Jurisprudential scholar J M Balkin proposes that understanding law for the purpose of learning and being able to apply it requires a conscious and active engagement on the part of the individual attempting to understand law and, by corollary, a consideration of the individual’s subjective contribution to law. Ignorance of the individual and his or her contribution to what law is, Balkin argues, prevents legal understanding. In the exploration of why or how law comes to be regarded as coherent — (...) a process Balkin describes as ‘understanding legal understanding’ — Balkin posits that it is not sufficient merely to acknowledge the individual. Rather, the individual’s contribution to determinations of legal coherence must be considered in order to understand law. A similar focus on the role of the individual in understanding lies at the heart of David Ausubel’s epistemological theory of meaningful learning and its practical application in the concept mapping method developed by Joseph Novak. This paper links Balkin’s jurisprudential theory of legal understanding and Ausubel’s theory of meaningful learning and proposes the concept mapping method as a way to facilitate legal understanding. (shrink)

An application-focused, commercial-utility-driven approach to legal education can seriously undermine the law’s potential and produce students insensitive to the significance of questions they are called upon to ask in legal practice. A mature curriculum will not eschew a survey of the great debates of philosophy in the history of ideas nor insulate students from considering the influence of other subjects bearing an impact upon the law. The law’s necessarily inter-disciplinary nature requires its practitioners to possess at least an appreciation of (...) extra-legal learning from areas such as philosophy, logic, history and economics. (shrink)

Much has been written about China’s grand project of the twenty-first century, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road—or the Belt and Road Initiative. It is set to lift living standards through the provision of infrastructure and better connectivity where these are lacking. While economic re-sources are enumerated, and the maps of roads and corridors have been drafted, the cultural dimension is understudied. Beijing has not helped in this regard. Apart from vague slogans like ‘win–win (...) cooperation’, ‘mutual respect’ and ‘community of common destiny’, there has been no concerted effort to showcase China’s thought culture that is eminently suited to precisely this type of venture. If collaboration, even more than connectivity, is the necessary glue for bringing the regions of the Belt and Road together, then China needs to heed the advice of its own great philosophers. (shrink)

This paper puts the Czech New Wave film-maker Jirí Menzel into a philosophical discourse with the Czech phenomenologist Jan Patočka. Essentially the paper argues that an examination of Menzel’s films offers a criticism of Patočka’s understanding of the role of the dissident sacrifice. The two films explored are the 1966 film Closely Watched Trains, and the 1969 film Larks on a String. These two films make a succinct argument for problematizing the dissident’s sacrifice. Patočka argues that the dissident sacrifice is (...) an act which is meaningful in itself. Menzel makes his criticism by adding a deal of ambiguity to the actions of the dissident, and this ambiguity places a question mark over the meaning of the sacrificial act and its effect. (shrink)

This paper explores the strikingly similar use of psychoanalytic imagery in the films Psycho and The Lady in the Van. The paper argues that the latter film is a deconstruction of the former’s political aims. Where Psycho uses psychoanalytic imagery to warn of the danger that strong female autonomy poses to normal psychic development, The Lady in the Van uses the same tropes to expose the mendaciousness of such thinking. The paper concludes by demonstrating how Psycho represents a counter challenge (...) to the political pretensions of The Lady in the Van. Bennett’s film is on the face of it a critique of middle class attitudes to homelessness. However, this paper demonstrates that by offering a psychological explanation for Miss Shepherd’s alterity, The Lady in the Van mimics the psychiatrists detailed diagnosis of Norman Bates’s perversion at the end of Psycho. This is argued to be problematic because the repeated explanation of the alterity of the strong voice of the mother reduces the uniqueness of the character to a symptom rather than an expression of autonomy. Ultimately the paper makes a case for the cultural significance of these films for exploring the political use of psychoanalysis to promote different social ends. (shrink)

The paper compares and contrasts Jan Patočka and Vaclav Havel’s respective thoughts on dissent. Using Aristotle’s thoughts on the magnanimous man as a sounding board, the paper argues with Patočka that dissent is best undertaken as a gift to a community made with sound philosophical reflection. The paper also argues with Havel that dissent is also a task for every citizen who is caught in an oppressive political situation –that is dissent is not the sole responsibility of the reflective philosopher (...) but every citizen whose actions contribute to the sustenance of ideology. (shrink)

