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Articles 31 - 60 of 190
Full-Text Articles in Philosophy
Emotions As Modulators Of Desire, Brandon Yip
Emotions As Modulators Of Desire, Brandon Yip
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
We commonly appeal to emotions to explain human behaviour: we seek comfort out of grief, we threaten someone in anger and we hide in fear. According to the standard Humean analysis, intentional action is always explained with reference to a belief-desire pair. According to recent consensus, however, emotions have independent motivating force apart from beliefs and desires, and supplant them when explaining emotional action. In this paper I provide a systematic framework for thinking about the motivational structure of emotion and show how it is consistent with the Humean analysis. On this picture, emotions are not reducible to beliefs and …
Russian Logics And The Culture Of Impossible: Part Ii: Reinterpreting Algorithmic Rationality, Ksenia Tatarchenko, Anya Yermakova, Liesbeth De Mol
Russian Logics And The Culture Of Impossible: Part Ii: Reinterpreting Algorithmic Rationality, Ksenia Tatarchenko, Anya Yermakova, Liesbeth De Mol
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This article reinterprets algorithmic rationality by looking at the interaction between mathematical logic, mechanized reasoning, and, later, computing in the Russian Imperial and Soviet contexts to offer a history of the algorithm as a mathematical object bridging the inner and outer worlds, a humanistic vision that we, following logician Vladimir Uspensky, call the “culture of the impossible.” We unfold the deep roots of this vision as embodied in scientific intelligentsia. In Part I, we examine continuities between the turn-of-the-twentieth-century discussions of poznaniye—an epistemic orientation towards the process of knowledge acquisition—and the postwar rise of the Soviet school of mathematical logic. …
"Let’S See If We Can Go A Whole Day On The Road Eating Free Food": Encountering The Divine With Claire Dwyer In The Private Spaces Of Richmond’S Highway To Heaven, Justin K. H. Tse
"Let’S See If We Can Go A Whole Day On The Road Eating Free Food": Encountering The Divine With Claire Dwyer In The Private Spaces Of Richmond’S Highway To Heaven, Justin K. H. Tse
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This article recounts the development of the author’s positionality in studying religion in a Canadian suburb through a collaborative project with the late feminist geographer of religion Claire Dwyer. The field site was No. 5 Road, the “Highway to Heaven” in Richmond, British Columbia with over 20 religious institutions on a three kilometre stretch of road. Building from Dwyer’s writing on “encountering the divine” through field work from 2010 to 2012, the author offers an account of a personal shift from evangelical religious exclusivism to an understanding of the plurality of interreligious experience. Using a reflexive writing style, the article …
Setiya On Consequentialism And Constraints, Ryan Cox, Matthew Hammerton
Setiya On Consequentialism And Constraints, Ryan Cox, Matthew Hammerton
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
It is widely held that agent-neutral consequentialism is incompatible with deontic constraints. Recently, Kieran Setiya has challenged this orthodoxy by presenting a form of agent-neutral consequentialism that he claims can capture deontic constraints. In this reply, we argue against Setiya's proposal by pointing to features of deontic constraints that his account fails to capture.
