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Socratic Asceticism and the Philosophical Life D.C Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions Vol. 4 2007 ISSN 1609-2392 ___________________________________________________________ Table of Contents Theme: Culture, Diversity, and Shared Values On Being Invisible: Socratic Asceticism and the Philosophical Life D.C. Schindler 7 The Ethical Imagination in Bachelard’s reading of Nietzsche Kuan-Min Huang 19 The Negation of Public Values in Neoliberalism: Market Versus State or State Versus Citizenship? Dionysios G. Drosos 31 Feminist Epistemology and Human Values in African Culture B.A. Lanre-Abass 57 Tempels et la philosophie bantoue Mejame Ejede Charley 73 The Claim of Truth and the Claim of Freedom in Religion Tran Van Doan 89 Dialogue entre la philosophie bouddhiste et la théorie critique de l’École de Francfort. Véronique Tomaszewski Ramses 103 Ambivalence and Rebellion: Yoder and Hauerwas on Democracy Anthony G. Siegrist …..127 Cosmopolitanism, Stoicism, and Liberalism Doug Al-Maini 141 Accidental Democrats? Calvinism’s Ambiguous Contribution to Modern Democratic Ideals James Gerrie 161 The Analytic – Synthetic Distinction in Indigenous African Language Francis Offor 187 Platonic Dialogue and Transformative Philosophy Bharathi Sriraman 197 Non-thematic papers Beyond Natural Law Stephen Theron 209 Faith and the Sublation of Modernity: Kierkegaard, Quixote and the Transformation of Fideism James Mark Shields 231 Book Reviews Philip Manning, Freud and American Sociology, Patricia Cormack 249 Louis Groarke, The Good Rebel Doug Al-Maini 252 Jack Martin, Jeff Sugarman, Janice Thompson, Psychology and the Question of Agency Irene Sonia Switankowsky 256 CONTRIBUTORS D.C. Schindler is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Humanities at Villanova University. His forthcoming book bears the working title, Plato's Critique of Impure Reason: On Goodness and Truth in the Republic. Kuan-Min Huang is an Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. Dionysios G. Drosos is Assistant Professor in Moral Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, Education and Psychology at the University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece. Bolatito Lanre-Abass is a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and is a member of the West African bioethics training programme. She teaches ethics, epistemology and contemporary issues in philosophy, and has published in the areas of ethics and epistemology. Mejame Ejede Charley has taught Philosophy at the Universite de Yaounde 1, the University of Pretoria, and the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary Tran Van Doan is Professor Ordinarius of Philosophy at the National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan, and has taught at the Universities of Vienna and Beijing. Born in Vietnam, he studied in Italy, Austria, Germany, and France, before becoming Professor in Taipei. Veronique Tomaszewski Ramses is a social philosopher teaching at York University, Toronto, Canada. Anthony G. Siegrist is currently a doctoral student in systematic theology at Toronto School of Theology, Wycliffe College in Toronto, Canada. Doug Al-Maini is Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at St Francis Xavier University in Canada. Francis Offor is a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. James Gerrie is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS, Canada. Bharathi Sriraman is a doctoral student in Philosophy at the University of Ottawa, Canada. James Mark Shields is an Assistant Professor in East Asian religions at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. His research area is modern Buddhist philosophy and Asian religious and philosophical ethics. Stephen Theron studied philosophy at Leeds, Pittsburgh and Stockholm, and has taught at universities in Colombia, Sudan, South Africa and Lesotho. He is the author of Morals as Founded on Natural Law (1987), The Recovery of Purpose (1993), and Philosophy or Dialectic? (1994). He lives in Stockholm, where he teaches at the diocesan seminary. EDITORIAL Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions (PCT) is a publication of the World Union of Catholic Philosophical Societies. A multi-lingual philosophical journal, it appears annually in print format. Selected papers, along with a supplementary volume, are published in an electronic format. Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions draws on the important contribution of Catholic Christianity to philosophy. Since it aims at the fruitful exchange of ideas among philosophy and religious and cultural traditions, it also includes studies outside the Catholic Christian traditions. The journal publishes manuscripts in all areas of philosophy, although each issue will contain a number of articles devoted to a specific theme of particular philosophical interest. To encourage dialogue and exchange, the journal will include scholars from Africa, America, Asia, and Europe, and will represent a range of philosophical traditions. Of course, some may ask ‘Why another philosophy journal?’ The aim of the World Union is to bring scholars from the Catholic Christian traditions into contact and exchange with one another, but equally with philosophers from other religious and cultural traditions. More broadly, its aims are (i) to initiate and develop contacts with individuals and associations who are engaged philosophical research and study in, or in areas related to, Catholic Christian traditions – and particularly with those who, for social or political reasons or on account of geographical location, have not been able to do enter into close relationship with philosophers elsewhere; (ii) to serve as a conduit of information about meetings, conferences, and other matters of common interest; (iii) to help, when asked, and as far as possible, in organizing and sponsoring lectures and educational exchanges, particularly in those regions where there is an interest in the Catholic Christian philosophical traditions; (iv) to help, when asked and as far as possible, in the publicity and organisation of conferences on themes consistent with the work of the World Union and, especially, with world congresses of Christian philosophers Most philosophy journals have little interest in drawing explicitly on religious and cultural traditions, or in pursuing exchanges of ideas between philosophy and these traditions – and some might even be said to be opposed to this. Again, while some philosophy journals are published by Christian philosophical organisations or through religiously-affiliated universities, Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions aims explicitly to promote exchanges between religious traditions and cultures, and philosophy. Finally, to encourage the principle of exchange, Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions will be thematic. This orientation reflects the intentions of the encyclical Fides et ratio, and the view that such exchange is of mutual benefit to philosophy and religious and cultural traditions, without interfering with the proper autonomy of the philosophical enterprise itself. Articles appearing in the journal will be of a serious scholarly character and more than just commentaries on issues of contemporary concern. Nevertheless, PCT is open with regard to methodology and approach. The supplementary volume, published on the Internet, will include more general articles, discussion notes, interventions, as well as a selection of articles from the printed volume. The aim of this supplementary volume is to provide additional opportunities for the exchange of ideas. The World Union hopes that PCT will provide a useful means of bringing scholars from across the globe into closer contact with one another – in a way that draws on insights and values to be found in the Catholic Christian and other religious and cultural traditions. William Sweet Editor President, World Union of Catholic Philosophical Societies St Thomas University, Fredericton, NB, Canada [email protected] ON BEING INVISIBLE: SOCRATIC ASCETICISM AND THE PHILOSOPHICAL LIFE D.C. Schindler Is there any compelling reason to live ascetically? To what end would a person willingly renounce goods perfective of human nature that he or she may otherwise lawfully possess? In a Christian context, it would not be difficult in principle to justify such practices of self-discipline by virtue of the superiority of grace over nature, or more specifically as part of one’s obeying a call to a special form of discipleship. But within a pre-Christian Western context, in which the natural order is subordinate to no other, ascetical practices present a fairly direct problem. We associate these practices historically with the attempt to live a “higher” life, the sort of life that would spontaneously have been called “philosophical,” whether we think in this case of the general disregard of bodily pleasures as an ingredient in what Plato called the “practice of death,”1 or the extreme acts of deliberate self-denial in the Stoic pursuit of autarchy.2 But if such acts of renunciation represent indeed a higher life, then what does this imply for the so-called “lower”? If the transcending – not to say, violent suppression – of the passions and apparently natural desires is taken to represent a kind of human excellence, then it would seem to follow that the body and all that belongs to it cannot be said to belong truly to our nature. In this respect, the practice of asceticism would seem to stand as a straightforward expression of contempt for the world. In the following essay, I would like to sketch out
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