Historian Lynn White, Jr.'s theory that the current ecological crisis derives from the biblical creation story still has its adherents. There is no single biblical viewpoint on ecology, nor were the biblical writers addressing twentieth–century problems. Yet the great weight of biblical tradition‐including the Genesis creation narrative‐represents God as caring actively for all living beings, and humanity as having not only dominion over, but also responsibility for the well–being of other creatures. The Bible gives no support to those who would (...) exploit the earth's resources at the cost of destroying any species of life. (shrink)

Richard Sylvan (né Routley) was one of Australasia's most prolific and systematic philosophers. Though known for his innovative work in logic and metaphysics, the astonishing breadth of his philosophical endeavours included almost all reaches of philosophy. Taking the view that very basic assumptions of mainstream philosophy were fundamentally mistaken, he sought radical change across a wide range of theories. However, his view of the centrality of logic and recognition of the possibilities opened up by logical innovation in the fundamental (...) areas of metaphysics resulted in his working primarily in these two, closely connected fields. It is this work in logic and metaphysics that is the main focus of what follows. (shrink)

This thought-provoking book initiates a dialogue among scholars in rhetoric and hermeneutics in many areas of the humanities. Twenty leading thinkers explore the ways these two powerful disciplines inform each other and influence a wide variety of intellectual fields. Walter Jost and Michael J. Hyde organize pivotal topics in rhetoric and hermeneutics with originality and coherence, dividing their book into four sections: Locating the Disciplines; Inventions and Applications; Arguments and Narratives; and Civic Discourse and Critical Theory. Contributors to this (...) volume include Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, Gerald L. Bruns, Charles Altieri, Richard E. Palmer, Calvin O. Schrag,.Victoria Kahn, Eugene Garver, Michael Leff, Nancy S. Streuver, Wendy Olmsted, David Tracy, Donald G. Marshall, Allen Scult, Rita Copeland, William Rehg, and Steven Mailloux. For readers across the humanities, the book demonstrates the usefulness of rhetorical and hermeneutic approaches in literary, philosophical, legal, religious, and political thinking. With its stimulating new perspectives on the revival and interrelation of both rhetoric and hermeneutics, this collection is sure to serve as a benchmark for years to come. (shrink)

Val Plumwood (nee Morrell) is best known in the logic community for her work on relevant logics published jointly with Richard Sylvan. Together, as `"Val and Richard Routley", they worked at the center of the Canberra Logic Group from 1971 to 1981 before they divorced and changed names, whereupon Val shifted her focus to issues in environmental philosophy. Her writing in that latter field drew so much attention, in fact, that most people familiar with her philosophical work know (...) her solely for contributions there and are quite often surprised to hear of her work in non-classical logic. While her ``fame as an environmental philosopher overshadowed her work in logic, this work included significant contributions to the emerging study of non-classical logics and relevant logics in particular. Like Sylvan, she later turned to applications of this non-classical thinking in other areas, eventually in areas traditionally deemed beyond the reach of logical innovation. (shrink)

