Philosophy Commons^™

Harold Brown, Harold Brown

Oral History

Harold Brown, PhD, taught philosophy as a faculty member at Pace University from 1969 to 2019.

On Unifying Declarative Memory, Thomas Ames

Theses

The distinction between episodic and semantic declarative memory systems, as introduced by Tulving (1972, updated in 1984, 1991), was a revolutionary approach to human memory. While the distinction is now widely endorsed in the study of memory, there are debates about what constitutes each system’s domain, how each system is used, how each system functions, and the phenomenal experiences associated with the functioning of each system. On the basis of clinical studies and insights from conditions affecting memory, this paper argues that the episodic/semantic distinction can be reframed as a result of a unified declarative memory system. In this view, …

Sagp Annual Meeting At Christopher Newport University, November 16 And 17 2019, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The Program of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Annual Meeting, at Christopher Newport University, November 16 and 17, 2019. Includes abstracts of the papers presented.

The Persuasive Force Of The Ad Baculum, John Casey

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

Standardly, the ad baculum fallacy consists in using the threat of violence or sanction to solicit agreement to a standpoint. A common informal logical account of its fallaciousness is that the threat is irrelevant to the truth of the conclusion. While this is a compact account, it is hard to find satisfactory cases. More plausibly, a dialogical account locates the error in the subversion of the purpose of a critical discussion. This makes better sense of actual cases, but, I shall argue, it fails to explain what makes the ad baculum an effective and pernicious form of persuasion. While attempting …

“If She Was Great, I Would Have Heard Of Her By Now”: When Trust In Our Sources Of Knowledge Lead Us Astray, Stacey Goguen

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

Several years ago in graduate school, I was a teaching assistant for a course titled, “Great Philosophers,” which at many universities really means, “Favorite Philosophers of the Professor.” But professors will usually make a case for why their favorites should be considered “great.” In this particular course, we read the work of Ruth Millikan, who wrote a lot of interesting things about language and biology and what it means for a word to ‘stand for’ for something in the world. I hadn’t heard of Millikan before the class, but found her work fascinating. One day, I brought up her inclusion …

Is Google's Sensorvault Database Morally Acceptable To Use In Law Enforcement Geofence Warrants?, University Of Mississippi. Ethics Bowl Team

The Great Debate

November 14, 2019 at 5:30 p.m. in Bryant Hall Room 209. Reception following in the Bryant Hall Rotunda.

Through the clear presentation of claims and civil dialogue, we hope to make headway on difficult and pressing questions in our society.

Format: Judges' questions and a Q&A will follow the debate between members of the UM Ethics Bowl, with an emphasis on how to address specific claims and arguments civilly for a productive conversation.

Sponsored by: Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Hume Bryant Chair of Ethics, The Department of Philosophy and Religion, The Society for Philosophers in America (SOPHIA) dedicated to promoting …

Heidegger's Will To Power And The Problem Of Nietzsche's Nihilism, Megan Flocken

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nietzsche is not a nihilist as Heidegger interprets Nietzsche to be.

Interspecies Equality, Philosophical Discussion Group

The Philosopher's Stone

Interspecies Equality

The Relation-Theory Of Mental Acts: Durand Of St.-Pourcain On The Ontological Status Of Mental Acts, Peter Hartman

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy showcases the best scholarly research in this flourishing field. The series covers all aspects of medieval philosophy, including the Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew traditions, and runs from the end of antiquity into the Renaissance. It publishes new work by leading scholars in the field, and combines historical scholarship with philosophical acuteness. The papers will address a wide range of topics, from political philosophy to ethics, and logic to metaphysics. OSMP is an essential resource for anyone working in the area.

