Philosophy Commons^™

Morality Versus Slogans, Bernard Gert

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Presented to the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, April 1, 1988.

Plotinus On The Articulation Of Being, Steven K. Strange

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Ennead Vi.2 presents itself as Plotinus' official account of the structure of the second Hypostasis, i.e. Intellect (νοῦς) or Being, what corresponds in his metaphysical universe to Plato's realm of Ideas or Forms. Having refuted the Peripatetic and Stoic theories in VI.1, he turns to developing his own view of Being, which he intends to be in agreement with Plato's. Indeed, the account of the 'genera of being' that he give in VI.2 is closely modeled on Plato's discussion of the so-called 'greatest kinds' or megista gene in the Sophist.

Heraclitus: The River Fragments, Leonardo Taran

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Heraclitus was known in antiquity for the obscurity and the ambiguity of his expression, and there can be little doubt .that he purposely made use of ambiguity to emphasize the paradoxical character of some of his doctrines. For us who so many centuries later wish to understand his thought, these characteristics are increased and magnified by the very way his thought has been transmitted: citations and paraphrases by others whose interests were in most cases alien to his. Yet many ancient authors cited him to find authority and corroboration for their views in such an archaic thinker. Other writers, among …

Sagp Newsletter 1989/90.2 (November), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Programs of the meeting of the Society with the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association December 28, 1989, in Atlanta, and with the American Philological Association, December 28, 1989, in Boston.

Women And Early Christianity: A Reappraisal, Reta Halteman Finger

Biblical, Religious, & Philosophical Studies Educator Scholarship

In the early 1970s, a group of six evangelical women in Chicago began meeting. Their topic of conversation? The emerging secular movement of feminism and what it might mean in a Christian context. These discussions would eventually lead to the Daughters of Sarah, a mid-20th century American journal for the particular audience of Christian feminists. Daughters of Sarah published some of the earliest religious scholarship on the topic.

Surrogate Parenting And Fundamental Rights, Paul J. Denenfeld

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

This essaya originated in symposium presentations made to the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, January 20, 1989.

Lonergan On The Catholic University, Richard Liddy

Department of Religion Publications

No abstract provided.

The Punctator's World: A Discursion (Part Three), Gwen G. Robinson

The Courier

This is the third in a series of articles on the past and future of punctuation. The years under focus here are crucial ones, for they include the invention of the printing press and the shift it caused in the human response to the written word.

Surrogate Parenting: The Michigan Legislation, Lucille Taylor, Paul Denenfeld

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Surrogate Parenting: The Michigan Legislation essays by: Lucille Taylor Paul Denenfeld. These essays originated in symposium presentations made to the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, January 20, 1989. Lucille Taylor is Majority Counsel, Michigan State Senate Paul Denenfeld is Legal Director, ACLU Fund of Michigan

Surrogate Parenting Legislation In Michigan: Background And Review, Lucille S. Taylor

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

This essay originated in symposium presentations made to the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, January 20, 1989.

Absolute Margaret: Margaret More Roper And "Well Learned" Men, Peter Iver Kaufman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This article suggests that Margaret More Roper's 1534 letter to Alice Alington is an important witness to Tudor ideas of patriarchy and the history of gender identity. In 1557 William Ras tell was the first of many to question not only Margaret's authorship of the letter, but also her acquiescence to authorities and opposition to her father. Evidence suggests, however, that Margaret was a part of Erasmus's humanist network of friendship, remained so after More's refusal to swear the oath and his imprisonment, and that her appeals to her father were genuine. By the time Margaret and More debated conformity, …

Unity And Logos: A Reading Of Theaetetus 201c-210a, Mitchell Miller

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Abstract for “Unity and Logos” (Anc Phil 12.1:87-111):

A close reading of Socrates' refutation of the final proposed definition of knowledge, "true opinion with an account." I examine the provocations to further thinking Socrates poses with his dilemma of simplicity and complexity and then by his rejections of the three senses of "account," and I argue that these provocations guide the responsive reader to that rich and determinate understanding of the sort of 'object' which knowledge requires that the Parmenides and the Eleatic dialogues will go on to explicate.

This paper is available at http://pages.vassar.edu/mitchellmiller/.

Beatty On Chance And Natural Selection, Timothy Shanahan

Philosophy Faculty Works

In his (1984) John Beatty correctly identifies the issue of the role of chance in evolution as one of the liveliest disputes in evolutionary biology. He argues, on the basis of a carefully articulated example, that "Even on a proper construal of 'natural selection', it is difficult to distinguish between the 'improbable results of natural selection' and evolution by random drift". His other remarks indicate that he is thinking of conceptual as well as practical indistinguishability. In this discussion I take issue with one of the consequences Beatty draws from his example. I argue that the example at most shows …

Review Of "The Limits Of Pragmatism" By C. G. Prado, Richard Thomas Eldridge

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Mysticism, Enlightenment, And Morality, Philip Novak

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

"Our outspoken anthropologist friend, Dr. A. Bharati, once remarked that if someone is a stinker before a mystical experience, he'll be a stinker afterwards .¹ The swami's observation stemmed from years spent among the holy men of India and , no doubt, from considerable personal experience. It is an exaggeration , of course, but we cannot dismiss his crucial point: it is quite possible to be a mystic and a stinker. If we refuse to take Bharati's word for it, we need only to examine the numerous recent accounts of the oafish behavior displayed by acclaimed mystic-teachers. Or we …

