The theory of opposition has always been viewed as the founding principle of structuralism within contemporary linguistics and semiotics. As an analytical technique, it has remained a staple within these disciplines, where it continues to be used as a means for identifying meaningful cues in the physical form ofsigns. However, as a theory of conceptual structure it was largely abandoned under the weight of post-structuralism starting in the 1960s — the exception tothis counter trend being the work of the Tartu (...) School of semiotics. This essay revisits opposition theory not only as a viable theory for understanding conceptual structure, but also as a powerful technique for establishing the interconnectedness of language, culture, and cognition. (shrink)

The sense of interconnectedness is perhaps one of the most celebrated features of African thought. It has been theorized under different philosophical idioms among African philosophers. It has appeared variously as African metaphysics, ontology, socialism and even religion—all in a bid to underline the basic idea that aspects of reality are inextricably interconnected and mutually impact one another in a seemingly universal web of interaction. While each of the idioms used to express this idea has some merits, the article (...) privileges the epistemic idiom. To support this move, I make two mutually reinforcing arguments. First, it is appropriate to describe the sense of interconnectedness in epistemic terms because it is primarily a mode of knowing/perceiving the world. Second, and more importantly, the epistemic idiom is useful for the formulation of emancipatory demands and formation of epistemic alliances against the subjugation of African and non-Western knowledges by mechanisms of coloniality. (shrink)

Philosophy adds humanness to nursing and facilitates holistic care. Philosophies like Ubuntu which purports that a person is only a person through other people and emphasises community cohesion and caring for each other can add humanness to nursing. Because Ubuntu validates subjective experience and its meaning in the lifeworld, it exemplifies the basis of holistic and individualised caring in nursing. Although nurses can make their own philosophy through critical reflexivity, the convergent point is the goal of meaningful caring (...) that is, sustaining health and the well‐being of patients and significant others. Philosophy transcends job description, it encompasses visceral experience, personal beliefs and goals, resulting in purpose and deeper meaning to the nursing profession of caring as emulated by Florence Nightingale. While contemporary philosophy has been met with criticism as being detached from human concern, narrowly focussed and technical, it evokes critical thinking and promotes sociality in nursing practice. The Covid‐19 pandemic vividly brought philosophy to the fore as nurses sacrificially and vulnerably rose to the challenge of caring not only for the sick, but also for families who through infection control measures were deprived of sociality. This paper argues that philosophy adds humanness and substance to nursing in the context of COVID‐19. (shrink)

Schleiermacher is a philosopher and theologist, widely known in Protestant society, whose philosophy, after the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, has only just begun to be rediscovered in Russia nowadays. One of the central works of Schleiermacher is the lecture on dialectics, which he read at the University of Berlin. In these lectures on dialectics Schleiermacher presents his system of philosophy. He tries to unite the world of action and the world of science, revealing their common (...) root, and give us his own view on the solution of the problem of post-Kantian philosophy. Action and cognition, writes Schleiermacher, are not two different worlds irreducible to each other in which a person is ought to live, but they are only two different views on reality, and since they can be described in the same concepts, dominance of one or another side depends from which of the concepts common to both “worlds” exceed. Moreover, in these lectures one can see how Schleiermacher understands the connection between theology and philosophy. Theology, the validity of the ground of which are confirmed by the obviosity of a religious feeling - the revelation of the Absolute - and philosophy, which gradually goes back to the Absolute, describing it as a higher concept, which has no opposition, therefore, which the mind cannot determine, has its common foundation in the Absolute or God, who is given to us in feeling, and implied to every act of being and thinking. So, Schleiermacher's “Dialectics” can rightfully be considered not only an exposition of his philosophical system, but also a key to understanding the interconnectedness of philosophy and theology and their connection through the concept of God. (shrink)

This collection offers new perspectives on the interdisciplinary scope of the historic avant-garde and highlights the interconnectedness of its artists from a variety of national and disciplinary perspectives.