Thresholds, Defaults, And Cosbys: A Reponse To Bartel, Jason Holt, Bernard Wills

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Idealization And The Wrong Kind Of Reasons*, John Brunero

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

According to a simplistic fitting attitude analysis of admirable, what it is for someone to be admirable just is for admiration to be an appropriate attitude to have toward that person. But this analysis faces the “wrong kind of reasons” or “conflation” problem: it may sometimes be appropriate to admire someone without that person being admirable. For instance, if my admiring an evil dictator would somehow save 100 lives, it would be appropriate for me to admire him. But that doesn’t make him admirable.

The fact that it would somehow save 100 lives is the “wrong kind of reason” for …

The Letters Of William Cullen Bryant: Volume I, 1809–1836, William Cullen Bryant Ii, Thomas G. Voss

American Philosophy

This is the only collection ever made of Bryant's letters, two-thirds of which have never before been printed. Their publication was foreseen by the late Allan Nevin as "one of the most important and stimulating enterprises contributory to the enrichment of the nation's cultural and political life that is now within range of individual and group effort.

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) was America's earliest national poet. His immediate followers—Longfellow, Poe, and Whitman—unquestionably began their distinguished careers in imitation of his verses. But Bryant was even more influential in his long career as a political journalist, and in his encouragement of …

The Letters Of William Cullen Bryant: Volume Ii, 1836–1849, William Cullen Bryant Ii, Thomas G. Voss

American Philosophy

The second volume of William Cullen Bryant's letters opens in 1836 as he has just returned to New York from an extended visit to Europe to resume charge of the New York Evening Post, brought near to failure during his absence by his partner William Leggett's mismanagement. At the period's close, Bryant has found in John Bigelow an able editorial associate and astute partner, with whose help he has brought the paper close to its greatest financial prosperity and to national political and cultural influence.

Bryant's letters show the versatility of his concern with the crucial political, social, artistic, and …

The Letters Of William Cullen Bryant: Volume V, 1865–1871, William Cullen Bryant, Thomas G. Voss

American Philosophy

On April 26, 1865, as Abraham Lincoln's funeral cortege paused in Union Square, New York, before being taken by rail to Springfield, Illinois, William Cullen Bryant listened as his own verse elegy for the slain president was read to a great concourse of mourners by the Reverend Samuel Osgood. Only five years earlier and a few blocks downtown, at Cooper Union, Bryant had introduced the prairie candidate to his first eastern audience. There his masterful appeal to the conscience of the nation prepared the way for his election to the presidency on the verge of the Civil War. Now, Bryant …

The Letters Of William Cullen Bryant: Volume Iii, 1849–1857, William Cullen Bryant Ii, Thomas G. Voss

American Philosophy

During the years covered in this volume, Bryant traveled more often and widely than at any comparable period during his life. The visits to Great Britain and Europe, a tour of the Near East and the Holy Land, and excursions in Cuba, Spain, and North Africa, as well as two trips to Illinois, he described in frequent letters to the Evening Post. Reprinted widely, and later published in two volumes, these met much critical acclaim, one notice praising the "quiet charm of these letters, written mostly from out-of-the-way places, giving charming pictures of nature and people, with the most delicate …

The Letters Of William Cullen Bryant: Volume Iv, 1858–1864, William Cullen Bryant, Thomas G. Voss

American Philosophy

The years just before and during the Civil War marked the high point of Bryant's influence on public affairs, which had grown steadily since the Evening Post had upheld the democratic Jacksonian revolution of the 1830s. A founder of the Free Soil Party in 1848 and the Republican Party in 1856, Bryant was lauded in 1857 by Virginia anti-slavery leader John Curtis Underwood, who wrote to Eli Thayer, "What a glory it would be to our country if it could elect this man to the Presidency-the country not he would be honored & elevated by such an event."

