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Syncretism In Transpersonal Studies: Introduction To This Issue’S Special Topics Section, Harris L. Friedman, Douglas A. Macdonald

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Transpersonal Education: Problems, Prospects And Challenges, Paul F. Cunningham

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Despite its substantial scientific, academic, and professional achievements, transpersonal psychology has

not been fully incorporated within traditional undergraduate psychology curricula. One reason is conventional

psychology’s prejudiced perception of humanity’s spiritual nature. Other reasons lie within the field

of transpersonal psychology itself, including the lack of agreed-upon general curricular models, absence of

normative educational (student) outcomes, unstructured courses with restricted content coverage, and conceptual

and methodological disagreements among experts. One of the most pressing challenges facing contemporary

transpersonal education is the publication of an authoritative, standard textbook that would

effectively introduce undergraduate students to transpersonal psychology and facilitate the progress of …

Gebser's Integral Consciousness And Living In The Real World: Facilitating Its Emergence Using A Course In Miracles, Cornelius J. Holland, Douglas A. Macdonald

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This paper discusses certain parallels between the work of Jean Gebser, the European philosopher and student of consciousness, and A Course in Miracles (ACIM), a contemporary spiritual system. More specifically, it 1) establishes parallels between Gebser’s conception of the ego, especially its basis in anger, and the ego according to ACIM, and 2) shows how a forgiveness exercise may lead to a time-free present, called in ACIM, “The Holy Instant.”

Manifest, Hidden, And Divine: Introduction To Sefirot Aikido, Jack Susman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The potential for forging a valuable relationship between two transpersonal systems, Aikido, a Japanese martial art and spiritual tradition, and Kabbalah, a Jewish spiritual tradition, is explored. Aikido is not simply a martial art, rather it is also a way to achieve a sense of the spiritual. However, especially for Westerners, many of its spiritual tenets are elusive, based on abstruse Japanese cultural roots, whereas Kabbalah, as a spiritual tradition more fully explicated for Western audiences, can provide an accessible framework for grasping some of Aikido’s deeper meanings. A blend of these traditions, called Sefirot Aikido, uses Kabbalah to understand, …

Statement Of Transition - Editor's Introduction, Douglas A. Macdonald, Harris Friedman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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An Exploratory Investigation Into The Association Of Neuroticization, Cognitive Style, And Spirituality To Reported Altered States Of Consciousness In Women Experiencing Childbirth, Nikolai Gruzdev, Dimitri Spivak

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This study examined the relation of altered states of consciousness to neuroticization, spiritual experience,

and divergent thinking in a sample of women (N= 102) at late pregnancy and post-delivery. The results

suggest that stress associated with imminent childbirth is linked to higher levels of ASCs and that neuroticization

and spirituality seem to be implicated in the induction of ASCs.

Beyond Mind Ii: Further Steps To A Metatranspersonal Philosophy And Psychology, Elías Capriles

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Some of Wilber’s “holoarchies” are gradations of being, which he views as truth itself; however, being is

delusion, and its gradations are gradations of delusion. Wilber’s supposedly universal ontogenetic

holoarchy contradicts all Buddhist Paths, whereas his view of phylogeny contradicts Buddhist Tantra and

Dzogchen, which claim delusion/being increase throughout the aeon to finally achieve reductio ad absurdum .

Wilber presents spiritual healing as ascent; Grof and Washburn represent it as descent—yet they are

all equally off the mark. Phenomenologically speaking, the Dzogchen Path is “descending,” but not in

Washburn’s or Grof ’s sense—and “transpersonal” is not a synonym of “sanity.” …

The Ethical Importance Of Being Human: God And Humanism In Levinas's Philosophy, Pat J. Gehrke

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Problem Of Comparing Different Cultural Or Theoretical Frameworks: Davidson, Rorty, And The Nature Of Truth, Jeremy Barris

Humanities Faculty Research

In comparing very different cultural, theoretical, or methodological standpoints, the nature of truth itself becomes a problem. If the standpoints have different conceptions of truth, a comparative approach that respects both involves the contradiction of conflicting legitimate claims to truth. But if we reject this contradiction, we eliminate the possibility that standpoints can have legitimately different conceptions of truth. And with that we reject the sense of a genuine comparison in this respect, rather than a reading of one framework in the light of the other. Davidson and Rorty have mounted especially powerful arguments against the very sense of this …

