As the editors of the series, New Literary Theory, proclaim in the preface of the book, the purpose of the series is to make more room in literary theory for playful and accessible approaches to li...

Moving from the conviction that philosophy differs from mathematics because the signs of philosophy are words, i.e. audible Sprachlaute, and given that the vagueness of natural language cannot be eliminated by adopting a characteristic writing on the model of algebra, Kant poses the problem of how to write a philosophical book with a necessarily only phonetic writing, and yet aspiring to a certainty comparable to that of mathematics. His solution consists in showing, by means of acroamatic (...) proofs, that there are synthetic a priori judgments in philosophy. According to Kant, this solution, which is made possible and is conditioned by the systematic framework provided by the Copernican revolution and by his study of reason, accounts for our capacity to read appearances as experience, but is still insufficient to give us an overall interpretation of the whole experience. Thus Kant adopts the reading and interpreting of a book as the metaphor of his investigation and uses it to highlight the distinct but cooperating fields of the understanding and reason. (shrink)

This is the definitive collection of the ethical work of the great Oxford moral philosopher H. A. Prichard. Prichard is famous for his ethical intuitionism: he argued that moral obligation cannot be reduced to anything else, but is perceived by direct intuition. The essays previously included in the posthumous collection Moral Obligation are now augmented by a selection of previously unpublished writings from Prichard's manuscripts, allowing for the first time a full view of his distinctive contribution to moral philosophy, (...) at just the time when intuitionism is enjoying a revival of interest. (shrink)

ABSTRACT: In memory of Professor Louise Marcil, from the University of Montreal, who died prematurely in April 1995, this special issue of Dialogue is dedicated to Equality. In addition to presenting the various contributions, the Introduction traces the main strands of Louise Marcil’s work on equality. The impressive corpus of her writings on the subject is characterized throughout by sensitivity to the historical and conceptual complexity of egalitarian theories and policies and by a depth of scholarship, the richness of which (...) defies classification into traditional philosophical schools. Moreover, far from being merely abstract scholarship, this work was clearly intended to strengthen actual egalitarian social projects, to which Louise Marcil was passionately committed. The contributions to this special issue of Dialogue have been selected in large part to reflect the diversity and scholarly standards of Louise Marcil’s approach to equality as well as its engaged spirit. (shrink)

Poetry -- Drama -- Philosophy -- History -- Fables, Novels, and Speeches.

The book explores three specific areas: the practice of writing with respect to orality; the interpretive modes of poetic and philosophical discourse as self ...

James VI and I united the crowns of England and Scotland. His books are fundamental sources of the principles which underlay the union. In particular, his Basilikon Doron was a best-seller in England and circulated widely on the Continent. Among the most important and influential British writings of their period, the king's works shed light on the political climate of Shakespeare's England and the intellectual background to the civil wars which afflicted Britain in the mid-seventeenth century. James' political philosophy (...) was a moderated absolutism, with an emphasis on the monarch's duty to rule according to law and the public good. Locke quoted his speech to parliament of 1610 approvingly, and Hobbes likewise praised 'our most wise king'. This edition is the first to draw on all the early texts of James' books, with an introduction setting them in their historical context. (shrink)

Philosophy and literature enjoy a close, complex relationship. Elucidating the connections between these two fields, this book examines the ways philosophy deploys literary means to advance its practice, particularly as a way of life that extends beyond literary forms and words into physical deeds, nonlinguistic expression, and subjective moods and feelings.

Introduction to Giambattista Vico: The Anglo-American perspective Marcel Danesi. Giambattista Vico (-) In, the Neapolitan rhetorician and philosopher, ...

Explores some steps toward non-assimilative encounters in the "global village.".

