Philosophy Commons^™

A Conversation On Theodicy, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

The following is a dialog, published in The Global Spiral, January 9, 2008, about the idea of a systems-theoretic 'secular theodicy,' discussed in the author's "Towards an Ontology of Problems," "Understanding lmperfection," and (exemplified in a preliminary way in) "Incompleteness, Negation, and Hazard: On the Precariousness of Systems." The dialog was inspired by Susan Neiman's Evil in Modem Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy, Princeton University Press, 2002.

Practical Rationality In The Nicomachean Ethics: An Investigation Into The Use Of Craft Analogies In Relation To Practical Wisdom (Phronesis) And Happiness (Eudaimonia), Tom Vanderveen

Theses

This thesis is an investigation into Aristotle’s use of craft analogies in the Nicomachean Ethics, as instructional to his concept of practical wisdom and happiness. For Aristotle, ethics is predominantly a practice, thus the focus is on practical rationality rather than theory. For this reason, Aristotle’s discussion of ethics lends itself to the use of craft analogy, in that craft is a practice. It is argued that while being a good pedagogical tool, craft analogies fall short, because they do not cover the full gamut of human experience.

Toleration, Offense, And Logic, Lois Eveleth

Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers

Because the traditional liberal understanding of toleration has been formalistic rather than substantive, the question of where to draw the line between "tolerable" and "intolerable" remains. One approach, borrowing the concept of profound offense from legal philosophy, is to locate the line of separation between "tolerable" and "intolerable" at the notion of profound offense.

Connecting With Nature Through Land Use Decision Making, Cathy Setterlin

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This narrative inquiry, which draws on my experience as a land use decision maker, environmental educator, and scholar, examines the complexities of our human-nature relationship as we use and protect the life of the land in local communities. I began this research by interviewing seventeen land use decision makers representing a range of land use perspectives in New Milford, Connecticut, focusing on their views of land as a living community, their connections to land, and their sense of duty and responsibility.

Their responses led me to further inquiry and drew me into a process that transformed my views of both …

Dwelling, Walking, Serving: Organic Preservation Along The Camino De Santiago Pilgrimage Landscape, Mercedes Chamberlain Quesada-Embid

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study is an exploration of the people and the landscape of the well-known Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. Although there are many routes that make up the entirety of the pilgrimage, this research is specifically focused on the landscape of the Camino Francés, or French Route, in northern Spain. The path has been written about in many ways and for a myriad of reasons since it became affiliated with the Christian tradition in the early ninth century. This research, however, is different. By way of an environmental history and hermeneutic approach, an investigation of the interrelated and overlapping human …

The Ecology Of Paradox: Disturbance And Restoration In Land And Soul, Rowland S. Russell

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This heuristic study explores environmental disturbance and ecological restoration in several North American settings in order to uncover epistemological, philosophical, aesthetic and ethical considerations revolving around those place-based processes. With fire as one of the central metaphors of this work, the initial place-based chapter examines Northern New Mexico's Pajarito Plateau to explore the region's fire ecology. The study then moves to the Pacific Northwest to draw restoration practice that attempt to restore wild salmon to urban Seattle habitat. The third place-based chapter focuses on the Midwest grass and farmlands in order to investigate the seeming contradictions between commodity and diversity …

A Defense Of Frank Jackson's Two-Dimensional Analysis Of The Necessary A Posteriori From Scott Soames' Anti-Two-Dimensionalist Attacks, Brendan Scott Morris

Honors Papers

In his "Reference and Description," Scott Soames raises a number of objections against the two-dimensionalists and their analysis of the necessary a posteriori. Frank Jackson is just one of several two-dimensionalists whose analysis of the necessary a posteriori comes under attack from Scott Soames. This paper is meant as a defense of Frank Jackson from the objections of Scott Soames. It begins with a summary of traditional descriptivism and Saul Kripke's anti-descriptivist objections to that view, followed by a summary of Jackson's two-dimensional analysis of the necessary a posteriori. The paper then provides a summary of Scott Soames' objections to …

Artisans, Athletes, Entrepreneurs, And Other Skilled Exemplars Of The Way, Alex Stewart, Felissa Lee, Gregory N.P. Konz, S.J.

