DOCSLIB.ORG

Transcendence and Transformation: Charles Taylor and the Promise of Inclusive Humanism in a Secular Age

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Philosophy ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 6-9-2016 Transcendence and Transformation: Charles Taylor and the Promise of Inclusive Humanism in a Secular Age. Phillip Williamson Schoenberg Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/phil_etds Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Schoenberg, Phillip Williamson. "Transcendence and Transformation: Charles Taylor and the Promise of Inclusive Humanism in a Secular Age.." (2016). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/phil_etds/8 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Phillip Williamson Schoenberg Candidate Philosophy Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Iain Thomson, Co-Chairperson Russell B. Goodman, Co-Chairperson Kelly Becker Piotr Gutowski TRANSCENDENCE AND TRANSFORMATION: CHARLES TAYLOR AND THE PROMISE OF INCLUSIVE HUMANISM IN A SECULAR AGE By PHILLIP WILLIAMSON SCHOENBERG B.A., Philosophy, San José State University, 2004 M.A., Philosophy, San José State University, 2006 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Philosophy The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2016 Dedication To Amanda Por un beso de la flaca daría lo que fuera por un beso de ella aunque sólo uno fuera. Aunque sólo uno fuera. iii Acknowledgements I have been blessed, as they say, with many friends without whom the present project could never have come to be. I began the study of philosophy in John Himelright's introduction to philosophy class, and I'm happy to lay all the blame on him for the subsequent two decades I spent reading philosophy. John is an inspiring teacher, and a true friend. A related debt goes to Maranina Olcott, who taught me to construe the Greek, and much more besides. These two have enriched my life by introducing me to classical Greek philosophy and culture, and I owe them a debt I cannot repay. During the three years I spent at San José State University I was fortunate to study under Peter Hadreas, Thomas Leddy and Richard Tiezen, who encouraged me to continue my study of philosophy beyond the MA, and supported my application to the University of New Mexico. At UNM Stephen Harris was the only other member of my "cohort" (a martial metaphor especially oddly applied to us), and I have learned much from his friendship, and kindness over the years. At UNM I have also had the pleasure to work alongside, and am grateful for many conversations with Graham Bounds, Daniel Briggs, Andrew Dobbins, Jennifer Gammage, Laura Guerrero, Charles Kalm, Jeremy Martin, Ethan Mills, and Douglas Vanbenthuysen. iv My committee at UNM was supportive of my project from the beginning, and continued to support it to the end, through the many versions of my thesis. I am deeply grateful to Iain Thomson, my true Doktorvater, for his moral and intellectual support, and his example as a teacher, a scholar, and as a human being. Likewise, I am grateful to Russell Goodman, my original advisor. It was Dr. Goodman who originally encouraged my interest in Taylor and introduced me to pragmatism. He also reintroduced me to Ralph Waldo Emerson, for which I am exceedingly glad. Kelly Becker was important for the dissertation in ways I'm sure he may never fully appreciate, but it is a better work because of his presence on my committee. Finally, Piotr Gutowski, the "outside" member of my committee was, in the end, also one of the most engaged, supportive and critical. I am also thankful for his friendship. Besides these four official members of my committee, I would like to thank John Bussanich, a truly maieutic soul, who should have been on my committee. For friendship and encouragement I would also like to thank Gail Baker. Gail read a very early version of this manuscript and it is better for her comments. For our sacred retreat of friendship and virtue, without which I would have given up on this project long ago, I would like to thank my fraternity brothers, especially Esteban Aguilar, Kenneth Davis, Jeff Johnson, and Robert Jones. I am a better person for our acquaintance. v Finally, I would like to thank my students. I have taught every semester for over a decade, and each class has offered me a renewed commitment to philosophy, and confirmed my conviction that the teaching of philosophy changes lives. Among the many students who have inspired me, Ranime Oueis, Tim Regalado, Ricardo Roybal, Oliver Stephanz and Lisa Sundval especially stand out. I would also like to mention, by way of memorial, my student Wolfgang Scott-Cohen. Finally, I thank my family most of all: Amanda, Robert and "baby girl." One of the most fundamental, and most important experiences of self-transcendence available to us in this world comes with becoming a parent, the sudden realization one only finds one's true self in loving devotion to another. vi TRANSCENDENCE AS TRANSFORMATION: CHARLES TAYLOR AND THE PROMISE OF INCLUSIVE HUMANISM IN A SECULAR AGE By Phillip Williamson Schoenberg B.A., Philosophy, San José State University, 2004 M.A., Philosophy, San José State University, 2006 Ph.D., Philosophy, The University of New Mexico, 2016 ABSTRACT This is a study in the religious philosophy of the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor. I focus in particular on the role of transcendence in his later writing on religion and secularity with the aim of contributing to a better understanding of his overall vision of the way out of the malaise of modernity, namely, his adumbration of a pluralistic solution, which I call "inclusive humanism" in contrast to both a narrow religious humanism on the one hand, and a narrow "exclusive" secular humanism on the other. Transcendence as transformation is the centerpiece of Taylor's hope for the moral and spiritual health of the late modern West, a civilization that he argues is struggling to maintain its commitment to a number of demanding universal moral standards in the face of dwindling resources for vii articulating continued affirmation or practical commitment. While Taylor believes that the Judeo-Christian tradition contains within itself the potential for renewal, his pluralist vision is open to the possibility of a new, inclusive humanism. The requisite transformation he envisions is modeled after religious conversion, but it is also clear that Taylor is open to non-religious possibilities. viii Table of Contents Chapter One Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 Chapter Summary ...................................................................................................... 7 Chapter Two Challenges to Humanism and Transcendence in a Secular Age ..... 14 Ruth Abbey’s Challenge to Taylor’s Secularity Thesis ....................................... 21 Taylor’s Working Definition of Religion .............................................................. 28 Problems Arising from Taylor's Critique of Modernity in Sources of the Self .. 34 Chapter Three Varieties of Transcendence in a Secular Age .................................... 49 On the Very Idea of Transcendence ...................................................................... 51 The Immanent Frame .............................................................................................. 57 Exclusive Humanism: The Modern Alternative to Religious Transcendence 59 Chapter Four Transcendence as Transformation and the Promise of Inclusive Humanism ................................................................................................................ 77 Chapter Five Two Critics of Taylor on Transcendence ............................................ 102 Martha Nussbaum on Internal Transcendence and Drawing the Line ......... 103 Drawing the Line ................................................................................................... 120 Nussbaum on the Incoherence of Immortality .................................................. 124 The Maximal Demand ........................................................................................... 126 The (In)Adequacy of Exclusive Humanism ....................................................... 134 Thomson on Ontological Inconsistencies and Drawing the Line ................... 141 ix Chapter Six Pragmatism and Inclusive Humanism: Taylor and Dewey .............. 163 Taylor and Dewey: The Potential for a Constructive Engagement ................ 166 Reference List .................................................................................................................... 182 x Chapter One Introduction Let us pose the question once more in principle: Is faith possible without transcendence? Can man be taken possession of by a goal belonging to the inner world, that has the character of faith, because its content appertains to the future and is therefore, so to speak, transcendent to the present and in contrast to the suffering, discordancy and self-contradictory reality of the present?--a goal which, like so many religious faiths, has the tendency to delude us concerning the present, to console, to find a substitute in something non-existent, non-present?--and is nevertheless capable of
Recommended publications
  • Dialectics, Difference, Weak Thought

