of the concept of 'history' taken from standard dictionaries. This concise dissection attempts to suggest the complexity of the discipline.

Theistic Activism And The Euthyphro Dilemma, David Baggett

Faculty Dissertations

My dissertation focuses on the Euthyphro question, from one of the Socratic dialogues, understood in terms of the following dilemma posed against theistic ethics: (1) Either what is good/right is moral because God commands it, or it is not. (2) If what is good/right is moral because God commands it, then the good/right is arbitrary and vacuous. (3) If what is good/right is moral for reasons other than that God commands it, then God is superfluous from the standpoint of morality. (4) So, either the good/right is arbitrary and vacuous or God is superfluous to morality.

The dilemma is really …

Sokal’S Hermeneutic Hoax: Physics And The New Inquisition, Babette Babich

Research Resources

“The Hermeneutics of a Hoax: Physics and the New Inquisition” offers a rhetorical analysis and hermeneutics reading of the parodic character of Sokal's "hoax." From the perspective of a philosopher of science, it is argued that it is important to attend both to the rhetorical level of philosophy and science. In addition it is important to consider the culture of status (Bourdieu) as well as the self-reflective weaknesses of the culture of physics including those of (traditionally) physics-dominated philosophy of science. Echoing some of the criticisms and highlighting the points of social advocacy of the late Paul Feyerabend underscores the …

The Royal Captives, A Fragment Of Secret History: Ann Yearsley's "Unnecessary Curiosity", Judith Dorn

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Failure As Authority Poetic Voices And The Muse Of Grace In William Cowper's The Task, David Paxman

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Naturalizing, Normativity, And Using What “We” Know In Ethics, Margaret Urban Walker

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Full Issue 1999 (Volume Ii)

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

No abstract provided.

Values And The Conduct Of Science: Principles, Hugh Lacey

Philosophy Faculty Works

In this paper I will propose six principles governing the proper role of moral and social values in the conduct of scientific uivestigation. I offer them for your consideration, and hope that together we can sharpen their formulatton, explore their implications and test their acceptability. In making my proposals I draw considerably from my recent books, Valores e Atividade Científica (VAC, Lacey 1988) and Is Science Value Free? Values and Scientific Understanding (SVF, Lacey 1999a) The detailed argument, and elaboration of the technical notions that I use are to be found in them (and summarized in Lacey 1999c). The sketch …

The Church As An Agent Of Reconciliation In The Thought Of Desmond Tutu, Trust J. Ndlovu

Dissertations

South Africa was both the first and last bastion of extended European colonial rule in Sub-Saharan Africa. Due to the extensive interaction between the Black and White races over time, who were distinguished by divergent philosophies of life, friction developed between these two major ethnic blocs, as well as the other peoples that came as labor for the Whites or have arisen as a result of miscegenation between the Blacks and the Whites. Archbishop Desmond Tutu holds that racial tension is neither good for South Africa nor even Christian, and insists that it should be eliminated, giving way to reconciliation. …

Effect Of Item Clarity And Probability Of Item Endorsement On Response Latencies On Personality Test Items, James R. Kinney

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study, regression analysis was used to examine the affects of item clarity and probability of endorsement on response latencies of 60 undergraduates responding on personality test items from the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 Personality Factor test) (Cattell, Eber, & Tatsuoka, 1970, 5th Edition). Response latencies to personality test items, though frequently studied, have yet to be operationally utilized in the interpretation of personality tests. Forty-four items from the 16 Personality Factor test were selected. Each item from the original test was rated for clarity and matched with an emotionally neutral statement with an equivalent number of words. …

The Scope Of Hermeneutics In Natural Science, Patrick A. Heelan

Research Resources

THE SCOPE OF HERMENEUTICS IN NATURAL SCIENCE Hermeneutics or interpretation is concerned with the generation, transmission, and acceptance of meaning within the lifeworld and was the original method of the human sciences stemming from F. Schleiermacher and W. Dilthey. Hermeneutic philosophy refers mostly to M. Heidegger’s. This paper addresses natural science from the perspective of Heidegger’s analysis of meaning and interpretation. Its purpose is to incorporate into the philosophy of science those aspects of historicality, culture, and tradition that are absent from the traditional analysis of theory and explanation, to re-orient the current discussion about scientific realism around the hermeneutics …

