History of Philosophy Commons^™

Meaning In History? The Young Hegelian's Battle For Historical Meaning And The Resurgence Of Nihilism, Angelo J. Letizia

History Theses & Dissertations

After the Reign of Terror, the German thinker J.H. Jacobi saw only two options for Europe: faith in God or nihilism, the belief in nothing. His ultimatum between faith and nihilism for the modern era called into question for some thinkers the entire revolutionary project and its ideals of reason and self government. Two answers to Jacobi's ultimatum were put forth by the German philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel who rejected both faith and nihilism, and instead crafted a vision of progress, and Arthur Schopenhauer who opted for nihilism. Jacobi's ultimatum, and Hegel and Schopenhauer's answers to it, opened up …

On The Status Of Women In Philosophy Or Great Men, Little Black Dresses, & The Virtues Of Keeping One’S Feet On The Ground, Babette Babich

Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Democracy In Plato's Republic: How Bad Is It Supposed To Be?, Mason Marshall

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Scholars have typically thought that in the Republic democracy is supposed to be worse than timarchy and oligarchy. But lately, certain commentators have denied that it is. Is it, then? I argue that pursuing this question leads us to a dead end, because it is not clear how bad democracy is supposed to be in the Republic. Perhaps a debate on this topic would help us answer other questions, whatever they might be; but otherwise it would be fruitless. To make my case, I marshal the strongest available evidence that democracy is supposedly better than timarchy and oligarchy. Next I …

Aristotle On [Part Of] The Difference Between Belief And Imagination, Ian Mccready Flora

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In book 3, chapter 3 of his On the Soul, Aristotle gives several arguments meant to demonstrate the type non-identity of belief and imagination. Each of these arguments rewards study, but this discussion will focus on one in particular, perhaps the most puzzling. The argument concerns the relation between truth and control. Belief is connected with truth and falsehood in a way that imagination is not, and that in turn means that we can control what we imagine in a way that we cannot control what we believe. Here is Aristotle’s argument in full:

(1) It’s clear as well …

Memorials 2009, James A. Borland

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Reports Relating To The Sixtieth Annual Meeting Of The Society, James A. Borland

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Aristotle's Generic Being, Edward C. Halper

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Being is not a genus in the strict sense because there is no categorial nature that is common to all beings. This paper argues that Aristotle nevertheless treats being as a genus, that this treatment is what he means in Metaphysics Gamma by the science that studies being qua being, and that what is common to all beings is not some particular nature, but their each having a nature. This nature is its ousia, and in Gamma, these ousiai are the primary beings to which other beings are related, though later in the Metaphysics, in a different stage …

Politik Und Die Analytisch-Kontinentale Streit Der Fakultaeten In Die Philosophie, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

Bekanntnermaßen machen die unterschiedlichen Antworten, die auf die Frage ‚Was ist Philosophie?’ gegeben werden können, die Differenz und damit die Trennung zwischen analytischen und kontinentalen Denkstilen aus. Wenn man bedenkt, was hier auf dem Spiele steht, so geht es dabei nicht um einen terminologischen Streit um Begriffe, sondern um die Definition einer Disziplin als solcher und dies schließt nicht nur das Problem ein, wie Philosophie betrieben – und bewertet – wird, sondern wer überhaupt in die Lage kommt, sie auszuüben (und zu evaluieren), gerade wo solches Tun – und solche Evaluation – sich als eine bedeutsame Voraussetzung für Einladungen erweist. …

Aristotle On Friendship And Self-Knowledge: The Friend Beyond The Mirror, Mavis Biss

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Read through the lens of modern concerns regarding shard moral perception and difference between the self and other, Aristotle’s theory of primary friendship raises challenging questions regarding the role of relationships in moral self-evaluation. Aristotle’s emphasis on sameness of character in his description of the virtuous friend as “another self” figures centrally in all of his arguments for the necessity of friendship to self-knowledge. Although the attribution of the Magna Moralia to Aristotle is disputed, the comparison of the friend to a mirror in this work has encouraged many commentators to view the friend as a mirror that provides the …

