This is an unusual volume. During his periods of study with Ed mund Husserl - first from I924 1. 0 I926, then from I93I to I932 - Dorion Cairns had become imnlensely impressed with the stri king philosophical quality of Husserl's conversations with his students and co-workers. Not unlike his daily writing (five to six hours a day was not uncommon, as Husserl reports herein, the nature of which was a continuous searching, reassessing, modi fying, advancing and even rejecting (...) of former views), Husserl's conversations, especially evidenced from Cairns's record, were remarkable for their depth and probing character. Because of this, and because of the importaIlt light they threw on Husserl's written and published works, Cairns had early resolved to set down in writing, as accurately as possible, the details of these conversations. Largely prompted by the questions and concerns of his students, including Cairns, the present Conversations (from the second period, I93I-I932, except for the initial conversation) provide a significant, intriguing, and always fascinating insight into both the issues which were prominent to Husserl at this time, and the way he had come to view the systematic and historical placement of his own earlier studies. Cairns had often insisted - principally in his remarkable lec 1 tures at the Graduate Faculty of the New School - that attaining a fair and accurate view of Husserl's enormously rich and complex 1 Cairns's lectures between 1956 and 1964 are especially important. (shrink)

In the pursuit of knowledge, Dorion Sagan argues in this dazzlingly eclectic, rigorously crafted, and deliciously witty collection of essays, scientific authoritarianism and philosophical obscurantism are equally formidable obstacles to discovery. As science has become more specialized and more costly, its questing spirit has been constrained by dogma. And philosophy, perhaps the discipline best placed to question orthodoxy, has retreated behind dense theoretical language and arcane topics of learning. Guided by a capacious, democratic view of science inspired by the (...) examples set by his late parents—Carl Sagan, who popularized the study of the cosmos, and Lynn Margulis, an evolutionary biologist who repeatedly clashed with the scientific establishment—Sagan draws on classical and contemporary philosophy to intervene provocatively in often-charged debates on thermodynamics, linear and nonlinear time, purpose, ethics, the links between language and psychedelic drugs, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and the occupation of the human body by microbial others. Informed by a countercultural sensibility, a deep engagement with speculative thought, and a hardheaded scientific skepticism, he advances controversial positions on such seemingly sacrosanct subjects as evolution and entropy. At the same time, he creatively considers a wide range of thinkers, from Socrates to Bataille and Descartes to von Uexküll, to reflect on sex, biopolitics, and the free will of Kermit the Frog. Refreshingly nonconformist and polemically incisive, _Cosmic Apprentice_ challenges readers to reject both dogma and cliché and instead recover the intellectual spirit of adventure that should—and can once again—animate both science and philosophy. (shrink)

Dans les Refutations sophistiques (sixieme et dernier des traites logiques rassembles sous le titre d'Organon), Aristote analyse et classe les differents types de paralogismes que commettent les sophistes qui s'emploient a refuter leurs interlocuteurs dans le cadre d'un echange dialectique. Assez curieusement, l'erudition contemporaine, qui a pourtant multiplie les etudes sur la dialectique d'Aristote, s'est peu interessee aux Refutations sophistiques, si bien que ce traite peut a bon droit etre tenu pour le parent pauvre de la recherche aristotelicienne. Les plus (...) recents commentaires des Refutations sophistiques remontent en effet a la fin du XIXe siecle. La presente etude, qui offre une longue introduction, une traduction inedite et un commentaire approfondi des Refutations sophistiques, vise a combler une importante lacune et a reveler l'interet d'une oeuvre qui a ete injustement negligee. (shrink)

The "Cartesian Meditations" translation is based primarily on the printed text, edited by Professor S. Strasser and published in the first volume of Husserliana: Cartesianische Meditationen und Pariser Vorträge, ISBN 90-247-0214-3. Most of Husserl's emendations, as given in the Appendix to that volume, have been treated as if they were part of the text. The others have been translated in footnotes. Secondary consideration has been given to a typescript (cited as "Typescript C") on which Husserl wrote in 1933: "Cartes. Meditationen (...) / Originaltext 1929 / E. Husserl / für Dorion Cairns". Its use of emphasis and quotation marks conforms more closely to Husserl’s practice, as exemplified in works published during his lifetime. In this respect the translation usually follows Typescript C. Moreover, some of the variant readings n this typescript are preferable and have been used as the basis for the translation. Where that is the case, the published text is given or translated in a foornote. The published text and Typescript C have been compared with the French translation by Gabrielle Pfeiffer and Emmanuel Levinas (Paris, Armand Collin, 1931). The use of emphasis and quotation marks in the French translation corresponds more closely to that in Typescript C than to that in the published text. Often, where the wording of the published text and that of Typescript C differ, the French translation indicates that it was based on a text that corresponded more closely to one or the other – usually to Typescript C. In such cases the French translation has been quoted or cited in a foornote. (shrink)