Beyond The "Formidable Circle": Race And The Limits Of Democratic Inclusion In Tocqueville's Democracy In America, Christine Dunn Henderson
Beyond The "Formidable Circle": Race And The Limits Of Democratic Inclusion In Tocqueville's Democracy In America, Christine Dunn Henderson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Despite his assertion that the first volume of Democracy in America (1835) would concentrate upon institutions, Tocqueville found himself finishing the draft manuscript in 1834 and unable to conclude his study without discussing race relations in the United States. In the end, he quickly penned a final chapter. That chapter—by far the book’s longest—offers “Some Considerations on the Present State and Probable Future of the Three Races That Inhabit the Territory of the United States.” Tocqueville begins the chapter by acknowledging that its subject “is American without being democratic” (DA, p. 516), and to the extent that it analyzes slavery …
Who Is A Wise Person? Zhuangzi And Epistemological Discussions Of Wisdom, Shane Ryan, Karyn Lai
Who Is A Wise Person? Zhuangzi And Epistemological Discussions Of Wisdom, Shane Ryan, Karyn Lai
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This essay articulates the contribution that the Zhuangzi can make to contemporary epistemological discussions of wisdom. It suggests that wisdom in the Zhuangzi involves, in part, correctly distinguishing the "heavenly" (or the naturally given) from human artifice. It is important for humanity to understand naturally given conditions (e.g., seasons, climate, forces, mortality) to grasp what is within, and what beyond, our initiatives. To enable this, we need to be openly engaged with the world, rather than approach it with rigid convictions about outcomes or goals. We characterize such openness and readiness to engage as an attitude, that of "epistemic humility." …
What And Whose Confucianism? Sinophone Communities And Dialogical Geopolitics, Quan Gao, Justin K. H. Tse, Orlando Woods
What And Whose Confucianism? Sinophone Communities And Dialogical Geopolitics, Quan Gao, Justin K. H. Tse, Orlando Woods
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This commentary responds to An et al.’s (2020) article, ‘Towards a Confucian geopolitics’ by re-examining ‘the political’ of Confucianism and its contribution to fostering a cosmopolitan form of Confucian geopolitics. By taking note of the differences within and between Sinophone communities, we discuss the variegated forms of Confucianism, and their various geopolitical implications. In doing so, we call for re-theorising Confucian geopolitics as dialogical geopolitics that challenges the cultural and ideological basis of statist and Sino-centric geopolitics.
The Intrinsic Values Of Confucian Democracy And Dewey's Pragmatist Method, Sor-Hoon Tan
The Intrinsic Values Of Confucian Democracy And Dewey's Pragmatist Method, Sor-Hoon Tan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Given the historical association of Confucianism, or rather the Ru school of thought, with autocratic government since the Han dynasty, one of the challenges for contemporary scholars of Confucianism is to interpret and reconstruct Confucianism to guard against authoritarian tendencies without surrendering its distinctive ethical-political vision. Confucianism is incompatible with the conventional understanding of democracy as liberal democracy best represented by the United States, focused on limiting government with checks and balances, prioritizing protection of the civil and political rights of individuals, regular elections of representatives in which partisan competition for power offers citizens very little real choice, and it …
Humanist But Not Radical: The Educational Philosophy Of Thiruvalluvar Kural, Devin K. Joshi
Humanist But Not Radical: The Educational Philosophy Of Thiruvalluvar Kural, Devin K. Joshi
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Humanist ideas in education have been promoted by both Western thinkers and classical wisdom texts of Asia. Exploring this connection, I examine the educational philosophy of an iconic ancient Tamil (Indian) text, the Thiruvalluvar Kural, by juxtaposing it with a contemporary humanist classic, Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. As this comparative study reveals, both texts offer humanist visions of relevance to education, politics, and society. Notably, however, the Kural takes what might be described as a more mainstream humanist stance vis-à-vis Freire’s radical humanist approach. Nevertheless, both educational philosophies share a common humanist bond representing important breakthroughs within their …
Emotion As High Level Perception, Brandon Yip
Emotion As High Level Perception, Brandon Yip
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
According to the perceptual theory of emotions, emotions are perceptions of evaluative properties. The account has recently faced a barrage of criticism recently by critics who point out varies disanalogies between emotion and paradigmatic perceptual experiences. What many theorists fail to note however, is that many of the disanalogies that have been raised to exclude emotions from being perceptual states that represent evaluative properties have also been used to exclude high-level properties from appearing in the content of perception. This suggests that (1) emotions are perceptions of high level properties and (2) perceptual theorists can marshal the arguments used by …
Confucianism As Transformative Practice: Ethical Impact And Political Pitfalls, Sor-Hoon Tan
Confucianism As Transformative Practice: Ethical Impact And Political Pitfalls, Sor-Hoon Tan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
No serious scholar today denies the close relationship between politics and ethics in Confucian thought and practice.
