Philosophy Commons^™

Forum: Science In Aesthetics?, Editorial Office

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This inaugurates a new feature of Contemporary Aesthetics, a forum in which specific issues or themes in aesthetics can be discussed, debated, and developed. The first of these, "Science in Aesthetics?," comes from an interest that emerged at the XVIth International Congress of Aesthetics held in Rio de Janeiro during July 2004.

Conceptual Art: A Base For Global Art Or The End Of Art?, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Ways Of World Making: J.R.R. Tolkien, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Die Archivierung Des Husserlschen Nachlasses 1933—1935, Sebastian Luft

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Avantgarda In Medijske Umetnosti, Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Resentment And Assurance, Margaret Urban Walker

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Husserl's Phenomenological Reduction Revisited: An Attempt Of A Renewed Account, Sebastian Luft

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

This essay attempts a renewed, critical exposition of Husserl’s theory of the phenomenological reduction, incorporating manuscript material that has been published since the defining essays of the first generation of Husserl research. The discussion focuses on points that remain especially crucial, i. e. the concept of the natural attitude, the ways into the reduction, and the question of the “meaning of the reduction”. The reading attempted here leads to two, not necessarily related, focal points: a Cartesian and a Life-world tendency. In following these two paths, Husserl was consistent in pursuing two evident leads in his philosophical enterprise; however, he …

Husserl’S Theory Of The Phenomenological Reduction: Between Life-World And Cartesianism, Sebastian Luft

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

This essay attempts a renewed, critical exposition of Husserl's theory of the phenomenological reduction, incorporating manuscript material that has been published since the defining essays of the first generation of Husserl research. The discussion focuses on points that remain especially crucial, i.e., the concept of the natural attitude, the ways into the reduction (and their systematics), and finally the question of the "meaning of the reduction." Indeed, in the reading attempted here, this final question leads to two, not necessarily related, focal points: a Cartesian and a Life-world tendency. It is my claim that in following these two paths, Husserl …

Reclaiming The Body: Francis Bacon's Fugitive Bodies And Confucian Aesthetics On Bodily Expression, Eva K. W. Man

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Recently there has been a cry in Western academic and artistic circles for reclaiming the body and repositioning its locus and identity. Body theories and body art have become topics of attention as well as subjects of philosophical discussion. This article looks at the issue from a comparative perspective, focusing on representative cases in Chinese and Western portrait paintings. It first discusses Francis Bacon's works of human bodies and identifies their philosophical and psychological loci. It then outlines the Confucian discourses on the body, their related metaphysical grounds, and their relations to traditional Chinese portrait paintings. Representative Chinese portraits like …

Talk To The Animals: A Short Comment On Wolfgang Welsch's "Animal Aesthetics", Stefán Snaevarr

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

I voice some concern about Wolfgang Welsch's defense of the theory that animals can feel aesthetic pleasure. My first concern is epistemological: it is hard to see how we can find out whether they actually feel such pleasures. My second concern is conceptual: aesthetic pleasures have intentional objects and are woven into fallible judgments. It is hard to see that animals have such objects and can perform such judgments.

Ethical Autonomism: The Work Of Art As A Moral Agent, Rob Van Gerwen

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Much contemporary art seems morally out of control. Yet, philosophers seem to have trouble finding the right way to morally evaluate works of art. The debate between autonomists and moralists, I argue, has turned into a stalemate due to two mistaken assumptions. Against these assumptions, I argue that the moral nature of a work's contents does not transfer to the work and that, if we are to morally evaluate works we should try to conceive of them as moral agents. Ethical autonomism holds that art's autonomy consists in its demand that art appreciators take up an artistic attitude. A work's …

Animal Aesthetics, Wolfgang Welsch

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Kinetic Synesthesia: Experiencing Dance In Multimedia Scenographies, Marc Boucher

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

The contrasting kinetic values between dancer and projected moving image in multimedia scenographies provide the viewer with a particular type of synaesthetic experience. It results from the interaction of kinesthesis proper to each medium, the dancing body and the moving image. The extensive use of projected moving images in performing arts is part of a cultural trend that privileges a fundamental yet little understood aspect of aesthetic experience. Kinetic synaesthesia is a transdisciplinary concept formulated in light of psychological, physiological, and phenomenological accounts of both synaesthesia and kinesthesis.

