This paper argues that explicit reading instruction should be part of lower level undergraduate philosophy courses. Specifically, the paper makes the claim that it is necessary to provide the student with both the relevant background knowledge about a philosophical work and certain metacognitive skills (e.g. their ability to reflect on the learning process) that enrich the reading process and their ability to organize the content of a philosophical text with other aspects of knowledge. A “How to Read Philosophy” handout and (...) student reactions to the handout are provided. (shrink)

If we want to see justice done with regard to responsibility, then we must either (i) allow that people are never morally responsible, (iia) show that luck is not ubiquitous or at least that (iib) ubiquitous luck is not moral, or (iii) show that ascriptions of responsibility can retain justice despite the omnipresence of luck. This paper defends (iii); ascriptions of responsibility can be just even though luck is ubiquitous.

This paper explores the state of teacher training in philosophy graduate programs in the English-speaking world. Do philosophy graduate programs offer training regarding teaching? If so, what is the nature of the training that is offered? Who offers it? How valuable is it? We conclude that philosophers want more and better teaching training, and that collectively we know how to deliver and support it.

This essay explains how reading philosophy is different from other forms of academic reading and provides guidance for reading well to people who are new to the field.

This paper aims at an accurate and detailed analysis of some of the main echoes of the Latin comedy of Plautus and Terence in Morean epigrams. The fundamental Greek background from which More’s epigrams spring is somehow enriched by the Latin contributions by virtue, among other factors, of the cultural legacy of the language in which the humanist chose to write them. A contextualized analysis of the clearest echoes found allows distributing them in a general way in two global types: (...) (1) those of a more formal nature (morphological, lexical-semantic, syntactic) and (2) those that convey a debt of content, concept, or topic; it is shown that both types can occasionally be interrelated in a particular and original way. (shrink)

This paper aims to identify and analyze some of the substitutions of the particle sed (> ceterum/verum/at), visible in the manuscript of More’s De Tristitia. In this study, the theoretical framework of Functional Discourse Grammar is applied for the first time, and it helps to explain some of the reasons underlying More’s final choices. One of the clearest conclusions is that More tries to show that the particle chosen does not function as a conjunction at the sentence level but as (...) an adversative connector at the presentational level; this level has to do with the presentation and organization of the information in the text, and can serve to offer an explanation, justification, clarification, context, etc. between the various textual units. The examination of the passages in context also shows how More was careful to avoid repetitions which could diminish the elegance of the chosen linguistic expression. (shrink)

This article addresses Thomas More's use of an especially complex Latin predicate, fio, as a means of examining the degree of classicism in this aspect of his writing. To this end, the main lexical-semantic and syntactic features of the verb in Classical Latin are presented, and a comparative review is made of More's use of the predicate—and also its use in texts contemporaneous to More, as well as in Late and Medieval Latin—in both prose and poetry. The analysis shows that (...) he works within a general framework of classicism, although he introduces some of his own idiosyncrasies, these essentially relating to the meaning of the verb that he employs in a preferential way and to the variety of verbal forms that occur in his poetic text. (shrink)

Through examples of embodied and learning-centered pedagogy, we discuss transformative learning of transgressive topics. We begin with a taxonomy of types of learning our students undergo as they resolve inconsistencies among their pre-existing beliefs and the material they confront in our course on feminist ethics and epistemology. We then discuss ways to help students maximize their learning while confronting internal inconsistencies. While we focus on feminist topics, our approach is broad enough to be relevant to anyone teaching a transgressive or (...) controversial topic. (shrink)

After describing some key features of life in an underground railroad and the nature of gray agency, Concepción illustrates how survivors of relationship slavery can stop levying misplaced blame on themselves without giving up the valuable practice of blaming. Concepción concludes that by choosing a relatively non-oppressive account of self-blame, some amount of internalized oppression can be overcome and the double bind of agency-denial and self-loathing associated with being an oppressively grafted agent can be reduced.