The Way Of Longevity: Blue Zones As Unselfconscious Models Of Daoist Living, Devin K. Joshi
The Way Of Longevity: Blue Zones As Unselfconscious Models Of Daoist Living, Devin K. Joshi
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Demographic researchers have identified five geographic regions around the world with unusually high proportions of nonagenarians and centenarians. Studies of these longevity hotspots or “blue zones” are now trying to distill lessons for how people everywhere can live long and active lives with minimal impediments. In this study, I compare lifestyle observations and longevity prescriptions derived from studies of blue zone centenarians with long-standing recommendations for the practice of nourishing life (yangsheng) to achieve a long and healthy life in the Daoist tradition. Observing a high degree of similarity across the four lifestyle domains of diet, exercise, mindset, …
Wisdom, Not Veritism, Shane Ryan
Wisdom, Not Veritism, Shane Ryan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In this response to Pritchard's "In Defence of Veritism", I defend the view that it is wisdom rather than truth that is fundamental in epistemology. Given that recent philosophical discussions of the nature of wisdom may be unfamiliar to some epistemologists, a brief overview of these discussions is provided and that which is relevant for the subsequent discussion in this piece is highlighted. I explain that scholars working on the topic tend to accept that wisdom comprises at least one familiar epistemic standing and that, unlike other epistemic goods, wisdom is thought to be tied to a narrowly specified content. …
Humanist But Not Radical: The Educational Philosophy Of Thiruvalluvar Kural, Devin K. Joshi
Humanist But Not Radical: The Educational Philosophy Of Thiruvalluvar Kural, Devin K. Joshi
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Humanist ideas in education have been promoted by both Western thinkers and classical wisdom texts of Asia. Exploring this connection, I examine the educational philosophy of an iconic ancient Tamil (Indian) text, the Thiruvalluvar Kural, by juxtaposing it with a contemporary humanist classic, Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. As this comparative study reveals, both texts offer humanist visions of relevance to education, politics, and society. Notably, however, the Kural takes what might be described as a more mainstream humanist stance vis-à-vis Freire’s radical humanist approach. Nevertheless, both educational philosophies share a common humanist bond representing important breakthroughs …
Relativized Rankings, Matthew Hammerton
Relativized Rankings, Matthew Hammerton
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In traditional consequentialism the good is position-neutral. A single evaluative ranking of states of affairs is correct for everyone, everywhere regardless of their positions. Recently, position-relative forms of consequentialism have been developed. These allow for the correct rankings of states to depend on connections that hold between the state being evaluated and the position of the evaluator. For example, perhaps being an agent who acts in a certain state requires me to rank that state differently from someone else who lacks this connection. In this chapter several different kinds of position-relative rankings related to agents, times, physical locations, and possible …
Deontic Constraints Are Maximizing Rules, Matthew Hammerton
Deontic Constraints Are Maximizing Rules, Matthew Hammerton
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Deontic constraints prohibit an agent performing acts of a certain type even when doing so will prevent more instances of that act being performed by others. In this article I show how deontic constraints can be interpreted as either maximizing or non-maximizing rules. I then argue that they should be interpreted as maximizing rules because interpreting them as non-maximizing rules results in a problem with moral advice. Given this conclusion, a strong case can be made that consequentialism provides the best account of deontic constraints.
Agent-Relative Consequentialism And Collective Self-Defeat, Matthew Hammerton
Agent-Relative Consequentialism And Collective Self-Defeat, Matthew Hammerton
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Andrew Forcehimes and Luke Semrau argue that agent-relative consequentialism is implausible because in some circumstances it classes an act as impermissible yet holds that the outcome of all agents performing that impermissible act is preferable. I argue that their problem is closely related to Derek Parfit's problem of ‘direct collective self-defeat’ and show how Parfit's plausible solution to his problem can be adapted to solve their problem.
