Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons^™

Objects Supporting/Resisting A Democracy And Resisting An Occupation: Two Sides Of The Same Coin—Kosovo And The Occupied Territories, Rory J. Conces Prof.

International Dialogue

I thought I knew all there was to know about evocative objects, at least as much as I needed to know to talk about ordinary (political) ontology. But I was very wrong, as wrong as I could ever be. I didn’t know much about those objects. And maybe I still don’t, even after spending a chunk of my life in Bosnia and Kosovo and immersed in their ethnic divisions and enclaves. What I concluded from my Balkan experience was that since peace and democracy building were the ultimate goals for the region, the divisiveness of ethnic enclaves and the objects …

Global Engineering Ethics: What? Why? How? And When?, Rockwell F. Clancy Iii, Qin Zhu

Journal of International Engineering Education

Even though engineering programs, accreditation bodies, and multinational corporations have become increasingly interested in introducing global dimensions into professional engineering practice, little work in the existing literature provides an overview of questions fundamental to global engineering ethics, such as what global engineering ethics is, why it should be taught, how it should be taught, and when it should be introduced. This paper describes the what, why, how, and when of global engineering ethics – a form adopted from a 1996 article by Charles Harris, Michael Davis, Michael Pritchard, and Michael Rabins, which has influenced the development of engineering ethics for …

The "Roaring Flame": Pursuing Thymos In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Samrand Avestan, Owen G. Mordaunt

International Dialogue

Drawing principally from Francis Fukuyama’s (1952–) conception of thymos, this article focuses on exploring Okonkwo’s desire and his rigid personality in Chinua Achebe’s (1930–2013) magnum opus titled Things Fall Apart (1958). This paper hopes to prove how Achebe’s most famous character, Okonkwo, attempts to gratify his thymos which is described as a ‘desire for recognition’. Consistent with Fukuyama’s notion, this research examines how Okonkwo struggles to gain his thymos in confrontation with Ibo people and how his thymos-driven emotions incite him to reject the white colonists’ dominance in the fictional clan of Umuofia in Iboland. Therefore, we argue why Okonkwo’s …

Notes From The Editor: Volume 12, Rory J. Conces Prof.

International Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Divided Memories About Building Peace In Chechnya (1995-2004), Cécile Druey

International Dialogue

The conflicts in and around Chechnya are intractable, with a perceived impossibility to find a negotiated solution. This paper focuses on the hostage crises of Budennovsk (1995) and Beslan (2004) which are episodes from the two Chechnya Wars and had an important impact on their further course. Based on the memories of key actors representing specific sides of the conflict, the paper identifies and contextualizes diverging approaches to negotiations and conflict settlement. Conceptual support for this analysis of open-source materials is provided by the theoretical literature on “ripeness” and “readiness” as conditions for the initiation and successful conduction of negotiations. …

Table Of Contents, Rory J. Conces Prof.

International Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Disorder In Heaven And On Earth: Heaven In Disorder Slavoj Žižek. Or Books, New York And London, 2021. Pp. 240., Edward Sankowski, Betty J. Harris

International Dialogue

This essay examines three main aspects of Slavoj Žižek’s book. Beyond interpretation, we also aim for a constructive account of what novel insights might emerge from critically examining Žižek’s efforts in this book. (1) One aspect of his text is his continuing insistence on the goal of a newly re-conceived Communism, so named, e.g., in remarks about ecological threats (65) and in the concluding section, “Why I Am Still A Communist” (212; 218). Žižek’s goal is Communism, but supposedly not the authoritarian variety of communism that emerged in the twentieth century (213). In Žižek’s view, Communism must be invented to …

Levinas, Adorno, And The Ethics Of The Material Other By Eric Nelson, Suny Press, 2020 Pp. 480, Emilia Angelova, Curtis Hutt, Leah Klmanson, Eric Nelson

International Dialogue

This is a number of reviews and responses to Eric S. Nelson's Levinas, Adorno, and the Ethics of Materials Other (2020) SUNY Press. This includes:

The Relation of the Ethics of the Material Other to the Rights of the Stranger by Emilia Angelova

Nelson's Defense of Asymmetrical Ethics: On Religion and Human Rights by Curtis Hutt

On Nelson and East Asian Philosophies by Leah Kalmanson

Author Response: The Ethics of the Material Other and the Right of the Other by Eric S. Nelson

Becoming Human: A Theory Of Ontogeny Michael Tomasello. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2019 Pp. 392., Benjamin Gregg

International Dialogue

No philosophical question is older than What are we, we humans? Michael Tomasello contributes a splendid, empirically based answer to this hoary debate in Becoming Human, with a programmatic subtitle, A Theory of Ontogeny. We humans are an evolved organism with a capacity to create culture only by means of which we can realize aspects of our biological selves—and just as our biology can realize aspects of our cultural selves. That is, our biology evolved in ways that released in us capacities for “culture” that, in turn, released in us biologically relevant capacities, with “enormous and cascading phenotypic effects”—but effects …

Working With English Grammar: An Introduction Louis Cummings New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018, 372 Pp., Owen G. Mordaunt

International Dialogue

The purpose of this book is to give an introduction of the grammar of the English language to students with little or no knowledge or no prior knowledge of English grammar. It could be part of a linguistics program and could include students working toward a TEFL/TESOL degree or even those students working towards certificates in these areas. It could also be suitable for students in Advanced Placement in the U.S. and Advanced Levels elsewhere. In addition, this text could be useful to those who need to increase their knowledge of English grammar, be they professionals, writers, editors, teachers, speech …

Structures Of Loyalty: A Comparative Study Of Jewish And Palestinian Evangelicals' Acquiescence To Fundamentalist And Authoritarian Values, Anders P. Lundberg, Kristian Steiner

International Dialogue

This is a qualitative comparative study of two evangelical movements in Israel and in the West Bank: the Israeli Messianic (IM) movement and the Palestinian Evangelical (PE) movement. Through interviews on how informants understand the Middle Eastern conflict, our aim is (1) to compare the prevalence of fundamentalist/authoritarian (F/A) values in the IM and PE movements and (2) to understand how a particular socio-political context —Israel and the West Bank—might affect the acquiescence to a F/A mindset amongst the two movements. To accomplish this, we created a F/A construct that measures five values: literalism, social withdrawal, authoritarian aggression, authoritarian submission, …

2022 Mlk Keynote Address: Eddie Glaude Jr. Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Eddie Glaude Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

One of the nation’s most prominent scholars, Eddie Glaude, Jr. is an author, political commentator, public intellectual and passionate educator who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, including his most recent—the New York Times bestseller Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own—take a wide look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy.

In his writing and speaking, Glaude is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson, confronting history and bringing our nation’s …

2022 Mlk Keynote Address: Eddie Glaude Jr. Pre-Event Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Eddie Glaude Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

One of the nation’s most prominent scholars, Eddie Glaude, Jr. is an author, political commentator, public intellectual and passionate educator who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, including his most recent—the New York Times bestseller Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own—take a wide look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy.

In his writing and speaking, Glaude is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson, confronting history and bringing our nation’s …

The Pandemic, Environmentalism, And Re-Thinking Social And Political Philosophy: Pandemic 2: Chronicles Of A Time Lost, Edward Sandowski, Betty J. Harris

International Dialogue

In Pandemic!2-Chronicles of a Time Lost, Slavoj Žižek continues his discussions, written and performed in multiple media, of the pandemic that has severely afflicted the world for what seems so very long. And there are more trials coming, into the indefinite future, possibly, at worst, he imagines, terminated by a grand climate/ecological crisis and its consequences, which may, admittedly, end humanly experienced time altogether.