One may ask whether the school is or ought to be a community. If this were the case, then it implies that participation is part of the essence of education. This consideration precedes the issue of whether the school is a model of democracy in its structure and management. Participation in schools is a novel focus. It is concerned not so much with whether the daily exercise of participation can improve and strengthen the democratization of the school, but with whether (...) democracy fosters participation and enhances the school as a community. (shrink)

Education is better thougt of as an activity or social practice, from the individual praxis, whose main purpose is to help others become persons. The purpose of this paper is to offer a sold foundation for the natural human sociability, the social virtues, and the ideal of cooperation, three areas currently invoked by thinkers of greatly divergent points of view. This paper is written along the lines of the classics and follows the thought of Prof. Polo.

Through examples of embodied and learning -centered pedagogy, we discuss transformative learning of transgressive topics. We begin with a taxonomy of types of learning our students undergo as they resolve inconsistencies among their pre-existing beliefs and the material they confront in our course on feminist ethics and epistemology. We then discuss ways to help students maximize their learning while confronting internal inconsistencies. While we focus on feminist topics, our approach is broad enough to be relevant to anyone teaching a transgressive (...) or controversial topic. (shrink)

One may ask whether the school is or ought to be a community. If this were the case, then it implies that participation is part of the essence of education. This consideration precedes the issue of whether the school is a model of democracy in its structure and management. Participation in schools is a novel focus. It is concerned not so much with whether the daily exercise of participation can improve and strengthen the democratization of the school, but with whether (...) democracy fosters participation and enhances the school as a community. (shrink)

Education is better thougt of as an activity or social practice, from the individual praxis, whose main purpose is to help others become persons. The purpose of this paper is to offer a sold foundation for the natural human sociability, the social virtues, and the ideal of cooperation, three areas currently invoked by thinkers of greatly divergent points of view. This paper is written along the lines of the classics and follows the thought of Prof. Polo.

The author examines the outstanding texts in Saint Augustine's works about hapiness -specially in De beata uita, Confessiones, and De Trinitate-, in order to establish interlinking points with the Ciceronian books related to this subject. The Hortensius (specially frg. 36, 39 and 79 Müller), is a reiterated and coincident reference in the different Augustine's works. It also acts as a key into other many passages of the classical philosophical tradition. On the other hand, Augustin modifies and perfects elements there contained, (...) because of his assimilation of the New Testament tradition related to this topic. (shrink)

The most recent studies concerning the compositional structure of Seneca's dialogues all agree in stating that its basic organization is due to rhetorical criteria. From this perspective, the article analyzes the general nature of refutation in Consolatio ad Helviam matrem as well as different passages from the dialogue, traditionally considered to be digressions, in order to establish its functionality. We can see from this that the apparently deliberative tenor of the Consolation is endowed with judicial and epideictic elements, and can (...) thus clarify its compositional sequence and lines of thought. (shrink)

On July 13, 2014, the director and producer of Midnight Rider turned themselves in to the Wayne County (Georgia) Sheriff's Department after being charged with involuntary manslaughter and criminal...

This essay explains the difference between scholarly teachers and scholars of teaching and learning and provides a taxonomy of several research methodologies of scholars of teaching and learning in the field of philosophy.

Evidence supports the notion that out of class work that prepares students to contribute more meaningfully in group activities improves student learning. This essay describes in detail one way to well prepare students.

: I argue that Alisa Carse's call for antipornography legislation sets a potentially dangerous legal move that could threaten to shut off the dialogue women need to redefine the meanings and terms of our sexualities. I also argue that the terms of legitimacy need to be re-examined outside a legal system that systematically fails to protect the rights of sexual minorities.

I argue that Alisa Carse's call for antipornography legislation sets a potentially dangerous legal move that could threaten to shut off the dialogue women need to redefine the meanings and terms of our sexualities. I also argue that the terms of legitimacy need to be re-examined outside a legal system that systematically fails to protect the rights of sexual minorities.

This essay comments on the sense of disquiet philosophers, especially newer philosophers, can feel when discussing sensitive topics with non-philosophers, and the role philosophy teachers have in providing support to students who are undergoing substantial personal transformation.

This essay provides a brief overview of the state of the teaching in the field of philosophy in the 2010's in the United States.