Comparative political theory is at best an embryonic and marginalized endeavor. As practiced in most Western universities, the study of political theory generally involves a rehearsal of the canon of Western political thought from Plato to Marx. Only rarely are practitioners of political thought willing (and professionally encouraged) to transgress the canon and thereby the cultural boundaries of North America and Europe in the direction of genuine comparative investigation. Border Crossings presents an effort to remedy this situation, fully launching a (...) new era in political theory. Thirteen scholars from around the world examine the various political traditions of West, South, and East Asia and engage in a reflective cross-cultural discussion that belies the assumptions of an Asian "essence" and of an unbridgeable gulf between West and non-West. The denial of essential differences does not, however, amount to an endorsement of essential sameness. As viewed and as practiced by contributors to this ground-breaking volume, comparative political theorizing must steer a course between uniformity and radical separation--this is the path of "border crossings.". (shrink)

This is an important new critical analysis of Derrida's theory of writing, based on close readings of key texts. It reveals a dimension of Derrida's thinking that has been neglected in favor of those "deconstructionist" cliches favored by much recent literary criticism. Christopher Johnson highlights the special character of Derrida's philosophy that comes from his contact with contemporary natural science and with systems theory. This study casts new light on an exacting set of intellectual issues facing philosophy (...) and critical theory today. (shrink)

In the United States, many doctoral students in nursing have not had the grounding in philosophy that other educational traditions require. The introduction of philosophical thought, both historical and current, is often unwelcome and uncomfortable for the novice who is accustomed to a pragmatic discipline. Educational methods that allow for exploration of a kind that engages the student are therefore essential to facilitate the formation of a philosophical foundation for the education and future research endeavours of the doctoral student (...) in nursing. This paper documents one student's experience of that process and what she found to be useful in her own first attempts at understanding. (shrink)

In his 1868 paper “Questions concerning Reality” (QR), an early version of his better-known paper “Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man” (QCF) of the same year (Fisch 1984: xxxviii), Charles S. Peirce quotes the unidentified Latin fragment Hoc loquor inde est (W 2:167). In QCF, the better-known essay first published in the second volume of the Journal of Speculative Philosophy and included in Peirce’s Collected Papers (CP) as well as in the first volume of the Essential Peirce, Peirce (...) quotes the same fragment again. Here, the quote appears in a variant adapted to the given argumentative context as Hinc loquor inde est (W 2:207; CP 5.253; EP 1:24). None of the editors of Peirce’s writings nor, it.. (shrink)

In the United States, many doctoral students in nursing have not had the grounding in philosophy that other educational traditions require. The introduction of philosophical thought, both historical and current, is often unwelcome and uncomfortable for the novice who is accustomed to a pragmatic discipline. Educational methods that allow for exploration of a kind that engages the student are therefore essential to facilitate the formation of a philosophical foundation for the education and future research endeavours of the doctoral student (...) in nursing. This paper documents one student’s experience of that process and what she found to be useful in her own first attempts at understanding. (shrink)

These essays reveal another side of Horkheimer, focusing on his remarkable contributions to critical theory in the 1930s. Max Horkheimer is well known as the director of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research and as a sometime collaborator with Theodor Adorno, especially on their classic Dialectic of Enlightenment. These essays reveal another side of Horkheimer, focusing on his remarkable contributions to critical theory in the 1930s. Included are Horkheimer's inaugural address as director of the Institute, in which he outlines the (...) interdisciplinary research program that would dominate the initial phase of the Frankfurt School, his first full monograph, and a number of other pieces published in the 1930s. The essays, most of which have not appeared in English before, are surprisingly relevant to current post-philosophy debates, notably "On the Problem of Truth," with its focus on pragmatism, and "The Rationalism Debate in Current Philosophy," a sustained critique of the post-Cartesian philosophy of consciousness. Horkheimer's 1933 critique of Kantian ethics, "Materialism and Morality," is of particular interest given the current reaction to the neo-Kantian aspect of Habermas's work. There are also essays relevant to the current foundations debate within Continental philosophy, and the rationality/relativism question is sustained throughout the volume. (shrink)