Review Essay: Dinzelbacher, Peter, And James Lester Hogg, Eds. Kulturgeschichte Der Christlichen Orden In Einzeldarstellungen, Albrecht Classen

Quidditas

Dinzelbacher, Peter, and James Lester Hogg, eds. Kulturgeschichte der christlichen Orden in Einzeldarstellungen, ed. Kröners Taschenausgabe, 450. Kröner, Stuttgart, 1997. xii + 419 pp., 6 illustrations. DM 42.

Kicking The Emperor Some Problems Of Restoration Parallel History, David Gunto

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Plato's Theologia Revisited, Gerard Naddaf

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The word theologia is attested for the first time in Plato’s Republic II, 379a4: Hoi tupoi peri theologias. According to Werner Jaeger (The Theology of the Early Greek Philosophers, Oxford 1947, 4-­‐13), Plato coined the word to support the introduction of a new doctrine which resulted from a conflict between the mythical and the natural (rational) approach to the problem of God. For Jaeger, the word theologia designates what Aristotle was later to call theologikê or “first philosophy (hê protê philosophia) – whence his translation of hoi tupoi peri theologias by “outlines of theology.” Victor Goldschmidt, for his part, in …

Reconstructing Rawls And Exposing The Implicit Social Embeddedness Of Theories Of Justice, Peter J. Taylor

Working Papers in Critical, Creative and Reflective Practice

This essay prods moral philosophy towards more explicit attention to the political constructions of injustice. I do not appeal to practical or political relevance, but advance a particular kind of constructivist interpretation of moral argumentation (constructivism+) in which our interpretive horizons are extended to include the implicit views of social action, broadly construed—from the macro- to the micro-social, and from the past to the present and the possible—built into philosophical arguments. I challenge the idea that, in order to oppose injustice, we must first articulate and justify a coherent conception of justice and then theorize the social, constitutional, …

A Review Of Eleanor L. Brilliant, "The United Way: Dilemmas Of Organized Charity", Mike W. Martin

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

"The United Way: Dilemmas of Organised Charity" explains the inner workings of the organization whose shine was so recently dulled by scandal. According to a recent "New York Times" article, "Revelations of high expense-account living and questionable management practices by William Aramony, president of the United Way of America - forced him out of his position as leader of the nation's largest network of charities". (Jan. 28, 1992).. The United Way has always embodied the spirit of voluntarism that George Bush encourages with his vision of "a thousand points of light". Since its inception more than one hundred years ago, …

On Malls, Museums, And The Art World: Postmodernism And The Vicissitudes Of Consumer Culture, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

No abstract provided.

Inventing The Middle Ages, Glenn W. Olsen

Quidditas

Norman Cantor seems to have decided, as a kind of perpetual outsider (in spite of his Princeton and Oxford education), that he has nothing to lose by telling it all. Of his Inventing the Middle Ages: The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century (William Morrow and Company, New York 1991), Lee Patterson says accurately on the dust jacket: 'Intriguing, informative, irritating, and vastly entertaining, Inventing the Middle Ages will rattle lots of cages'. I am not sure that this book has raised Cantor's status in the eyes of very many practicing medievalists, and indeed …

Aristotle On Good And Bad Actualities, Owen Goldin

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Response: Of Pigs And Primitive Notions, David Detmer

Between the Species

No abstract provided.

Owning And Controlling Technical Information, Vivian Weil

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Presented to the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, April 5, 1990.

Silent Voices Can Never Be Stilled, Betty Jahn

Between the Species

No abstract provided.

The Agapetic Attitude And The Future Of Philosophy, Mary Carman Rose

Between the Species

No abstract provided.