Bundel opstellen over de belangrijkste stromingen in en auteurs over politieke filosofie, waarin thema's als het zoeken naar waarheid en rechtvaardigheid centraal staan.

This second volume arising from the Frontiers in American Philosophy Conference held at Texas A&M University is "festive, celebrating the diversity of thought and influences in American philosophy," say its editors. In these thirty-six essays, there is no attempt to define an American ethos; in fact, the editors conclude that, even pragmatism, identified by Tocqueville as America's defining attribute, should not be described as a national philosophy. It is, as Gerard Deledalle notes in his essay, "the new universal philosophy, because (...) it is the philosophy of experience and democracy that is any nation's `manifest destiny.'" These articles, by thoughtful scholars from North America and several European nations, look forward through the developments presently shaping philosophical inquiry in the United States and backward to the origins and plurality of the American intellectual heritage. Not a parochial or narrow perspective, the focus on American philosophy sharpens the dialogue that clarifies and explicates American thought in the context of a world community. (shrink)

Religion and science are altogether too different to be rationally incompatible . If—as is done here—one defends such a thesis, one seems to sever the link between religion and truth. This link seems to many to be really essential: is not the highest requirement of a person, especially a religious person, „to live in the truth” ? And is it not necessary for rational beings to try and give a rational justification for one's religious beliefs? But perhaps „the truth” which (...) is of such importance to the religious person is not a theoretical truth; perhaps „to live in the truth” is not a matter of trying not to be fooled or of being prepared to change one's views according to new and better information. Furthermore, the desire for independent justification seems either incompatible with religious belief or rather pointless. The link between religion and truth can only be seriously discussed if one understands the relationship between religious beliefs and attitudes like truthfulness, trust, obedience to authority, etcetera. One objection to our position could be that it leads to a kind of „schizophrenic” split or disconnection between religion and the scientific outlook. To this objection we reply that since the arrival of science and technology human life is full of similar kinds of disconnection between non-scientific beliefs and attitudes, and scientific beliefs and technical approaches. To want to conserve science and technology and at the same time to want to restore the „Cosy Universe”-situation, is pure wishful thinking. (shrink)

Since the first selection of George Santayana's letters was published in 1955, shortly after his death, many more letters have been located. The Works of George Santayana, Volume V, brings together a total of more than 3,000 letters. The volume is divided chronologically into eight books of roughly comparable length. Book Two covers Santayana's first decade as a "freelance philosopher," following his resignation from Harvard University and move to Europe. Of particular interest is Santayana's continuing correspondence with the American philosopher (...) Charles Augustus Strong and with his sister Susana Sturgis de Sastre. Also included is correspondence with such notable figures as Bertrand Russell, Robert Seymour Bridges, Horace Kallen, and Logan Pearsall Smith. The correspondence covers Santayana's resignation from Harvard, his time in England during World War I, and comments on his philosophical work during this period. (shrink)

This is an analysis of the relation of green to nineteenth century thought. the author believes that green stands for three ideas. first, he is the major nineteenth century critic of utilitarianism. second, he is the main critic of laissez-faire individualism. third, he is the major critic of empiricism. green believed that experience is identical with thought; the real world is the intelligible world. the human mind, in knowing, establishes relations with the eternal mind. the author concludes that green is (...) both a platonist and an augustinian, eliminating particulars, or feelings, from philosophical importance. (staff). (shrink)