    Dialectics, Difference, Weak Thought

    1 Dialectics, Difference, Weak Thought GIANNI VATTIMO In this essay I will try to sketch the main tenets of weak thought, il pensiero debole, and how it is related to dialectics and difference. This connection is not to be understood mainly or solely as an “overcoming” but, rather, it is to be defined primarily in terms of the Heideggerian notion ofVerwindung , a term whose sense also must be understood within the horizon of a “weak” notion of what it means to think. We cannot in any case read the relationship between these three terms as if we were talking of a passage from one to the other. Weak thought has not entirely left dialectics and difference behind; rather, they constitute for it a past in the Heideggerian sense of Gewesenes, which has to do with the idea of sending [invio] and destiny. With these premises, however, I am not saying that to take dialectics and difference as a point of departure requires I take a theoretical stance which would need to be radically justified, assuming that it could. In the present context, these two terms are “givens” of destiny understood as trans- mission: they are points of reference we encounter each and every time we engage in thinking, here and now. It is probably only “strong” thought, that of deductive cogency, which fears letting the initial move escape, the move after which everything falls into place. And yet the question of beginnings cannot be avoided even from the standpoint of a weak notion of thinking. Weak thought presupposes that, contrary to the heavily metaphysical frame- work beneath the problem of beginnings (starting from the first principles of Being), and contrary moreover to a historicist metaphysics (in Hegel’s sense, in which Being has no first principles but is rather a providential process: to think means to be up on the times), a third way may be possible.
  • The Normativity of Human Rights Is Self-Evident