The Footnote, In Theory, Anne H. Stevens, Jay Williams

English Faculty Research

And, so, when Richard Stern published his private dialogue with himself about the physical appearance of certain writers at the 1986 International PEN conference, Joyce Carol Oates insisted on not only an angry rebuttal-punctuated by constant page referencing to Stern's "pig-souled sexism"-but photographic evidence-a kind of footnote in itself-dismissing his physical characterization of her. When Susan Gubar published "What Ails Feminist Criticism?" her essay provoked an immediate, critical, and heavily documented response from Robyn Weigman, several letters to the editor, and Gubar's own footnoted rejoinder. Jane Gallop's defense of a sexual act she engaged in with one of her students …

Little Gods And Little Heroes: Hyperreal Ethics In God Games And Online Gaming, G. Christopher Williams

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Media critics, notably Jean Baudrillard, have suggested that the environment of simulations are to be defined as something more real than the real, or, in his terms, hyperreal. If hyperrealities are indeed the way that we can define the environment of multimedia technologies like video games, what sorts of ethical considerations should exist in a place that gamers conceive as more real than the real? This essay considers what ethical considerations are worth contemplating as gamers begin to take on the roles of gods and heroes in multiplayer video games. The little gods and heroes whose identities gamers have begun …

On The Interpretation Of The Equation E = Mc2: Response To Krajewski, Francisco Flores

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Kant And The Logic Of Aristotle, Kurt Mosser

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Kant’s famous remark that Aristotle’s logic presents a “closed and completed doctine” has been traditionally interpreted, both by philosophers and historians of logic, as claiming that Aristotle provides the last word in logic. Given the later developments of Leibniz, Frege, Peirce, and others, such an interpretation paints Kant’s conception of logic as remarkably naive and historically uninformed. I argue here that Kant’s understanding of logic, and its history, is considerably more sophisticated than he has traditionally been given credit for, and that his remark tells us much more about Kant’s conception of logic, as a set of rules that are …

The Ecological Life: Discovering Citizenship And A Sense Of Humanity, Jeremy Bendik-Keymer

Faculty Scholarship

Written as a series of lectures, The Ecological Life offers a humanistic perspective on environmental philosophy that challenges some of the dogmas of deep ecology and radical environmentalism while speaking for their best desires. The book argues that being human-centered leaves us open to ecological identifications, rather than the opposite. Bendik-Keymer draws on analytic and continental traditions of philosophy as well as literature and visual media. He argues for a sense of ecological justice consonant with human rights, and shows how humanistic thinking is committed to deepening respect for life and our ecological orientation. In a clear, jargon-free and conversational …

On Sovereignty And Overhumanity Why It Matters How We Read Nietzsche's Genealogy 11:2, Christa Davis Acampora

Publications and Research

There is nearly unanimous agreement, among those who bother to pay attention to Nietzsche's anomalous claim about the "sovereign individual" in the second essay of On the Genealogy of Morals that the "sovereign" is Nietzsche's ideal, and many more still take sovereignty as the signature feature of the overman Nietzsche heralds in his Thus Spoke Zarathustra and other writings. I describe the reception among Nietzsche scholars as "nearly unanimous" because there has been at least one cry of dissent: that issued by Lawrence Harab. Curiously, his brief but incisive comments about the problematic nature of several readings along these lines …

Natural Justice, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Justice is a natural virtue. Well-functioning humans are just, as are well-ordered human societies. Roughly, this means that in a well-ordered society, just humans internalize the laws and social norms (the nomoi)--they internalize lawfulness as a disposition that guides the way they relate to other humans. In societies that are mostly well-ordered, with isolated zones of substantial dysfunction, the nomoi are limited to those norms that are not clearly inconsistent with the function of law--to create the conditions for human flourishing. In a radically dysfunctional society, humans are thrown back on their own resources--doing the best they can in …

Literature As Material Figuration: Benjamin, Sebald, And Human Life In Time, Richard Thomas Eldridge

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

(2006) Philosophy In A Crowded Curriculum, Laurance J. Splitter

Collected Papers of Laurance J. Splitter

In this key-note Address presented at the Inaugural Conference on Philosophy in Schools held in Singapore in April 2006, Splitter argues that the focus on conceptual development and dialogue makes philosophy an important part of school curricula.