Cairns, D. My own life.--Chapman, H. The phenomenon of language.--Embree, L. E. An interpretation of the doctrine of the ego in Husserl's Ideen.--Farber, M. The philosophic impact of the facts themselves.--Gurwitsch, A. Perceptual coherence as the foundation of the judgment of prediction.--Hartshorne, C. Husserl and Whitehead on the concrete.--Jordan, R. W. Being and time: some aspects of the ego's involvement in his mental life.--Kersten, F. Husserl's doctrine of noesis-noema.--McGill, V. J. Evidence in Husserl's phenomenology.--Natanson, M. Crossing the Manhattan Bridge.--Spiegelberg, H. (...) Husserl's way into phenomenology for Americans: a letter and its sequel.--Zaner, R. M. The art of free phantasy in rigorous phenomenological science.--Cairns, D. An approach to Husserlian phenomenology.--Cairns, D. The ideality of verbal expressions.--Cairns, D. Perceiving, remembering, image-awareness, feigning awareness.--Bibliography of the writings of Dorion Cairns (p. [263]-264). (shrink)

Transcending the various formal concepts of life, this captivating book offers a unique overview of life's history, essences, and future. "A masterpiece of scientific writing. You will cherish "What Is Life?" because it is so rich in poetry and science in the service of profound philosophical questions".--Mitchell Thomashow, "Orion". 9 photos. 11 line illustrations.

The Cambridge Companion to Socrates is a collection of essays providing a comprehensive guide to Socrates, the most famous Greek philosopher. Because Socrates himself wrote nothing, our evidence comes from the writings of his friends (above all Plato), his enemies, and later writers. Socrates is thus a literary figure as well as a historical person. Both aspects of Socrates' legacy are covered in this volume. Socrates' character is full of paradox, and so are his philosophical views. These paradoxes have led (...) to deep differences in scholar's interpretation of Socrates and his thought. Mirroring this wide range of thought about Socrates, this volume's contributors are unusually diverse in their background and perspective. The essays in this volume were authored by classical philologists, philosophers, and historians from Germany, Francophone Canada, Britain, and the United States, and they represent a range of interpretive and philosophical traditions. (shrink)

These components are distinguishable in verbal expressing: (1) the judging act, (2) the sense expressed by (3) the verbal expression, Which is embodied in (4) sounds/marks, And (5) the thing(s) which the expression is about. The essay focuses on verbal expressions showing that they are ideal individuals: they remain identifiably the same through variations in their embodiments. While real individuals "exemplify" universals, Verbal expressions are "embodied" by real sounds or marks. Expressions, Like melodies or folk dances, Combine ideality with mutability (...) (historical change): they are thus ideal individuals and neither "real" individuals nor ideal "universals". (shrink)

Nine short manuscript fragments by Dorion Cairns, one of Husserl’s closest followers, are edited and presented here from Cairns’ Nachlass , which are held at the Center for Advanced Research on Phenomenology, Inc. at the University of Memphis. The fragments address aspects of method for phenomenological psychology, namely: the natural theoretical attitude, reflection, psychological epochē and reduction, eidetic and factual description, understanding, and intersubjective verification.

Individual traditions are prior to social or intersubjective traditions, but all tradition involves carrying over of doxic, axiotic, and volitional sense from the past to the present and future. Social tradition involves empathy and communication, while individual tradition is based chiefly on forms of experiencing.

The present volume containing the dissertation of Dorion Cairns is the first part of a comprehensive edition of the philosophical papers of one of the foremost disseminators and interpreters of Husserlian phenomenology in North-America. Based on his intimate knowledge of Husserl's published writings and unpublished manuscripts and on the many conversations and discussions he had with Husserl and Fink during his stay in Freiburg i. Br. in 1931-1932. Cairns's dissertation is a comprehensive exposition of the methodological foundations and the (...) concrete phenomenological analyses of Husserl's transcendental phenomenology. The lucidity and precision of Cairns's presentation is remarkable and demonstrates the secure grasp he had of Husserl's philosophical intentions and phenomenological distinctions. Starting from the phenomenological reduction and Husserl's Idea of Philosophy, Cairns proceeds with a detailed analysis of intentionality and the intentional structures of consciousness. In its scope and in the depth and nuance of its understanding, Cairns's dissertation belongs beside the writings on Husserl by Levinas and Fink from the same period."--Publisher's website. (shrink)