In this first volume of The Sylvan Jungle, the editors present a scholarly edition of the first chapter, "Exploring Meinong's Jungle," of Richard Routley's 1000-plus page book, Exploring Meinong's Jungle and Beyond. Going against the Quinean orthodoxy, Routley’s aim was to support Meinong’s idea that we can truthfully refer to non-existent and even impossible objects, like Superman, unicorns and the round-square cupola on Berkeley College. The tools of non-classical logic at Routley’s disposal enabled him to update Meinong’s project for (...) a new generation. This volume begins with an Introduction from Dominic Hyde, “The ‘Jungle Book’ in Context,” an essay that situates Exploring Meinong’s Jungle and Beyond historically. We provide the original Preface by Routley, followed by Chapter 1: “Exploring Meinong’s Jungle and Beyond.” In Chapter 2, Nicholas Griffin argues that Sylvan’s project was insufficiently radical with his essay, “Why the Original Theory of Items Didn’t Go Far Enough.” Sylvan revisits his position from this time in Chapter 3, with his article, “Re-Exploring Item-Theory.” Filippo Casati, who has worked in the Routley Archives then takes up the question of the future of Sylvan’s research program in his essay, “The Future Perfect of Exploring Meinong’s Jungle.” Iconic and iconoclastic Australian philosopher Richard Routley published Exploring Meinong’s Jungle and Beyond in 1980. This work has fallen out of print, yet without great fanfare it has influenced two generations of philosophers and logicians. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungEs gibt eine uralte Idee, nach der es – nicht nur, aber vor allem in ethischen Dingen – mit dem, was hier und jetzt geschieht, nicht getan ist. Die Gegenposition macht spätestens dann ihr Recht geltend, wenn sie die wichtige Frage aufwirft, was dieses „Jenseits“ denn mit dem zu tun hat, was hier und heute geschieht. Im Text wird versucht, diese beiden Positionen anhand der Betrachtung einer bekannten Bemerkung aus der Heiligen Schrift miteinander zu vermitteln, also zu zeigen, wie das, (...) was hier und heute geschieht, schon von sich aus auf jenes Andere verweist, und wie dieses wiederum nur verständlich wird vor dem Hintergrund des Hier und Jetzt. (shrink)

In this first volume of The Sylvan Jungle, the editors present a scholarly edition of the first chapter, "Exploring Meinong's Jungle," of Richard Routley's 1000-plus page book, Exploring Meinong's Jungle and Beyond. Going against the Quinean orthodoxy, Routley’s aim was to support Meinong’s idea that we can truthfully refer to non-existent and even impossible objects, like Superman, unicorns and the round-square cupola on Berkeley College. The tools of non-classical logic at Routley’s disposal enabled him to update Meinong’s project for (...) a new generation. This volume begins with an Introduction from Dominic Hyde, “The ‘Jungle Book’ in Context,” an essay that situates Exploring Meinong’s Jungle and Beyond historically. We provide the original Preface by Routley, followed by Chapter 1: “Exploring Meinong’s Jungle and Beyond.” In Chapter 2, Nicholas Griffin argues that Sylvan’s project was insufficiently radical with his essay, “Why the Original Theory of Items Didn’t Go Far Enough.” Sylvan revisits his position from this time in Chapter 3, with his article, “Re-Exploring Item-Theory.” Filippo Casati, who has worked in the Routley Archives then takes up the question of the future of Sylvan’s research program in his essay, “The Future Perfect of Exploring Meinong’s Jungle.” Iconic and iconoclastic Australian philosopher Richard Routley published Exploring Meinong’s Jungle and Beyond in 1980. This work has fallen out of print, yet without great fanfare it has influenced two generations of philosophers and logicians. (shrink)

In this first volume of The Sylvan Jungle, the editors present a scholarly edition of the first chapter, "Exploring Meinong's Jungle," of Richard Routley's 1000-plus page book, Exploring Meinong's Jungle and Beyond. Going against the Quinean orthodoxy, Routley’s aim was to support Meinong’s idea that we can truthfully refer to non-existent and even impossible objects, like Superman, unicorns and the round-square cupola on Berkeley College. The tools of non-classical logic at Routley’s disposal enabled him to update Meinong’s project for (...) a new generation. This volume begins with an Introduction from Dominic Hyde, “The ‘Jungle Book’ in Context,” an essay that situates Exploring Meinong’s Jungle and Beyond historically. We provide the original Preface by Routley, followed by Chapter 1: “Exploring Meinong’s Jungle and Beyond.” In Chapter 2, Nicholas Griffin argues that Sylvan’s project was insufficiently radical with his essay, “Why the Original Theory of Items Didn’t Go Far Enough.” Sylvan revisits his position from this time in Chapter 3, with his article, “Re-Exploring Item-Theory.” Filippo Casati, who has worked in the Routley Archives then takes up the question of the future of Sylvan’s research program in his essay, “The Future Perfect of Exploring Meinong’s Jungle.” Iconic and iconoclastic Australian philosopher Richard Routley published Exploring Meinong’s Jungle and Beyond in 1980. This work has fallen out of print, yet without great fanfare it has influenced two generations of philosophers and logicians. (shrink)

