Slavoj Žižek is one of the most interesting and important philosophers working today, known chiefly for his theoretical explorations of popular culture and contemporary politics. This book focuses on the generally neglected and often overshadowed philosophical core of Žižek’s work—an essential component in any true appreciation of this unique thinker’s accomplishment. His central concern, Žižek has proclaimed, is to use psychoanalysis to redeploy the insights of late-modern German philosophy, in particular, the thought of Kant, Schelling, and Hegel. By taking this (...) avowal seriously, Adrian Johnston finally clarifies the philosophical project underlying Žižek’s efforts. His book charts the interlinked ontology and theory of subjectivity constructed by Žižek at the intersection of German idealism and Lacanian theory. Johnston also uses Žižek’s combination of philosophy and psychoanalysis to address two perennial philosophical problems: the relationship of mind and body, and the nature of human freedom. By bringing together the past two centuries of European philosophy, psychoanalytic metapsychology, and cutting-edge work in the natural sciences, Johnston develops a transcendental materialist theory of subjectivity—in short, an account of how more-than-material forms of subjectivity can emerge from a corporeal being. His work shows how an engagement with Žižek’s philosophy can produce compelling answers to today’s most vexing and urgent questions as inherited from the history of ideas. (shrink)

The growing body of research on interdisciplinarity has encouraged a more in depth analysis of the relations that hold among academic disciplines. In particular, the incursion of one scientific discipline into another discipline's traditional domain, also known as scientific imperialism, has been a matter of increasing debate. Following this trend, Scientific Imperialism aims to bring together philosophers of science and historians of science interested in the topic of scientific imperialism and, in particular, interested in the conceptual clarification, empirical identification, and (...) normative assessment of the idea of scientific imperialism. Thus, this innovative volume has two main goals. Indeed, the authors first seek to understand interdisciplinary relations emerging from the incursion of one scientific discipline into one or more other disciplines, such as in cases in which the conventions and procedures of one discipline or field are imposed on other fields; or more weakly when a scientific discipline seeks to explain phenomena that are traditionally considered proper of another discipline's domain. Secondly, the authors explore ways of distinguishing imperialistic from non-imperialistic interactions between disciplines and research fields. The first sustained study of scientific imperialism, this volume will appeal to postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in fields such as Science and Technology Studies, Sociology of Science & Technology, Philosophy of Science, and History of Science. (shrink)

This paper provides and justifies a broader definition of a ‘law-breaking event’ than that adopted by D. Lewis who identifies this concept with the notion of an event that falsifies the laws of nature in his sense of ‘falsification’. It is pointed out that the broader definition is the key to answering C. Ginet’s objection against local miracle compatibilism. It also allows a neutral reconstruction of one of the disagreements underlying the compatibilism debate about the ability to do otherwise, i.e., (...) the disagreement over nomological possibility of alternative action in a deterministic world. Under this reconstruction, neither the incompatibilist nor the compatibilist can take advantage of the concept of a law-breaking event to show that their opponent’s view is false. (shrink)

Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek together have emerged as two of Europe’s most significant living philosophers. In a shared spirit of resistance to global capitalism, both are committed to bringing philosophical reflection to bear upon present-day political circumstances. These thinkers are especially interested in asking what consequences the supposed twentieth-century demise of communism entails for leftist political theory in the early twenty-first century. _ Badiou, Žižek, and Political Transformations_ examines Badiouian and Žižekian depictions of change, particularly as deployed at the (...) intersection of philosophy and politics. The book details the origins of Badiou’s concept of the event and Žižek’s concept of the act as related theoretical visions of revolutionary happenings, delineating a number of difficulties arising from these similar concepts. Johnston finds that Badiou and Žižek tend to favor models of transformation that risk discouraging in advance precisely the efforts at changing the world of today that these uncompromising leftists so ardently desire. _Badiou, Žižek, and Political Transformations_ will surely join Johnston’s _Žižek’s Ontology _as an instant classic in its field. (shrink)