This book provides a timely analysis of the politics, philosophy, and history of Chinese power, focusing on social, strategic, and diplomatic trends that have shaped China for over three thousand years. Chinese elites have used the past to inform the present, but have also mobilized new ideas to address the country’s rapid transition to global power. China’s intellectual world can draw on a surprisingly pluralist legacy. When Chinese thinkers assess "power," they bring to bear their classical legacy, the military classics, (...) Chinese socialism, and Western political thought. There are also a number of intriguing formulations that give shape to the exercise of Chinese power. Among these are comprehensive national strength, stability preservation, soft power, asymmetric conflict, and counter-intervention strategies. This book looks at key periods in Chinese history when attitudes to power evolved and at their current expressions. These include China’s expanded use of think tanks to chart the future, efforts at creating an eco-civilization to balance growth, and an extended set of security and information capabilities. From observing the centrality of power in today’s international affairs, the book moves to the foundational concepts of Chinese governance: its belief in a strategic configuration of power - as understood in military contexts - as well as its growing diplomatic and maritime engagement abroad. This analysis culminates in new ideas of functional multipolarity. Power is also deployed internally: China’s use of nationalism as a major tool for state-building and cohesion, the ongoing role of socialism, and the People’s Liberation Army are all examined in this light. China’s current strategic culture has shaped President Xi Jinping’s search for a new model of power for China in the twenty-first century, an endeavour that will have serious implications for the future global order. This book provides an alternative perspective on China’s trajectory towards a revised international system. (shrink)

According to the late Radical Feminist thinker Andrea Dworkin, in her notorious book Intercourse, women’s second-class status is attributable to the socially constructed definition of our bodies as lacking in physical integrity during intercourse. As a strictly materialist analysis of intercourse, of intercourse as an institutional practice distinct from intercourse as an unmediated individual experience, Dworkin’s focus is on those discourses that have effectively constructed the political meaning of intercourse. Her analysis concerns the broader and complicated contextual relations of power (...) within which the act takes place. It is this socially constructed determination of intercourse as “a means or the means of physiologically making a woman inferior” that underwrites all violence against women, indeed what naturalizes it, according to Dworkin. In this essay, I shall explore Dworkin’s discussions concerning the role of Genesis 2:4b-4:1 and the sodomy laws in Leviticus in the institutionalization of intercourse. (shrink)

BOOK REVIEW Extract: Integrity, it seems, is a matter of remaining true to oneself, or rather, it is a matter of remaining true to what one reasonably judges to be the best of oneself. In Integrity and the Virtues of Reason, Greg Scherkoske seeks to overturn this piece of conventional wisdom. It is a fine book and I learned a lot from it. Scherkoske elaborates and defends the idea that integrity is an epistemic virtue; that it is not fundamentally a (...) matter of being true to oneself but of being a good and responsible epistemic agent. What is wrong with the conventional picture, Scherkoske thinks, is that it invites moral danger. The moral danger Scherkoske has in mind takes two forms. One is self-indulgence. When faced with demands from others, fidelity to one's own commitments just because they are one's own can easily lead to a promotion of one's own interests over the interests of others. The second danger is blind allegiance. "Even if a person's commitments cannot be construed as self-indulgent or egoistic, an individual's belief that something is a matter of integrity might be taken to foreclose the possibility of challenge and revision". (shrink)

This thesis argues that Václav Havel presents a cohesive political philosophy which he terms liberal agonism. In the thesis the author explores the main influences on Havel‘s political philosophy. He describe what Havel means by his famous maxim "live in truth," claiming that what Havel means is that to live in truth, one must continually engage in a process of self-agonism in order to be existentially honest with oneself. Further to this, he claims that in Havel‘s writings there is the (...) idea that in order for self-agonism to be fully utilised, the state must take an active interest in encouraging self-agonism through a liberal philosophy. This thesis spells out Havel‘s own unique political philosophy. The author argues that a liberal agonism is a political philosophy in which the state allows, celebrates and encourages a process of self-interrogation through which existential identities are expressed and acted upon. (shrink)