Gott denken: Diese Aufgabe zielt in die Mitte der Philosophie – und eben dieser Aufgabe widmet sich dieses Buch: einem Kompendium der europäischen Religionsphilosophie und ihrer wichtigsten Fragestellungen unter historischen wie systematischen Aspekten. Am Beginn des Bandes findet sich der hier erstmals veröffentlichte Habilitationsvortrag des bedeutenden deutschen Religionsphilosophen Richard Schaeffler – dem dieses Buch gewidmet ist – über Anselm von Canterbury und seinen Widersacher Gaunilo von Marmoutiers. Schaeffler geht der Frage nach, die vor und nach Anselm der Philosophie keine (...) Ruhe gelassen hat: Können wir in unserem Denken zu einer Vergewisserung des Daseins Gottes finden? Wie ein roter Faden zieht sich das Ringen mit dieser Ungewissheit, ob und wie im Denken eine Vergewisserung Gottes möglich ist, durch die Geschichte der europäischen Philosophie. Eben das ist die Leitfrage auch dieses Buches: Welche Bedeutung hat Gott für unser Denken und in unserem Denken? Ist das möglich: zu denken, ohne Gott zu denken? Der InhaltDie Kontroverse zwischen Anselm von Canterbury und Gaunilo von Marmoutiers: zur Frage nach der Vertretbarkeit des Daseins Gottes im Denken • Geschichtliche Bezüge • Gott erkennen und erfahren? • Gott: effabile et ineffabile – sagbar und doch unsagbar • Zur programmatischen Idee einer rationalen Theologie • Etsi Deus daretur – aut non daretur Die HerausgeberChristoph Böhr ist Professor für Philosophie an der Hochschule Heiligenkreuz/Wien. Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz ist Professorin em. für Religionsphilosophie an der TU Dresden sowie Vorstand des Europäischen Instituts für Philosophie und Religion an der Hochschule Heiligenkreuz/Wien. (shrink)

Obwohl hierzu schon einige grundlegende Arbeiten aus den zwanziger und den frühen dreißiger Jahren vorlagen, war es erst Richard Schottkys Dissertation, welche die Fichtesche Rechts- und Staatsphilosophie in die Linie der großen Staatskonzeptionen der Neuzeit richtig einzustellen vermochte. Hier fiel nicht mehr der Blick auf sie aus nationalem Interesse, sondern Fichtes Entwurf wurde als ein notwendiger Schritt erkennbar, der aus Rousseaus _contrat social_ und dessen Reaktionen auf Thomas Hobbes auf der einen Seite, wie auf Locke auf der anderen Seite, (...) zur Grundlage des autonomen Rechtsstaates überhaupt erst führte. Die Abhandlung _Das Problem der Gewaltenteilung bei Rousseau und Fichte_ ergänzt die Dissertation, insbesondere was Fichtes Staatskonzeption betrifft, indem sie auch die späte Rechts- und Staatslehre berücksichtigt und Fichtes erneute Wandlung einbezieht, mit der er in der Spätphilosophie um eine sittliche Fundierung der Rechtssphäre, die den Staat trägt, bemüht ist. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungObwohl Edward Saids Einfluss auf die Nahoststudien, und darüber hinaus auf die Sozial-, Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften, aus vielen Perspektiven als glänzender Triumph oder als Tragödie betrachtet worden ist, stellen nur wenige die erstaunliche Reichweite und Durschlagskraft seines Werks Orientalismus in der akademischen Welt in Frage. Ich möchte hier die Rolle Saids sowie die durch seine Arbeiten beförderte postkoloniale Lehrmeinung untersuchen, mithin auch die Art und Weise, wie der Westen bisher mit dem geistigen Krieg umgeht, den triumphalistische MuslimeEine Bemerkung zum Triumphalismus. (...) Das ist eine ungebräuchliche Bezeichnung derjenigen, die glauben, ihre Gruppe sei allen anderen überlegen und solle zum Beweis ihrer Überlegenheit über diese herrschen: „Wir haben recht, unser Glaube ist wahr, weil wir über euch triumphieren werden.“ In Bezug auf den Islam ist damit eine Form der Religiosität gemeint, die glaubt, es sei ihre Bestimmung, die ganze Welt Allahs Willen zu unterwerfen; die Welt sei geteilt in den Dar al-Harb und den Dar al-Islam und dieser solle jenen ersetzen; im Idealfall stellten die Muslime die Ungläubigen vor die Wahl zwischen Konversion, Tod und Unterordnung. Moderne Demokratien, die auf der Trennung von Kirche und Staat beruhen, erfordern eine offizielle Absage an triumphalistische Religiosität. mit dem erklärten Ziel führen, demokratischen Verfassungen den Dar al-Islam zu oktroyieren. (shrink)