Book Review: Reading Lolita In Tehran By Azar Nafisi, Rory J. Conces

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Azar Nafisi, now the Director of the Dialogue Project at John Hopkins University, does a fine job in this book of piecing together her life as an academic, especially the last two years of her residence in Tehran when she embarked on an adventure to supplement the education of a select group of university students. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a multilayered memoir about teaching Western literature in revolutionary Iran in the late 1990s.

Faith-Science Issues: An Epistomological Perspective, E. Edward Zinke

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

No abstract provided.

Discussing The Allegedly Democratic Nature Of Judicial Review, Eddie Sarnowski

All Volumes (2001-2008)

Defined as the function of the court to interpret and apply the constitution to particular circumstances and legal issues, judicial review has become a noteworthy expression of the power of the judiciary. Nearly 200 years old, this seemingly simple doctrine has instigated a substantial amount of political controversy and debate from which three individuals should be recognized for their contributions. Ronald Dworkin, a proponent of judicial activism, believes in “leaving issues to the court’s judgment” and investing our faith in their decisions (Dworkin 526). Supporting Dworkin, John Arthur asserts that judicial review promotes democracy, and more importantly, imposes safeguards against …

Berkeley’S Idealist Theory Of Knowledge And Whether Or Not Empiricism Can Lead To Idealism, Stacey Macpherson

All Volumes (2001-2008)

George Berkeley is perhaps one of the most unique and intriguing figures in the history of modern philosophy. Dissatisfied with and angered by the materialist philosophies of his contemporaries, especially the ideas of John Locke,
Berkeley called for a return to "common sense." But "common sense," for Berkeley, involved not just a skeptical view of materialism, but the assertion that the material world does not exist at all! Berkeley utilizes persuasive logical arguments and empiricist principles in order to refute the existence of matter. However, when he attempts to account for what does exist, he makes a startling claim which …

Environmentalism And Zen Buddhism, Shari Jaymes

All Volumes (2001-2008)

It seems as though Buddhism, and further Zen Buddhism, may offer ecology or environmentalism or conservationism (or any other “ism” in relation to the preservation of the natural world) a new perspective upon the problem of implementing a “land ethic.” There are many reasons to believe this, as the following work will show. I hope to determine whether or not Zen can be considered an ecological discipline.
Does it make a contribution (negative or positive) to a land ethic? And further, what does Zen think of the conservation movement? What does environmentalism think of Zen?

Endless Enlightenment: Eye-Operated Technology And The Political Economy Of Vision, Michael Gardiner

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Despite a residual popular temptation to see the posts of cultural analysis as signs of temporal closure, the logic of global visual media is strengthening, not weakening, metaphors of visibility which remain intact from the Enlightenment. Here I describe a stand-off between post-Enlightenment critiques (as in some sectors of Cultural Studies) and a narrow power base which is defined by producing light and managing the very conditions of visibility. For the world's most powerful state, still strongly bound to its original Enlightenment foundations, intervention into other states' sovereignty is increasingly justified by evidence from spy planes (rather than …

Moral Imagination, Joanne B. Ciulla

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

Moral imagination provides leaders with insight into others and the world and helps them make moral decisions and form visions. Leaders need imagination to determine the values they embrace and the feelings that these values engender in themselves and others. Leaders use imagination to animate values, apply moral principles to particular situations, and understand the moral aspects of situations. Imagination and moral values are the fundamental components of a vision.