SummaryThe purpose of this article is to critically undermine two commonly held and closely related contentions regarding the British idealist tradition. The first is that the British idealist tradition went into rapid and terminal decline shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. The second is that J. A. Smith was largely responsible for it. These aims are achieved through a diachronic analysis of Smith's conception of human imperfection as well as an assessment of Smith's intellectual legacy. As this (...) article will show, contrary to the received view, Smith was a philosophical innovator who instigated an intellectual evolution within the British idealist. In particular, this article shows that Smith substituted aspects of his early Greenian philosophy with elements of Italian idealism. As a result, Smith was instrumental in moving British idealism away from its traditional underpinnings and towards more a Croce–Gentilian foundation. It is this neglected philosophical innovation which has given scholars the false impression of the tradition's collapse. By establishing Smith's intellectual innovation this article intends to show that Smith made a much more significant intellectual contribution to the philosophical tradition to which he belongs than has so far been recognised. (shrink)

ExcerptIntroduction In his polemic against revealed religion, Luciano Pellicani makes two fundamental claims that are historically and philosophically misguided. First, he asserts that the Puritans sought to establish a medieval collectivist theocracy, not a modern market democracy. Second, he maintains that the U.S. “culture war” between enlightened secular liberalism and reactionary religious conservatism ultimately rests on the perpetual battle between Athenian reason and the faith of Jerusalem. Accordingly, Pellicani argues that America's commitment to principles such as individual freedom, religious tolerance, (...) or the constitutionally enshrined separation of Church from State represented Enlightenment emancipation from the constricting…. (shrink)

Este artículo presenta una interpretación hermenéutica/psicológica del cuento de hadas Zarevich Iván, el pájaro de fuego y el lobo a partir de la psicología analítica de Carl Gustav Jung y la metodología de interpretación diseñada por Marie Von Franz.

In attempting to explain the properties and behavior of an evolved artefact with the breathtaking complexity of the human brain, dissociating conventional causes and effects is like pulling apart an autosarcophagic snake. To paint a representative picture, we need a palette of explanatory languages capable of portraying the multifarious interactions within a complex system at suitable levels of abstraction. In particular, in addition to conventional causal explanations, the philosophy of science offers a framework of so-called constitutive explanations. Here, we motivate, (...) describe, differentiate and discuss the use of causal and constitutive explanations in the field of computational psychiatry. (shrink)

Since the 1950s, the philosophy shared among many in the field of music education is that music education should "develop the aesthetic potential, with which every human being is endowed, to the highest possible level."1 This philosophy, presented by Charles Leonhard and Robert House in Foundations and Principles of Music Education, highlights theirs and others' philosophy of music education and the arts as a whole. Most notably, John Dewey's Art as Experience, Susan Langer's Philosophy in a New Key, and William (...) C. Hartshorn's "Integrity in Music Education" all played a key role in shaping the past and present theories of music education. Hartshorn, who seems to be the most deliberate in his... (shrink)

_p_-Hacking, the use of analytic techniques that may lead to distorted research results, is widely condemned on epistemic and practical grounds. The prevalent position on this questionable research practice is that _p-_hacking should be avoided because it raises the probability of obtaining false-positive results, which can have harmful practical consequences. I have three aims in this paper. First, I offer a precise definition of _p-_hacking, something sorely needed in discussions of the practice. Second, I use philosophical tools from decision theory (...) to articulate the prevalent position on _p-_hacking and demonstrate its flaws. While _p-_hacking can have epistemic and practical costs, a more nuanced approach to its consequences is necessary. Third, I argue that there are scenarios in which _p-_hacking can be warranted. The prevalent position neglects key factors in its overall evaluation of the consequences of _p-_hacking. Moreover, it disregards considerations that can lend support to decisions about analytic choices that amount to _p-_hacking. One important, but often neglected consideration is that, while _p-_hacking may lead to more false-positives, it also increases the chances of uncovering true-positives. I appeal to non-epistemic judgments to defend the view that there are situations in which _p-_hacking may be warranted. (shrink)