In 1860 …

The Letters Of William Cullen Bryant: Volume Vi, 1872–1878, William Cullen Bryant Ii, Thomas G. Voss

American Philosophy

In January 1872, Bryant traveled to Mexico City, where he was greeted warmly by President Benito Juarez; on this and other occasions he was feted for the Evening Post's sturdy condemnation in 1863 of the abortive invasion of Mexico, which was freshly remembered there. At the close of his visit a local newspaper remarked that the "honors and hospitality which were so lavishly and generously conferred upon him were the spontaneous outpouring of a grateful people, who had not forgotten that when Mexico was friendless Mr. Bryant became her friend." Returning in April through New Orleans and up the …

Feet, Lines, Weather, Labyrinth: The Haptic Engagement As A Suggestion For An Ecological Aesthetics, Nicola Perullo

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In this paper I present a philosophical approach stemming from the general framework of ecological aesthetics, specifically defined here as a perceptual attitude that entails intimacy, engagement, participation, and care. In order to develop this approach, I lean on some authors that I find sympathetic to my view; particularly important are John Dewey, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Arnold Berleant and Tim Ingold. Following Ingold, I propose a revaluation of what he calls “feet” to highlight the active and mobile nature of perception and a consideration for an ontology of living beings as a fluid meshwork composed by lines. I then propose to …

Spiritual Rituals Of Chinese Ink Painting: The Suggestions Of Shitao, Eva Kit Wah Man

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Ritual has an essential connection with art. This article suggests that the study on Shitao has significance in proposing a ritual theory of art for two reasons. First, textual analysis on his treatise on ink painting, Hua-pu, demonstrates that an artist is/should be involved in the interconnectedness of what he or she depicts. This involvement requires penetration into the primordial intuition towards what he or she perceives and has an ethical imperative to use the artist’s talent conferred by heaven. Second, Shitao’s artistic practice is interpreted as a form of rites that are a reaction to the sociopolitical changes …

Can Mystical Peace Contribute To Global Peace?, Peter Gan

Peace and Conflict Studies

Testimonial reports of mystics highlight an experience of peace in the midst of their mystical encounters, despite claiming that these encounters resist description. What I intend to do is to explore ways in which mystical peace, in combination with several principal features of the mystical life, is able to afford some special means in the initiation and building of peace in the world. These special or unique means rest on the distinctive traits of what mysticism harbors; traits such as infinity, all-encompassingness, ultimacy, and paradox.

Table Of Contents, Rory J. Conces

International Dialogue

Table of Contents for Volume 2

Institutionalized Violence In The History Of Mind/Body Dualism And The Contemporary Reality Of Slavery And Torture: Reflections On Elaine Scarry And The Body In Pain, Wendy Lynne Lee

International Dialogue

Wendy Lynne Lee argues that the dualistic impulse Bibi Bakare-Yusef identifies in Elaine Scarry’s analysis of the experience of pain has its roots at least as far back as Aristotle’s hylomorphism, and that a clear view of contemporary structural inequality requires a grasp of how “mind” and “body” continue to inform even anti-dualist social theory. Lee argues that insofar as this impulse informs Scarry’s The Body in Pain, it distorts Scarry’s analysis of the experience of pain in ways that elide important aspects of that experience. Understanding the nature of this distortion, however, sheds light on some forms of violence …

Using Bourdieu To Answer Spivak: On The Study Of Historical Subaltern Religious Practices, Curtis Hutt

International Dialogue

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, in her 1988 publication “Can the Subaltern Speak?,” famously challenges the ability of scholars—educated and operating within the dominating power structures of oftentimes European colonizing transnational political and religious movements—to ever grasp subaltern religion. This skepticism logically extends to the work of historians investigating the obscured religious traditions of past cultures that have been overlooked, overwhelmed, and suppressed. In this paper, I lay out a restrained strategy inspired in part by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and based upon my own historical work for circumventing some forms of historical blindness that conceal subaltern pasts. In conclusion, a …

Rethinking Secularism: P. Harrison, É. Balibar, T. Asad: The Territories Of Science And Religion; Secularism And Cosmopolitanism: Critical Hypotheses On Religion And Politics; Secular Translations: Nation-State, Modern Self, And Calculative Reason, Sotiris Mitralexis