Luther ist nur eine Stimme unter den spätmittelalterlichen Reformbewegungen. Die historische Forschung stellt die Lutherische Reformation inzwischen in den breiten Strom christlicher Reformbewegungen seit dem 13. Jahrhundert. Vor diesem Hintergrund muss auch das aufklärerische Bild von Luther als einem Protagonisten der Neuzeit revidiert werden. Die Vielfalt spätmittelalterlicher Reformbewegungen bis hin zum Trienter Konzil bildet zusammen mit dem Renaissancehumanismus ein reiches Reservoir an geistigen Aufbrüchen, von denen zahlreiche Beziehungen zur Moderne ausgehen. Mit diesem komplexen Geflecht zwischen christlichen Reformation(en) und Moderne beschäftigen (...) sich die ausgewählten Studien in diesem Band sowohl aus theologischer als auch philosophischer Perspektive. The contemporary historical research situates Luther’s Reformation in a much larger context of Christian reform movements that emerge in the late medieval and early modern period. Against this background the enlightened view of Luther as protagonist of the modern era is in need of revision. The variety of reform movements together with the Renaissance humanism compose a rich reservoir of spiritual reforms that will all influence the further development of the modern era. In this volume, this complex of the variety of Christian reforms relative to modernity is elaborated through exemplary studies from a philosophical-theological perspective. (shrink)

Two sorts of values are to be distinguished: economic values which are related to the subjective needs and desires of sensitive beings, and non-economic or spiritual values which are related to persons living in a common culture. The present 'crisis of values' has to do with a confusion between these two different kinds of values. Spiritual values and norms should also be distinguished from ideals and related principles. Ideals and principles are abstractions originating in the attempt to organize human life (...) in a strictly rational way, independently of the insertion of human beings in a common culture. Spiritual values are characterized by a certain sort of transcendence vis à vis the desires and opinions of persons. They are neither subjective, nor strictly objective; neither universal, non purely particular. Values are necessarily incarnated in concrete objects, persons, structures etc. Therefore, even transcendental values are necessarily expressed in concrete forms or symbols. As a consequence, all values are vulnerable and in principle susceptible to change and loss. The norms related to spiritual values should not be considered as fossilized forms or remnants of values. They rather refer to boundaries and distinctions without the honouring of which values cannot exist. Therefore, these norms are no obstacle to freedom, but its possibility-condition. (shrink)

This paper is a reply to my critics on three points: -My book is not an apologetics for Catholic tradition in general or traditional moral views in bio-ethics, but a plea for a philosophical-hermeneutical reappropriation of metaphors and insights from that tradition; -My book is not a defence of the traditional natural law approach, but an attempt atan hermeneutical and internal critical elucidation of ethical sensibility; -I disagree with a pragmatic attitude leading to 'monster assimilation' and with pleas for a (...) 'transcendance opératoire' of existing human nature and its cultural-symbolic 'mindedness'. (shrink)

This essay is primarily an analysis of Heidegger's Was Heisst Denken? I aim to provide a thematic unity for this enigmatic text, thereby rendering Heidegger's thoughts on thinking more available to those investigating the nature of human rationality and thinking. The procedure is to gather together some of the sundry themes and puzzling features resolved by unpacking this sentence: 'Most thought-provoking in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.' The chief results of this study include the establishment (...) of a global logic to the text, the identification of 'beingthoughtful' as the proper phenomenon to be studied, and receptivity as the distinguishing mark of the thoughtful. (shrink)

I explore the connection between expertise and rationality. I first make explicit the philosophically dominant view on this connection, i.e., the ‘expert-consultation’ view. This view captures the rather obvious idea that a rational way of proceeding on a matter of importance when one lacks knowledge is to consult experts. Next, I enumerate the difficulties which beset this view, locating them to some extent in the current philosophical literature on expertise and rationality. I then propose that different lessons should be drawn (...) for rationality from the fact of expertise. One is that some empirical and phenomenological studies of the nature of expertise can be fruitfully applied by analogy to theories of the rational agent. (shrink)

I explore a distinction that is philosophically significant but rarely a cynosure. The distinction is betvveen fallacies and logical errors, and I approach it by advancing overlooked albeit deleterious logical errors that are not fallacies but that fall squarely within the purview of Critical Thinking if not also Informal Logic. One key claim to emerge is that these logical errors -- just as basic and thought-impeding as the fallacies -- demand that we take a hard look at what is and (...) what should be guiding our activity in teaching such courses. Another is that although philosophers appeal to the notion of logical error in their explications of fallacies, the former notion is anything but clear and indeed usually explained in terms of the latter. Yet another is that the distinction illustrates why the oft encountered “false premise or bad inference” account of how thinking can go bad is oversimplified. (shrink)