    The Normativity of Human Rights Is Self-Evident

    HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY The Normativity of Human Rights Is Self-Evident Amitai Etzioni* ABSTRACT Attempts to justify human rights in terms of other sources of normativity unwittingly weaken the case of human rights. Instead these rights should be treated as moral causes that speak to us directly, as one of those rare precepts that are self-evident. All will hear self-evident moral claims un- less they have been severely distracted, and even these persons will hear these claims once they are engaged in open moral dialogue. Oddly, the strongest support for treating human rights as self-evident may well be a consequentialist argument. I. INTRODUCTION Numerous attempts have been made to justify human rights in terms of other sources of normativity, or values that can be used to justify these rights. This article suggests that such attempts unwittingly weaken the case of human rights and that instead these rights should be treated as moral causes that speak to us directly, as one of those rare precepts that is self-evident.1 Sug- gesting that human rights should be treated as self-evident does not deny * Amitai Etzioni is University Professor at The George Washington University where he is also director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies. He has served as a Senior Advisor to the White House and as President of the American Sociological Association, and has also taught at Columbia University, Harvard University, and University of California-Berkeley. He was listed as one of the top 100 American intellectuals in Richard Posner’s Public Intellectuals. He is the author of numerous books, including Security First: For A Moral, Muscular Foreign Policy and The New Golden Rule: Community and Morality in a Democratic Society.
  • One Hundred Years of Thomism Aeterni Patris and Afterwards a Symposium

    One Hundred Years of Thomism Aeterni Patris and Afterwards a Symposium

    One Hundred Years of Thomism Aeterni Patris and Afterwards A Symposium Edited By Victor B. Brezik, C.S.B, CENTER FOR THOMISTIC STUDIES University of St. Thomas Houston, Texas 77006 ~ NIHIL OBSTAT: ReverendJamesK. Contents Farge, C.S.B. Censor Deputatus INTRODUCTION . 1 IMPRIMATUR: LOOKING AT THE PAST . 5 Most Reverend John L. Morkovsky, S.T.D. A Remembrance Of Pope Leo XIII: The Encyclical Aeterni Patris, Leonard E. Boyle,O.P. 7 Bishop of Galveston-Houston Commentary, James A. Weisheipl, O.P. ..23 January 6, 1981 The Legacy Of Etienne Gilson, Armand A. Maurer,C.S.B . .28 The Legacy Of Jacques Maritain, Christian Philosopher, First Printing: April 1981 Donald A. Gallagher. .45 LOOKING AT THE PRESENT. .61 Copyright©1981 by The Center For Thomistic Studies Reflections On Christian Philosophy, All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or Ralph McInerny . .63 reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written Thomism And Today's Crisis In Moral Values, Michael permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in Bertram Crowe . .74 critical articles and reviews. For information, write to The Transcendental Thomism, A Critical Assessment, Center For Thomistic Studies, 3812 Montrose Boulevard, Robert J. Henle, S.J. 90 Houston, Texas 77006. LOOKING AT THE FUTURE. .117 Library of Congress catalog card number: 80-70377 Can St. Thomas Speak To The Modem World?, Leo Sweeney, S.J. .119 The Future Of Thomistic Metaphysics, ISBN 0-9605456-0-3 Joseph Owens, C.Ss.R. .142 EPILOGUE. .163 The New Center And The Intellectualism Of St. Thomas, Printed in the United States of America Vernon J.
  • A Secular Contract,A Sacred Calling Jacques Maritain and John Dewey