Die dialektische Erkenntnistheorie postuliert gewöhnlich eine Unvereinbarkeit zwischen der transzendentalen Analyse der Bedingungen möglicher Erkenntnis und dem Realismus. Die Annahme der Korrespondenztheorie der Wahrheit wird mit einem naiven Realismus identifiziert und dieser in der Kontroverse mit dem kritischen Rationalimus der gegnerischen Position unterschoben. Jenem werden die Vorzüge dialektischer Betrachtungen als transzendentale Analyse gegenübergestellt. Dieser Argumentation soll hier eine unzulässige Vermengung semantischer Fragen mit erkenntnistheoretischen Fragen nach der Möglichkeit eines Zugangs zu den Tatsachen nachgewiesen werden. Während bei Kant durchaus eine Verbindung (...) von Transzendentalphilosophie und Realismus vorzufinden ist, wird der Charakter transzendentaler Analyse im deutschen Idealismus und in der dieser Tradition folgenden kritischen Theorie seines eigentlichen Sinnes beraubt. Der Versuch, den Realismus instrumentalistisch umzudeuten, muß infolge der Verschränkung semantischer und erkenntnistheoretischer Fragestellungen fehlschlagen. (shrink)

Richard Garbe: Die Samkhya-Philosophie Lesefreundlicher Großdruck in 16-pt-Schrift Neben dem Vedanta ist das Samkhya die maßgebliche Richtung vedischen Denkens. Der Mathematiker und Indologe Richard Garbe analysiert die Ursprünge dieses ältesten philosophischen Systems indischer Herkunft. Großformat, 210 x 297 mm Berliner Ausgabe, 2019 Durchgesehener Neusatz bearbeitet und eingerichtet von Theodor Borken 1894 nach den Quellen von Richard Garbe. Als Kernzeit der Samkhya-Strömung gilt die Zeit von 400 bis 700 n. Chr. Textgrundlage ist die Ausgabe: Die Sâṃkhya-Philosophie. Eine Darstellung (...) des indischen Rationalismus. Nach den Quellen von Richard Garbe. Zweite umgearbeitete Auflage, Leipzig: H. Haessel Verlag, 1917 [hier Abschnitte 2-4 wiedergegeben]. Umschlaggestaltung von Thomas Schultz-Overhage. Gesetzt aus der Times New Roman, 16 pt. Henricus Edition Deutsche Klassik UG (haftungsbeschränkt). (shrink)