The aim of this chapter is to show how Francophone PS, or what is called French (historical) epistemology, embodies this interconnectedness. Moreover, a novel approach to what constitutes French epistemology will be developed here, going beyond a purely historical survey or a reevaluation of a range of concepts found in this tradition.7 The aim is instead to highlight two methodological principles at work in French epistemology that are often in tension with one another, but are not recognized as such (...) in the literature. (shrink)

The idea of aporia, according to the author, leads to the transformation of Derrida’s philosophy on the basis of a new kind of universalism. This new universalism is based on the principles of relation and difference; it involves the concept of“radically Other” (in particular, in the modes of particularity and singularity) into the field of the Universal. As an essential factor of binarism’s deconstruction, an aporia leads to undermine a paradigm of choice. Derrida substitutes this paradigm with an attitude (...) to “impossible” interdependence of concepts, which, according to traditional approach, are treated as incompatible. -/- The author proves that universalistic potential of Derrida’s thought reveals itself in application of transcendental approach to the problem of universal. Nevertheless, in case of Derrida it is quasi-transcendentalism that unites in itself moments of critics and radicalization of Kantian and Husserlian types of transcendental approach. -/- The paper proves that the idea of aporia has fundamental significance for constituting quasi-transcendental universalism. Interconnectedness (up to identity) of concepts of aporia and experience is evinced, as well as fundamental link between the concept of aporia and basic quasi-transcendental structure of “conditions of possibility/conditions of impossibility”. Within the problem of aporia, as is shown, inherently transcendental overlap between theoretical and practical dimensions is taken place. As is detected, in the discourse of aporia there appears a rethinking of Universal/Particular (Singular) relation: traditional contraposition is transformed into oscillation and overlapping (this rethinking is proper for the transcendental approach). -/- The results of the study, set forth in the article, allow historico-philosophical conclusion about presence, significance and peculiarity of the motive of universality in Derrida’s quasi-transcendentalism. Often remaining implicit, this motive, however, appears to be the driving force for deconstructive thinking. (shrink)

The rise of global terrorism presents a critical challenge to peace and stability worldwide, fueled by divisive ideologies that promote hatred and violence. There is a growing need for alternative frameworks that promote understanding, tolerance, and reconciliation. This paper explores the doctrine of Sufi philosophy as a powerful antidote to global terrorism, examining its principles and practices in fostering peace and countering extremist ideologies. A comprehensive review of literature on Sufi philosophy, Islamic mysticism, and counter-terrorism strategies was conducted (...) to elucidate the principles and practices of Sufism in promoting peace and countering extremist narratives. The findings reveal that Sufi philosophy embodies principles of love, compassion, and spiritual enlightenment, potent antidotes to the rhetoric of hatred and violence propagated by extremist groups. Sufi teachings emphasize the interconnectedness of humanity, fostering a culture of tolerance, understanding, and mutual respect. In conclusion, the doctrine of Sufi philosophy offers a transformative framework for countering global terrorism by addressing its root causes of ignorance, fear, and alienation. Through its emphasis on love, compassion, and spiritual enlightenment, Sufism provides a compelling alternative to extremist ideologies, inspiring individuals and communities worldwide to embrace a path of peace, unity, and understanding. (shrink)

Probably the most challenging issue in science and advanced technology is the ever increasing complexity. The term complexity refers to the experience that the complex whole is more than the sum of the parts. Emergence of new properties is observed at all levels, from relatively simple physical systems up to high-end evolution in biology or state-of-the-art microprocessors in technology. In this study an effort is made to arrive at an understanding of the underlying ontological basis in terms of the classical (...) philosophy of Aristotle and Aquinas. In addition, the value of philosophy is emphasized as a means to develop the capacity for intuition. Only with this capacity it is possible to acquire an understanding of the great variety of concepts needed in the multidisciplinary approach to complex systems. (shrink)