    A Secular Contract,A Sacred Calling Jacques Maritain and John Dewey

    A Secular Contract,A Sacred Calling Jacques Maritain and John Dewey on Education:A Reconsideration 247 by Gerald L. Gutek acques Maritain and John Dewey were two of the towering figures in philosophy of education. Maritain led an international revival of JAristotelian and Thomist philosophies known as Integral Humanism. Dewey,a founding figure of Pragmatism,exercised a significant influence on American education. Originating in very different philosophical set- tings, their ideas on education tend to represent polar opposites. An analysis of the divergent insights on education presented by Maritain and Dewey can help educators step back and reflect on their work. These two thinkers’ voices have a relevance that continues to speak to us about the problems of education. Philosophical and Theoretical Orientation To discuss Maritain and Dewey on education,we consider the origin of their ideas in different philosophical and theoretical contexts. Maritain’s concepts of universal truth and purposeful human life origi- nate in the Aristotelian and Thomist traditions, especially their meta- physics. Maritain espouses Aristotle’s metaphysics, which sees objective reality as operating according to universal natural laws. He endorses Aristotle’s epistemology that human beings have the potentiality to acquire knowledge about this reality by forming concepts through a twofold process of sensation and abstraction. Aristotle’s view of knowl- edge and knowing differs from Plato’s theory of reminiscence, in which ideas existing latently in the mind are brought to consciousness. True to his Aristotelian origin, Maritain consistently argues that human beings’ powers of intellect endow them with the potential of rationality. Although Maritain’s philosophy of education rests on Aristotle’s meta- physics, Dewey rejects metaphysics as purely speculative and empirical- ly unverifiable.
  • 1 the Post-Secular Debate

    1 the Post-Secular Debate

    The Post-Secular Debate: Introductory Remarks Camil Ungureanu and Lasse Thomassen* Some scholars have recently expressed their doubts about the popular use of the term “post-secularism” and suggested that it is merely a short-lived fashion in social theory and philosophy, all too often used to gain access to research grants.1 Veit Bader may be perfectly right about the term itself, for in time it may indeed fall into disregard and disappear from use. Skepticism about its inflationary use is, we think, warranted. However, we also submit that, if severed from the temptation of proposing a new grand narrative, “post-secularism” can be useful for designating a socio-cultural phenomenon that will not wither away any time soon. Let us first consider the inflationary reading according to which the “return” of religion is interpreted as the shift to a new age or to a new type of society coming after the secular one. According to this influential reading, advanced by philosophers as different as Jürgen Habermas, John D. Caputo, and Gianni Vattimo, in this new age a transformed religion may play a fundamental role in the socio-political sphere and enable individuals to overcome unhelpful divisions between faith and reason. Habermas, for one, speaks of a new “post-secular society” in which religious and non- * Department of Social and Political Science, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. Email: camil.ungureanu@ upf.edu. School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary, University of London. Email: [email protected] 1 religious citizens engage, predominantly in the social-public sphere, in a process of mutual learning and reconciliation through dialogue and the exchange of reasons.2 For Habermas, religious and non-religious citizens can attain agreements and enrich public discourse by means of a rational dialogue, understood, in large part, as leading to the translation of sacred language into secular language.
  • (Narrative) Introduction to Richard Kearney's

    (Narrative) Introduction to Richard Kearney's

    HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies ISSN: (Online) 2072-8050, (Print) 0259-9422 Page 1 of 9 Original Research Reading ‘blackface’: A (narrative) introduction to Richard Kearney’s notion of carnal hermeneutics Author: Prominent Irish philosopher Richard Kearney’s notion of ‘carnal hermeneutics’ is introduced 1,2 Helgard Pretorius by applying it to a case study of a recent event that took place at one of South Africa’s university Affiliations: campuses. The narrative assists in illuminating some of the core principles of carnal 1Faculty of Theology, Vrije hermeneutics and illustrates the applicability of carnal hermeneutics as a ‘diagnostic caring for Universiteit, the Netherlands lived existence’. In the process, an analysis is also given of the event in question, which is connected to what has widely been labelled as ‘blackface’. In conclusion, the contextual, 2 Faculty of Theology, philosophical, ethical, and theological implications of carnal hermeneutics are explored with Stellenbosch University, South Africa an eye on theological praxes in South Africa today. Corresponding author: Helgard Pretorius, Introduction [email protected] How do we sense, figure, and discern the other in our midst? Dates: Received: 21 July 2015 It is in response to this enigmatic challenge that I would like to facilitate a dialogue with Accepted: 28 Oct. 2015 Richard Kearney’s1 notion of ‘carnal hermeneutics’.2 The question of otherness and the : Published 31 May 2016 stranger has occupied Western thought and culture from its earliest beginnings. Yet it has How to cite this article: most often been dealt with from a perspective that holds reason as superior, even divorced Pretorius, H., 2016, ‘Reading from bodily existence.
  • Augustine and Rousseau on the Politics of Confession

