THE TRANSITION FROM SCHOOL TO COLLEGE College life is the supreme privilege of youth. Rich men's sons from private schools may take it carelessly, ...

Surface presentism is the combination of a general relativistic physics with a presentist metaphysics. In this paper, we provide an argument against this combination based on black holes. The problem focuses on the notion of an event horizon. We argue that the present locations of event horizons are ontologically dependent on future black hole regions, and that this dependence is incompatible with presentism. We consider five responses to the problem available to the surface presentist, and argue that none succeed. Surface (...) presentism thus faces the prospect of refutation based on evidence that confirms the existence of black holes. (shrink)

According to a number of approaches in theoretical physics, spacetime does not exist fundamentally. Rather, spacetime exists by depending on another, more fundamental, non-spatiotemporal structure. A prevalent opinion in the literature is that this dependence should not be analyzed in terms of composition. We should not say, that is, that spacetime depends on an ontology of non-spatiotemporal entities in virtue of having them as parts. But is that really right? On the contrary, we argue that a mereological approach to dependent (...) spacetime is not only viable, but promises to enhance our understanding of the physical situation. (shrink)

We develop a new version of the causal theory of spacetime. Whereas traditional versions of the theory seek to identify spatiotemporal relations with causal relations, the version we develop takes causal relations to be the grounds for spatiotemporal relations. Causation is thus distinct from, and more basic than, spacetime. We argue that this non-identity theory, suitably developed, avoids the challenges facing the traditional identity theory.

A number of philosophers have argued in favour of extended simples on the grounds that they are needed by fundamental physics. The arguments typically appeal to theories of quantum gravity. To date, the argument in favour of extended simples has ignored the fact that the very existence of spacetime is put under pressure by quantum gravity. We thus consider the case for extended simples in the context of different views on the existence of spacetime. We show that the case for (...) extended simples based on physics is far more complex than has been previously thought. We present and then map this complexity, in order to present a much more textured picture of the argument for extended simples. (shrink)

It is plausible that the models of scientific theories correspond to possibilities. But how do we know which models of which scientific theories so correspond? This paper provides a novel proposal for guiding belief about possibilities via scientific theories. The proposal draws on the notion of an effective theory: a theory that applies very well to a particular, restricted domain. We argue that it is the models of effective theories that we should believe correspond, at least in part, to possibilities. (...) It is thus effective theories that should guide modal reasoning in science. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Elephants Teach: Creative Writing Since 1880Robert GrudinThe Elephants Teach: Creative Writing Since 1880, by D. G. Myers; 224 pp. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996, $30.40 paper.D. G. Myers opens his history of creating writing instruction in America with an anecdote: When Vladimir Nabokov was proposed for a chair in literature at Harvard, Roman Jakobson objected. “What’s next?” he said. “Shall we appoint [End Page 529] (...) elephants to teach zoology?” This question not only provides Myers’s book with its title but also suggests a major issue of literary pedagogy: is the teaching of literature the province of philologists and theorists who interpret books, or is it the province of authors who write them? Jakobson the philologist implies that writers, who just produce the stuff, lack knowledge of interpretive method and thus have little business in the classroom. Others—writers and teachers alike—have thought differently and have over the past century fostered the growth of creative writing at American colleges and high schools.The Elephants Teach is a comprehensive and coherent effort to deal with a ponderous mass of history and discourse: the development of writing curricula since 1880 and the ongoing professional dialogue about the proper relationship between writing and teaching. The first four of his seven chapters deal with roots and preliminaries: the rise of literature instruction as philology after the Civil War, the inception of English composition at Harvard (championed by Adams Sherman Hill, Barrett Wendell, Dean Le Baron Briggs, and Charles Townsend Copeland), and the professional, cultural, and financial forces drawing writers to campuses in the early twentieth century. These chapters establish three major forces leading to the rise of the creative writing curriculum: the consensus that writing experience is of value to the individual and society, the reiterated conviction that literary instruction should consider the perspective of the writer, and the broad recognition by “serious” writers, who had little or no access to the mass market, that they could agreeably support themselves in the classroom. These forces would lead to what Myers correctly sees as a massive compromise: a complex of writing programs simultaneously satisfying students’ needs and allowing thousands of writers to pursue, if only by fits and starts, their professional calling.Myers then serves up the main course: a three-chapter narrative, stretching from the 1920s down to the present, of the history of creative writing as a so-named and self-conscious institution in American education. The opening of this section is not only informative but characteristic of the overall lucidity of Myers’s style: “Creative writing was first taught under its own name in the 1920s. It began in junior high school where it was originally conducted as an experiment to replace traditional English—grammar, spelling, penmanship, even literature classes—with something more appealing to young people. As such it was part of a broader movement to reform American education in the first half of the twentieth century. The cry was that subjects should not be taught, students should; the reform movement called itself progressive education. Creative writing was invented to transport progressive methods and materials into a junior-high-school English classroom. The man who invented it was a progressive educator—once well known, now largely forgotten—named Hughes Mearns” (p. 101). William Hughes Mearns (1875–1965) was himself a disciple of John Dewey, whose ideas formed the basis for progressive education in general. Adapting the Deweyan concept of learning as a spur to personal [End Page 530] development, Mearns saw writing “as the efficient cause of an education in which the final cause was personal growth” (pp. 104–11).After Mearns, Myers considers a somewhat more familiar chapter in history: the appearance of creative writing as a self-contained discipline on the college campus. Credit for the original initiative goes to Norman Foerster (1887–1972), who in 1930 took over the newly-founded School of Letters at the University of Iowa. A follower of Irving Babbitt and the “new humanism,” Foerster set out (in his own words) “to give all types of literary students a rigorous and appropriate discipline” (p. 126). Foerster’s “discipline” was a varied curriculum including... (shrink)