"La significación filosófica fundamental de las Logische Untersunchungen de Husserl" El autor se enfrenta a la obra husserliana que ha sido caracterizada como el tratado filosófico del presente siglo que ha ejercido la mayor influencia en los pensadores posteriores. ¿Qué significa ser fenomenólogo desde la perspectiva de este legado? Husserl no asume ninguna creencia metafí­sica; no es un idealista aunque describa objetos referidos a la conciencia; no es realista aunque entienda a la naturaleza como algo independiente de esa misma conciencia. (...) Más bien, el fenomenólogo lleva una doble vida: por un lado, vive como un hombre en sus creencias cotidianas más o menos bien fundadas, al mismo tiempo que, como heredero de la tradición inagurada por Husserl, pone entre paréntesis esas mismas creencias para describirlas. "The fundamental philosophical significance of the Logische Untersunchungen by Husserl" The author faces the husserlian work that has been characterized as the philosophical treatise of the present century that has exercised the biggest influence in the later thinkers. What does mean to be a phenomenological thinker from the perspective of this legacy? Husserl doesn"™t assume any metaphysical belief; he is not an idealist although it describes objects referred to the conscience; he is not realistic although he understands the nature like something independent of that conscience. Rather, the phenomenological thinker takes a double life: at one hand, he lives more or less as a man in their daily beliefs well founded, at the same time that, as inheritor of the tradition openend up by Husserl, it puts among parenthesis those beliefs to describe them. (shrink)

La fable d’Héraklès à la croisée des chemins (Mémorables, II, 1, 21-34), que Xénophon attribue expressément à Prodicos (II, 1, 21), a dernièrement fait l’objet de plusieurs articles (Sansone, Gray, Tordesillas) qui s’efforcent de déterminer si et à quel point la version rapportée par Socrate est fidèle à la version originale de Prodicos. Or on peut aisément montrer que la plupart des thèmes exposés dans l’apologue sont également développés par Socrate ailleurs dans les Mémorables, de sorte qu’il est tentant de (...) considérer que cette version de l’apologue – celle qu’on peut lire en Mem. II, 1, 21-34 – ne doit pas grand-chose à Prodicos dans la mesure où elle a probablement été récrite de fond en comble par Xénophon. (shrink)

This article aims to shed light on both the foundations and the consistency of the position regarding akrasia Xenophon attributes to Socrates in the Memorabilia. As does Plato's Socrates, Xenophon's Socrates maintains that akrasia is impossible in the presence of knowledge. On the other hand, he differs from the platonic Socrates by granting to enkrateia, instead of knowledge, the role of foundation for virtue. If enkrateia is the very condition for acquiring knowledge and virtue, consequently the responsibility for countering akrasia (...) falls to enkrateia. (shrink)

Alors que Xénophon a toujours accordé la plus grande importance à l’ enkrateia (« maîtrise de soi »), l’intérêt de Platon pour cette notion ne se manifeste pas avant, semble-t-il, le Gorgias et il se confirme ensuite dans les dialogues ultérieurs, notamment la République et les Lois. La présente étude cherche à mettre en lumière le lien étroit qui existe, chez Platon, entre la partition de l’âme et la reconnaissance de la pertinence de l’ enkrateia. Aussi longtemps que Platon a (...) considéré que l’âme est homogène et qu’elle consiste essentiellement en la raison, il n’a pas reconnu le bien-fondé et l’utilité de l’ enkrateia, puisque l’exercice de la raison suffit à garantir un comportement vertueux. La réhabilitation de l’ enkrateia suppose que l’âme est constituée d’au moins deux « parties » et que l’une d’elles, les désirs, doit être maîtrisée et contrôlée. (shrink)

La première question que cette étude examine est celle du rôle que le Socrate de Platon et le Socrate de Xénophon reconnaissent à l’ askêsis dans la genèse de la vertu. La question de l’ askêsis débouche à son tour sur une autre question, celle de l’exemplarité de Socrate. Dans la mesure où celui qui s’exerce à la vertu a besoin d’un modèle, il faut également examiner si Platon et Xénophon proposent Socrate comme un modèle digne d’être imité. L’étude qui (...) suit s’inspire de l’approche que j’ai coutume d’appeler l’« exégèse comparative », laquelle consiste à confronter l’une à l’autre, sur un même thème socratique, les positions défendues respectivement par le Socrate de Xénophon et par le Socrate de Platon, afin de mettre en lumière les différences entre leurs positions respectives, la portée de ces différences et, surtout, les raisons qui les sous-tendent. La question du rôle de l’ askêsis dans la genèse de la vertu se prête particulièrement bien à l’exégèse comparative dans la mesure où la question de départ est clairement formulée, en des termes très voisins, dès les premières lignes du Ménon et au début d’un chapitre des Mémorables (III 9). (shrink)