Research Articles Anthony O'Hear, Social Philosophy and Policy, FirstView Article.

In this volume a group of distinguished aestheticians consider the distinctive ways painting, sculpture, music, poetry and the cinema approach their subject matter and add to our aesthetic understanding. In addition these are discussions of artistic value and artistic truth, of the value of performance and of the problem of fakes, all of which contribute to a volume which will be of interest both to aestheticians and philosophers more generally.

Even today, apologists for modernist and post-modernist architecture frequently appeal to what, following Sir Karl Popper, I will call historicist arguments. Such arguments have a particular poignancy when they are used to justify the replacement of some familiar part of an ancient city with some intentionally untraditional structure; as, for example, when a familiar nineteenth century block of offices in a prime city site is swept away to make room for something supposedly more fitting to the ‘new millennium’, a ‘twentieth (...) century contribution to monumental architecture’, a building ‘of substantial importance to the present age’. Similarly, those architects or consumers of architecture who fail to conform to whatever stylistic demands the age is held to demand are marginalized in many supposedly serious discussions of architecture, and made to feel out of place and out of time. (shrink)

In one sense all philosophies attempt to analyse a small number of questions central to human life: the self, knowledge, the nature of the cosmos and reality, God or the divine. But while topics may be common, approaches have differed historically, and according to the traditions and times in which particular thinkers have worked. The Royal Institute of Philosophy's London Lecture series for 2012–13 brought together contributions from scholars expert in different traditions in order to explore continuities and discontinuities in (...) world philosophy. In this volume there are papers on Indian thought, including Buddhist and Jain contributions, on Daoism, on modern Japanese approaches, on Jewish and Islamic thought, on stoicism, and on African philosophy, as well as on modern analytical philosophy, the so-called 'Continental' tradition and on the thought of Nietzsche. (shrink)

Based on the London Lecture Series of the Royal Institute of Philosophy for 2006–7, this collection brings together essays from leading figures in a rapidly developing field of philosophy. Contributors include: Alvin Goldman, Timothy Williamson, Duncan Pritchard, Miranda Fricker, Scott Sturgeon, Jose Zalabardo, and Quassin Casay.

Popper suggests human thought and ideas exist in a world of their own, transcending our thought processes and the material world. Theories, and other human ideological creations such as values, institutions and works of art, develop independently of those who work on them, and have a causal effect on them. What Popper suggests in support of his Platonism does not show that our theories are autonomous in any non trivial way. Also the picture of an abstract world of ideas causally (...) affecting our thought processes is fraught with difficulty. (shrink)

Surprising as it might have seemed not so long ago, in recent times religion has once again become a focus of lively debate. The exchanges between those for and against religion have, however, often thrown up heat, rather than light. As an attempted corrective, The Royal Institute of Philosophy asked a number of distinguished philosophers who are interested in religion to contribute to its annual lecture series for 2008–9. This volume contains essays based on the lectures. The topics covered include (...) natural theology, for and against, miracles, the debates about Darwinism, spirituality, sacrifice and the sacred, the Incarnation and religion and pluralism. Vigorously argued as they are, these essays will undoubtedly take the debates forward in a constructive way. (shrink)

It has been claimed that following the decline of Marxism and Freudianism, Darwinism has become the dominant intellectual paradigm of our day. In the mass media there are many bitter disputes between today's new Darwinians and their opponents, often over religion. But the 'neo-Darwinian paradigm' is not as simple or as seamless as either its advocates or its opponents would sometimes have us believe. Biology is in a state of development which defies the standard stereotypes. The papers in this volume, (...) written by some of the leading philosophers in the field, bring out many of the fascinating and complex issues which arise in current attempts to account for life and its development. (shrink)

This volume is based on The Royal Institute of Philosophy's London Lecture series for 2017–18. It consists of fourteen original papers in which leading philosophers consider key concepts in the area, including those of passion and emotion, and their intentionality, as well as love, guilt, forgiveness, desire and regret. The relationships between the passions and religious belief and to aesthetics are also analysed, alongside the ethical and psychoanalytical implications of our emotions. Connexions between the passions and our reading of fiction (...) and our response to developments in technology are considered, as is the work of Descartes, Spinoza, Nietzsche, William James and R. G. Collingwood. This book will be an essential compendium to contemporary work in the area. (shrink)

During the recent Iraq war there was a great deal of discussion of the desirability of bringing democracy to Iraq, and indeed to other countries which were suffering under ruthless and oppressive dictatorships. There was also the thought that if Iraq had a flourishing democratic system, its benefits would become evident within the Middle East, and other peoples in the area would be encouraged to press for more democracy in their own countries. And critics who expressed doubts about any of (...) this were accused of treating the people of the Middle East in a patronising way, implying that they were not able to do what we in the West have managed for some time. (shrink)

In this volume a group of distinguished aestheticians consider the distinctive ways painting, sculpture, music, poetry and the cinema approach their subject matter and add to our aesthetic understanding. In addition these are discussions of artistic value and artistic truth, of the value of performance and of the problem of fakes, all of which contribute to a volume which will be of interest both to aestheticians and philosophers more generally.

