Continental Philosophy Commons^™

On Malls, Museums, And The Art World: Postmodernism And The Vicissitudes Of Consumer Culture, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

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A Musical Retrieve Of Heidegger, Nietzsche, And Technology: Cadence, Concinnity, And Playing Brass, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

A discussion of Heidegger's analysis of the essence of modern technology as a version of what Heidegger names Nietzsche's highest will to power read together with Heidegger's understanding of Nietzsche's statement of the nihilism of our day. It is argued that Heidegger's philosophic questioning of technology is inevitably foreclosed by his stylized, hermetic reading of Nietzsche's expression of the will to power. Thus it is necessary to read Heidegger's critique of technology in the light of rather than against Nietzsche's critique of science and culture. This entails a reading of Heidegger's reading of Nietzsche against Heidegger's reading of Nietzsche. But …

Philosophies Of Science: Mach Duhem Bachelard, Babette Babich

Research Resources

approaches reflect the philosophical reflections on science expressed from the tradition of continental thought. In this context, the philosophical reflections on science to be found in Mach, Duhem and Bachelard may be mined for what should prove to be a productive

historical foundation between these two traditions addressed to a common focus.

Mach, Duhem and Bachelard among other thinkers have argued that science itself is more critical, indeed more inherently ‘hermeneutic’, than philosophy. But this point is problematic, and not only because of its counter-intuitive content -- whereby science ends up with the virtue of being more hermeneutic than hermeneutics …

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 …