Management Faculty Research and Publications

We introduce management and spirituality scholars to the “knack” passages from the c. 4th century B.C.E. text, the Zhuangzi. The knack passages are parables about low status figures, such as wheelwrights, furniture makers and cooks, whose actions offer insights into the spirituality of ordinary work and, we argue, of entrepreneurship. Such non-corporate settings are lesser-studied domains for spirituality. Ancient Chinese writings have been noticed by spirituality and management writers but we call for deeper scholarly textual attention. We seek also to model more attention to the renaissance in scholarship on classical China. More ambitiously, we hope to show that these …

The Transcendental Dimension Of Phenomenology, Sebastian Luft

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

This short text to follow is an attempt at philosophizing "free-style"; an attempt, that is, which does not concern itself with much recourse to primary or secondary literature. Hence, references to texts by the philosophers mentioned here are kept to a minimum. The purpose of this text, instead, is to initiate a "fundamental reflection", as one could call it, on the nature of phenomenology. May the reader indulge me in this free-styling activity, and I would welcome equally unburdened responses.

Kiss Kiss, Stake Stake: Storytelling And The Philosophical Pleasures Of Season Seven, James B. South

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Zur Phänomenologischen Methode In Karl Jaspers' Allgemeiner Psychopathologie, Sebastian Luft

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Sartre's Critique Of Dialectical Reason And The Inevitability Of Violence: Human Freedom In The Milieu Of Scarcity, Michael Monahan

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

In his Critique of Dialectical Reason, Sartre argues that it is the milieu of scarcity that generates human conflict. His account of scarcity is rather ambiguous however, and at points he seems to claim that conflict is inevitable given the context of scarcity. In this article I provide a brief account of Sartre's position, and offer a critical evaluation of that position. Finally, I argue that Sartre's claims regarding the necessity of conflict are excessive, and that the resources provided in the Critique offer a means to re-evaluate our relationship to scarcity.

Carlos Luna: Cuban Artist At The Crossroads, Curtis L. Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Carlos Luna: Cuban Artist at the Crossroads is an essay appearing in the exhibition catalogue Pablo Picasso Ceramics, Carlos Luna Paintings for the exhibit of the same title installed at the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale from October 2, 2008 through February 23, 2009.

Notices

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Recent Publications

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

The Friends Of Jones' Paintings: A Case Of Explanation In The Republic Of Art, Graham Mcfee

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

All too often the agenda for discussion of institutional accounts of art has been set by George Dickie's (putative) institutional definition of art. To offer a new beginning, the paper addresses the question of explanation with an institutional framework modeled as Terry Diffey’s Republic of Art. In exploring the argumentative resources here, it meets the objection that institutionalism cannot explore the case of so-called ‘first art’: objects created before the concept art came into being. In particular, the paper uses an example to consider how disputes within the Republic might be resolved through rational means, while still maintaining the institutional …

A Third System Of The Arts? An Exploration Of Some Ideas From Larry Shiner's The Invention Of Art: A Cultural History, David Clowney

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

I explore some implications of Larry Shiner’s view that fine art is a modern invention. In part I, I briefly summarize Shiner’s main thesis and defend it against some misunderstandings and objections that have appeared in the literature. In part II, I discuss Shiner’s remarks about the possible emergence of what he calls a “third system of the arts.” I ask what such a system might look like, consider some signs that it may indeed be emerging, and venture a suggestion about what would be required for it actually to come about.

Art Imitating Art, Eric Brook

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Using as a contextual reference my experience of seeing the original and copy of Michelangelo's David in Florence, I briefly introduce how the Platonic legacy has affected that discourse. The Western preference in art and aesthetics is typically in favor of the original over the copy, despite whatever indiscernibility may exist between them. Since Arthur Danto has treated this phenomenon in his text The Transfiguration of the Commonplace, his relevant comments are considered and adapted for the purpose of working through how one understands the relationship between the original and copy in terms of a criterion for defining art.

The Aesthetics Of Junkyards And Roadside Clutter, Thomas Leddy

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

A little more than thirty years ago, Allen Carlson argued that although the concept of "Camp" would seem to allow for the aesthetic redemption of roadside clutter and junkyards, it does not.[1] He opposes those who claim that if one takes the right attitude to roadside clutter it can be seen as aesthetic. In this essay I argue that that there is nothing wrong with this, although I will not base my argument on the idea of Camp sensibility.

A Silent Rhetoric: The Mechanism Of Propaganda As Persuasion, Ken-Ichi Sasaki

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Under ongoing globalization the particularity of cultures has become a major topic in contemporary aesthetics. Someone insists on the right of national culture against globalism, others wish to bridge cultures.[1] Apparently opposing one another, they share the same gaze on the individual character of every culture. To confirm or transcend our cultural or national affiliation through art there exists the common dimension of aesthetic persuasion: that is the subject of this paper.

The Dervishes Dance — The Sacred Ritual Of Love, Jale Erzen

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In the Sufi Way, the experience of the world and its perception is aesthetic in an ecstatic fashion. The awareness of the overpowering beauty of the world fills the heart with love and opens the mind to cosmic relations. The integration of reason, form-making, and imagining, along with yielding the body and mind to the powers of the earth, is a total aesthetic in Sufism.

