Philosophy Commons^™

Plotinus On Primary Being, Damian Caluori

Philosophy Faculty Research

Late antique philosophers took a great interest in metaphysics. Indeed, the discipline's very name, "metaphysics", goes back to late antiquity.¹ One of the main reasons for this great interest can be found in the view - widespread in this period - that an understanding of reality is crucial for our lives and for the destiny and salvation of our souls.² Only by contemplating and by possessing knowledge of reality - a reality that was thought to be beyond the world of our ordinary experience - is the soul in an uncorrupted state of well being. Metaphysics is precisely …

Metaphysics Without Pre-Critical Monism: Hegel On Lower-Level Natural Kinds And The Structure Of Reality, James Kreines

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

My focus here is on what Hegel has to say about nature and natural kinds, in ‘Observing Reason’ from the Phenomenology, and also in similar material from the Logic and Encyclopedia. I intend to argue that this material suggests a surprising way of stepping beyond the fundamental debate. There can of course be no question of elaborating and defending here a complete interpretation of Hegel’s entire theoretical philosophy. I will have to restrict myself to arguing for the unlikely conclusion that there is an approach that can combine and integrate the strongest points made by both sides in …

The Logic Of Life: Hegel’S Philosophical Defense Of Teleological Explanation Of Living Beings, James Kreines

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

Hegel accords great philosophical importance to Kant’s discussions of teleology and biology in the Critique of the Power of Judgment, and yet also disagrees with Kant’s central conclusions there. More specifically, Kant argues for a generally skeptical view of teleological explanation of living beings; Hegel responds that Kant should instead defend such explanation—and that the defense of teleology should lead Kant to different conclusions throughout his theoretical philosophy.

I aim to avoid the sort of interpretive charity that would begin with a currently popular philosophical view and then seek to find that view in historical texts. This approach would …

Organismal Natures, Devin Henry

Devin Henry

No abstract provided.