Certains commentateurs de Bergson ont estimé que sa pensée était d'emblée spiritualiste et teintée de religiosité. On peut comprendre ainsi le beau texte de Louis Lavelle, "La pensée religieuse d'Henri Bergson", ou l'interprétation que Péguy fait de cette philosophie rationaliste du temps. Cette compréhension de Bergson peut d'ailleurs s'appuyer sur un texte du philosophe lui-même, à savoir Principes de métaphysique et de psychologie où Bergson explique que sa pensée vise à constituer une "science relative de l'absolu". Le présent volume tente (...) d'examiner dans quelle mesure il est possible de soutenir, l'instar d'Henri Gouhier, que l'oeuvre d'observation intérieure de Bergson a posé les bases du spiritualisme moderne. (shrink)

Le symbolisme naît à partir du langage quand l'homme prend conscience qu'il est un être irrémédiablement clivé entre nature et culture, conscient et inconscient, masculinité et féminité, idéal du moi et moi idéal ; une sorte d'animal dénaturé à la recherche d'une unité perdue, que lui prête, provisoirement et superficiellement, le symbolique, ce lieu où il tente de "recoller les morceaux", c'est-à-dire retrouver le monde du prénatal, de l'amniotique qui était le Un et pas encore le Deux. Le symbolisme serait-il (...) la marche vers un Principe unificateur, comme le pense l'Eglise catholique, ou la prise de conscience et l'acceptation d'une vacuité lucide comme le suggère la psychanalyse...? (shrink)