Background Intersectionality is a concept that originated in Black feminist movements in the US-American context of the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the work of feminist scholar and lawyer Kimberlé W. Crenshaw. Intersectional approaches aim to highlight the interconnectedness of gender and sexuality with other social categories, such as race, class, age, and ability to look at how individuals are discriminated against and privileged in institutions and societal power structures. Intersectionality is a “traveling concept”, which also made its way (...) into bioethical research. Methods We conducted a systematic review to answer the question of where and how the concept of intersectionality is applied in bioethical research. The PubMed and Web of Science databases were systematically searched and 192 articles addressing bioethical topics and intersectionality were finally included. Results The qualitative analysis resulted in a category system with five main categories: (1) application purpose and function, (2) social dimensions, (3) levels, (4) health-care disciplines and academic fields, and (5) challenges, limitations, and critique. The variety of academic fields and health-care disciplines working with the concept ranges from psychology, through gynaecology to palliative care and deaf studies. Important functions that the concept of intersectionality fulfils in bioethical research are making inequities visible, creating better health data collections and embracing self-reflection. Intersectionality is also a critical praxis and fits neatly into the overarching goal of bioethics to work toward social justice in health care. Intersectionality aims at making research results relevant for respective communities and patients, and informs the development of policies. Conclusions This systematic review is, to the best of our knowledge, the first one to provide a full overview of the reference to intersectionality in bioethical scholarship. It creates a basis for future research that applies intersectionality as a theoretical and methodical tool for analysing bioethical questions. (shrink)

이 논문은 주역적 思惟가 중국 근현대 담사동의 通 사상에 변용되는 양상과 특징을 연구한 것이다.먼저 담사동의 저작에 보이는 주역적 구조와 道와 器, 나아가 仁의 含意로서 通과 周易乾卦 爻辭와 春秋 公羊三世의 만남을 검토하게 될 것이다.담사동은 공자가 제창한 仁을 우주의 근원으로 보고, 이 근원은 소통 상태에 있었으며 그 작용력 또한 무한히 열린 상태에 있는 것으로 본다. 그런데 上下男女內外中外 등과 같은 상대적 요소들은 담사동이 보기에 서로 막힘의 상태에 있거나 대립한다.담사동의 인식으로는, 君民間에는 군주가 인민에 대한 불평등한 행위를 恣行하며 남녀와 부부 사이에도 여성이 일방적으로 불평등한 대우를 (...) 받으며 사람과 사람 사이에도 또한 막힘의 상태가 존재하며, 중국과 외국의 관계도 閉塞의 상태에 있다.그러면 이런 不通의 상태를 어떻게 할 것인가? 담사동의 안목으로는 소통해야 하는 것이다. 우주의 본원으로 볼 때 소통된 상태를 인간이 가렸으므로 原狀으로 회복하려는 노력이 요구되는 것이다. 그는 막힘의 상태를 網羅로 규정하기도 하는데, 그것은 주로 학문, 정치, 종교(가르침)의 차원에서 구속적이고 융통성이 없음을 의미한다.이 같은 의미에서 주역적 思惟는 전반적 타파 대상을 건강한 상태로 돌려놓기 위한 논거 마련을 위하여 활용된 것이다.본 논문은, 중국 근현대를 산, 한 철학자의 경세철학에 나타나는 通 사상이 주역적 思惟가 시대상황과 맞물려 어떻게 변용되는지 그 면모를 살펴보고, 아울러 우리의 시대에 존재하는 경색 또는 폐색의 모습은 어떻게 할 것인가에 관한 이념적 시사를 얻기 위한 것이다. (shrink)

The path of devotion (bhakti-mārga) is firmly rooted in duality, whereas the path of knowledge (jñāna-mārga), particularly in the Advaita tradition, establishes non-duality. Thus, the two streams seem to be quite divergent in nature, having no connection with each other. The present paper examines the pivotal role of bhakti in Advaita Vedānta, with a specific focus on Svāmī Vidyāraṇya’s elucidations. It explores the intrinsic connection between the paths of devotion and knowledge, highlighting their substantial role in the attainment of mokṣa (...) within the framework of the Advaita tradition. It also delineates the concept of bhakti, as laid down in the Bhaktisūtras, tracing its origins in the Vedas, and investigates its significance in the philosophy of Advaita Vedānta. The primary objective of the paper is to examine how Vidyāraṇya’s interpretation of jñāna and bhakti underscores their interconnectedness in unique ways. A careful study of his exposition makes us clearly realise that the two paths are only complementary and that they only converge and not diverge. (shrink)