Country Report: The Teaching Of Philosophy In Singapore Schools, Steven Burik, Matthew Hammerton, Sovan Patra
Country Report: The Teaching Of Philosophy In Singapore Schools, Steven Burik, Matthew Hammerton, Sovan Patra
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Singapore’s education system is widely regarded as one of the best in the world. In this report, we will focus on education at the primary, secondary, and junior college levels, and will not discuss the education offered in polytechnics (vocational colleges) and universities. We will also focus exclusively on Singapore’s public school system, which Singapore citizens are required to attend unless they are granted a special exemption. In addition to public schools, there are also international schools, which cater to the relatively large expatriate population in Singapore and typically offer a curriculum leading to the IB diploma. All public schools …
The Ehrenfests’ Use Of Toy Models To Explore Irreversibility In Statistical Mechanics, Joshua Luczak, Lena Zuchowski
The Ehrenfests’ Use Of Toy Models To Explore Irreversibility In Statistical Mechanics, Joshua Luczak, Lena Zuchowski
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This article highlights and discusses the Ehrenfests’ use of toy models to explore irreversibility in statistical mechanics. In particular, we explore their urn and P–Q models and highlight that, while the former was primarily used to provide a simple counter-example to Zermelo’s objection to Boltzmann’s statistical mechanical underpinning of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the latter was intended to highlight the role and importance of the Stoßzahlansatz as a cause of the tendency of systems to exhibit entropy increase. We also explain the sense in which these models are toy models and why agents can use them, as the Ehrenfests’ …
The Other China Model: Daoism, Pluralism, And Political Liberalism, Devin K. Joshi
The Other China Model: Daoism, Pluralism, And Political Liberalism, Devin K. Joshi
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
While scholars often portray Chinese political thought and tradition as standing in opposition to Western notions of political liberalism, little consideration has been given to compatibility between liberalism and Daoism, a prominent religion and long-standing alternative school of thought among Chinese peoples. Addressing this gap in the literature, this study in comparative political thought compares Laozi’s Dao De Jing with John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty to illustrate certain core political ideas in the Dao De Jing and their treatment in Mill’s landmark text on political liberalism. Although the two texts diverge in terms of advocacy of popular representation, public contestation, …
Translation Of: Interview With Jacques Derrida: The Western Question Of "Forgiveness" And The Intercultural Relation, Ning Zhang, Steven Burik
Translation Of: Interview With Jacques Derrida: The Western Question Of "Forgiveness" And The Intercultural Relation, Ning Zhang, Steven Burik
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
These two interviews with Jacques Derrida were conducted by Ning Zhang in 1999 and 2000, respectively, in preparation for the publication of his book Writing and Difference in Chinese and his first academic trip to China in 2001. In the first interview, Jacques Derrida tries to clarify the ethical concerns with regard to his deconstructive analysis of Western traditions, through his critical reading of the concept of forgiveness. In this interview he gives us a clearer insight into his ideas about the problem of intercultural exchange, especially concerning questions of translation, translatability, and untranslatability, as central issues of his work. …
Translation Of: Place: Derrida And Nishitani, Rolf Elberfeld, Steven Burik
Translation Of: Place: Derrida And Nishitani, Rolf Elberfeld, Steven Burik
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In his works Chora [Derrida, Jacques. 1993. Khôra. Paris: Galilée] and “Comment ne pas parler? Denegations” Derrida used the metaphor chora from Plato’s Timaeus (49a and following) to continue his struggle with the metaphysics of presence. In 1926 Nishida, the founder of the Japanese Kyōto School, used the same metaphor to create a new foundation of philosophy. Nishitani, a disciple of Nishida, developed the work of Nishida in close connection to Zen Buddhist experiences. Derrida tries to show the limits of language within the game of language, whereas Nishitani starts from an experience beyond language, but tries to make …
Libertarianism Without Self-Ownership, Chandran Kukathas
Libertarianism Without Self-Ownership, Chandran Kukathas
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Libertarianism is a political philosophy whose defenders have set its foundations in the principle of self-ownership. But self-ownership supplies an uncertain basis for such a theory as it is prone to a number of serious difficulties, some of which have been addressed by libertarians but none of which can ultimately be overcome. For libertarianism to be a plausible way of looking at the world, it must look elsewhere for its basic principles. In particular, it needs to rethink the way it understands property and its foundations.