Do Politics Repel Truth? Hannah Arendt On Political Controversies In Dialogue With Plato, Marie-Josée Lavallée

International Dialogue

This article uncovers Hannah Arendt’s debt to Plato’s work in her analyses of political controversies of her time, as Nazi propaganda and state lies on American involvement in the Vietnam War, and her assessment of the failure of the French Revolution. While her relation to Plato’s oeuvre when she tackles political issues most often took the form of a stormy and one-sided dialogue resembling a monologue, her treatment of these controversies shows that Arendt had at times an authentic, open, and fruitful dialogue with the Greek philosopher. To make sense of these phenomena and events, she uses a range of …

Fleeing From War Or Pandemic, And Returning Home, Rory J. Conces

International Dialogue

Today, the word ‘flee’ connotes a moral weakness for many, perhaps even cowardice for some. However, that is not entirely accurate. Fleeing may be a morally decent response to a dangerous situation. As the American philosopher Todd May wrote in his insightful book A Decent Life: Morality for the Rest of Us (2019): “Most of us seek to live a morally decent life. We are not moral monsters, but neither do we strive to be moral saints. [There are] avenues of moral improvement that do not require us … to sacrifice our deepest commitments and projects ….[Why? That which] … …

Table Of Contents, Rory J. Conces

International Dialogue

Table of Contents for Volume 11

Forbearance, Endogenous Development, And Aid Work, Selina L. Haynes, Mark S. Williams

International Dialogue

The international aid industry continues to export paid and unpaid Westerners to undertake development work of questionable and suspect utility to Africa, and to the less-developed countries of other regions. Despite its widespread acceptance in the West and tremendous financial support, this work has been criticized as failing to meaningfully improve the quality of life due to a multitude of systemic challenges within the industry. This range of challenges includes the intrinsic power imbalances found between debtor nations and their creditors; the dominant position of great powers within international organizations and as the funders of international non-governmental organizations; the pathological …

Notes From The Editor, Rory Conces

International Dialogue

Introduction to volume 11.

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

Complex Effects Of International Relations: Intended And Unintended Consequences Of Human Actions In Middle East Conflicts Ofer Israeli. New York:, Kenneth Christie

International Dialogue

Ofer Israeli, in this book, offers us an original and encompassing study of the complex effects of international relations, elucidating for readers the intended and unintended consequences of human action. And that is no simple task given the often-chaotic way that international relations seem to play out in real life. Hindsight, particularly in international relations is beneficial but not always conducive to change and how we make decision-making effective goes beyond how we see our national interests play out. Any effort to alleviate, change these disastrous outcomes in the post 1945 period would have been welcome but we can see …

What And Whose Confucianism? Sinophone Communities And Dialogical Geopolitics, Quan Gao, Justin K. H. Tse, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This commentary responds to An et al.’s (2020) article, ‘Towards a Confucian geopolitics’ by re-examining ‘the political’ of Confucianism and its contribution to fostering a cosmopolitan form of Confucian geopolitics. By taking note of the differences within and between Sinophone communities, we discuss the variegated forms of Confucianism, and their various geopolitical implications. In doing so, we call for re-theorising Confucian geopolitics as dialogical geopolitics that challenges the cultural and ideological basis of statist and Sino-centric geopolitics.

Makeshift Memory: Nostalgia As Collective Solidarity In The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood And Post-Imperial England, Catherine White

Senior Theses

It is a deeply human experience to long for times, people, and places of the past, even pasts we ourselves did not experience. This feeling, which we most often call nostalgia (but has earned many names throughout history) has profound influence especially in how we perceive our collective histories and use these histories to guide us forward. This experience of nostalgia is the underpinning for many of our sources of solidarity (or who we feel loyal or obligated to). However, when we feel these profound connections to the distant past, we often lose the reality of that past in the …

Book Review On Marxism, China And Globalization (By Xu Changfu), Ian Hunt

Comparative Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Rory J. Conces

International Dialogue

Table of Contents for Volume 10

Notes From The Editor, Rory J. Conces

International Dialogue

Notes from International Dialogue's Editor-in-Chief, Rory J. Conces for Volume 10.