Overdiagnosis is an emerging problem in health policy and practice: we address its definition and ethical implications. We argue that the definition of overdiagnosis should be expressed at the level of populations. Consider a condition prevalent in a population, customarily labelled with diagnosis A. We propose that overdiagnosis is occurring in respect of that condition in that population when the condition is being identified and labelled with diagnosis A in that population ; this identification and labelling would be accepted as (...) correct in a relevant professional community; but the resulting label and/or intervention carries an unfavourable balance between benefits and harms. We identify challenges in determining and weighting relevant harms, then propose three central ethical considerations in overdiagnosis: the extent of harm done, whether harm is avoidable and whether the primary goal of the actor/s concerned is to benefit themselves or the patient, citizen or society. This distinguishes predatory, misdirected and tragic overdiagnosis; the degree of harm moderates the justifiability of each type. We end with four normative challenges: methods for adjudicating between professional standards and identifying relevant harms and benefits should be procedurally just; individuals, organisations and states are differently responsible for addressing overdiagnosis; overdiagnosis is a matter for distributive justice: the burdens of both overdiagnosis and its prevention could fall on the least-well-off; and communicating about overdiagnosis risks harming those unaware that they may have been overdiagnosed. These challenges will need to be addressed as the field develops. (shrink)

While some may argue that universities are in a state of crisis, others claim that we are living in a post-university era; a time after universities. If there was a battle for the survival of the institution it is over and done with. The buildings still stand. Students enrol and may attend lectures, though most do not. But virtually nothing real remains. What some mistakenly take to be a university is, in actuality, an “uncanny” spectral presence. The encompassing ethico-philosophical question (...) is this: what is it about spectral space and the feeling of absence with regard to the university that is important to understand? The Spectral University is characterized by the absence of what used to give the university its constitutive form and structure; of what is essential to the university as an important place of learning and growth. What is gone is the ability to pursue the academic virtues. (shrink)

In this chapter I use a film by the Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Le Fils, to explore the difference between Stoic and Anti-Stoic approaches to overcoming victimhood. The Stoic approach to overcoming victimhood emphasizes the inner-strength and resourcefulness of victims. It sets up an ideal of Stoic independence in which a person responds to becoming a victim by marshalling inner resources to overcome destructive and painful emotions. An Anti-Stoic approach to overcoming victimhood rejects such an appeal to independence (...) and acknowledges that victims do not generally possess the inner resources needed to eliminate destructive and painful emotions. According to Anti-Stoicism, overcoming victimhood is a risky affair; it requires both courage and luck. I use Le Fils to argue that the Anti-Stoic approach to overcoming victimhood is both more realistic and more valuable than the Stoic approach. (shrink)

The clash between the borderless Internet and the geographically structured legal landscape is almost universally adopted as the starting point for discussions of Internet jurisdiction issues. This clash is important, but to fully appreciate its implications we need to proceed far into the territory of jurisprudence. Here, I draw attention to how three presumptions that underpin all legal systems are stretched beyond their legitimate boundaries where domestic law is applied to the Internet in an extraterritorial manner. The consequences of this (...) are severe and must influence such application of the law. I propose that the goal we should aim at is what can be described as jurisdictional interoperability between the various domestic legal systems that regulate our conduct online. I also show that, in its reliance on ‘morality’, natural law theory provides Internet users guidance as to which legal rules, within their respective contextual legal systems, they need to abide by. (shrink)

In this essay, I argue that Luce Irigaray’s recent, seemingly esoteric readings of the Madonna, actually provide us with a constructive, perhaps even politically progressive, interpretive mode for engaging with the religious texts and figures of our tradition as women. As such, I argue that through her own specific interpretive practice Irigaray provides us with a new image of Mary, and this new Madonna figures the very interrelational interpretive practice that Irigaray believes essential when it comes to our engagements with (...) the texts of our tradition. Irigaray’s Madonna is an ethical listener, interpreter and exchanger of ‘sacred’ discourse and it is this aspect of Mary that warrants our allegiance. To imitate Mary is to practice reading, listening, and interpreting in the feminine, practices that can aid us in our ‘becoming spiritual’, which in Irigarayan terms is another way of saying ‘becoming woman’. (shrink)