It is the case of a 66-year-old man in a permanent vegetative state which his family is blocked due to suffering. A process and a document of a shared decision-making between the family and the professional team allowed giving emotional support, unlocking the situation and preventing complicated grief.

Sin duda, hoy en día el uso de los manuales escolares en clase de lenguas extranjeras sigue siendo un apoyo importante en el proceso de aprendizaje de otras lenguas. Sin embargo, debemos prestar atención a los conceptos y a los valores éticos que pueden transmitir a nuestro alumnado. Nos centraremos en los estereotipos de género que, aún a día de hoy, siguen presentes en muchos de los libros de texto que usamos a diario en las aulas. Por tanto, resulta esencial (...) su actualización para contribuir con el proceso de desarrollo social de la mujer desde la etapa escolar. (shrink)

Este ensayo postula que la noción de dignidad humana formulada filosófica y moralmente desde la civilización occidental moderna, demanda hoy una re-lectura de sentido, a la luz de las perplejidades que anidan en la disonancia entre los principios morales y el derecho legal justiciable de los Derechos Humanos en las democracias contemporáneas. Si bien, la noción de Derechos Humanos deriva de la pertenencia a la familia humana en la que se asienta idealmente la universalidad de sus titulares y por el (...) principio de autonomía, el resultado de esta mixtura tiene su traducción en dos concepciones problemáticas: una abstracta del ser humano sobre la que se instrumenta una supuesta universalidad que derivó en otra individualista que convierte a los hombres en sujetos aislados y egoístas. Identificar el núcleo de esta perplejidad en Platón, Aristóteles y Benhabib, constituye el propósito de esta reflexión. (shrink)

En contra de las actuales tendencias postmodernistas, el autor postula una simbiosis entre los elementos positivos de lo premoderno y los correspondientes de la modernidad. Cree posible rescatar las llamadas tradiciones razonables, y combinarlas con lo positivo de la modernidad. Uno de los factores positivos de la tradicionalidad sería la religión en cuanto fuente de sentido y consuelo. Esfuerzos sincretistas similares en otros campos constituyen gran parte la historia universal.

Physical laws are irresistible. Logical rules are not. That is why logic is said to be normative. Given a system of logic we have a Norma, a standard of correctness. The problem is that we need another Norma to establish when the standard of correctness is to be applied. Subsequently we start by clarifying the senses in which the term "logic" and the term "normativity" are being used. Then we explore two different epistemologies for logic to see the sort of (...) defence of the normativity of logic they allow for; if any. The analysis concentrates on the case of classical logic. In particular the issue will be appraised from the perspective put forward by the epistemology based on the methodology of wide reflective equilibrium and the scientific one underlying the view of logic as model. (shrink)

La importancia de Montserrat como santuario se puede medir no sólo por la extensión de su culto, sino también como centro irradiador de modelos narrativos. La leyenda de Garí fue elaborada en el medievo por los benedictinos y proviene de dos fuentes conocidas: el eremita tentado y la historia del hombre salvaje. En ella se aúnan legados de origen oriental y europeo. El hallazgo de la imagen se suma más tarde a esta narración, lo que pone de manifiesto cómo se (...) van hilvanando las leyendas, su proceso de elaboración: 1º una leyenda de fundación del monasterio santuario como la de Garí. En 2º lugar una leyenda de origen de culto a una imagen. La leyenda mariana de Montserrat forma parte de la cultura devocional dedicada a ciertos santos y a san Miguel, así como también al culto a las imágenes. (shrink)

Fomentar la educación abierta inclusiva es responsabilidad de todos. Se presenta el diseño instruccional de un libro electrónico para el desarrollo de competencias de información y alfabetización digital. Está enfocado a personas con deficiencia visual. Se utiliza el modelo ADDIE y los principios de Diseño Universal para el Aprendizaje. Se realizó una hoja de ruta para la definición de aspectos iniciales. Como trabajo futuro se contempla desarrollar el libro y compartirlo como recurso educativo abierto con licencia Creative Commons BY-SA para (...) fomentar su reutilización. Se sugiere medir el desarrollo de otras competencias a partir de su uso. (shrink)