La notion de génie revêt une importance cruciale dans la pensée de Denis Diderot. En promouvant l'idée nouvelle d'homme de génie, le philosophe encyclopédiste contribua à transformer l'histoire culturelle de l'Europe. Dans son oeuvre, le génie se montre toujours en mouvement : il oscille entre la chaleur de l'enthousiasme et la froideur de l'esprit observateur ; il reflète les lois de la nature tout en les dépassant ; il perturbe toute certitude morale et apparaît, enfin, comme un moteur aussi ambivalent (...) qu'efficace du progrès. Les études rassemblées dans ce volume retracent l'hétérogénéité protéiforme du génie diderotien en mettant en valeur ses enjeux philosophiques, esthétiques, politiques et sociaux."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Bergson est le plus grand philosophe français du XXe siècle. Sa philosophie de la durée et de la mobilité est en perpétuel dialogue avec les sciences de la nature (physique et biologie) et les sciences humaines (psychologie et sociologie). Cet ouvrage : reconstitue l'organisation progressive de l'œuvre à partir de l'intuition de la durée ; expose le riche contenu de la philosophie bergsonienne : l'esprit, la vie, l'élan créateur, l'héroïsme moral ; confronte la pensée de Bergson à ses contradicteurs, et (...) montre quel avenir elle offre aujourd'hui à la métaphysique pour penser l'âme et Dieu. (shrink)

"Textes... prononces dans le cadre d'un colloque organise conjointement par le Departement de philosophie de l'Universite de Tours et par l'Association des Amis du Musee Descartes... octobre 1989"--Avant-propos.

Le probleme du temps traverse l'histoire de la philosophie. Il apparait d'abord comme ce qui s'oppose a l'etre, puis il en vient a se substituer a l'etre meme. A travers une lecture des philosophes qui ont pense le temps, et surtout Platon, saint Augustin, Kant, Hegel et Bergson, Jean-Louis Vieillard-Baron poursuit, depuis des annees, une reflexion qui vise a mettre en place tous les problemes poses par le temps : le present et l'actualite, l'instant et la ponctualite, le flux (...) et la continuite, la repetition et la creation, la question de l'eternite. Les huit etudes presentees portent sur la conscience du temps et son rapport a la philosophie de l'esprit, sur le concept d'instant et la discontinuite du temps, sur le temps historique et sur la presence de l'eternite. (shrink)

In order to identify the role that temporality plays for Ricœur’s view on the spiritual life, I will start my analysis from his interpretation of the Augustinian Confessions (book XI, ch. XXX). In his reading, Ricoeur makes use of the notion of extension to which he accords multiples meanings (spatial, categorical and existential) and he also points out the conceptual couple of distensio / extensio. I will bring forth Ricoeur’s misinterpretation that consists in strongly relating the discovery of this conceptual (...) couple to the distinction between the three inner dimensions of time. I will end with a discussion of Heidegger’s analysis of the Confessions and his tentative to temporalize Dasein starting from the future. (shrink)

Mon impulsion fut brisee, comme une vague qui s'ecrase contre une digue. Je fus submerge par le plus complet desespoir.... Tels sont les termes dans lesquels Russell relate en 1916 l'effet qu'eurent sur lui les critiques adressees en mai 1913 par son jeune eleve, Ludwig Wittgenstein, au manuscrit qu'il etait en train de rediger sur la theorie de la connaissance, et qui le conduisirent a en suspendre la redaction et a n'en publier que quelques chapitres sous forme d'articles. Maillon (...) essentiel a la comprehension de la premiere philosophie russellienne, ce manuscrit contient d'une part une analyse systematique et approfondie des notions cardinales de son approche des relations cognitives - au premier chef de celles d'accointance et de jugement -, et d'autre part une tentative de clarification des rapports entre la theorie de la connaissance, la psychologie et l'analyse logique, qui est fondamentale pour preciser l'architectonique du savoir mise en place par cette facon analytico-logique de philosopher dont Russell s'est, apres Frege, fait l'ardent avocat. A ce titre, il constitue a la fois un element de premiere importance dans l'accomplissement par la tradition philosophique du tournant analytique, et une oeuvre de reference pour la recherche contemporaine sur les fondements des sciences de la cognition. (shrink)

Le Dasavatthuppakarana: Edited and translated by Jacqueline Ver Eecke. Publications de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, Paris, 1976. Distributed by Adrien-Maisonneuve, 11 rue Saint Sulpice, F-75006 Paris. xvi + 155 pp. Fcs. 65.00.