Extract:According to Harold Bloom, contra Augustine, a serious mediation on the angel is not a pursuit valid only as an intellectual exercise and nothing more.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup is over and was in most senses a success. However, the reality is that from the perspective of fairness, the 2014 World Cup was off to a remarkably bad start. Like many major football events in the past, this World Cup was plagued by controversial refereeing. In this article, I will speculate about the role that technology may play in enhancing the great game of football. I will also draw some comparison between the rules of (...) this sport and the rules of law. This will be done mainly from a legal philosophical perspective. (shrink)

Examines the idea of the invention of the individual subjective self by Plotinus and its impact on the Christian tradition, asking about the self in its relationships - the self in love, in ignorance, in forgetfulness, in possession - and about the self and its own physical image.

This article provides an in-depth analysis of the relationship between gay men, community organisations and the medical profession between 1983 and 1985 in Australia, a period when the key features of that nation's HIV/AIDS public health policy were determined. It charts the continuing acceptance of a medical mode of understanding homosexual behaviour. The article uses a range of original sources to investigate the relationship and tensions between medical professionals and gay men. The conservative state of Queensland is used a case (...) study. The article argues that while some gay men were resistant to what they saw as continuing medical surveillance of their sexual behaviour, the Australian gay male community overwhelmingly were prepared to accept medical expertise and to play a central role in educating and informing homosexual men. It also shows the crucial role leaders of gay community organisations played by acting as intermediaries between medical professionals and the gay community, empowering homosexual men to make informed choices about prevention. (shrink)

Michel Serres was born in France in 1930, and is Professor in History of Science at the Sorbonne (Paris 1). He began his adult life by training for the navy, and a love for the sea and its metaphors is always evident in his work. Originally from the south of France, Michel Serres is keenly interested in rugby. His philosophical work began with the study of Leibniz, but following this he embarked on his own self-expression, which led him to the (...) five-volume Hermes series of books. Some of Leibniz' themes persist throughout his work, particularly those concerned with combination, communication and invention. His method is based on an encyclopaedic approach, and this holism is evident in his writing: all kinds of data are held to contribute to philosophy, and the philosopher must not cut himself off from any form of investigation. His most recent work bridges the gap between philosophy and literature, and it has a wide readership. (shrink)

This paper examines the development of religious liberty as a paradigm of human rights. It will be argued that the development of the concept "freedom of religion" is in fact fundamental to modern notions of human rights. Examining the emergence of religious tolerance and then liberty through the era of the religious wars and subsequently the Enlightenment, it will be further argued that religious tolerance evolved due to political expediency as opposed to rational discourse. Liberal philosophy then established the rhetoric (...) of religious liberty within popular consciousness, but itself lacked coherency. As such, modern notions of religious liberty, particularly as elucidated in International Law, lack a coherent philosophical foundation. (shrink)

Harmonious regionalism from the perspective of Chinese philosophy is best expressed as an anti-hegemonic discourse that privileges wu-wei (actionless action) and yin-yang correlativity. These are framed within a larger Confucian-Socialist hybrid narrative, such as “win-win” policies that are advanced in various white papers, be they on China’s “peaceful development”, foreign aid or national defence. Through the use of social constructivism in Western International Relations theory, it is possible to ask whether China is a constructivist state in search of a correlative (...) region. If so, this would render the meaning of “harmonious regionalism” as a process (dao, the way) based model rather than a highly institutionalized one. The Confucian concept of harmony in which diverse interests prevail in a dynamic balance accords with this notion of process. China’s participation in regional organizations on its periphery is examined through this conceptual lens. 摘要 从中国哲学角度出发，和谐地区主义最佳解读是：推崇无为和阴阳相互关系的反霸权理论。这个理论包含在一种更高层次的儒家-社会主义混合理论框架中。中国推出的“和平发展”、对外援助或者国防等白皮书中，都极力宣扬 “双赢”政策。这个政策就是混合理论的一个例子。运用西方国际关系理论的社会建构主义，我们可以提出这个问题：中国是不是一个寻求地区联系的建构主义国家？如果答案肯定的话，那么“和谐地区主义”就是一个以过程（ 道）为基础的模式，而不是一个高度制度化的模式。在儒家学说中，和谐指的是不同的利益能够维持动态平衡，并得以实现。这与“道”的含义是一致的。我们就从这个概念的角度，来审视中国参与周边地区组织的情况。. (shrink)