Intertextuality In Early Chinese Masters-Texts: Shared Narratives In Shi Zi, Paul Fischer

Philosophy & Religion Faculty Publications

(Introduction) Prior to Chinese unification in 221 bc and the beginning of imperial history, there was a “golden age” of philosophical debate among various scholars about the best way to live life, construct a social contract, and act in harmony with heaven and earth. The most influential of these scholars, collectively called the “various masters,” or zhu zi 諸子, attracted disciples who recorded the teachings of their “masters” and passed these teachings on. These texts, collectively called “masters- texts” (zi shu 子書), became the bedrock of Chinese intellectual history.

Kierkegaard's Case For The Irrelevance Of Philosophy, Antony Aumann

Faculty Works

This paper provides an account of Kierkegaard’s central criticism of the Danish Hegelians. Contrary to recent scholarship, it is argued that this criticism has a substantive theoretical basis and is not merely personal or ad hominem in nature. In particular, Kierkegaard is seen as criticizing the Hegelians for endorsing an unacceptable form of intellectual elitism, one that gives them pride of place in the realm of religion by dint of their philosophical knowledge. A problem arises, however, because this criticism threatens to apply to Kierkegaard himself. It is shown that Kierkegaard manages to escape this problem by virtue of the …

Sagp Newsletter 2008/9.2 Central, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Truth About Kant On Lies, James E. Mahon

Publications and Research

In this chapter I argue that there are three different senses of 'lie' in Kant's moral philosophy: the lie in the ethical sense (the broadest sense, which includes lies to oneself), the lie in the 'juristic' sense (the narrowest sense, which only includes lies that specifically harm particular others), and the lie in the sense of right (or justice), which is narrower than the ethical sense, but broader than the juristic sense, since it includes all lies told to others, including those who are bent on harming innocent others.

Peace Is Not Perpetual, Autonomous, Or Rational, Danielle Poe

Philosophy Faculty Publications

When I write about and teach Immanuel Kant, I am always impressed and seduced by the beauty and neatness of his work. After all, Kant makes morality a science; answers are clear and distinct, black and white. Individuals make ethical decisions by using reason according to universally accessible principles. People should do the right thing, not because it is easy, not because it makes them feel good, and not because they have been raised to do so. People should do the right thing because it is their duty, and they determine their duty by asking, "Can I universalize my action?" …

Sagp Newsletter 2008/9.1 East Philol, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of SAGP programs with the American Philological Association and with the American Philosophical Association 2008/2009 academic year.

Sagp/Ssips 2008 Program, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Sagp/Ssips 2008 Abstract Collection, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Place Of Theology In A World Come Of Age: A Comparative Analysis Of The Writings Of Dietrich Bonhoeffer And Paul Ramsey., Dave Buckner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the twentieth century dawned in the western world, there were voices both inside and out of the Christian Church that began to question religion's central place in man's daily life. Had humanity finally progressed to the point where religion was no longer necessary? Had we at long last developed the characteristics and perspectives that religion had attempted to engrain within us? Or were the rules and regulations of religion still needed to ensure the continued advancement of civilization? This is a study of two opposing voices in that debate: theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and ethicist Paul Ramsey. What follows is …

Inter-Generational Youth Ministry And The Solution To Volunteers, Steve R. Vandegriff

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Rousseau, The Anticosmopolitan?, Helena Rosenblatt

Publications and Research

Rousseau's repeated criticisms of the Enlightenment's ideal of cosmopolitanism has led to his thought being characterized as 'anticosmopolitan'. His work abounds in denunciations of the ideals of equality of treatment and universal rights supported by his contemporaries. Moreover, his liking of solitude, introspection and socialization in small circles and his preference for patriotism over equity among all men seem to set him up as the counterpoint of the universalism his contemporaries defended. However, a deeper insight into the work of the author of The Reveries of the Solitary Walker shows that, far from being incompatible with true cosmopolitanism, the moral …