Our image of Herbert Spencer is that of a bald, dyspeptic bachelor, spending his days in rooming houses, and fussing about government interference with individual liberties. Beatrice Webb, who knew him as a girl and young woman recalls for us just this picture. In her diary for January 4, 1885, she writes: Royal Academy private view with Herbert Spencer. His criticisms on art dreary, all bound down by the “possible” if not probable. That poor old man would miss me on (...) the whole more than any other mortal. Has real anxiety for my welfare—physical and mental. Told him story of my stopping cart horse in Hyde Park and policeman refusing to come off his beat to hold it. Want of public spirit in passers-by not stopping it before. “Yes, that is another instance of my first principle of government. Directly you get state intervention you cease to have public spirit in individuals; that will be a constantly increasing tendency and the State, like the policeman, will be so bound by red-tape rules that it will frequently leave undone the simplest duties.”1 Spencer appears a man whose strangled emotions would yet cling to a woman whose philosophy would be completely alien to his own, as Webb’s Fabian Socialism turned out to be. Our image of Darwin is more complex than our image of Spencer. We might think of him nestled in the bosom of his large family, kindly, and just a little sad. The photo of him taken by Julia Cameron reveals the visage of an Old Testament prophet, though one, not fearsome, but made wise by contemplating the struggle of life on this earth. These images have deeply colored our reaction to the ideas of each thinker. The pictures are not false, but they are cropped portraits that tend to distort our reactions to the theories of each. If we examine the major features of their respective. (shrink)

Excerpt from Die Antike in Poetik und Kunsttheorie: Von Ausgang des Klassischen Altertums bis auf Goethe und Wilhelm von Humboldt Mit dem Erscheinen des zweiten Bandes von Borinskis Werk wird das 1919 bei Beginn der Neuen Folge unserer Sammlung gegebene Versprechen eingelost. Ich habe vor allem die Tatkraft und die Opferwilligkeit zu ruhmen, die der Verlag an diese Sache gesetzt hat und zwar unter den schwierigsten Umstanden, welche selbst die dankenswerterweise gewahrte Unterstutzung der deutschen Notgemeinschaft alsbald aulserlidi entwerteten. Freilidx blieb (...) davon der innere Wert unberuhrt, der in der Anerkennung von Borinskis Verdienst durch eine so berufene Seite zu erblicken war. In wenig Teilen der Sammlung kommt deren Grundgedanke so stark zum Ausdrudc wie in den zwei Banden Borinskis, ein Gedanke, dessen Fruchtbarkeit sich auch darin zeigt, dal Zneuerdings im Inland wie im Aus land gleichartige Unternehmen hervorgetreten sind. Gewil 3 wird es andrerseits immer deutlicher, da Bdie Antike keineswegs nur ein geschichtli(hes Element unserer Kultur ist, das blol 3 noch wegen des genetisdien Verstandnisses eben dieser Kultur unentbehrlich ware, und zwar gerade auch mit den Erscheinungen ihres Nad1lebens: vielmehr beginnt sie nunmehr wiederum unmittelbare Lebenskrafte zu entfalten. (Was zu ubersehen wohl nur dem erstaunlichen Bildungsmangel moglich ist, mit dem gewisse radikale und fur ihre wichtige Aufgabe vollig unqualifizierte Schulverwaltungen das Andenken ihrer eigenen Fuhrer Lassalle und Pernerstorffer geschandet haben. Quousque tandem?) Fur die Wissenschaft bleibt in jedem Falle die Aufgabe geschichtlichen Verstehens auch weiterhin wesentlich, - nur von hier aus wird zu verhuten sein, dal 3 jene an sich sehr erfreulidie neue Hinwendung zur Antike nidit schlieBlich wiederum bei einem Klassizismus endet, der zum Unterschied von seinem gedankenklaren Vorganger einen voluntaristischen Grundzug haben und uns ganz einseitig im Zeitalter des altertumlichen und tragischen Griechentums festhalten wurde. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.". (shrink)

"Philosophieren in der Renaissance" - das Thema dieses Bandes ist zugleich bescheiden und voraussetzungsreich. Zwar kann der Autor bei weitem keine "Geschichte der Philosophie der Renaissance" versprechen, er beansprucht aber zeigen zu konnen, was in der Epoche der Renaissance zu philosophieren bedeutet hat. Dabei sollen zentrale Themen des Renaissance-Denkens zur Sprache kommen: Wurde des Menschen, Freiheit des Individuums, Mensch und Welt, Religionsfreiheit, Humanismus, Natur, Naturliche Theologie, Vernunft. Unter diesem Themenspektrum setzt sich Blum auch mit dem Problem der Aktualisierung sowie Instrumentalisierung (...) historischen Denkens auseinander. Besonderes Augenmerk gilt der Philosophie der Zeit nach dem 16. Jahrhundert mit ihrer schon in der Renaissance entstandenen Schulphilosophie, werden doch hier die Bindeglieder zum Mittelalter und zur Neuzeit sichtbar. (shrink)