The central aim of this thesis is to deconstruct and reconstruct the dominant theoretical perceptions of diplomacy, by reworking radically existing theories of diplomacy. This thesis achieves reconceptualisation of diplomatic theory by critiquing the thoughts and ideas of theorists postulating on modern diplomacy. Consequently, this thesis is concerned (largely) with the theoretical terrain of diplomacy studies. The purpose of this intended deconstruction and reconstruction is to introduce and construct three lucid types of diplomatic theory. These three types or categories introduced (...) in this thesis are Traditional, Nascent and Innovative Diplomatic Theory. By categorising these three distinct types of theories, it is hoped that the diplomatic scholar will have a choice of lenses through which to interpret the complexities of the modern diplomatic environment. Ultimately, this thesis aims to strengthen Traditional Diplomatic Theory (TDT) and introduce/construct two alternate forms of diplomatic theory, Nascent Diplomatic Theory (NDT) and Innovative Diplomatic Theory (IDT). (shrink)

Highly recommended for beginners and adepts, students of Asian philosophies and marital arts, or those simply wishing to expand their horizon of understanding. Carolan, T. (2003) Return to Stillness: Twenty years with a Tai Chi Master, New York, Marlowe & Company. ISBN: 1569244871.

Extract: Having spent sixteen years teaching philosophy in Singapore, half a year in Hong Kong, and a few months near Shanghai, the three major financial centres in Cultural China, I have been unwittingly exposed to the brutality and intricacies of the business and financial world. I am particularly interested in the psychology of stock trading which could benefit greatly from Zen and Taoistic cultural resources.

Extract: Confucius (551-479 BC) ranks as China's most renowned educator and philosopher. His thought not only spans generations but also crosses diverse cultures in its worldwide appeal. Indeed, the very name Confucius is the Latinised version of Kong Fu Zi. A study of Confucius philosophical thought provides a significant civilisational resource in our understanding of the world and our efforts to change it. In the spirit of Confucius who studied the past to serve the present, this article examines the philosophy (...) of this ancient educator to enlighten our modern ways. (shrink)

The first edited volume in Sino-Hellenic Studies, this book compares early Chinese and Ancient Greek thought and culture. Shankman, S. & Durrant, S. W. (2002) Early China / Ancient Greece: Thinking through comparisons, Albany, State University of New York Press. ISBN: 0791453138.

Extract: Sri Lanka is one of the highest achieving developing countries in Asia on a number of indicators, but despite decades of economic growth and welfare politics, the country still faces socio-economic development problems - especially in the rural areas, and in gender and empowerment issues.

Extract: In summary then, the 'new cosmopolitanism' offers a basis to establish a more just global order, predominantly through its espousal of a commitment to humanity as a whole, facilitated by building consensus on values which demonstrate a commitment beyond the nation. It is not universalist, although it has the potential to become so, and it is not predicated on the existence of a global public opinion. Rather, it seeks frameworks for political and economic decision-making at the global and national (...) levels. In this context, NGOs have a key role to play in activating the 'new cosmopolitan' system given their cosmopolitan credentials. (shrink)

Over the past few years, blogging (“web logging”) has become a major social movement, and as such includes blogs by scientists about science. Blogs are highly idiosyncratic, personal and ephemeral means of public expression, and yet they contribute to the current practice and reputation of science as much as, if not more than, any popular scientific work or visual presentation. It is important, therefore, to understand this phenomenon.

Extract:Insights drawn from a comparison between International Relations theory and Chinese philosophy provide a timely vantage point for ‘Chinese Engagements’ at this historical juncture of China’s emergence as a twenty-first century global power. In this chapter, after a brief historical background, three major International Relations theoretical perspectives are examined: neorealism, neoliberal institutionalism, and social constructivism. In addition, hegemonic stability theory and global governance are selected as concepts relevant to the globalised political world. The theory of correlativity is discussed as an (...) introduction to Chinese philosophy and this is followed by Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism as the tripartite philosophical foundations of the Chinese tradition. Legalism and Mohism are two added perspectives that help elucidate the polarities of Chinese philosophy. Conclusions are drawn in terms of mutuality between the two, soft power and the correlative nature of the global governance phenomenon. (shrink)