In the Islamic world, humans' movement, the way they understand the process of time and space, depends on nature and parallels the cosmic order and the basic underlying forms that are found in nature. They …

"The People Are Missing", Maryvonne Saison

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

It is through the ideal of a sensus communis that Aesthetics has offered to Philosophy an articulation to Politics. I will question the idea of an "aesthetic sociability" through the concept of "régime esthétique" (aesthetic regime) proposed by Jacques Rancière to define the 18th century fundamental change carried by Aesthetics in order to think art and sensibility together.

One question will be the central core of my essay, which is how to understand nowadays Deleuze’s assertion that art should be "contributing to the invention of a people."

Consensus and dissensus are two reefs between which art and philosophy navigate at …

Aesthetic Appreciation, Ethics, And 9/11, Emmanouil Aretoulakis

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

There have been numerous critical articles on what really happened on the otherwise beautiful morning of 11 September 2001. Beyond doubt, the bulk of the critical responses to the terrorist attacks focused on the ethical and humanitarian, or rather the unethical and inhumane implications of the atrocious act, leaving no room for any philosophical reflection on the potential assessment or reception of the event from the perspective of art and aesthetics. The few years that have gone by since 2001 have provided us with some a sense of emotional detachment from the horror of that day, a detachment that may …

Can We Get Inside The Aesthetic Sensibility Of The Archaic Past?, Frederic Will

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This essay is about getting inside the sensibility of the archaic past.[1] Can we get into the creative mind of the painter of The Sorcerer? Can we reconstruct the sensibility of prehistoric humans? Can we recover the humor of the prehistoric artist? Can we do it? After all, sense equipment is the same in men and women of all ages, and though each age inflects its sense usages uniquely, there should remain an underlying continuity among sensibilities. Shouldn't we be able to return into earlier forms of those usages? Can we tell whether we have been successful in accomplishing …

Not Just Mere Things, Thomas E. Wartenberg

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This paper examines Arthur Danto's contention, put forward in The Transfiguration of the Commonplace, that at a certain point in its history art becomes philosophy. The similarities and differences between Danto's view and the Hegelian one from which it is derived are examined. Using Danto's favorite example of a philosophical work of art, Andy Warhol's Brillo Box (1965), it is argued that a more plausible interpretation of the meaning of the work undermines Danto's claims about art's transformation into philosophy.

Ontology, Criticism, And The Riddle Of Art Versus Non-Art In The Transfiguration Of The Commonplace, Arthur C. Danto

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In this "Reply to my Critics," I explain that The Transfiguration of the Commonplace was essentially a contribution to the ontology of art in which two necessary conditions emerge as essential to a real definition of the art work: that an artwork must (a) have meaning and (b) must embody its meaning. Many issues have emerged in the course of art's history that are very much part of its practice but are not part of art's essence. In response to Cynthia Freeland, I argue that though the book does not address art criticism, the two necessary conditions specify a viable …

Questioning "The Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction": A Stroll Around The Louvre After Reading Benjamin0, Jonathan Davis

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In this article I claim that Walter Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" merits renewed critical attention. Just as Dada had confronted art with anti-art, so Benjamin hoped his essay would confront aesthetics with an anti-aesthetic. I examine Benjamin's capsule history of the aura and show it to be misleading, criticize the essay's underdeveloped ontology of painting and sketch an alternative, and draw attention to the surprising proximity of Benjamin's notion of value to that of neoliberal thought. I conclude with a critique of Benjamin's cultural politics.

Danto And Art Criticism, Cynthia Freeland

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In this article I examine the relationship between Arthur Danto's philosophy of art and his practice of art criticism. Danto has said that he included many actual examples of discussions of art in The Transfiguration of the Commonplace because of the feeling that, previously, philosophers had theorized about art in a vacuum. And since the time of publishing that book, he has written on a wide variety of both historical and contemporary artists and art practices. Danto's philosophy of art commits him to an account of the practice of art criticism as interpretation. However, I question whether the Danto-esque interpretive …

Symposium Danto's The Transfiguration Of The Commonplace Twenty-Five Years Later, Thomas E. Wartenberg

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Aesthetics

The Riddle Of A Riddle, Ivan Gaskell

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This paper examines the distinction made by Arthur C. Danto between artworks and what he terms "mere real things." It presents an eighteenth-century tool for sifting grain (a riddle) as a case study in the contexts of first, the house of its first known owner, General Artemas Ward (1727-1800); second, an exhibition 2006-7 drawn from the contents of that house pointedly held in an art museum; and, third, the likely maker of the object, a member of Hassanimisco Band of Nipmuc Indians. It examines the equivocal position of objects such as this in Danto's estimation, things that he considers to …