This volume celebrates the centenary of the birth of Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley and Iris Murdoch. These four remarkable women were philosophical colleagues in Oxford in the 1940s, and their careers intertwined and overlapped henceforth. The papers in this book are all by prominent philosophers who spoke at the Royal Institute of Philosophy's annual lecture series from 2018-9. Together they cover the philosophical careers of Anscombe, Foot, Midgley and Murdoch, focusing on their thinking on morality, human nature and (...) action and the place of humanity in the animal and natural world, all areas to which they made notable and distinctive contributions. Connexions are drawn to the thought of Wittgenstein, Aquinas and Aristotle. This book demonstrates the way these four philosophers individually and collectively changed the direction of philosophy in the English speaking world in the mid-twentieth-century and how they continue to influence it one hundred years after their birth. (shrink)

This paper considers Mary Midgley's views on evolution, especially as developed in her book Evolution as a Religion. In this she continues the critical campaign she waged against Dawkins’ notion of the selfish gene, but broadens her attack out to encompass many other thinkers, who are predicting dramatic and revolutionary futures for humanity, based supposedly on what evolutionary science tells us. Midgley argues that no such conclusions are scientifically warranted – hence evolution as a religion. Her own attempts to absolve (...) Darwin himself from this sort of scientism, and to remove from him any taint of social Darwinism are criticised, particularly by reference to The Descent of Man. Something is then said about Midgley's own alternative view of nature and humanity, a more holistic view, which itself has religious overtones. (shrink)

Environmental questions are among the most pressing and hotly debated of our time. The issues are, in an immediate sense, political and scientific, but one's stance on them also reflects basic philosophical and ethical commitments. For its annual lecture series of 2010–11, The Royal Institute of Philosophy invited a number of distinguished philosophers and environmentalists from a wide range of backgrounds to reflect on their concerns, and this book is based on their lectures.

Philosophy and Sport brings together the lectures given in the Royal Institute of Philosophy's annual lecture series for 2012–13. In the Olympic year, it seemed fitting to consider some of the many philosophical and ethical questions raised by sport, and to bring together contributors from both philosophical and sporting worlds. This ground-breaking volume considers many different areas connected to sport and its practice. These include the watching of sport, drugs in sport, the Olympic spirit, sport and risk, sport as a (...) moral practice, rivalry and glory in sport and the importance of sport in human life more generally. (shrink)

This volume is based on the lectures given in The Royal Institute of Philosophy's annual lecture series in London for 2015-2016. The papers collected here relate to action in contemporary philosophy. Issues discussed relate to freedom and responsibility, the relation between action and causation, and the connection between considerations of virtue and ethical concepts as applied to the notion of action.

As we stand on the brink of the third millennium, a large part of the human race may feel justified in a certain complacency. We are very much in thrall to the idea that history is moving forward in a desirable - or progressive - direction. In much of the world - and certainly in its most prosperous parts - we are all basically liberal, fundamentally pacific and reasonably affluent.

Surprising as it might have seemed not so long ago, in recent times religion has once again become a focus of lively debate. The exchanges between those for and against religion have, however, often thrown up heat, rather than light. As an attempted corrective, The Royal Institute of Philosophy asked a number of distinguished philosophers who are interested in religion to contribute to its annual lecture series for 2008–9. This volume contains essays based on the lectures. The topics covered include (...) natural theology, for and against, miracles, the debates about Darwinism, spirituality, sacrifice and the sacred, the Incarnation and religion and pluralism. Vigorously argued as they are, these essays will undoubtedly take the debates forward in a constructive way. (shrink)

Environmental questions are among the most pressing and hotly debated of our time. The issues are, in an immediate sense, political and scientific, but one's stance on them also reflects basic philosophical and ethical commitments. For its annual lecture series of 2010–11, The Royal Institute of Philosophy invited a number of distinguished philosophers and environmentalists from a wide range of backgrounds to reflect on their concerns, and this book is based on their lectures.

Ruskin said ‘Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Nor one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last.’.

This volume is based on the lectures given in The Royal Institute of Philosophy's annual lecture series in London for 2005–6. In it leading figures in the philosophy of science focus on key topics in the subject: realism, natural kinds, scientific progress, the confirmation of theories and the notion of simplicity in theory evaluation, the use of models in science and the relation of physics and metaphysics. There are also discussions of action at a distance, of the relation of science (...) to technology and of lessons from the history of science to the evaluation of university research today. Taken all in all the volume provides a snapshot of some of the liveliest debates in the philosophy of science today, and also to the ways in which issues in the philosophy of science are relevant to philosophy in the wider sense. (shrink)

Anthony O'Hear; VI*—Guilt and Shame as Moral Concepts, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 77, Issue 1, 1 June 1977, Pages 73–86, https://doi.org/10.

What is the mind? How does it relate to the body and the world? What is consciousness? What is experience? How free are we? Do we have special insights into ourselves? These perennial questions are at the forefront of the philosophical concerns today. Much of the most exciting and innovative work in philosophy at the present time is being done in the philosophy of mind. The best of this work is represented in this collection, based on the Royal Institute of (...) Philosophy's annual lecture series for 1996/7. It brings together leading figures in the area from Britain and the US, who lay out their thoughts on key issues in an accessible way. The book will be of great interest both to those working in the field and to those keen to discover just where philosophy and the philosophy of mind is moving at the end of the twentieth century. (shrink)

During the recent Iraq war there was a great deal of discussion of the desirability of bringing democracy to Iraq, and indeed to other countries which were suffering under ruthless and oppressive dictatorships. There was also the thought that if Iraq had a flourishing democratic system, its benefits would become evident within the Middle East, and other peoples in the area would be encouraged to press for more democracy in their own countries. And critics who expressed doubts about any of (...) this were accused of treating the people of the Middle East in a patronising way, implying that they were not able to do what we in the West have managed for some time. (shrink)

Based on the London Lecture Series of the Royal Institute of Philosophy for 2006–7, this collection brings together essays from leading figures in a rapidly developing field of philosophy. Contributors include: Alvin Goldman, Timothy Williamson, Duncan Pritchard, Miranda Fricker, Scott Sturgeon, Jose Zalabardo, and Quassin Casay.