Die Kontroverse mit François Lamy ist unter denen von Leibniz' Système nouveau hervorgerufenen eine der am wenigsten diskutierten. Die wenigen neueren Quellen sind schlecht dokumentiert und in wichtigen Details nicht korrekt. Wir versuchen hier, die Bibliographie richtigzustellen. Da Lamys Arbeit äußerst selten ist, fügen wir englische Übersetzungen der relevanten Stellen bei. Nach Pierre Bayle war eher Lamy als Leibniz der erste, der den Begriff , prüstabilierte Harmonie' verwendete. Es stellt sich heraus, daβ dem nicht so ist.

Dieser Sammelband hat zum Ziel, moderne atheistische Richtungen kritisch und wissenschaftlich zu betrachten. Mit diesen modernen atheistischen Richtungen ist vor allem der in Oxford unterrichtende Biologe und Religionskritiker Richard Dawkins verknüpft, bekennender Gegner von Kreationismus, Intelligent Design und Theologie, der schon 1976 mit der Veröffentlichung seines Buches "Der Gotteswahn" in der breiten Öffentlichkeit auf sich aufmerksam machte. Auch in jüngerer Vergangenheit, und zwar im Jahr 2006, war Dawkins mit seinem Buch (Dawkins 2006) an einem erneuten Aufflammen einer vor allem (...) in den USA geführten Diskussion rund um die Vereinbarkeit oder Unvereinbarkeit von theologischen und evolutionstheoretischen Ansätzen beteiligt. Beim Durchblättern dieses Buches wird spätestens beim Entdecken des vierten Kapitels, das den provokanten Titel "Warum es mit ziemlicher Sicherheit keinen Gott gibt" trägt, klar, dass Dawkins damit keine Brücke zwischen Evolutionsbiologie und Schöpfungstheologie schlagen möchte. Auch Dawkins selbst hält dieses Kapitel für das wichtigste seines Buches: "This chapter has contained the central argument of my book" (cf. Dawkins 2006, p. 187). -/- Dies ist Grund genug, uns dieses Kapitel aus Dawkins' Buch näher anzusehen. Schließlich verbindet Dawkins damit hohe Ansprüche: "If the argument of this chapter is accepted, the factual premise of religion - the God Hypothesis - is untenable. God almost certainly does not exist. This is the main conclusion of the book so far" (cf. Dawkins 2006, p.189). Sein Argument, im englischen Original "main argument" (hier: "Hauptargument") genannt, verdient also genauere Betrachtung und soll in diesem Artikel wissenschaftstheoretisch beleuchtet werden. (shrink)

Can identity be vague? More exactly, can there be objects x and y such that it is vague whether x = y, and the vagueness is due to the objects themselves as opposed to vagueness in language used to denote the objects? The question has been extensively discussed since Evans (1978) where it was claimed that an affirmative answer was a necessary condition for the thesis that there could be vague objects. A recent, ingenious argument in Pinillos (2003) seeks to (...) establish the negative and show that it cannot be de re vague whether x = y. The argument depends crucially on count claims concerning objects whose identity conditions are de re vague, and so we must learn how to count such objects — clouds, persons and much else besides. When that has been accomplished we can see a way out of Pinillos’s argument, and claim that de re vague identity remains coherent. (shrink)

A selection of speeches and essays from the author's second decade as president of Yale University.

Contre Platon et Aristote, c’est dans les corps que les stoïciens et les épicuriens veulent voir les seules réalités, ce qui agit et ce qui pâtit. Par une espèce de rythme, leur physique reproduit celle des physiciens antérieurs à Socrate. Ainsi les stoïciens rejettent, dans les incorporels, les non-être comme le lieu ou le temps.

