Philosophy Commons^™

The Freedom Of Thought, In Dream-Life If Nowhere Else: Freud, Foucault, And Euripides, Sharon Sliwinski

Data and Test Instruments

This essay examines the “dead daughter in a box" dream, initially reported in Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), in order to explore two, related ideas: First, the dream is considered an exemplar of the work of symbolization, and in particular, a means for the dreamer to work through the fantasy of infanticide. Second, the dreamer’s disclosure of her dream is treated as an example of parrhesia – a particular speech act that Michel Foucault regarded as central to democracy. The overarching aim is to view dream-life as a quotidian and crucial site for the freedom of thought and speech.

’Not For The Faint Of Heart’: Accessing The Status Quo On Adoption And Parental Licensing, Carolyn Mcleod, Andrew Botterell

Philosophy Publications

The process of adopting a child is “not for the faint of heart.” This is what we were told the first time we, as a couple, began this process. Part of the challenge lies in fulfilling the licensing requirements for adoption, which, beyond the usual home study, can include mandatory participation in parenting classes. The question naturally arises for many people who are subjected to these requirements whether they are morally justified. We tackle this question in this paper. In our view, while strong reasons exist in favour of licensing adoptive parents, these reasons support the licensing not only of …

Conscientious Refusal And Access To Abortion And Contraception, Chloë Fitzgerald, Carolyn Mcleod

Philosophy Publications

No abstract provided.

The Moral Status Of Micro-Inequities: In Favour Of Institutional Solutions, Samantha Brennan

Data and Test Instruments

This chapter is about micro-inequities and their connection to the problem of implicit bias. It begins by defining micro-inequities, goes on to discuss what makes them wrong and what solutions might be appropriate given the institutional context in which they occur.

Justification For Conscience Exemptions In Health Care, Lori Kantymir, Carolyn Mcleod

Philosophy Publications

Some bioethicists argue that conscientious objectors in health care should have to justify themselves, just as objectors in the military do. They should have to provide reasons that explain why they should be exempt from offering the services that they find offensive. There are two versions of this view in the literature, each giving different standards of justification. We show these views are each either too permissive (i.e. would result in problematic exemptions based on conscience) or too restrictive (i.e. would produce problematic denials of exemption). We then develop a middle ground position that we believe better combines respect for …

Aristotle & Cancer, John Thorp

Philosophy Presentations

No abstract provided.

Moving Forward With A Clear Conscience: A Model Conscientious Objection Policy For Canadian Colleges Of Physicians And Surgeons, Jocelyn Downie, Carolyn Mcleod, Jacquelyn Shaw

Philosophy Publications

No abstract provided.

Rotman Institute Speaker: Feminist Neo-Materialism And The Future Of Phenomenology, Dorothea Olkowski

Future Directions in Feminist Phenomenology

No abstract provided.

Infanticide And The Anxious Silence Of “Language As Such”, Kevin Godbout

Modern Languages and Literatures Annual Graduate Conference

No abstract provided.

Pasolini's Laugh: Joyful Ignorance In The Decameron, Andrea Privitera

Modern Languages and Literatures Annual Graduate Conference

In this paper, I discuss Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron and its 1971 film adaptation by Pier Paolo Pasolini. To be more precise, I focus on the fifth novella of the sixth day, the one about Giotto and Forese, and its audiovisual re-elaboration, which can be seen as a very brief and at the same time very vivid example of Pasolini’s ideas on society, language and communication.

Aristotle On Code, John Thorp

Philosophy Presentations

No abstract provided.

Lying, Misleading And What Is Said, By Jennifer M. Saul, Melissa Macaulay, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

No abstract provided.

Suarez, Francisco, Benjamin Hill

Philosophy Publications

No abstract provided.

How Many Parents Can A Child Have? Philosophical Reflections On The "Three Parent Case", Samantha Brennan, Bill Cameron

Data and Test Instruments

This paper explores the question of how many parents a child can have in light of the creation of alternative models of family.

Rethinking The Moral Significance Of Micro-Inequities: The Case Of Women In Philosophy, Samantha Brennan

Data and Test Instruments

No abstract provided.

The Common Structure Of Thresholds For Rights And Thresholds For Options, Samantha Brennan

Data and Test Instruments

This paper will assume that both rights and options have thresholds. That is to say, I assume rights and options are not absolute. The threshold of a right or an option is the point at which it can be justifiably overridden. If we think that the moral theory which best captures commonsense morality is a version of deontological ethics, the moral theory to which this paper stands to make a contribution is moderate deontology in that the rights and options it contains are moderate versions of rights and options. The question on which it will focus is whether thresholds for …

La Psicología De La Justificación, Angeles Erana, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

This essay considers the connections between, on the one hand, two kinds of justification, namely pragmatic and alethic, and on the other hand two cognitive systems, S1 and S2.