This volume first explores the transformation of Chinese Daoism in late imperial period through the writings of prominent literati scholars of the period. In such a cultural context it then launches an in-depth investigation into the Daoist dimensions of the Chinese narrative masterpiece, The Story of the Stone: the inscriptions of Quanzhen Daoism in the infrastructure of its religious framework, the ideological ramifications of the Daoist concepts of chaos, purity, and the natural, as well as the Daoist images of the (...) gourd, fish, and bird. The author demonstrates in an insightful manner the central position of Daoist philosophy both in the ideological structure of the Stone and the literati culture that spawns it. (shrink)

_Philosophy and Theory in Educational Research: Writing in the Margin_ explores the practise of reading and writing in philosophy of education and education theory. Showing that there is no ‘right way’ to approach research in educational philosophy, but illustrating its possibilities, this text invites an engagement with philosophy as a possibility for educational research. Drawing on their own research, theoretical and philosophical sources, the authors investigate the important issue of what it means to read and (...) write when there is no prescribed structure. Innovative in its contribution to the literature, this edited volume enlightens readers in three ways. The volume focuses on the practices of reading and writing that are central to research in educational philosophy, suggesting that these practices constitute the research, rather than that they simply support the research. It is not a prescriptive guide and should not be read procedurally. Rather, it is intended to illustrate the possibilities for this kind of research, and to suggest starting points for those interested in pursuing research projects. Finally, attention is given to the ways in which conducting educational philosophy can be educative in itself, both to the researcher in writing it, and to its audience in reading it. With contributions from international scholars in the field of philosophy of education, this book forms a valuable guide for practitioner-researchers, taught postgraduate and doctoral students, and early career researchers in university education departments. Academic staff seeking to introduce their students to philosophy-as-research without wishing to offer a prescriptive ‘how to’ guide will also find this book of particular interest. (shrink)

This volume consists of selected essays on the art and aesthetics of the avantgarde, contemporary art, and postsocialist culture by the internationally renowned Slovenian philosopher and art theorist Aleš Erjavec.

Throughout his mature writings, Berkeley speaks of minds as substances that underlie or support ideas. After initially flirting with a Humean account, according to which minds are nothing but ‘congeries of Perceptions’, Berkeley went on to claim that a mind is a ‘perceiving, active being... entirely distinct’ from its ideas. Despite his immaterialism, Berkeley retains the traditional category of substance and gives it pride of place in his ontology. Ideas, by contrast, are ‘fleeting and dependent beings’ that must be supported (...) by a mental substance. There is no doubt that Berkeley’s conception of the relationship between minds and ideas is non-traditional, but that fact does not undercut his commitment to the traditional conception of substance. A robust literature has grown up around the thorny issue of reconciling Berkeley’s endorsement of mental substance with his rejection of its material counterpart. (shrink)

Advocates of cladistic parsimony methods have invoked the philosophy of Karl Popper in an attempt to argue for the superiority of those methods over phylogenetic methods based on Ronald Fisher's statistical principle of likelihood. We argue that the concept of likelihood in general, and its application to problems of phylogenetic inference in particular, are highly compatible with Popper's philosophy. Examination of Popper's writings reveals that his concept of corroboration is, in fact, based on likelihood. Moreover, because probabilistic assumptions (...) are necessary for calculating the probabilities that define Popper's corroboration, likelihood methods of phylogenetic inference—with their explicit probabilistic basis—are easily reconciled with his concept. In contrast, cladistic parsimony methods, at least as described by certain advocates of those methods, are less easily reconciled with Popper's concept of corroboration. If those methods are interpreted as lacking probabilistic assumptions, then they are incompatible with corroboration. Conversely, if parsimony methods are to be considered compatible with corroboration, then they must be interpreted as carrying implicit probabilistic assumptions. Thus, the non-probabilistic interpretation of cladistic parsimony favored by some advocates of those methods is contradicted by an attempt by the same authors to justify parsimony methods in terms of Popper's concept of corroboration. In addition to being compatible with Popperian corroboration, the likelihood approach to phylogenetic inference permits researchers to test the assumptions of their analytical methods (models) in a way that is consistent with Popper's ideas about the provisional nature of background knowledge. (shrink)

The definitive source book on philosophy and the city.