The essay challenges the de facto dichotomy between the discipline of logic and the activity of social criticism, i.e., it provides an illustrated reminder to philosophers that the gulf between these two areas of philosophy is not quite as wide as our curriculum andspecialization designations tend to suggest. Social criticism plays some necessary roles in certain branches of logic, and the second-order accounting of the contents of these branches leads back to social criticism. These points suggest an adjusted conception of (...) logic that would, among other things, render phrases such as “applying logic to social criticism” as misleading since certain branches of logic would not even coherently exist apart from social criticism. The lead illustrations are the identification of basic, pervasive, and thought-impeding logical errors that have been missed by numerous logic texts, and the assessment of contemporary academic logic as properly a quest for communal sanity that lies caught between communal insanity and communal mendacity. (shrink)

Bijdragen aan een congres waarin de integriteit van juridische professionals bediscussieerd wordt.

Books and articles are written with titles like The Last Professors and The End of the University. Of course these headings should not be taken literally. What they indicate are deep changes in the nature of the university and in the understanding of what is a professor. They also demonstrate a profound malaise, especially - but not only-among academics in the Humanities. In this brief paper an attempt is made to understand what is happening. Universities have been changing from institutions (...) dedicated to specific "ends in themselves" into organizations geared towards the production of specific forms of outcome or product. Professors have become professionals in the service of such organizations. It is argued that these changes produce effects which pervert the internal aims of university teaching and research. They originate in a wider cultural, quasi-religious belief in mastery and control. (shrink)

According to Spinoza, the implications of the new scientific worldview of his time are diametrically opposed to the fundamental philosophical-theological tenets of traditional thought and religion. Yet, paradoxically, this does not bring him to the rejection of the notion of God, of notions of good and bad, or even of ordinary religion. On the contrary, his philosophy as a whole can be seen as a radical reconsideration of religion in the light of the modern situation, and not at all as (...) an exit from it. In line with the new science, Spinoza develops a new metaphysics centered on the notion Deus sive Natura, a new rational ethics, and a new philosophical religion. The new philosophical religion, being at the same time the culmination of the ethical life, is based upon the non-anthropomorphic, but still somehow transcendent, notion of God, the one substance with infinite attributes, radically different from the modes, both finite and infinite. In the final part of this article, an attempt is made to acquire some form of inside perspective on what Spinoza may mean by true religion as consisting in amor Dei intellectualis. Anticipating Hume, Spinoza considers ordinary religion as a natural phenomenon, which he studies in detail in his Tractatus Theologico-politicus. Unlike later Enlightenment thinkers, he distinguishes between superstition and purified religion, and accepts that the latter can bring a specific kind of salvation for the common people. (shrink)

Published in 1935, George Santayana's The Last Puritan was the American philosopher's only novel. It became an instant best-seller, immediately linked in its painful voyage of self discovery to The Education of Henry Adams. It is essentially a novel of ideas, expressed in the birth, life, and early death of Oliver Alden.The Last Puritan is volume four in a new critical edition of The Works of George Santayana that restores Santayana's original text and provides important new scholarly information. Books in (...) this series - the first complete publication of Santayana's works - include an editorial apparatus with notes to the text, textual commentary, discussions of adopted readings, lists of variants and emendations, and line-end hyphenations. Irving Singer's new introduction to this edition takes up Santayana's philosophical and artistic concerns, including issues of homosexuality raised by the depiction of the novel's two protagonists, Oliver and Mario, and of the relationship between Oliver and the rogue character Jim Darnley. In his thoughtful analysis Singer finds the term "homosexual novel" too reductionist and imprecise for what Santayana is trying to achieve. Singer brings to light the author's skillful and inventive methods for perceiving and interpreting reality, including ideal forms of friendship, and his success in exploring the pervasive moral problems that people face throughout their existence. (shrink)