Herder And Pragmatics, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

No abstract provided.

Misunderstanding & Misdirecting The Liberal Arts, John Thorp

Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education)

No abstract provided.

Endorsement, Worth And Well-Being: What Is It For A Life To Go Well?, Michel Hébert

Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education)

Theories of well-being give an account of what it is for persons to fare well. They state the general features that make a life good for the person who lives it.

The Mechanistic Roots Of Occasionalism: Stage One, Benjamin Hill, Henrik Lagerlund, Todd Ryan, Elliot Rossiter

Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education)

What is Occasionalism?

Occasionalism is the doctrine about causal efficacy that exploits the non-observational nature of causation. We observe a prior and a posterior state of the universe, and discern the difference between them. But we cannot observe the force or power causally necessitating the change.

Introduction To The Semantics-Pragmatics Boundary In Philosophy, Maite Ezdurdia, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

An introductory survey of the nature and importance of the semantics-pragmatics boundary.

In Defense Of Public Languages, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

My modest aim in this note is to sketch three interrelated critiques of public languages, and to respond to them. All allegedly support the same conclusion: that, insofar as they even exist, the study of public languages is not a viable scientific project. (Related critiques of semantics, understood as involving word-world relations, will be touched on as well.)

Aristotle On The Foundations Of Science: A Postmodern Moment, John Thorp

Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education)

No abstract provided.

The Mechanization Of Philosophy Between 1300-1700, Henrik Lagerlund, Benjamin Hill, Helen Hattab, Dennis Des Chene, Calvin Normore

Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education)

Standard histories of the development of modern science and philosophy has it that the mechanical philosophy was driven by changes in physics that then required a re-conceptualization of the metaphysics of substance. We contest that this view is backwards. The revisions of the metaphysics of substance occurred in the 14th century and it underlined the well-known changes in physics in the 15th and 16th centuries, which gave rise to mechanical philosophy in the 17th century.

The Gaze Called Animal: Notes For A Study On Thinking, Sharon Sliwinski

Data and Test Instruments

Over the course of several days in1997, JacquesDerrida delivereda long lecture to attendees of a conference in Cerisy called “The Autobiographical Animal.” As part of his opening remarks, the philosopher recounted a curious little scene that served to introduce the central theme of the larger address that followed. The scene begins when Derrida reports that each morning, with an almost ritualistic regularity, he is followed from his bedroom into the bathroom by his cat, an unnamed feline, he insists, that is a real little cat, not the mere figure of a cat: “It doesn’t silently enter the bedroom as an …

The Role Of Psychology In The Philosophy Of Language, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

Are psychological facts relevant to philosophy of language; and, in particular, does scientific psychology have a legitimate role to play? For example, is it methodologically permissible for philosophers of language to rely upon evidence from neurological development, experiments about processing, brain scans, clinical case histories, longitudinal studies, questionnaires, etc.? If so, why? These two questions are the focus of this survey. I address them in two stages. Psychology may seem obviously relevant. I thus begin by introducing arguments against relevance, to motivate the discussion. I will urge that these ultimately fail, and that the appearance of relevance should be taken …

Fashion And Sexual Identity, Or Why Recognition Matters, Samantha Brennan

Data and Test Instruments

No abstract provided.

A Sharp Eye For Kinds: Collection And Division In Plato's Late Dialogues, Devin Henry

Data and Test Instruments

This paper focuses on two methodological questions that arise from Plato’s account of collection and division. First, what place does the method of collection and division occupy in Plato’s account of philosophical inquiry? Second, do collection and division in fact constitute a formal “method” (as most scholars assume) or are they simply informal techniques that the philosopher has in her toolkit for accomplishing different philosophical tasks? I argue that Plato sees collection and division as useful tools for achieving two distinct goals – generating real definitions and discovering the basic natural kinds of a given domain of knowledge – both …

Aristotle's Pluralistic Realism, Devin Henry

Data and Test Instruments

In this paper I explore Aristotle’s views on natural kinds and the compatibility of pluralism and realism, a topic that has generated considerable interest among contemporary philosophers. I argue that, when it came to zoology, Aristotle denied that there is only one way of organizing the diversity of the living world into natural kinds that will yield a single, unified system of classification. Instead, living things can be grouped and regrouped into various cross-cutting kinds on the basis of objective similarities and differences in ways that subserve the explanatory context. Since the explanatory aims of zoology are diverse and variegated, …