Kant's Political Theory And Philosophy Of History, Philip J. Kain

Philosophy

Kant combined two traditional approaches in his political theory, reference to a utopian and ideal universal moral order in common with Plato, Thomas More, and Jean Jacques Rousseau and an analysis of the pursuit of individual self-interest leading to the establishment of laws that enable citizens to satisfy their interests, like Thomas Hobbes, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Adam Smith. Kant focused on the international level, arguing that following the categorical imperative would arrange a society equitably while national commercial self-interest would lead to a league of nations to adjudicate international disputes. Kant was unique in providing both a theory of an …

Should I (Legally) Be My Brother's Keeper?, Gilbert Geis

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Presented to the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, October 27, 1987.

Failure And Expertise In The Ancient Conception Of An Art, James Allen

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The ancient notion of an art (τέχνη) embraced a wide range of pursuits from handicrafts like shoemaking and weaving to more exalted disciplines not excluding philosophy (cf. Plato Gorgias 486b; Hippolytus Refutatio. 570,8 DDG; Sext. Emp. Μ II13). Nevertheless, there was a sufficient amount of agreement about what was expected of an art to permit debates about whether different practices qualified as arts. According to the conception which made these debates possible, an art is a body of knowledge concerning a distinct subject matter which enables the artist to achieve a definite type of beneficial result. Obviously, the failure of …

The Punctator's World: A Discursion (Part Two), Gwen G. Robinson

The Courier

Part One of this serialized survey (Courier 23.2, Fall 1988) dealt with the emergence of a late-Classical and early-Christian interest in eliciting, with 'euphuistic' punctating techniques, the voice patterns inherent in text. Part Two, herewith, gives attention to the Middle Ages. In this haphazard era, logical punctuation, which concentrates on syntactical structures and is therefore more appealing to eye than ear, begins its faltering growth.

The Good As Unity: Its Role In The Good Life In Plato's Later Thought, Cynthia Hampton

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In the sixth book of the Republic. Socrates begins leading his interlocutors down the 'longer road' that leads to the Form of the Good which is to complete the earlier account of virtue given in Book IV. The end of this road in the Republic is reached via the sketch of the Good portrayed in the famous Sun, Line, and Cave passages. In this paper, I wish to suggest that the road does not, in fact, end here, but extends to the account of the Good offered in one of Plato's latest dialogues, the Philebus . This account, like the …

Review Of "A Theory Of Value And Obligation" By R. Attfield, Hans Oberdiek

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Review Of "The Common Life: Ambiguity, Agreement, And The Structure Of Morals" By B. Zwiebach, Richard Thomas Eldridge

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Codes Of Ethics In Business, Michael Davis

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Presented to the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, October 26, 1988.

Does Aristotle's Political Philosophy Rest On A Contradiction?, David J. Depew

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Critique of David Keyt. 1987. "Three Fundamental Theorems in Aristotle's Politics." Phronesis, 32.1:54-79. Keyt claims that Aristotle is committed to these three propositions: 1. The polis is a natural entity, coming to be and existing by nature. 2. A polis comes to be when a legislator imposes constitutional form on social matter by political art. 3. Nothin can come to be both as a natural entity and as a product of rational art. This paper surveys previous attempts to resolve the dilemma, then argues that Keyt relies too much on the idea that the polis is the consequence of an …

Sagp Newsletter 1988/9.4 (March), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Program of the meeting of the Society with the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association April 28, 1989, in Chicago.

Sagp Newsletter 1988/9.3 (February), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Program of the meeting of the Society with the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association March 24, 1989, in Oakland, CA.

Organic Models In The Poetics, David Gallop

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

According to Aristotle, art (technë) imitates nature. This celebrated doctrine is not limited to what we call the 'fine arts', or to works of 'art' in any narrow modern sense; and it does not mean that such art-works copy things in the natural order. It means, more generally, that craftsmen adopt means to produce ends; and that in doing so, they follow a pattern found throughout organic nature. The crafts, in their respective domains, do what nature does everywhere. This parallel often provides Aristotle with analogies from the crafts to illuminate the workings of nature. ,The Poetics is uniquely interesting …

Ideal Taxation, Lawrence C. Becker

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

High Art, Folk Art, And Other Social Distinctions, Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Most discussions of the arts by critics and philosophers could be characterized in terms of a rather studied neglect of folk and popular art. This neglect is hardly absolute, however, for it is important in order to articulate a specific conception of aesthetic taste, beauty, or style to contrast the standard being used or praised with some other, less desirable, even degraded way of producing or appreciating something similar. It is perhaps more than a historical coincidence that the formation of the modern concept of taste and aesthetic judgment, in the eighteenth century, coincides roughly with the discovery and valorization …

Rights, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

In English, 'right' is used in a number of ways to mean a number of things. We may turn to the right, for instance, even when that is not the right way to turn; the Pythagorean theorem deals with right angled triangles; governments sometimes shift to the right; straightforward people come right to the point when they seek to right matters; and we occasionally find that what someone is doing is not right, morally speaking, even though she has the right to do it. 'Right' in this last sense - 'right' as a kind of property we …