The paper investigates the role played by pre-scientific experience in the philosophy of Josiah Royce and Edmund Husserl. Such a notion, generally associated with Husserl’s conception of the life-world (Lebenswelt) in the Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (1936), finds an equivalent and historical antecedent in Royce’s distinction between a world of description and a world of appreciation. The final goal is to show how, despite their different philosophical frameworks, Royce and Husserl agree on the idea that, through (...) the rejection of the world given through mere perception (Lebenswelt/world of appreciation), European sciences have somehow failed their task of universality. As it will be shown, this idea is also due to methodological affinities among the two thinkers. The experience of interconnectedness among individual minds, while precluded in the mere scientific explanation of the world, it becomes possible through the enactment of the Lebenswelt or, as in Royce’s case, through a return to the experience of the world of appreciation. (shrink)

This paper presents an approach of unsupervised learning of clusters from a citation database, and applies it to a large corpus of articles in philosophy to give an account of the structure of the discipline. Following a list of journals from the PhilPapers-archive, 68,152 records were downloaded from the Reuters Web of Science-Database. Their citation data was processed using dimensionality reduction and clustering. The resulting clusters were identified, and the results are graphically represented. They suggest that the division of (...) analytic and Continental philosophy in the considered timespan is overstated; that analytical, in contrast to Continental philosophy does not form a coherent group in recent philosophy; and that metaphors about the disciplinary structure should focus on the coherence and interconnectedness of a multitude of smaller and larger subfields. (shrink)

This collection of essays by eminent philosopher Fred Dretske brings together work on the theory of knowledge and philosophy of mind spanning thirty years. The two areas combine to lay the groundwork for a naturalistic philosophy of mind. The fifteen essays focus on perception, knowledge, and consciousness. Together, they show the interconnectedness of Dretske's work in epistemology and his more contemporary ideas on philosophy of mind, shedding light on the links which can be made between the (...) two. The first section of the book argues the point that knowledge consists of beliefs with the right objective connection to facts; two essays discuss this conception of knowledge's implications for naturalism. The next section articulates a view of perception, attempting to distinguish conceptual states from phenomenal states. A naturalized philosophy of mind, and thus a naturalized epistemology, is articulated in the third section. This collection will be a valuable resource for a wide range of philosophers and their students, and will also be of interest to cognitive scientists, psychologists, and philosophers of biology. (shrink)

Racism is an issue which the activism of the Black Methodist Consultation was set to address during the South African apartheid rule, a view which black theologians and church historians generally accept. This observation brought to mind, in turn, the influence that the Black Consciousness philosophy and the black theology of liberation had on the establishment of the BMC. Recounting such an influence, this article provides a reflection on the formation of the BMC in 1975. In such a reflection, (...) the hypothesis is that the prophetic voice of the BMC is crucial in post-apartheid South Africa. Firstly, the interconnectedness of the Black Consciousness philosophy, the black theology of liberation and the BMC is highlighted. Secondly, the article proceeds to navigate the possible prophetic voice of the BMC in post- apartheid South Africa. In the end, this article sees the BMC as a crucial interlocutor of liberation in present South Africa. (shrink)

_This scholarly article delves into the interdisciplinary field of biosemiotics, examining its role in shaping the philosophy of nature. Biosemiotics, the study of signs and communication in living organisms, offers a unique lens through which we can understand the intricate relationships and meaningful exchanges within the natural world. This article aims to elucidate the significance of communication in the living world, drawing connections between biosemiotics and the broader philosophy of nature. By exploring the semiotic aspects of life, we (...) gain insights into the profound interconnectedness and communicative dynamics that underpin the fabric of the natural world._. (shrink)