Leon Kass's often-cited essay, “Death with Dignity and the Sanctity of Life,” provides the basis for a case study in the rhetorical function of definition in debates concerning bioethics. The study examines the way a particular definition of “human dignity” is used to maintain an advantage of power in the debate over the morality of physician-assisted suicide. It also considers sources of human dignity that are deflected from attention by the rhetoric of Kass's formulation.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Secret History of Emotion: From Aristotle's ‘Rhetoric’ to Modern Brain ScienceMichael J. HydeThe Secret History of Emotion: From Aristotle's ‘Rhetoric’ to Modern Brain Science. Daniel M. Gross. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Pp. x + 194. $35.00, Hardcover.The twofold goal of this book is clearly stated by its author: "to reconstitute by way of critical intellectual history a deeply nuanced, rhetorical understanding of emotion that prevailed (...) until the triumph of psychophysiology; second, to show by way of literary and philosophical example how this rhetorical perspective helps us read anew the emotional complex of modernity, whether early or late" (8). Gross' appreciation of the function of emotion emphasizes a phenomenological orientation that is inspired by Martin Heidegger's unpublished 1924 lecture course on Aristotle's Rhetoric. Gross recently co-edited with Ansgar Kemmann a book of original essays dedicated to a critical assessment of this lecture course (Gross and Kemmann 2006). In concluding her contribution to the book, the well-known Renaissance scholar Nancy S. Struever maintains that the course "remains, arguably, the best twentieth-century reading of Aristotle's Rhetoric" (Struever 2006: 127). Gross advances this reading with his creative and insightful assessment of his topic.This advance unfolds as Gross, abiding by phenomenology's well-known critique of the matter, takes issue with the reductive psychophysiology of emotion that Descartes first proposed and that informs latter-day sciences of the mind and the brain. Gross turns to the research program of the distinguished cognitive scientist Antonio Damasio as a way of arguing "how brain science of emotion goes awry when it blunders into social fact" (29). The reductionism of science, in other words, misses the forest for the trees. Admitting that Damasio is open to inquiries outside the boundaries of neurobiology, Gross nevertheless takes particular issue with Damasio's model for such a project: Edward O. Wilson's, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Indeed, Wilson never gives rhetoric a nod when he acknowledges the worth of the humanities in his book.This slight, coming from Wilson, Damasio, and other scientists, fuels Gross's enthusiasm for turning to Aristotle's analysis of the pathe in book two of the Rhetoric. With Aristotle's discussion of "anger" in mind, for example, Gross emphasizes how we live in "a contoured world of emotional investments, where some people have significantly more liabilities than others" (3). [End Page 326]The point warrants elaboration: "The contours of our emotional world have been shaped by institutions such as slavery and poverty that simply afford some people greater emotional range than others, as they are shaped by publicity that has nothing to do with the inherent values of each human life and everything to do with technologies of social recognition and blindness" (4). Gross links this Aristotelian based social-psychological insight with such early modern philosophers, psychologists, and cultural critics as Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, William Perfect, and then with such contemporary intellectuals as Judith Butler. Gross' discussion of this linkage enables him to argue a key point in his overall project: the constitutive power of emotions depends not on how the social passions originate in a moral sense equally shared by all, but rather on the "uneven distribution" of these passions in our social and political lives.Gross makes much of how the rhetoric of this uneven distribution is at work in such particular cases as Aristotle's apathetic slave, Seneca's angry tyrant, Hobbes's resentful preacher, Sarah Fielding's humble hero, and Adam Smith's compassionate spectator. Gross's intellectual acumen shines as he weaves together these cases and expands on their implications for developing a rhetorical understanding of emotion. For example, in chapter three ("Virtues of Passivity in the English Civil War"), Gross offers a critical assessment of Michael Walzer's classic The Revolution of the Saints: A Study in the Origins of Radical Politics in order to show how the emotional makeup of passivity, too often "relegated to a diminished femininity" (87), not only informs the virtue of humility, but also helps it serve rhetorically "the most dramatic revolutionary ends" (110). Additional extended case studies emphasize the specific emotions of apathy, pride, pity... (shrink)

What we value, like, endorse, want, and prefer changes over the course of our lives. Richard Pettigrew presents a theory of rational decision making for agents who recognise that their values will change over time and whose decisions will affect those future times.

