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Logos-Sophia, Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society

LOGOS-SOPHIA: The Journal of the PSU Philosophical Society

Logos-Sophia, Volume 13, Fall 2005. The Journal of the Pittsburg State University Philosophical Society has largely been a student publication with occasional faculty contributions.

Public And Relational Communication Ethics In Political Communication: Integrity, Secrecy, And Dialogue In ‘The Contender’, Jon A. Hess, Joy Piazza

Communication Faculty Publications

There is no denying the omnipresence of media in the twenty-first century. One form of media that is particularly influential is film. Unlike print forms of entertainment, in which age and reading ability dictate accessibility, movies are accessible to virtually everyone. And, regardless of the producer's purpose for making the film, all movies provide an insight into our culture and the individuals who reside within it. Some movies are produced solely for entertainment value, but others seek to convey some type of message or to stimulate thought on the part of the viewer (Good & Dillon 2002; Kupfer 1999; Lipkin …

Past Desires And The Dead, Steven Luper

Philosophy Faculty Research

I examine an argument that appears to take us from Parfit’s [Reasons and Persons, Oxford: Clarendon Press (1984)] thesis that we have no reason to fulfill desires we no longer care about to the conclusion that the effect of posthumous events on our desires is a matter of indifference (the post-mortem thesis). I suspect that many of Parfit’s readers, including Vorobej [Philosophical Studies 90 (1998) 305], think that he is committed to (something like) this reasoning, and that Parfit must therefore give up the post-mortem thesis. However, as it turns out, the argument is subtly equivocal and …

Culture And The Philosophy Of Moral Life: The True, The Good, The Beautiful, And The Sacred, Lawrence Kimmel

Philosophy Faculty Research

Philosophy as a profession is blessed with leisure and exempt from an obligation to be socially useful or productive, and so has a special obligation to address fundamental questions about the meaning of the human project not otherwise on the contemporary agenda. This is not an undertaking that requires technical language or special skills. William James described the deceptively simple task of philosophy as saying something true about things that matter. That said, it is hardly the prerogative of philosophy to adjudicate which are matters of crucial importance to a given culture. Moreover, philosophical investigations are of a kind that …

Reality And Illusion In The Work Of Art, Lawrence Kimmel

Philosophy Faculty Research

Two basic intuitions that frame the relation of art and illusion in this essay—a conviction that illusion is essential to art, but also that art is an essential resource of truth—present an apparent conflict that invites or requires resolution. Indeed, conflict and disagreement seem endemic to discussions of art. In philosophy, the question of the relation art and reality invariably begins with Plato's well-known critique of art as mimesis, as imitation, that makes the process of art a second order activity of copying, and thus an essential distraction from the more serious first order business of life and truth. It …

Against The Ubiquity Of Fictional Narrators, Andrew Kania

Philosophy Faculty Research

In this paper I argue against the theory – popular among theorists of narrative artworks – that we must posit a fictional narrative agent in every narrative artwork in order to explain our imaginative engagement with such works. I accept that every narrative must have a narrator, but I argue that in some central literary cases the narrator is not a fictional agent, but rather the actual author of the work. My criticisms focus on the strongest argument for the ubiquity of fictional narrators, Jerrold Levinson’s ontological-gap argument. Finally, I outline an alternative “minimal theory” of narrators, and some consequences …

A Question Of Endings, Lawrence Kimmel

Philosophy Faculty Research

What is the nature and meaning of death? As a philosophical question, the answer is surely, as it is for every such question: “It depends.” On the context of the asker, among other things: social, cultural, historical, existential…whether young or old, whether under duress or at leisure, whether in harms way or secure, whether in pain or depression or in the bloom of health. We are inclined to think of death, abstractly as well as referentially, as an event, something that happens, or as a state, something that has happened.

Hints And Guesses: Discerning Value, Richard Liddy

Department of Religion Publications

No abstract provided.