    Augustine and Rousseau on the Politics of Confession

    Augustine and Rousseau on the Politics of Confession by Taylor Putnam A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Science Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2014, Taylor Putnam Abstract This thesis looks at the widely acknowledged but largely unexplored relationship between Augustine’s Confessions and Rousseau’s Confessions. In particular, it argues that Rousseau’s text demonstrates an indebtedness to both Augustine’s treatment of time within eternity and the political figure of the Christian preacher. By first comparing their competing interpretations of original sin as told in Genesis and then tracing those interpretations through the autobiographical narratives of each text, it is argued that Augustine and Rousseau both offer their lives as examples of their respective understandings of human nature. Further still, Rousseau’s attempt to supplant Augustine’s autobiography with his own sees the Augustinian preacher reformulated into the figure of the solitary walker. As a result, what was a politics of the will restrained by the temporal horizon of man becomes unleashed as the imposition of the timeless imagination. i Acknowledgments I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Newell for his willingness to have me as a graduate student and for supervising my thesis. He generously provided me with the opportunity to pursue this education and I will be forever thankful for it. I would also like to thank Professor Darby for being my second reader and, more importantly, for his unwavering support throughout my degree. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents who in their wisdom gave me the freedom to fail and demystified what is required to learn.
  • Religion, Ethics, and Poetics in a Tamil Literary Tradition

    Religion, Ethics, and Poetics in a Tamil Literary Tradition

    Tacit Tirukku#a#: Religion, Ethics, and Poetics in a Tamil Literary Tradition The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Smith, Jason William. 2020. Tacit Tirukku#a#: Religion, Ethics, and Poetics in a Tamil Literary Tradition. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard Divinity School. Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37364524 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use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
  • Nihilism & Emancipation: Ethics, Politics, & Law Gianni Vattimo

    Nihilism & Emancipation: Ethics, Politics, & Law Gianni Vattimo

    Nihilism & Emancipation: Ethics, Politics, & Law Gianni Vattimo Foreword by Richard Rorty [ix] Gianni Vattimo is a prominent social democratic politician, a widely read newspaper columnist, and a distinguished philosopher. He was elected in 1999 to the European Parliament, where he has been very active in promoting progressive social legislation and in furthering European unification. For decades, his comments on the political scene in Italy and Europe have appeared in La stampa and other leading Italian newspapers and magazines; he is currently using those media to unleash fierce criticisms of the Berlusconi regime. His philosophical writings, of which this volume provides a rich sample, are among the most imaginative contributions to the tradition of philosophical thought that flows from Nietzsche and Heidegger. These writings are perfectly suited to the needs of those hitherto unfamiliar with this tradition who would like to gain an understanding of the intellectual outlook he calls "nihilism." This way of seeing things might also be called "commonsense Heideggerianism," for it is widespread, and often taken for granted, among European intellectuals. Many philosophers who, like Vattimo and Derrida, were students in the 1950s, were deeply impressed by Heidegger essays such as "Letter on Humanism," "The Question Concerning Technology," "The Origin of the [x] Work of Art" and "Nietzsche's Word: God is Dead." Many of them presuppose, in their own writings, their readers' familiarity with Heidegger's story about the history of Western thought—his account of how the Platonic dream of escaping from Becoming to Being has been dreamt out, and how Nietzsche brought metaphysics to its destined end by inverting Plato, giving Becoming primacy over Being.
  • Humanism and Christianity: Shared Values?

    Humanism and Christianity: Shared Values?