The discussion of good and evil must not be confined to the sterile lecture halls of academics but related instead to ordinary human feelings, needs, and desires, says noted philosopher Richard Taylor. Efforts to understand morality by exploring human reason will always fail because we are creatures of desire as well. All morality arises from our intense and inescapable longing. The distinction between good and evil is always clouded by rationalists who convert the real problems of ethics into complex (...) philosophical puzzles. In the first part of Good and Evil, Taylor looks for a more meaningful conception by reexamining and rejecting the whole rationalistic tradition that dominates philosophical ethics. The second part provides an empirical explanation of good and evil, noting that one does not have to look too far to find prime examples of the failure of fixed moral rules. Including important commentary on Joseph Fletcher's groundbreaking situation ethics, and Aristotle's virtues (e.g., magnanimity and pride), Taylor rounds out the book by developing a philosophy of aspiration--personal worth as an ethical ideal--to replace the morality of duty. He offers a modified form of situation ethics to fit the contemporary problems we face. (shrink)

Orientalism and Religion offers us a timely discussion of the implications of contemporary post-colonial theory for the study of religion. Drawing on a variety of post-structuralist and post-colonial thinkers, including Foucault, Gadamer, Said, and Spivak, Richard King examines the way in which notions such as mysticism, religion, Hinduism and Buddhism are taken for granted, and shows us how religion needs to be redescribed along the lines of cultural studies.

Dr. Toynbee is the author of A Study of History in ten volumes, on which he spent twenty-five years, and which has received very high praise from competent critics as well as much criticism. Of the present two books the first is based on the Gifford Lectures delivered in the University of Edinburgh in 1952–3, the second on the Hewett Lectures given in the United States in the Fall of 1955. As the two treat almost identical topics, the first more (...) fully than the second, it is intended here to give a summary of the doctrine contained in the two—mostly in the author’s own words—and then to add a few criticisms. (shrink)

This is the third edition of a classic book first published in 1960, which has sold thousands of copies in two paperback edition and has been translated into several foreign languages. Popkin's work ha generated innumerable citations, and remains a valuable stimulus to current historical research. In this updated version, he has revised and expanded throughout, and has added three new chapters, one on Savonarola, one on Henry More and Ralph Cudworth, and one on Pascal. This authoritative treatment of the (...) theme of scepticism and its historical impact will appeal to scholars and students of early modern history now as much as ever. (shrink)

Thinking through the body: educating for the humanities -- The body as background -- Self-knowledge and its discontents: from Socrates to somaesthetics -- Muscle memory and the somaesthetic pathologies of everyday life -- Somaesthetics in the philosophy classroom: a practical approach -- Somaesthetics and the limits of aesthetics -- Somaesthetics and Burke's sublime -- Pragmatism and cultural politics: from textualism to somaesthetics -- Body consciousness and performance -- Somaesthetics and architecture: a critical option -- Photography as performative process -- Asian (...) ars erotica and the question of sexual aesthetics -- Philosophy as awakened life : everyday aesthetics of embodiment in American transcendentalism and Japanese Zen practice -- Somatic style. (shrink)

According to certain normative theories in epistemology, rationality requires us to be logically omniscient. Yet this prescription clashes with our ordinary judgments of rationality. How should we resolve this tension? In this paper, I focus particularly on the logical omniscience requirement in Bayesian epistemology. Building on a key insight by Hacking :311–325, 1967), I develop a version of Bayesianism that permits logical ignorance. This includes: an account of the synchronic norms that govern a logically ignorant individual at any given time; (...) an account of how we reduce our logical ignorance by learning logical facts and how we should update our credences in response to such evidence; and an account of when logical ignorance is irrational and when it isn’t. At the end, I explain why the requirement of logical omniscience remains true of ideal agents with no computational, processing, or storage limitations. (shrink)