International Dialogue

I will discuss here three recent books that both directly and indirectly discuss religion and secularism, in different contexts and certainly from different perspectives; one by historian Peter Harrison, one by cultural anthropologist Talal Asad, and one by philosopher Étienne Balibar. All three authors have invested a sizable part of their scholarly career in studying religion/secularism, and the books reviewed are revised collections of relatively recent lectures and essays (rather than, for example, texts authored with the explicit purpose of comprising a monograph); this entails that each of these books is, so to speak, the distillate of a career in …

Genealogies Of Terrorism: Revolution, State Violence, Empire, Wendy L. Lee

International Dialogue

In Genealogies of Terrorism: Revolution, State Violence, Empire, Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson takes on the ambitious project of providing a broadly Foucauldian genealogical account of the concept and practice of “terrorism.” While I am not quite sure she summits every mountain she attempts to climb, Erlenbusch-Anderson makes a valuable contribution to an under-developed literature and she offers some tantalizing points of departure for future explorations of an important and timely subject. Genealogies is an eminently worthwhile read; while some grounding in Foucault (among others) is sure to enhance the experience, Erlenbusch-Anderson’s introduction provides an able road map, making the ascent up through …

Technology, Science, And “Post-Humanity”: Like A Thief In Broad Daylight: Power In The Era Of Post-Human Capitalism, Edward Sandowski, Betty J. Harris

International Dialogue

In this book, Like a Thief in Broad Daylight: Power in the Era of Post-Human Capitalism, Slavoj Žižek mulls over issues about technology and science in the contemporary world. This is a world which he thinks, plausibly, is dominated by global capitalism, a condition which he wishes to go beyond, to something better. The nature and distribution of power must be changed. Changes in the status of “humanity” and the notion of “post-humanity” concern him. One aspect of his difficult text is that he explores how post-humanity might symbolize, not solely our degraded condition. Rather, humanity and post-humanity (and fears …

The Elephant In The Room: Against Democracy, Peter Stone

International Dialogue

Unfortunately, any discussion of Jason Brennan’s Against Democracy (2017), which seeks to make a case for epistocracy and against democracy, raises the “Don’t think of an elephant” problem (Lakoff 2004). If you tell people not to think of an elephant, they immediately think of an elephant. If you tell people not to think about epistocracy, they will immediately think about epistocracy. And this is a pity, because epistocracy is a terrible idea, and nothing Brennan says proves otherwise.

Revolution And War In Contemporary Ukraine: The Challenge Of Change, Emma Mateo

International Dialogue

This November marks six years since Ukraine’s Euromaidan protests. Sometimes referred to as the “Revolution of Dignity,” the events of winter 2013–14 had far-reaching consequences not only for Ukraine’s government and Ukrainian national identity, but also for global geopolitics. After the corrupt Yanukovych government fell, Putin’s Russia annexed Crimea and became involved in separatist conflict in Ukraine’s eastern regions, under the premise of “protecting Russian speakers.” This edited volume investigates the events of 2013–14 and their impact on culture, politics, society and identities.

Triadic Coercion: Israel’S Targeting Of States That Host Nonstate Actors, Richard English

International Dialogue

This scholarly, serious-minded book represents a valuable addition to the Columbia University Press series, Columbia Studies in Terrorism and Irregular Warfare. Considering the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict, Wendy Pearlman and Boaz Atzili address the issue of what they term “triadic coercion—in which a state directs military threats or strikes at another state to force it to take action against a nonstate actor to which it offers shelter or assistance” (242). This tactic has been common enough to be historically significant, and the Israeli case that is examined here offers a useful laboratory within which to offer systematic consideration of the phenomenon.

Notes From The Editor, Rory J. Conces

International Dialogue

Notes from International Dialogue's Editor-in-Chief, Rory J. Conces for Volume 9.