Aspects Of Counterterrorism: New Approaches To Countering Terrorism: Designing And Evaluating Counter-Radicalization And De-Radicalization Programs; Hacking Isis: How To Destroy The Cyber Jihad; Inside Al-Shabaab: The Secret History Of Al-Qaeda’S Most Powerful Ally, Kenneth Christie

International Dialogue

Terrorism and the term ‘jihadism’ have become a global phenomenon, a product of modernity and globalization which shows no sign of abating. The number of radicalized young people in Western and non-Western countries who are willing to travel overseas in the cause of jihad and violent extremism has increased significantly since 9/11. In the 20 years since the largely driven U.S. counter-terrorism efforts began in response, jihadism in force and numbers has risen at least by fourfold in terms of the numbers of Sunni jihadist fighters in the field from the Middle East to North Africa, Afghanistan and beyond according …

Das Emanzipatorische Potenzial Der Performance Art (The Emancipatory Potential Of Peformance Art), Gwyneth Cliver

International Dialogue

Sophia Firgau’s Das Emanzipatorische Potenzial der Performance Art (The Emancipatory Potential of Performance Art) is both a helpful introduction to performance art that could be well employed in both undergraduate and graduate classrooms, and a convincing scholarly argument for the transformative power of performance aesthetics. Firgau defines the genre of performance art, distinguishes it from both theater and public ritual performance, and explains the potential for personal, community, and civic transformation inherent in its formal characteristics. Firgau demonstrates that performance art transforms by crossing a number of conventional formal boundaries—for instance, those separating artist and audience and separating art and …

Being Unfolded: Edith Stein On The Meaning Of Being, Robert Mcnamara

International Dialogue

What is the meaning of being? More concretely, “What do human beings and quarks, ideal geometrical shapes and possible worlds, ‘sickness’ and ‘health’, the number three and gravity all have in common that allows us to say that each of them is?” (xvii). In Being Unfolded, Thomas Gricoski attempts to get to the bottom of this perennially valid question by exploring the question of the meaning of being in one of Edith Stein’s later philosophical works, the phenomenological and Scholastic study, Finite and Eternal Being: An Attempt to Ascend to the Meaning of Being [Endliches und ewiges Sein: Versuch eines …

A Savage Order: How The World’S Deadliest Countries Can Forge A Path To Security, Thomas Manig

International Dialogue

Rachel Kleinfeld studies international conflicts and methods of reducing violence. Previously she published Advancing the Rule of Law Abroad: Next Generation Reform (2012). She is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She has advised government officials on problems of international security. Kleinfeld’s new book, A Savage Order: How the World’s Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security, is characterized by social scientific methodology rather than abstract theorizing. This book disposes of simplistic generalizations, like the belief that violence is inevitable in certain ethnic groups or localities, or the contrary belief that we can end violence …

Das Emanzipatorische Potenzial Der Performance Art (The Emancipatory Potential Of Peformance Art), Gwyneth Cliver

International Dialogue

Sophia Firgaus Das Emanzipatorische Potenzial der Performance Art ist sowohl eine hilfreiche Einführung in die Performance Art, die im universitären Unterricht didaktisch gut anwendbar wäre, als auch ein überzeugendes wissenschaftliches Argument für die transformative Macht der Performanceästhetik. Firgau definiert die Gattung Performance Art, unterscheidet sie von dem Theater sowie dem öffentlichen Ritual und erklärt ihr Verwandlungspotenzial für Individuen, das Gemeinwesen und die Gesellschaft. Firgau zeigt, wie Performance Art transformierend wirkt, indem sie gebräuchliche formale Begrenzungen überschreitet—zum Beispiel, die, die die Künstlerin vom Publikum oder Kunst vom Alltag trennen—und wie sie daher eine Schwellenerfahrung schafft, die emanzipatorisch wirkt, indem sie den …