Continental Philosophy Commons^™

Jewish Philosophies After Heidegger: Imagining A Dialogue Between Jonas And Levinas, Lawrence A. Vogel

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Emmanuel Levinas and Hans Jonas draw on their roots in phenomenology and Judaism to answer the ethical nihilism of Heidegger's thought. Though both Levinas and Jonas aim to ground an imperative of responsibility in a Good-in-itself ultimately sourced in God, their disagreements are basic and revolve around three fundamental questions: (1) Can Jews "after Auschwitz" have a theology without lapsing into theodicy?; (2) Is the Good-in-itself within Being or "otherwise than Being"?; and (3) Is ethics the completion of nature or against nature? I explore possibilities for integrating the apparently incompatible ideas of Levinas and Jonas.

Back To The F Scale: Milosevic As Authoritarian, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes the "fit" of Slobodan Milosevic's personality with the classic construct of the authoritarian as conceptualized by the initial form of the F Scale.

History, Religion And Meaning: American Reflections On The Holocuast And Israel, Jules Simon

Departmental Papers (Philosophy)

No abstract provided.

Eros And Transgression In An Age Of Immanence: Georges Bataille’S (Religious) Critique Of Kinsey, James Mark Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

This paper explores the religious implications of eroticism in Western culture since the Sexual Revolution, a period at once applauded for its open and immanent view of sexuality and denounced for its shamelessness and promiscuity. After discussing the work and effects of Alfred C. Kinsey, the father of the Sexual Revolution, I focus on a critical appraisal of Kinsey written by French theorist Georges Bataille (“Kinsey, the Underworld and Work,” in L’Erotisme, 1957). Bataille situates contemporary Western sexuality within a larger historical movement towards the “desacralization” of all aspects of human life: sex, under the scientific gaze of the Kinsey …

"The Principle Of Punishment Is A Categorical Imperative", Nelson T. Potter Jr.

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

There has been a considerable renaissance in retributivism as a theory of the justification of punishment in the second half of this century. Retributivism is often defended as if it were a particularly hardy moral intuition, a basic free-standing moral principle that is underivable from any broader theory or set of principles. In this vein it is often "supported" through the presentation of outrageous and horribly cruel crimes, especially against persons, particularly murder, in order to elicit what may be thought to be the natural and appropriate emotional response, a response of anger, indignation, and desire for retribution. Under such …

Theory And Practice In The Career Of Fernando Henrique Cardoso: Part Iii, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This is the third and final installment of an article which provides an analysis of an individual accomplished as a scholar of politics (through sociology) and a formal politician. The author is Dr. Ted Goertzel of Rutgers University. He can be reached at [email protected].

Theory And Practice In The Career Of Fernando Henrique Cardoso: Part Ii, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This is the second installment of an analysis of a man who was both a scholar of politics and the political leader of his country. (See IBPP, Vol. 2, No. 10.) The article was written by Dr. Ted Goertzel of Rutgers University. Dr. Goertzel can be reached at [email protected].

Theory And Practice In The Career Of Fernando Henrique Cardoso: Part I, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

Political psychologists often contemplate the significance of their research--theoretical, empirical--for the practice of politics. Too often, seemingly valuable research is ignored, discounted, misperceived, and misapplied by political practitioners. Yet occasionally researchers practice politics as well--not just the politics of everyday life--but the formal politics of local, regional, national, and international entities. In the United States, Woodrow Wilson, Eugene McCarthy, and even Newt Gingrich come immediately to mind. What will be the interaction of research and practice when both are developed and implemented by the same individual? Dr. Ted Goertzel of Rutgers University has written the following article concerning another researcher-practitioner--Fernando …

Supererogation And Overdetermination In Kant's Ethics: Analysis And Interpretation At Their Best In Baron, Nelson T. Potter Jr.

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

Marcia Baron's book tackles two very difficult issues, both centered on criticisms of the Kantian conception of duty. The solutions to her chosen questions lie rather deeply hidden, and the procedures by which Baron digs deep to find solutions are exemplary in their presentation of careful interpretation of texts by Kant, of writers on Kant, and of conceptual analysis and criticism. This book is not like a commentary, which would consider a broader range of questions and issues; it is rather a narrower, closer analysis of a few more specific issues. These few narrow issues have broad ramifications for our …

The Synthetic A Priori Proposition Of Kant's Ethical Philosophy, Nelson T. Potter Jr.

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

I will consider Kant's claim that the categorical imperative (CI) is a synthetic a priori proposition. We know from the first Critique that such propositions are likely to be very important, but also difficult to justify. Kant says exactly the same things about the CI in the Grundlegung: the CI is difficult to justify2, but if we do not succeed in justifying it, morality may be a mere "phantom of the brain.',3 Though little has been written on this topic, a correct understanding of this claim is important to understanding Kant's views.

Comments On Hill: “Punishment, Conscience, And Moral Worth”, Nelson T. Potter Jr.

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

This is an interesting paper to me, among other reasons, because it deals with both halves of Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals; that fact alone also makes it somewhat unusual. It proposes in particular that there is a kind of analogy between conscience as an inner voice of morality and punishment as a provider of incentives against antisocial actions through punishment as deterrence.

As Hill points out, there has been quite a lot of discussion of Kant’s views on punishment, but not much about his views of conscience. Nevertheless, there remain scholarly puzzles about Kant’s views on punishment, and there …

Maxims In Kant's Moral Philosophy, Nelson T. Potter Jr.