Der folgende Aufsatz zielt darauf ab, Heideggers späte Sprachphänomenologie als eine Situationsontologie anzuerkennen. Es wird gezeigt, dass dieser Ansatz durch ein bisher unbeachtetes Relevanzproblem motiviert ist, das über das traditionelle Rahmenproblem hinausgeht. Das Relevanzproblem wird eingeführt und als ein neuartiger Schlüssel zum Verständnis von Heideggers Konzept der Sprache als „Zeigen“ eines involvierenden Kontexts vorgestellt. Es wird dabei dargelegt, wie sowohl repräsentationale als auch pragmatisch-enaktivistische Modelle der Sprache zu diesem Problem führen. Schließlich wird Heideggers radikal situative Konzeption von Sprache und Dinglichkeit (...) als eine Variante des Realismus klassifiziert, die als "Involvierender Realismus" bezeichnet werden kann und anderen zeitgenössischen Formen des Realismus wie dem Enaktiven Realismus oder dem Neuen Realismus kritisch gegenübergestellt wird. (shrink)

Neither Prof. Ellis in his Appendix Vergiliana nor Prof. Vollmer in his edition of the same , though the latter gives a long list of MSS, makes any mention of a Luxemburg MS containing the Moretum. The MS is numbered 27 , is of the twelfth century, and was formerly in the library of a monastery at Orval . The Luxemburg collection is not as well known as it ought to be. A catalogue of the MSS was published in 1894 (...) by the then custodian N. van Werveke, but the small number of copies issued does not seem to have fallen into the hands of those most interested. I have to thank the present librarian, Dr. d'Huart, for his kindness to me on the occasion of my recent visit to the library. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to investigate the aporia of the epistemological status of Freudian metapsychology as represented by Ricoeur’s hermeneutics. This aporia centers on the concept of psychic nature as the ultimate target of metapsychological speculation. The question this article addresses is whether the psychic apparatus that emerges from metapsychological speculation responds to a conception of nature that belongs to a physical model or a phenomenological model. This question has an ambiguous answer in Ricoeur’s work. In order to (...) show the ambiguity, we begin by examining the transcendental reading Ricoeur makes of metapsychology. Then, we explain the aporia of Freudian naturalism, and following a suggestion by Ricoeur, we indicate a way out of it through the argumentative reconstruction of the relationship between artwork and psychic nature. (shrink)

In recent years organisational and management discourse has been akin to a battle-ground. Open challenges to the foundations of these fields and competing truth claims have arisen from the plurality of interpretation that is possible from the variety of new paradigms that has emerged. This proliferation of paradigms seems to undermine the possibility of a single unambiguous voice to guide management practice. The variety of competing voices that has produced this discordant chorus is described. The work of Thomas Barr Greenfield (...) offers a useful circuit breaker. What emerges is a discourse not anchored in rationality, as it has in the past, but anchored in values and a morally concerned scepticism. (shrink)

The article treats as significant the formal coincidence between Kant’s presentation of the science of metaphysics in the “Architectonic of Pure Reason” chapter of the first Critique and Alexander Baumgarten’s presentation of the same in the Metaphysica. From his comments on Baumgarten in the metaphysics lectures, the article shows that for Kant metaphysics in its traditional form lacked completeness and systematic order. Kant fits completeness into his architectonic plan of a scientific metaphysics by converting Baumgartian ontology into an “analytic of (...) the understanding”; Kant achieves the systematicity by modeling a rational “idea of the form of the whole” after Baumgarten’s tree-like ordering of the special sciences of metaphysics. Thus, Kant realizes the completeness and systematicity in a theoretical presentation of the science of metaphysics that he finds lacking in Baumgarten precisely by borrowing from the latter his scheme for metaphysics. (shrink)

The present paper is aimed at the teachers (to be) of human sciences (especially economics) and offers an in-depth commentary and interpretation of Hans- Georg Gadamer’s view of the concept of question and the activity of questioning. The goal of the paper is to circumscribe the conditions of interrogation thus offering the teachers (to be) a means of enhancing the didactic efficiency of the learning sequences based on questioning.