Did Darwin Write the Origin Backwards is Sober’s book that comes closest to history of science. Some reviews have expressed reservations about Sober’s inclination to subordinate historical accuracy to analytical clarity, and to contemporary discussions . My comments will be devoted to the kind of relationship that Sober entertains with history of science. I do not think that the author’s interest in history is superficial and instrumental.In the first section, I try to locate Sober’s book within ‘&HPS’ , a recent (...) initiative that gathers a growing number of people willing to promote a new regime of interaction between philosophy and history of science. I will suggest that Sober offers an interesting way of developing this approach. The more critical second section is devoted to Sober’s first chapter, bearing on the relationship between the two main tenets of Darwin’s argument in the Origin—descent with modif .. (shrink)

Most models of generational succession in sexually reproducing populations necessarily move back and forth between genic and genotypic spaces. We show that transitions between and within these spaces are usually hidden by unstated assumptions about processes in these spaces. We also examine a widely endorsed claim regarding the mathematical equivalence of kin-, group-, individual-, and allelic-selection models made by Lee Dugatkin and Kern Reeve. We show that the claimed mathematical equivalence of the models does not hold. *Received January 2007; revised (...) April 2008. †To contact the authors, please write to: Elisabeth Lloyd, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, 130 Goodbody Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405; e-mail: [email protected]; Richard Lewontin, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; Marcus Feldman, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305; e-mail: [email protected]. (shrink)

Authors, especially “advocates for virtue,” writes Samuel Johnson in one of his Rambler essays, might consider following the example of monarchs, who, hiding themselves from the public, “avoid the conversation of mankind […], for men would not more patiently submit to be taught, than commanded, by one known to have the same follies and weaknesses with themselves.” It is easy to see, continues Dr. Johnson, that writing well is easier than living well: teaching navigation on land is not the (...) same as actually commanding a ship on sea, just as designing a life in “solitude, safety, and tranquility, with a mind unbiased, and with liberty unobstructed” is easier than actually living by that design “amidst tumult, and snares, and danger.” It is no surprise that allegedly even Milton was pleased that he did not disappoint an enthusiastic visitor and was “found equal to his own character”—a character born out of his textual world (Samuel Johnson, “The Rambler No. 14. (5 May, 1750)”, in Selected Essays from the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler, ed. W.J. Bate. Yale University Press, 1968, 39, 40, 38). Johnson’s essay speaks of his deep insight into the chasm between the thinking, breathing, embodied self and contingent life of a writer and the textual self and models of life sculpted in her works. This insight, needless to say, has become a cliché in twentieth-century criticism, which dispensed with the naive view that literary discourse, including autobiographical works, is somehow transparent, a reflection of the writer’s self. For this reason, it might seem odd to look at literature from the perspective of a tradition that considers writing a crucial technique of examining and cultivating the self—something the ancient Greeks termed epimelesthai sautou, “the care of the self,” which was once understood to be the true goal of philosophy itself, conceived as the “art of living.” Richard Shusterman’s latest book, Philosophy and the Art of Writing revitalizes this ancient tradition of philosophy as an embodied way of living, and examines the various ways the process and product of the art of writing can contribute to the philosophical life dedicated to self-examination and self-improvement, while also pointing out the ambiguities of such an enterprise. (shrink)

In this essay I examine Derrida’s attempts to transform how philosophy is conceived, specifically as this occurs in his writings on education. In these writings Derrida challenges two understandings of philosophy—in his interventions into debates on lycée education he targets philosophy in France, while in texts related to the founding of the Collège International de Philosophie at stake is philosophy understood as a broader European institution. I argue that in each case key in Derrida’s challenge is (...) his rethinking of philosophy’s relation to other disciplines, and I suggest that this rethinking can aid us in our own attempts to transform education in philosophy. (shrink)