During and after the Second World War, public intellectuals in Britain and the United States grappled with concerns about the future of democracy, the prospects of liberty, and the decline of the imperial system. Without using the term 'globalization,' they identified a shift toward technological, economic, cultural, and political interconnectedness and developed a 'globalist' ideology to reflect this new postwar reality. The Emergence of Globalism examines the competing visions of world order that shaped these debates and led to the (...) development of globalism as a modern political concept. Shedding critical light on this neglected chapter in the history of political thought, Or Rosenboim describes how a transnational network of globalist thinkers emerged from the traumas of war and expatriation in the 1940s and how their ideas drew widely from political philosophy, geopolitics, economics, imperial thought, constitutional law, theology, and philosophy of science. She presents compelling portraits of Raymond Aron, Owen Lattimore, Lionel Robbins, Barbara Wootton, Friedrich Hayek, Lionel Curtis, Richard McKeon, Michael Polanyi, Lewis Mumford, Jacques Maritain, Reinhold Niebuhr, H. G. Wells, and others. Rosenboim shows how the globalist debate they embarked on sought to balance the tensions between a growing recognition of pluralism on the one hand and an appreciation of the unity of humankind on the other."--Dust jacket. (shrink)

What are the methodological consequences of the fact that Philosophy has a history and that Philosophy incorporates the products of the history of Philosophy into its current practice? Is an internal ‘philosophical’ history of Philosophy possible and desirable or is the history of Philosophy best approached as a branch of Intellectual History and/or Cultural History. This chapter first sketches some of the history of the study of philosophy’s past and contrasts some widely employed ‘doxological’, (...) ‘anthropological’, and sociological approaches to that study with the approaches employed in a particular, historically recent discipline, History of Philosophy. It argues that History of Philosophy has a distinctive methodological structure which poises it interestingly between the disciplines of History and Philosophy and which can be usefully compared with, but is quite distinct from, that of the History of Science. (shrink)

The Contradictions of Jazz examines four pairs of opposites in jazz-freedom and responsibility, creativity and tradition, individualism and interconnectedness, and assertion and openness-and explores their position and presence in jazz to create a humanistic and existential view of the genre.

The article deals with the question of the value of the history of philosophy for philosophical research. In the first part, it proposes a classification of possible functions realized by references to the philosophical tradition in a philosophical treatise. The proposed typology is meant as a practical tool for identifying and comparing the usage of the past in philosophical texts of any historical period. The second part of the paper illustrates how the classification can be employed by applying it (...) to determine the functions of Aristotle’s discussions of the pre-Socratic doctrines in Metaphysics A. (shrink)

The Limits of Influence is a detailed examination and defense of the evidence for largescale-psychokinesis. It examines the reasons why experimental evidence has not, and perhaps cannot, convince most skeptics that PK is genuine, and it considers why traditional experimental procedures are important to reveal interesting facts about the phenomena.

Studys the philosophy of Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, Rousseau, Kant, Hume, Locke, and Hegel and examines their underlying assumptions about women.

What did the early Greek philosophers think about animals and their lives? How did they view plants? And, ultimately, what type of relationship did they envisage between all sorts of living beings? On these topics there is evidence of a prolonged investigation by several Presocratics. However, scholarship has paid little attention to these issues and to the surprisingly "modern" development they received in Presocratics' doctrines. This book fills this lacuna through a detailed (and largely unprecedented) analysis of the extant evidence. (...) The volume includes also the first extensive collection of the ancient sources pertaining to living beings and life in early Greek philosophy, organized chronologically and thematically. (shrink)