Fear No Spirits: A Pilgrim’S Journey Through The Brazilian Churches Of Ayahuasca, Robert Tindall

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This is an intimate account of a pilgrimage through the “Holy Land” of Daime, the Brazilian

frontier state of Acre, in which the author weaves together accounts of his own healing experience.

It also portrays the extraordinary variation and vitality of the communities there, both

indigenous and Catholic/Afro-Brazilian, who use ayahuasca as a sacrament.

Delno C. West Award Winner (2004)

Quidditas

James H. Forse

The Delno C. West Award recognizes the most distinguished paper given by a senior scholar at the annual conference.

Cardinal Martini On Bernard Lonergan: Bernard Lonergan At The Service Of The Church, Richard Liddy

Department of Religion Publications

No abstract provided.

Interpretations Of Einstein's Equation E = Mc2, Francisco Flores

Philosophy

Interpretations of Einstein’s equation differ primarily concerning whether E = mc² entails that mass and energy are the same property of physical systems, and hence whether there is any sense in which mass is ever “converted” into energy (or vice versa). In this paper, I examine six interpretations of Einstein’s equation and argue that all but one fail to satisfy a minimal set of conditions that all interpretations of physical theories ought to satisfy. I argue that we should prefer the interpretation of Einstein’s equation that holds that mass and energy are distinct properties of physical systems. This interpretation …

Continental Philosophy In Britain And America, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

Continental, or as it is sometimes called, contemporary European philosophy represents a range of approaches to academic philosophy distinguished from the analytic modality dominating professional or institutional philosophy in the United Kingdom and in the United States, as in Australia, Canada, and Ireland. Where the analytic tradition itself may be said to trace its own roots to Europe, e.g., positivism may be traced to France and its originator August Comte, and logical empiricism to Germany and to Austria and the writings of Gottlob Frege and Ludwig Wittgenstein and the members of the Vienna Circle, continental philosophy expresses an ideological tradition …

“The Question Of Natural Rights In Aristotle And The “Necessary” Connection Between Rights And Responsibilities: A Response To Jeppe Von Platz.”, Audrey Anton

Philosophy & Religion Faculty Publications

While the idea of attributing a natural rights component to Aristotle's philosophy is indeed anachronistic, it is not entirely futile. Fred D. Miller has proposed ample evidence and analysis supporting the idea that Aristotle had something like natural rights in mind. Yet, several scholars object to Miller's position for various good reasons beyond the theory's anachronicity. While there may be just cause for rejecting Miller's position, it does not appear that von Platz has been successful in this endeavor. Several of von Platz's proposals are incoherent, and those that are indeed sound are rooted in a modern conception of what …

On The Relevance Of Political Philosophy To Business Ethics, Jeffrey Moriarty

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The central problems of political philosophy (e.g., legitimate authority, distributive justice) mirror the central problems of business ethics. The question naturally arises: should political theories be applied to problems in business ethics? If a version of egalitarianism is the correct theory of justice for states, for example, does it follow that it is the correct theory of justice for businesses? If states should be democratically governed by their citizens, should businesses be democratically managed by their employees? Most theorists who have considered these questions, including John Rawls in Political Liberalism, and Robert Phillips and Joshua Margolis in a 1999 article, …

Thirtieth Annual Midwest Philosophy Colloquium, 2005-2006, University Of Minnesota - Morris. Philosophy Department

Midwest Philosophy Colloquium

Programs for the thirtieth Midwest Philosophy Colloquium at the University of Minnesota Morris in 2005-2006.