In this essay I examine Derrida’s attempts to transform how philosophy is conceived, specifically as this occurs in his writings on education. In these writings Derrida challenges two understandings of philosophy—in his interventions into debates on lycée education he targets philosophy in France, while in texts related to the founding of the Collège International de Philosophie at stake is philosophy understood as a broader European institution. I argue that in each case key in Derrida’s challenge is (...) his rethinking of philosophy’s relation to other disciplines, and I suggest that this rethinking can aid us in our own attempts to transform education in philosophy. (shrink)

Max Horkheimer is well known as the director of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research and as a sometime collaborator with Theodor Adorno, especially on their classic Dialectic of Enlightenment. These essays reveal another side of Horkheimer, focusing on his remarkable contributions to critical theory in the 1930s.Included are Horkheimer's inaugural address as director of the Institute, in which he outlines the interdisciplinary research program that would dominate the initial phase of the Frankfurt School, his first full monograph, and a (...) number of other pieces published in the 1930s. The essays, most of which have not appeared in English before, are surprisingly relevant to current post-philosophy debates, notably "On the Problem of Truth," with its focus on pragmatism, and "The Rationalism Debate in Current Philosophy," a sustained critique of the post-Cartesian philosophy of consciousness. Horkheimer's 1933 critique of Kantian ethics, "Materialism and Morality," is of particular interest given the current reaction to the neo-Kantian aspect of Habermas's work. There are also essays relevant to the current foundations debate within Continental philosophy, and the rationality/relativism question is sustained throughout the volume. (shrink)

No figure among the western Marxist theoreticians has loomed larger in the postwar period than Louis Althusser. A rebel against the Catholic tradition in which he was raised, Althusser studied philosophy and later joined both the faculty of the Ecole normal superieure and the French Communist Party in 1948. Viewed as a "structuralist Marxist," Althusser was as much admired for his independence of intellect as he was for his rigorous defense of Marx. The latter was best illustrated in For (...) Marx (1965), and Reading Capital (1968). These works, along with Lenin and Philosophy (1971) had an enormous influence on the New Left of the 1960s and continues to influence modern Marxist scholarship. This classic work, which to date has sold more than 30,000 copies, covers the range of Louis Althusser's interests and contributions in philosophy, economics, psychology, aesthetics, and political science. Marx, in Althusser's view, was subject in his earlier writings to the ruling ideology of his day. Thus for Althusser, the interpretation of Marx involves a repudiation of all efforts to draw from Marx's early writings a view of Marx as a "humanist" and "historicist." Lenin and Philosophy also contains Althusser's essay on Lenin's study of Hegel; a major essay on the state, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses," "Freud and Lacan: A letter on Art in Reply to Andre Daspre," and "Cremonini, Painter of the Abstract." The book opens with a 1968 interview in which Althusser discusses his personal, political, and intellectual history. (shrink)

The ‘philosophy’ of the title is here understood in terms of ‘its Socratic paradigm’ as involving ‘a critical disciplined search for wisdom that involves self-k.

The Library of Scottish Philosophy: Volumes 1 – 6, Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2004 James Otteson , ed. Adam Smith: Selected Philosophical Writings, 247pp. Paperback £12.95. ISBN 184540-001-1 James Harris , ed. James Beattie: Selected Philosophical Writings, 204pp. Paperback £12.95. ISBN 0907845-711 David Boucher , ed. The Scottish Idealists: Selected Philosophical Writings, 201pp. Paperback £12.95. ISBN 0907845-72X Jonathan Friday , ed. Art and Enlightenment: Scottish Aesthetics in the 18th century, 212pp. Paperback £12.95. ISBN 0907845-762 Gordon Graham , ed. Scottish (...) class='Hi'>Philosophy: Selected Writings 1690–1960, 253pp. Paperback £12.95. ISBN 0907845-746 Esther McIntosh , ed. John Macmurray: Selected Philosophical Writings, 198pp. Paperback £12.95. ISBN 0907845-738. (shrink)