_Detailed study of how Anaximander’s cosmological and philosophical conceptions were affected by architectural technologies._.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Psychology as a distinct scientific discipline originated within Western contexts, predominantly serving and studying Western populations (the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Western Europe). Likewise, dominant theories of well-being revolve around Western ideals such as individualism, self-actualization, personal achievement, and the pursuit of happiness (Krys et al., 2024; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Furthermore, psychological theories of ‘the good life’ are mostly Aristotelian and Western (Ratchford et al., 2023). Even the selection of what virtues constitute ‘the good life’ reflects (...) preferences and personality traits that are adaptive and socially desirable in Western contexts but not necessarily in other Majority World Contexts (i.e., people from contexts outside of Western localities) (Wilson et al., 2024; Yu & Xie, 2021). The prevailing frameworks of well-being reflect culturally specific ideals of self-actualization and independence, often neglecting broader relational and ecological dimensions. In contrast, communal well-being, as central to many Indigenous philosophies, features relational harmony across generations, interconnectedness with others and the environment, and transcends individual concerns. This distinction underscores the need for communal perspectives to enrich and diversify well-being paradigms toward a truly global science of personality. In response, we present a Majority World perspective of communal well-being that has been largely overlooked in the literature: the Anishinaabe concept of Mino-Bimaadiziwin, or “living in a good way.” Mino-Bimaadiziwin is a philosophy of well-being rooted in the rich teachings, practices, and values of the Anishinaabeg, a particular North American Indigenous group. The Anishinaabeg are Indigenous peoples consisting of the Ojibwe (Chippewa), Potawatomi, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Nipissing, and Mississauga First Nations. We highlight this Indigenous perspective because the lead author is a descendant of the Bois Fort Band of Chippewa. Thus, the purpose of this article is to present insights into the process and content of Mino-Bimaadiziwin and the pursuit of harmony as a First Nations Majority World approach to well-being. Mino-Bimaadiziwin emphasizes the interconnectedness of all life, offering a relational, ecological, and spiritual framework for well-being (Nelson et al., 2024). Central to this framework are the Seven Grandfather Teachings—Truth, Humility, Respect, Love, Courage, Honesty, and Wisdom. These interdependent virtues guide individuals and communities towards harmony—the telos of Anishinaabe flourishing. Moreover, in contrast to empirical epistemologies, Anishinaabe do not view causal relationships as linear, so we present the Seven Grandfather Teachings or virtues as both a process and outcome of Mino-Bimaadiziwin. Because of these distinctions, this dynamic perspective of well-being is best portrayed through the Indigenous methodology of storywork (Archibald, 2008; Smith, 2012). Thus, we employ a narrative approach in the posture of a pluralistic scientific perspective, layering Anishinaabe teachings with Western psychological theories to diversify the discourse of human flourishing. (shrink)

For well over a century the dominant narrative concerning the major thinkers and themes of early modern British philosophy has been that of “British Empiricism,” where the great triumvirate of Locke, Berkeley and Hume is taken to stand united in opposition to their counterparts in the “Continental Rationalist” tradition. This chapter argues that this way of categorizing the thinkers and issues in question distorts and misrepresents this period and the core philosophical concerns and aims of the philosophers involved. Not (...) only does the schema of “British Empiricism” encourage us to overlook some key thinkers who cannot be easily categorized in these terms, and to group together thinkers with fundamentally different and even opposing aims and objectives, it places heavy emphasis on epistemological concerns as they relate to the philosophy–science relationship at the expense of the theological problems that were of primary interest for the thinkers concerned. This chapter examines the philosophical systems of Clarke, Berkeley and Hume as they relate to the issues of causal reasoning, theological speculations and the limits of philosophy. An examination of these salient themes and key philosophical figures of the early eighteenth century suggests that we need to radically revise and amend the dominant perspective and framework for interpreting these thinkers and the movements that shaped and directed their various philosophical systems. (shrink)

What are intuitions? Do they exist as distinctive mental states? Do they have an epistemic function? Can we discern specific features that characterize intuitions? Questions like these are widely d...

This paper argues that Hans Blumenberg’s theory illuminates a novel interpretation of the phenomenological concept of the lifeworld—as a world sustained by myths and their receptions. This paper combines two central themes in Blumenberg’s philosophy: his interpretation of Edmund Husserl and his aesthetics, especially his theory of the novel and of myth. My claim to originality is to offer a mythology of the lifeworld with the help of one of Blumenberg’s less-known texts, “Wirklichkeitsbegriff und Wirkungspotential des Mythos.” In the (...) first part, I will examine a crucial aspect in Blumenberg’s reading of Husserl’s notion of the lifeworld, namely the unorthodox view that the lifeworld, as the foundation for sciences and their logos, itself has no need to resort to language. To put it mythically: the lifeworld is an expressionless state of naivety. To support this deconstructive reading, I will then turn to Blumenberg’s theory of the novel. As has been noticed by Blumenberg and his colleagues, the underlying meaning structure of the novel, or its “concept of reality,” has a typically modern character, and largely overlaps with the phenomenological idea of the world and lifeworld. However, in the second part, I will radicalize Blumenberg’s discussions about reality, and show that the novelistic reality can never fully supersede that of myth. Mythology has a persistent existence, and, in Blumenberg’s argument, the history of mythical reception reveals a perpetual movement of human struggle against terror. In this Blumenbergian philosophy of mythology, a new image of the lifeworld presents itself, a world made by the myth-telling humans, by their active and aesthetic use of words, instead of slumbers of naivety. (shrink)