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

It has been noticed in the English-language literature concerning Kant's ethics, at least since Marcus Singer's extended discussion in later chapters of Generalization in Ethics! that the concept of a maxim plays a central role in the application of the categorical imperative, and that it is, for that reason, if not for others, worth detailed attention. In the present essay I wish to consider the Kantian concept of maxim in a broader context.

Kant On Obligation And Motivation In Law And Ethics, Nelson T. Potter Jr.

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

It is quite clear that a positive law must have some motivation connected with it, as specified in a penalty, at least a criminal law must, as opposed to a law appropriating funds or a law authorizing persons to make use of certain legal possibilities, such as a will, a limited liability corporation, or marriage. Some ten years ago Nebraska's state legislature passed a law requiring the wearing of a motorcycle helmet while riding a motorcycle on the state's roads, and the Governor signed it into law. Only some time after this process had been completed was the defect of …

Reply To Allison, Nelson T. Potter Jr.

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

In "Kant's Doctrine of Obligatory Ends," Henry Allison offers an interpretation of this central doctrine of the Tugendlehre portion of Kant's Metaphysics of Morals that partly agrees with and partly takes issue with an earlier article of mine on the same topic. The disagreement between us might seem to be on a small point, and yet I think it will tum out that this point has considerable significance for interpreting and understanding Kant's ethical theory. I wish here to explain the issues, and defend my own earlier account.

What Is Wrong With Kant’S Four Examples, Nelson T. Potter Jr.

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

Kant gives four examples to illustrate the application of the categorical imperative immediately after introducing its “universal law” formulation in Chapter Two his Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. These examples have been much discussed to gain an understanding of how the categorical imperative applies to derive specific duties. It is argued that the discussions found in these examples do not accord well with Kant’s fuller account of that application in his later work The Metaphysics of Morals. That [later] work has quite different, sometimes better, arguments for the same moral conclusions, and never mentions the argument against …

Rethinking Reverence For Life, Mike W. Martin

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Albert Schweitzer’s ethics of reverence for life is more complex and interesting than first appears. It contains themes relevant to contemporary environmental ethics, including a virtue-ethics approach that emphasizes personal responsibility and tolerance, empathy for living organisms, and the fundamental unity of life. Not surprising, then, Schweitzer has recently been acknowledged for pioneering a biocentric (life-centered) ethical theory.

At the same time, Schweitzer’s ethic has four unpalatable features: pantheism, anthropomorphism, excessive subjectivity, and guilt mongering. I trace these features to the metaphysical framework in which Schweitzer develops his ideal of reverence for life. I also show how the framework can …

Asceticism/Askēsis: Foucault's Thinking Historical Subjectivity, Ladelle Mcwhorter

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In the Introduction to The Use of Pleasure Foucault calls his work an askēsis, "an exercise of oneself in the activity of thought." The "living substance of philosophy," Foucault writes, is the essay, "which should be understood as the assay or test by which, in the game of truth, one undergoes changes, and not as the simplistic appropriation of others for the purpose of communication." Foucault's work, then, does not simply report to us his conclusions or theories. Foucault is not primarily interested in imparting information. What he offers instead is a kind of exercise book.

Introduction From Morality And Universality: Essays On Ethical Universalizability, Nelson T. Potter, Mark Timmons

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

CONCLUSION

The aim of the present volume is to show that recent philosophical thought on universalizability is multifaceted and alive, and is making advances. This has been done by presenting a wide variety of work by authors who are among the best of those currently working on these issues. This introduction has aimed to present the main points of our authors in summary form, exhibiting some of their relationships to each other.

Now that we have briefly discussed the papers included here it can be seen that they each have an important role to play in further discussions of this …

How To Apply The Categorical Imperative, Nelson T. Potter Jr.

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

The aim of the present paper is to give a new positive interpretation of how the categorical imperative is to be applied. There have been critiques of Kant's applications and defenses of Kant against such criticism, but it is surprisingly seldom that a positive interpretation of how the categorical imperative is to be applied has been offered.

The Social And The Causal Concepts Of Responsibility, Nelson T. Potter Jr.

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

The causal and the social concepts of responsibility share the notions of (a) a causal agent, and (b) some effect for which the agent is a cause. But William L. Blizek argues that the social concept has an additional element not shared by the causal concept: that of an adjudicator, someone who imputes responsibility. Thus he writes, “social responsibility is not a relationship between cause and effect, but a relationship between an agent and some consequence, as prescribed by an adjudicator.” He points out that our judgments of the different kind of social responsibility may change, as the society changes; …

Rendt's Radical Good And The Banality Of Evil: Echoes Of Scholem And Jaspers In Margarethe Von Trotta's Hannah Arendt, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

Margarethe von Trotta's 2012 film Hannah Arendt suggests that for Arendt the signal problem with Adolf Eichmann had to do with a lack of thinking (the same problem Martin Heidegger diagnoses repeatedly in his book What is Called Thinking). For Heidegger, we are "still" not thinking. For Arendt, what is characteristic of Eichmann is that he does not think, meaning that he does not think as Aristotle defines thinking, namely as characteristic of the human qua human, here conceiving thinking as an inherently philosophical project that is more than practical but always contemplative (i.e., thinking about thinking). Is Eichmann …