This research offers a new perspective by reframing the positivist-interpretive debate as a distinction between the functional outcomes of research: explanation and understanding. Based on an older and well-established literature in philosophy, this distinction can reinvigorate important differences in research outcomes that have been lost. Understanding or “subjective meaning” is connected to the intentionality, thoughts, and motivations of the human subjects under study. From this perspective, understanding is the type of knowledge gained from determining the meanings, categories, and symbols humans (...) attach to actions, knowledge, and systems. In contrast, explanation is achieved by subsuming individual instantiations of the phenomenon under broad general laws, or identifying causal mechanisms that support antecedent-consequent pairs. Researchers can proactively use the understanding-explanation distinction as a heuristic to create new lines of research questions based on what has not been explained or understood rather than on which ontology or methodology has not been used. (shrink)

Information protocols (IP's) were developed to describe players who learn their social situation by their experiences. Although IP's look similar to colored multi-graphs (MG's), the two objects are constructed in fundamentally different ways. IP's are constructed using the global concept of history, whereas graphs are constructed using the local concept of edges. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for each theory to be captured by the other. We find that the necessary and sufficient condition for IP theory to be captured (...) by MG theory, which we call SE, excludes relevant game situations. Hence, we conclude that IP theory remains a vital tool and cannot be replaced by MG theory. (shrink)

Purpose - The paper seeks to examine the influence of the Austrian School of Economics and its views of innovations and entrepreneurship on one of their champions, Joseph Schumpeter. Schumpeter's insights on innovation and entrepreneurship issues are discussed and compared to previous literature.Design/methodology/approach - The paper is conceptual in nature, highlighting that the key process in economic change is the introduction of innovations; the central innovator is that of the entrepreneur.Findings - Insights gained from Schumpeter include the following: in the (...) context of increasing global competition, the importance of innovations by entrepreneurs is becoming more important. The challenge though is for firms to find and make use of these individual for their survival. Another link is the distrust of the government and the ability of the free market to function, though imperfectly, without interference. Originality/value - The paper suggests that innovation and entrepreneurship are the essence of the capitalist society. Entrepreneurs contribute to society as a whole by introducing new products/services that often are contradictory to institutional norms. (shrink)

Causal reasoning is central to scientific practice and to everyday life, yet has received scant attention in Information Systems epistemology. This essay identifies six types of causal analysis that can be used in IS research: regularity, counterfactual, probabilistic, manipulation, substantival (mental), and enabling condition analysis. A framework is developed for application of the different types of analysis in terms of two dimensions; planned versus emergent systems and prescriptive versus descriptive modes of research. It is shown how the different types of (...) analysis can be used in each cell of the framework. The identification of the substantival and enabling condition types of analysis for Information Systems research is novel. Further work is indicated, particularly with respect to probabilistically necessary and sufficient conditions, qualitative evaluation of causal chains, and the plausibility of claims for causality with some statistical methods in common use. (shrink)

Emmanuel Levinas was born in Lithuania in 1905, though he received a French university education, at Strasbourg. From here, as a student, he travelled to Freiburg where he heard both Husserl and Heidegger lecture. Through his Jewish background he knew Yiddish, and therefore enough German to comprehend the lectures of the two Freiburg philosophers: it was through this social coincidence that a conduit was created from Germany to Paris. As a philosopher in Paris, Levinas introduced and developed phenomenological themes, and (...) became an immensely important influence, widely respected amongst younger philosophers. His institutional career was based on his position as Professor of Philosophy at the Sorbonne (Paris IV); now in his eighties, he has exercised a growing influence in his retirement. His work has evolved considerably in recent years. He suffered under the Nazis, and his work has always had a strong Jewish aspect: especially lately he has become a conscious philosopher of Judaism. (shrink)

Luce Irigaray is a French national, born in Belgium in 1930. Her initial training was undertaken at Louvain, and her earlier work was on Paul Valéry. She then moved into psychology, linguistics and psychoanalysis. The book Speculum formed the substance of her Doctorate of Letters thesis, at the University of Paris VIII. She is a now Director of Research in Philosophy at the National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris. Her network goes far beyond the academic, and her influence in the (...) field of ideas is very widespread, in academic circles, among feminists, and among the thinking public in general. She is a frequent visitor to Italy, and contributes regularly to the newspaper of the Italian Communist Party. Luce Irigaray's recent work takes her to the forefront of psycho-linguistic enquiry, particularly in the area of gender in language. (shrink)