    Shipton et al.: Humanism and Christianity: Shared Values? WARREN SHIPTON, YOUSSRY GUIRGUIS, AND NOLA TUDU Humanism and Christianity: Shared Values? Introduction The word humanism is derived from the Latin humanitas that originally meant the study of human nature. The idea was to elevate humanity with a focus on human dignity and potential through education (Ritchie and Spencer 2014:15, 16). The meaning attributed to the word humanism, in its broadest sense, allowed Christians and non-believers initially to oc- cupy common territory (64-78). In the early-middle Christian era, some thinkers sought to acquaint themselves with the achievements, literature, and thought of past civilizations, particularly Greek, with a view to rec- onciling theology with the philosophy of the classical philosophers (New World Encyclopedia n.d.; Odom 1977:126-128, 183-186). Outside Christian circles, elements supportive of the pre-eminence of human thought and abilities have long been seen among philosophers; however, not all forms of humanism were atheistic, as seen in Confucian thought (Gupta 2000:8- 12). There also are those who have been called “religious” or “spiritual” humanists (Eller 2010:10). The Medieval civilization that followed the collapse of the Roman Em- pire (AD 476) was marked by the rule of kings with nobles supporting the king in return for privileges. The majority of the population existed in serfdom; the Church reigned supreme. A change came in the 14th century helped by the fact that famine and disease created disaster. The abuses in the Church and the pessimism prevalent in society created a climate for change in Europe.
  • Humanity and Hospitality an Approach to Theology in the Times of Migration

    Humanity and Hospitality an Approach to Theology in the Times of Migration

    Humanity and hospitality An approach to theology in the times of migration RENÉ DAUSNER n contrast to discourses on the relation between religion and violence, this project focuses Ion the biblical commitment that God can be understood as the one who ‘loves the stranger’ (Deut. 10:18). With regard to this central passage it will be asked what are the implications that this image of God can offer? In what way can monotheism be interpreted as ‘a school of xenophilia’ (E. Levinas)? What does the inclination of God to the stranger mean for the understanding of humanity, metaphysics, and migration? Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) has suggested that we understand metaphysics, in the context of the thinking of Levinas, as ‘an experience of hospitality’ (Derrida 1999a: 46). With regard to this idea, I would like to ask what role can (the question of) God play within the political, sociological, ethical, etc. discourses of diversity and migration? Introduction In the following contribution, I will not discuss the negative effects of religion (cf. Assmann 2003, 2015; Schieder 2014); instead, I will ask what one can – positively – learn from the biblical narratives concerning God with regard to the wide field of the issue of migration – and the other way around. Migration is, without any doubt, one of the most urgent issues of a common and coming society of Europe. In Germany, as well as in other European countries such as the Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, and Finland, we can observe a tendency towards an acceptance of nationalist and right- wing parties . Xenophobia, that is, the fear, and sometimes even hatred, of strangers, is the expression of a politics of national self-isolation and what one refers to, with a German term, as Angst.
  • Re-Construction and Definition of New Branches & Hierarchy of Sciences

    Re-Construction and Definition of New Branches & Hierarchy of Sciences

    Philosophy Study, July 2016, Vol. 6, No. 7, 377-416 doi: 10.17265/2159-5313/2016.07.001 D DAVID PUBLISHING New Perspective for the Philosophy of Science: Re-Construction and Definition of New Branches & Hierarchy of Sciences Refet Ramiz Near East University In this work, author evaluated past theories and perspectives behind the definitions of science and/or branches of science. Also some of the philosophers of science and their specific philosophical interests were expressed. Author considered some type of interactions between some disciplines to determine, to solve the philosophical/scientific problems and to define the possible solutions. The purposes of this article are: (i) to define new synthesis method, (ii) to define new perspective for the philosophy of science, (iii) to define relation between new philosophy perspective and philosophy of science, (iv) to define and organize name, number, relations, and correct structure between special science branches and philosophy of science, (v) to define necessary and sufficient number of branches for philosophy of science, (vi) to define and express the importance and place of new philosophy of science perspective in the new system, (vii) to extend the definition/limits of philosophy of science, (viii) to re-define meanings of some philosophical/scientific theories, (ix) to define systematic solution for the conflicts, problems, confusions about philosophy of science, sciences and branches of science, (x) to define new branches of science, (xi) to re-construct branches and hierarchy of science, (xii) to define new theories about science and branches of science. Author considered R-Synthesis as a method for the evaluation of the philosophy, philosophy of science, sciences and branches of science.