Let’S Get Radical: Extending The Reach Of Baylean (And Forstian) Toleration, Chandran Kukathas
Let’S Get Radical: Extending The Reach Of Baylean (And Forstian) Toleration, Chandran Kukathas
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In The Right to Justification Rainer Forst tells us that that social context in which humans find themselves is called ‘political’ when it is ‘an order of justification’ – an order which consists of norms and institutions that are to govern their lives together in a justified or justifiable way.² The most important normative concept that applies to this order, he tells us, is that of justice. Justice ‘overarches’ every form of political community, demanding reasons why some have rights, and asking how it is determined who possesses what claims, and how persons stand in relation to one another as …
Tracing Dao: A Comparison Of Dao 道 In The Daoist Classics And Derridean “Trace”, Steven Burik
Tracing Dao: A Comparison Of Dao 道 In The Daoist Classics And Derridean “Trace”, Steven Burik
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper attempts to draw a comparison between Derrida’s idea of “trace” (in connection to his more famous ideas of différance, supplement, and deconstruction) and the idea of dao in classical Daoism (Laozi and Zhuangzi). I explore the viability of applying Derrida’s thoughts with regard to “trace” to Daoism. It is argued that if dao is read in a non-metaphysical way, then the Derridean idea of “trace” will show large overlaps with dao. I then try to show how, despite some obvious differences, a “trace” reading of dao enables a clearer understanding of dao that would see it not as …
Derrida And Asian Thought, Steven Burik
Derrida And Asian Thought, Steven Burik
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
More than fifteen years after Jacques Derrida passed away, he remains a controversial figure in philosophy. Much maligned, both when he was alive and after his death, Derrida’s relation to philosophy proper has always been an uneasy one, not least because of his relentless questioning of the notion of “philosophy proper” itself. It is this relentless interrogation of the history and presuppositions of Western philosophy that has made him an attractive figure to comparative philosophy. Many of the authors in this volume, and others beside them, have seen in Derrida a kind of thinking that refuses to play by the …
Darkness And Light: Absence And Presence In Heidegger, Derrida, And Daoism, Steven Burik
Darkness And Light: Absence And Presence In Heidegger, Derrida, And Daoism, Steven Burik
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The light metaphor is a perpetual favorite for philosophers, both East and West. I seek to revaluate its opposite, darkness. I claim that there are good reasons to favor darkness over light, or at least to not see them as mutually incompatible or in hierarchical fashion. In recent Western philosophy, both Heidegger and Derrida argue that what the light metaphor represents, the promise of clarity and objectivity, is exactly what makes Western metaphysics problematic. In Chinese philosophy, classical Daoism offers a thinking that does not favor the light metaphor over its opposite. Daoists have the good sense to acknowledge darkness …
Subverting Institutions: Derrida And Zhuangzi On The Power Of Institutions, Steven Burik
Subverting Institutions: Derrida And Zhuangzi On The Power Of Institutions, Steven Burik
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper shows how both Jacques Derrida and Zhuangzi use their respective ways of subverting philosophical systems, by and large through language systems, to arrive at an (implicit or explicit) subversion of political power or political systems or institutions. Political institutions are presented as including more general institutions such as the media, press, and academic and other kinds of institutions that influence the way our societies function, the way we live, work, and think. The paper first highlights the similarities and differences in the application of subversive techniques in Derrida and Zhuangzi as they battle against their respective opponents. After …
Trust: A Recipe, Shane Ryan
Trust: A Recipe, Shane Ryan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
An essay on trust.
How Many Aims Are We Aiming At?, Joshua Luczak
How Many Aims Are We Aiming At?, Joshua Luczak
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
I highlight that the aim of using statistical mechanics to underpin irreversible processes is, strictly speaking, ambiguous. Traditionally, however, the task of underpinning irreversible processes has been thought to be synonymous with underpinning the Second Law of thermodynamics. I claim that contributors to the foundational discussion are best interpreted as aiming to provide a microphysical justification of the Minus First Law, despite the ways their aims are often stated. I suggest that contributors should aim at accounting for both the Minus First Law and Second Law.