Chapter Contents: From myth to logos 11; the meaning of logos/reason 12; logos as new-style myth 13; logos as autonomous, separate from individual exponents 18; Flats's attempts to define logos 20; the Sophists' caricature 21; Aristotle on logos as the human capacity, and logos as in nature 25; the stoic seminal logos 30; the Sceptics and their analysis of the invenrion of their predecessors; the failure of logos 33.

[Extract] The ideas outlined thus far establish the setting in which the via negutiva of late Greek thought was able to flourish. Logos begins as a type of rational account, a canon of material about the world which exists, myth-like, independently of the individual thinker and philosopher. It was a touchstone, an instrument of checking and measuring the validity of the sense-data and notions generated in the human mind. It denoted the language of science, as against the language of common-sense, (...) in much the same way as we might distinguish between the scientist's account of things, and that given in popular lore. Logos exercised a strong fascination over the Greek, in this early period of blooming confidence in the power of rational investigation, and within a short time it came to be seen as having an existence in itself. The Greek tendency is to objectify, to give reality to concepts, thereby creating the material of ontology and metaphysics. The word logos, once isolated as a concept, could not fail to fall prey to this reifying tendency, with the result that even as early as Aristotle, there are signs of logos becoming an originating principle, an arche like that sought by the Presocratic seekers after a single essential substance. The tendency issues most clearly in the creation of a new verb in late Greek, to "enreason" (logoo). This linguistic fact is a most important datum in the history of ideas, since it shows that a new aspect of the word logos was endeavouring to assert itself. Logos becomes a Force, or principle of rationality at work in reality. It becomes an existent. (shrink)

Chapter Contents: Socrates on the pharmacy of language 94; Parmenides and Heraclitus on names and reality 95; Plato's reaction in the Tirnaeus and the Cratylus 96; Aristotle and language as a convention 98; on names and reality 100; Stoic, Epicurean and Sceptical views on the relation between names and nature 101; Philo on the identity of names and beings 103; names and reality in the Gnostic Gospel of Truth 107.

Chapter Contents: Where does it come from? 125; how to interpret the Parmenides 127; Speusippus on the ineffable One 132; the negative in Plato 135; the negative in Aristotle 137; abstraction 141; the idea of reality which accompanies the method of abstraction 144; the Sceptics on the value of aphaireiir 150; Philo and the Gnostics on negative language 154.

[Extract]: This book is the result of some years' interest in negative theology and owes much to the stimulus of my friend and colleague, David Dockrill. It has taken a broader perspective than originally planned, and seeks to situate the development of negative theology within the context of the whole Greek concept of thought. The first volume deals with the classical period, with its enormous confidence in logos, the focal point of rationality, and with the gradual undermining of this faith. (...) The sources studied include the major philosophical, but also deal more widely with literature and religion. Gnosticism, Christianity and the works of Philo are treated towards the end of each chapter, because each of these strands is crucial on the formation of Patristic and Medieval philosophy. (shrink)

"French Philosophers in Conversation" eavesdrops on contemporary themes in French intellectual life. Well-known figures Jacques Derrida, Luce Irigaray, Emmanuel Levinas and Michel Serras are joined by those only now beginning to make an impact on the English-speaking world: Michele Le Doueff and Monique Schneider. Raoul Mortley draws out the ideas, personalities and society of these interesting and important figures. Representing many strands in the Parisian philosophical scene, feminism, phenomenology, literature, semiotics, psychoanalysis and communication are but a few of the subjects (...) covered in the book. (shrink)

[Chapter Contents]: The deity and time, 172; speech and time, 173; hope and Eunomius' backward-looking piety, 176; negation, 177; names and beings, 180; analogy, 183; does language pre-exist man? 184; language and reality, 187; privation and abstraction, 188; Gregory and the via negativa, 191.