During the early 19th century, a peculiarly systematic way of organizing books emerged in Germany. This systematization, which purported to be a rational organization of subject matter, was an outgrowth of the philosophy of Hegel. This article attempts to outline Hegel's organizational practice. It argues that Hegel's encyclopedia was a reaction against the Enlightenment encyclopedia, and that it attempted to restore the systematic mindset of pre-modern reference books. Yet it did this, not in a straightforward fashion, but by developing (...) a method for organizing material that both stresses the interconnectedness of knowledge and promises to be highly scalable. In its attempt to trace the Hegelian organizational method, this article revisits and calls attention to a forgotten work in Hegel scholarship by Michael John Petry, who was the first writer to seriously stress the importance of classification in Hegel's work. This article is an attempt to demonstrate that Hegelianism and information organization can be brought into fruitful and mutually beneficial dialogue. (shrink)

In _The Powers of Dignity_ Nick Bromell unpacks Frederick Douglass's 1867 claim that he had “elaborated a political philosophy” from his own “slave experience.” Bromell shows that Douglass devised his philosophy because he found that antebellum Americans' liberal-republican understanding of democracy did not provide a sufficient principled basis on which to fight anti-Black racism. To remedy this deficiency, Douglass deployed insights from his distinctively Black experience and developed a _Black_ philosophy of democracy. He began by contesting the (...) founders' racist assumptions about humanity and advancing instead a more robust theory of “the human” as a collection of human “powers.” He asserted further that the conscious exercise of those powers is what confirms human dignity and that human rights and democracy come into being as ways to affirm and protect that dignity. Thus, by emphasizing the powers and the dignity of all citizens, deriving democratic rights from these, and promoting a remarkably activist, power-oriented model of citizenship, Douglass's Black political philosophy aimed to rectify two major failings of US democracy in his time and ours: its complacence and its racism. (shrink)

The development of science studies has an important message for political theory. This message has not yet been fully articulated. It seems that the science studies field is often considered as the extension of politics to science. In reality, case studies show that it is a redefinition of politics that we are witnessing in the laboratories. To the political representatives should be added the scientific representatives. Thanks to a book by Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, it is possible to reconstruct (...) the origin of this divide between the two sets of representatives. A definition of modernism is offered. Then the article explains how to interpret the shift to "nonmodernism, " that is, a historical period when the two branches of politics get together again. (shrink)

Consider statements like ``Machines will never be able to think'' or ``You cannot turn a cat into a dog''. Many people will find such propositions evident, but we have learned to be cautious. 100 years from now things might look very different; it seems unduly dogmatic to insist on todays opinions as unrevisable points of reference, disallowing future breakthroughs in computer science or biology. The scientific outlook presupposes and enhances a high degree of curiosity and it seems a good idea (...) to generally keep one's meanings flexible so as to master break-downs of everyday understanding induced by unforseen circumstances, science or technology. Such intuitions are at the heart of Quine's philosophy. According to him we find ourselves enmeshed within a web of belief that joins together past and present attitudes, cognitive procedures and evidential tests. The strands show various degrees of coherence and interconnectedness and there are no general rules on how to proceed in case something unexpected happens. Sometimes it is ignored, sometimes it is explained away and sometimes it induces more or less extensive changes in our predictive and behavioural patterns. This seems to be the lesson drawn from the Vienna Circle's battle against metaphysics. Philosophers like Putnam, Kripke and Davidson have, it is true, come up with accounts of meaning, necessity and reality that seriously challenge Quine's indeterminacy of translation and ontological relativity, re-introducing elements of a priori presuppositions and (quasi-)transcendental arguments into philosophical discourse. But - compared to Quine's unrelenting insistence on naturalistic first-level talk - those attempts have a free-floating, speculative touch. Quine refuses to engage in elaborate philosophical constructions designed to block the permanent drift of meaning. His is a truly radical position, admirably suggestive and provocative, to be challenged on its own ground. The untenability of a priori truth is suggested by profound experiences that cannot easily be refuted by arguments purporting to show how some more or less exotic sentences could, after all, be held immune from change.1 If the untenability thesis is to be shaken a more down to earth strategy seems to be called for. It would have to be shown that Quine's radical move entails consequences that are highly unattractive even according to its own standards. (shrink)