(2006) Training Teachers To “Teach” Philosophy For Children, Laurance J. Splitter

Collected Papers of Laurance J. Splitter

In this seminar presented at the Inaugural Conference on Philosophy in Schools in Singapore in April 2006, Splitter enumerates considerations for models of teacher education in philosophy for children, as well as general features of teacher education that have stood the test of, time, the first and most general of which is that good training programs operate on a model of reflective practice.

Are We Responsible For Our Emotions And Moods?, Michael Schleifer, Miriam S. Mccormick

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The short answer to the question in the title of this paper is "yes." Our thesis is that we are indeed responsible for our emotions and moods. We want to help children understand that just as they are responsible for what they do and say, or omit to do or say (along with the consequences of these acts), so are they responsible for much of their affective life. What remains is to explain what we mean by "responsibility," "emotions," and "moods."

Teaching The Ethical Foundations Of Economics: The Principles Course, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

When we analyze the source of humor, one ingredient is surely incongruity, the juxtaposition of opposites. So when Tom Lehrer, the consummate Harvard mathematician, openly calls for plagiarism, this is funny because it is exactly the opposite of what we expect - it is absurd. And yet, from the viewpoint of modern economics, is plagiarism really so absurd? We teach our students to maximize short-term profits (in a moral vacuum). We drill them that producers minimize private costs of production (without reference to ethical codes of conduct). We expect economic agents to operate with atomistic selfishness, assuring them that this …

Book Review: How To Cure A Fanatic, Rory J. Conces

Philosophy Faculty Publications

How to Cure a Fanatic by the internationally acclaimed novelist and peace activist Amos Oz, is a book I took with me on a recent trip to the Balkans. I decided to read the book and write my review in my flat on Gradacacka Street in the Otoka neighborhood of Sarajevo, given the book’s topic and the problems that have plagued the people of Bosnia for the past fifteen years.

(2006) Changing Conceptions Of The Child From The Renaissance To Post-Modernity: A Philosophy Of Childhood, David Kennedy

Collected Papers of David Kennedy

In the eight essays that make up this volume David Kennedy offers provocative insights into what it means, has meant, and might mean in the future, to be a child. As we read him we feel the excitement of discovering truths that we want to think we knew all along. This book includes six essays on images of childhood and two extended reports on philosophical discussions he had with two groups of children. In each of those two reports on children’s thinking Kennedy interpolates his own reflections on the topics being discussed, on the methodology he is using, and on …

A Phenomenological Aesthetic Of Cinematic 'Worlds', Christopher Yates

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Contemporary film aesthetics is beset by difficulties arising from the medium itself and the bewildering itinerary of film theory. Inspired by Martin Heidegger's hermeneutical vision in "On the Origin of the Work of Art" (1935), my essay seeks to overcome this paralysis by grounding the aesthetic value of cinematic art in its ability to "disclose the world" through a convergence of artist and viewer intentionalities. Stanley Cavell has gone far by exploring a corresponding "natural relation" between philosophy and cinema, but his work assumes an ontological discourse without an appropriate phenomenological method. I contend that Mikel Dufrenne's phenomenology of aesthetic …

Symposium On Pictorial Realism

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Selfless Offspring: Filial Children And Social Order In Medieval China By Keith Nathaniel Knapp (Review), Robin R. Wang

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Character, Reliability, And Virtue Epistemology, Jason Baehr

Philosophy Faculty Works

Standard characterizations of virtue epistemology divide the field into two camps: virtue reliabilism and virtue responsibilism. Virtue reliabilists think of intellectual virtues as reliable cognitive faculties or abilities, while virtue responsibilists conceive of them as good intellectual character traits. I argue that responsibilist character virtues sometimes satisfy the conditions of a reliabilist conception of intellectual virtue, and that consequently virtue reliabilists, and reliabilists in general, must pay closer attention to matters of intellectual character. This leads to several new questions and challenges for any reliabilist epistemology.

Review Of Duncan Pritchard, Epistemic Luck, Jason Baehr

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Review Of Jordi Corominas And Joan Albert Vicens, Xavier Zubiri: La Soledad Sonora, Brad E. Stone

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Review Of Michael Depaul & Linda Zagzebski, Intellectual Virtue: Perspectives From Ethics And Epistemology, Jason Baehr

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.