Jacques Derrida was born in Algeria in 1930. His early work, Plato's Pharmacy, published in three sections in the journal Tel Quel, was to establish a style and a set of concerns. More orthodox philosophical papers, such as Differance, establish the intellectual grounds for the course which he now pursues. His links with French institutional life have been as innovative as his thought: he was a founder of the International College of Philosophy in Paris, and is presently attached to the (...) Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Boulevard Raspail, Paris. He is a critic of institutions, yet demands the standards and continuity which flow from them. Derrida looks towards German philosophy more than any other, and clues to his programme may be found in Heidegger, Hegel and Husserl. The major concern of his work is meaning and its relation to text: semiotics is particularly associated with his name, and this involves a theory of symbols, signs and meaning. His work has also been associated with the critique of the idea of the author. (shrink)

Chapter Contents: The early suspicions about discourse 110; silence in Greek tragedy 112; silence as pharmakon 112; the silence of the mysteries 113; Plato on the word 115; Aristotle on discourse and silence 117; Philo and the value of silence 11 8; the centrality of silence in the Gnostics 122; a development noted 124.

Monique Schneider was born in France in 1935, and works partly in philosophy and partly in psychoanalysis. Her work is beginning to be better known, though it is still not widely read in English-speaking countries. Her major works are not translated into English. What distinguishes her writing is a rigorous analytic method, juxtaposed with an interest in psychoanalysis in the Lacan mode. Her interest in Freud goes far beyond Freud to a general philosophy of psychological states, and to an ontology (...) of personality. Her analytic method brings her to an examination of metaphor and image which is at once carefully reasoned and imaginative. Her professional career is divided between psychoanalysis and philosophy. (shrink)

Abstract: In this paper it is proposed that the traditional view of diplomacy is an archaic vision of the ‘engine room of international relations.’ This rhetoric, it is argued, is parochial and does not match the realities of the modern, twenty-first century diplomatic environment where plural, peaceful and polylateral networks of diplomacy are thriving. In the modern diplomatic environment, the activity of diplomacy should be viewed as the business of multi-actor peace, not only as the handmaiden of the occasionally belligerent (...) state. New, radical and innovative views on diplomacy are flooding the diplomacy studies field. This paper will summarise these views into three distinct Schools of diplomatic thought - Traditional, Nascent and Innovative - which allude to this positive growth in scholarship. This paper will argue - centrally - that an enhanced understanding of diplomacy is the best chance society has to replace the norm of conflict with that of stability and peace achieved through diplomatic functions. (shrink)

When the world's most populous nation, commanding ample resources and a booming economy, begins to strengthen militarily, it cannot help but draw attention to itself. China has indeed done so through naval expansion in recent years and the upgrading of all aspects of its forces. While it has reassured the world of its peaceful intentions, speculation as to its motives is understandable. Intentions may, of course, be inferred from capability; but most strategic analysts recognise that capability alone is not enough. (...) Rather than focusing on capability, this paper subscribes to the view that intentions are better understood if examined within the context of culture and philosophy. Moreover, as the central concern over China's changing military profile is one of the implications of expanding national power, Chinese perceptions of power need to be addressed. The findings can be thoughtprovoking: If it is a truism that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, how does this rest with the traditional Chinese conception of power as virtue? Will the world, under the influence of stronger Chinese leadership conditions in the 21st Century, be assimilated into an alternative power system - a 'power politics' of virtue? This question issues from the discussion in Part One (previous paper) of the Daoist perspective of international relations. It concludes with the weight of cultural-philosophical evidence in favour of responsible statecraft on the part of the world's biggest and potentially most influential nation. (shrink)

Since the end of the Cold War, the scope and study of diplomacy has expanded. In the modern diplomatic environment, novel terms such as pipeline diplomacy, coercive diplomacy, diplomacy by sanction and citizen diplomacy are common, alongside the more traditional view of diplomacy as state-to-state activity, monopolized by professional, official diplomats. With such a broad range of views, the scholar can become confused as to what actually constitutes modern diplomacy? In this article, it is argued that the disparity of views (...) in the diplomacy studies field must be classified and consolidated before the enhanced role of diplomacy in the twenty-first century can be better understood. In this article, three different classifications or schools of diplomatic thought are introduced and constructed: the Traditional School, the Nascent School, and the Innovative School. (shrink)