Charlotte Perkins Gilman And Educational Philosophy: Social Progress And Contemporary Efficacy, Teresa Lynn Wise

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As one of the prominent and influential philosophers of her time, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was well known for her 1898 study, Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution. This study demonstrated the negative perceptions maintained toward women from within an androcentric culture. Gilman's treatise developed into a life long argument for the equal treatment and considered value of one-half of the human population: women. It is through the educational facet of her social philosophy illustrated in the novel, Her land, that Gilman demonstrates a culture composed of caring …

Belief And Persuasion In The Socratic Elenchus, Dylan Futter

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of Socrates’ philosophical method is how unsuccessful it is. One problem is that elenchus seems able only to destroy common belief without generating anything substantive in its place. Another is that it seems incapable of getting anyone to relinquish his unsupported beliefs. Plato is acutely aware of these problems. In the Meno, he undertakes to show that Socrates’ method of inquiry is capable of generating substantive results. In the Gorgias, he reveals why some people are not moved by reasoned argument. And in the Republic he proposes a complex model of moral belief-formation, …

The Responsibility Of Thinking In Dark Times: Hannah Arendt Versus Hans Jonas, Lawrence A. Vogel

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Aristotle's Abstract Ontology, Allan Bäck

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Aristotle has a metaphysics of individual substances, substrata persisting through time that are neither in nor said of a subject. That I do not dispute. However, when we move from the individual to the universal, from perception to knowledge, Aristotle has a metaphysics of relations. This I will try to sketch out here.

Aristotle appeals to abstraction at key places in his philosophy. Somehow abstraction gets us to the first principles and to the objects of the most fundamental sciences. Somehow universals are abstracted from singulars and have no transcendent existence.

Aristotle never states his theory of abstraction formally or …

Plato And Aristotle On The Instant Of Change - A Dilemma, John Bowin

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

There is an ancient puzzle about motion in Plato at Parmenides 155e-157b which has been the subject of scholarship by Richard Sorabji and more recently, Nico Strobach.1 The puzzle, as Plato gives it, can be roughly summarized as follows: At every time, a given object must either be in motion or at rest; there is no third possibility. Also, an object can never be simultaneously both in motion and at rest. The only way for an object to be both in motion and at rest is for it to be in motion and at rest at different times. But how …

Reports Relating To The Fifty-Ninth Annual Meeting Of The Society, James A. Borland

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Memorials 2008, James A. Borland

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Sagp Newsletter 2007/8.2 Pacific Central, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Appetites And Actions In Aristotle's Moral Psychology, Tom Olshewsky

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The so-called practical syllogism is best understood in dispositional terms. Animate movement originates with orexis (appetite), but appetite is the result of the coming together of dual dispositions, the orektikon and the orekton. For calculative appetite, multiple objectives can be imagined, and deliberation determines which objective is best for this person in this circumstance. Deliberation is an antecedent of the actualized appetite, not its consequence. This psychology makes clear that satisfaction of appetites is a two-stage process for calculative beings: first the determination of the appetite, then movement to fulfillment in its objective. In deliberation, the determination is which …

Persuasion And Force In Plato's Republic, Christopher Moore

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Despite the frequent pairing of and contrast between persuasion and force, Plato’s Republic undermines any coherent split between these two modes of handling others. This paper provides two major pieces of evidence to support this claim: (i) Book I dramatizes the weakness of the distinction; and (ii) the arguments that the best rulers will rule only under coercion (in Books I, V, VII, and IX) makes the distinction into an obvious conundrum. Further evidence omitted here is Plato’s tendency to subvert this same rhetorically popular binary elsewhere, especially Statesman, Sophist and Laws. Given that Plato doesn’t explicitly question the persuasion-force …