Divine Illusions, Alphonso Lingis

Research Resources

David Allison says to his readers that Nietzsche writes for you — you and him and me. In his book he tells of what of Nietzsche’s thoughts he has, with long years of research and penetrating and generous reflection, made his own. The lucidity of this book enables us to see if these thoughts can also become ours. Nietzsche’s thoughts are not only extremely complex but hard thoughts which we cannot make our own without a struggle. The finest virtue of a philosophical book on Nietzsche is that it provokes this struggle. Here I am only going to recount a …

The Inexplicability Of Kant’S Naturzweck: Kant On Teleology, Explanation And Biology, James Kreines

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

Kant’s position on teleology and biology is neither inconsistent nor obsolete; his arguments have some surprising and enduring philosophical strengths. But Kant’s account will appear weak if we muddy the waters by reading him as aiming to defend teleology by appealing to considerations popular in contemporary philosophy. Kant argues for very different conclusions: we can neither know teleological judgments of living beings to be true, nor legitimately explain living beings in teleological terms; such teleological judgment is justified only as a “problematic” guideline in our search for mechanistic explanations. These conclusions are well supported by Kant’s defense of his demanding …

Editors’ Introduction, Harris Friedman, Douglas A. Macdonald

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Nondualism And The Divine Domain, Burton Daniels

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This paper claims that the ultimate issue confronting transpersonal theory is that of nondualism.

The revelation of this spiritual reality has a long history in the spiritual traditions, which

has been perhaps most prolifically advocated by Ken Wilber (1995, 2000a), and fully explicated

by David Loy (1998). Nonetheless, these scholarly accounts of nondual reality, and the spiritual

traditions upon which they are based, either do not include or else misrepresent the revelation

of a contemporary spiritual master crucial to the understanding of nondualism. Avatar

Adi Da not only offers a greater differentiation of nondual reality than can be found in …

Higher Self – Spark Of The Mind – Summit Of The Soul: Early History Of An Important Concept Of Transpersonal Psychology In The West, Harald Walach

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The Higher Self is a concept introduced by Roberto Assagioli, the founder of psychosynthesis,

into transpersonal psychology. This notion is explained and linked up with the Western mystical

tradition. Here, coming from antiquity and specifically from the neo-Platonic tradition, a

similiar concept has been developed which became known as the spark of the soul, or summit of

the mind. This history is sketched and the meaning of the term illustrated. During the middle

ages it was developed into a psychology of mysticism by Thomas Gallus, popularized by

Bonaventure, and radicalized by the Carthusian writer Hugh of Balma. Spark of the …

The Myth Of Nature And The Nature Of Myth: Becoming Transparent To Transcendence, Dennis P. Slattery

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The works by the American mythologist, Joseph Campbell, as well as the poetry of John Keats,

especially his “Ode to a Nightingale,” offer new ways to reimagine our relation to the earth, to

the dead and to language’s continued vitality. Beginning with a brief overview of some of the

major tenets of Campbell’s guiding force of the “monomyth,” which gathers all the various world

mythologies as inflections of one universal story, the essay then moves into a discussion of Keats’

poem in order to reveal the power of poetic utterance in reconfiguring a vital mythology. If there

is to be …

Myth, Archetype And The Neutral Mask: Actor Training And Transformation In Light Of The Work Of Joseph Campbell And Stanislav Grof, Ashley Wain

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This paper explores the influence of transpersonal thinking, including the mythological perspective

of Joseph Campbell and the holotropic perspective of Stanislav Grof, on actor training using

the neutral mask. An outline of training in the neutral mask is given, focusing on the approach

of David Latham, as experienced by the author in his own training. Points of correspondence

with the vision of Campbell and Grof, and their influence, are discriminated and discussed.

These correspondences open up two areas of inquiry: the transformative effect of the mask work

when conducted in a transpersonally-oriented set, and the use of the neutral mask …

The Transpersonal Tradition In Russian Culture, Vladimir Maykov

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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The Psychic Defense, Vitor Rodrigues

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

On Therapy By Means Of Spiritual Culture, Mark E. Burno

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

A Love Letter, Kidder Smith

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Synthesis And Plurality: Stories Of The Self, Jason Wright

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Creativity Lies At The Edge Of Disintegration: Addressing The Shadow Of Power And Leadership Within Psychotherapy Training Organisations, Rupert K. Tower

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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We Were Made For These Times, Tanna Jakubowicz-Mount

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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