Richard Rorty's pragmatism is a distinctively doubled philosophy formed at the twain of a rigorous antifoun‐dational philosophical perspective and a committed postmetaphysical cultural criticism. Rorty instead rigorously held to the line that no particular politics follows from anti‐foundational philosophy. Rorty's arguments against representationalism, foundationalism, and metaphysics‐first philosophy in Mirror are complex and not always easy to navigate without careful guidance. The risk of the approach in Mirror is that it could implicate Rorty in a foundationalist critique of (...) foundationalism, or a metaphysical critique of metaphysics. For ironism is the studied denial not of metaphysics itself, but only of strong forms of pro‐metaphysical argument. Rorty uses liberalism to avoid the metaphysical forbidding of metaphysics – substituting for it instead a liberal, perhaps even a critical, limiting of metaphysics. The most important insight of Contingency boils down to this: liberalism and ironism together give us something to strive for that the metaphysician would otherwise take as settled. (shrink)

"The intent of this book," according to the author, "is to document the existence in man of two major modes of consciousness: one is analytic, the other holistic." They are sometimes called, he observes, "the ‘rational’ and ‘intuitive’ sides of man." In this connection, he adduces Roger Bacon’s apposite dictum: "There are two modes of knowing, those of argument and experience." A notable recent finding on the brain correlates of reason and intuition is summarized in the present book as follows: (...) "The left hemisphere of the cortex, which subtends language and mathematics, seems to process information in a linear, sequential manner... The right side of the cortex processes its input more as a ‘patterned whole'." That is, science, for example, uses the left side of the brain, while nonrational meditation exercises, procedures for expansion and concentration of consciousness, and the mystic experience, for example, involve the right side. The author sympathetically describes and analyzes a large variety of meditation methods as illustrating the intuitive path to knowledge, reports pertinent findings on biofeedback phenomena and other scientific grapplings with awareness disciplines and nonattachment systems, and concludes with a plea to scientific psychologists to train themselves rigorously in esoteric techniques. He also suggests, à propos of the "unitive" character of the mystic experience: "A shift toward a consciousness of the interconnectedness of life... might enable us to take those ’selfless’ steps that could begin to solve our collective problems." For philosophers who are open-minded on other ways of studying or making contact with reality than controlled observation, analysis, induction, theory-making, verification, and revision, this book should prove useful, both because it provides a rich collection of data and because it suggests directions for achieving a synoptic view.—W. G. (shrink)

Apuleius of Madauros, writing in the latter half of the second century CE in Roman North Africa, is best known to us today for his Latin fiction, the Metamorphoses aka The Golden Ass, about a man who turned into a donkey and back again. However, he was also a Platonic philosopher, who, even though many of his writings are lost, wrote a range of rhetorical and philosophical works which survive to this day. This book examines these works to reveal how (...) Apuleius' Platonism is a result of his 'impersonation of philosophy', that is, a rhetorically powerful methodological tool that allows him to 'speak' on behalf of Plato and his philosophy. This book is the first exploration of the full scope of his idiosyncratic brand of Platonism across his multifarious literary corpus and is a major contribution to the study of the dynamic between literature and philosophy in antiquity and beyond. (shrink)

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No philosopher since Augustine had more strings to his bow than SK.

Some popular views of Ernst Mach cast him as a philosopher-scientist averse to imaginative practices in science. The aim of this analysis is to address the question of whether or not imagination is compatible with Machian philosophy of science. I conclude that imagination is not only compatible, but essential to realizing the aim of science in Mach’s biologico-economical view. I raise the possible objection that my conclusion is undermined by Mach’s criticism of Isaac Newton’s famous “bucket experiment.” I conclude (...) that Mach’s issue lies not with thought experimentation, tout court, but with the improper use of thought experimentation as it relates to the aim of the biologico-economical development of science. (shrink)

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