What Are The "Four Roots Of Capacity And Nature"?, Alan Kam Leung Chan

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

During the third century C.E., a debate on the relationship between “capacity” (cai 才) and “nature” (xing 性) captured the imagination of the Chinese elite. Historical sources relate that four views were put forward on the subject, which continued to dominate the intellectual scene during the fourth and fifth centuries. Yin Hao 殷 浩 (306–356), a major statesman and leader of the literati, for example, was known especially for his expertise on the four views of “capacity and nature” (caixing) (Shishuo xinyu 1992, 4.34; cf. Mather 1976, 110).1 Writing in the fifth century, Wang Sengqian 王 僧 虔 (426–485) observed …

Panpsychism As Personal Experience: Resolving A Paradox, Jonathan Cotton

Theses : Honours

The thesis of panpsychism is that throughout the natural universe there is mentality, although I prefer the term "mind". We human beings experience this mentality in everyday consciousness and by analogy we are able to assert that mentality is not confined to the human experience alone. The extent to which this mentality penetrates, or is imbued by, our natural world has been a subject for discussion in western schools of philosophy since the ancient Greeks and in the even more ancient eastern schools of theosophy, such as Buddhism and the Hinduism of the Upanishads. I use the term "theosophy" here …

Editorial

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Machines In The Ocean: The Aesthetics Of Wind Farms, Yuriko Saito

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This is an exploration of the aesthetic opposition lodged against wind power facilities. Taking the recent controversy regarding the proposal of a wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod as an example, I analyze the opponents' claim that such a construction "ruins" or "spoils" the otherwise pristine landscape. After suggesting some strategies of making the structure more aesthetically positive purely on the sensuous level, I propose that this specific issue must be discussed in the context of larger issues: civic environmentalism and the aesthetics of sustainability.

Kierkegaard As An Enlightenment Thinker, Jeremy Bendik-Keymer

Faculty Scholarship

What if Kierkegaard were not a counter-Enlightenment thinker, but were a deeper enlightenment thinker? In this talk, I want to propose an interpretation of S.K.’s work under which he continues the Enlightenment, rather than discontinuing it. I will claim that Kierkegaard deepened and advanced one of the most central aspects of “enlightenment”, at least as Kant and the subsequent tradition has defined it. Kierkegaard was an enlightenment thinker (lower case “e”!), and therefore it is misleading to see him as opposed to the heart of the Enlightenment (upper case “e”).

Women In Daoism By Catherine Despeux And Livia Kohn (Review), Robin R. Wang

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Defending Society From The Abnormal: The Archaeology Of Bio-Power, Brad E. Stone

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

On The Very Problem Of The Problem Of God In Zubiri And Unamuno, Brad E. Stone

Philosophy Faculty Works

Perhaps one innovation brought about by Spanish philosophy is the notion that “God” names a problem instead of an entity. This is what Xavier Zubiri means when he uses the phrase “the problem of God.” Although he does not employ the Zubirian phrase, Miguel de Unamuno also addresses God as a problem. This paper compares Zubiri’s and Unamuno’s accounts of how God appears to human beings polemically. For both thinkers, God is a problem only for human beings; there is something about the structure of human existence that makes God come to mind. For Zubiri, God comes to mind because …

Design By Nature, Timothy Shanahan

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Rites Of Passing: Foucault, Power, And Same-Sex Commitment Ceremonies, Ladelle Mcwhorter

Philosophy Faculty Publications

According to Catherine Bell, "The popular contention that ritual and religion decline in proportion to modernization has been something of a sociological truism since the mid-19th century". Conventional wisdom maintains that ritual practices just don't hold central importance in the lives of those raised in the industrialized world as compared with the importance such things had for our distant ancestors or for our contemporaries in non-industrial societies. Some have contended that this is because ritual tends to be strongly correlated with pre-scientific cosmological beliefs that our society has for the most part outgrown. But for whatever reason, " [c]omparatively speaking," …