In Defence of the Importance of Substance Ontology for Personal Identity and the Self/Person
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Plato's Republic and Stoicism CHRISTOPHER GILL I. Introduction In
Colloquium 6 Ethical Reflection and the Shaping of Character: Plato's Republic and Stoicism CHRISTOPHER GILL I. Introduction In this article I explore a striking, and perhaps paradoxical, feature of Greek ethical thought. This is that, in at least two areas of Greek philosophy (Plato's Republic and Stoicism), a complex and credible model of ethical development is combined with an ideal type of character which is often seen as hopelessly unrealistic, and perhaps positively repellent: the ideal which the Stoics call apatheia, or 'absence of passion.' By examining certain aspects of Platonic and Stoic thinking, I aim to bring out both the credibility of their model of ethical development and also the plausibility of the idea that this development might lead to a form of apatheia that is not wholly repellent. The model of ethical development, in broad outline, is a two-stage one: first, the development of pre-reflective virtue, through an upbringing and participation in interpersonal and communal relationships; then that of post-reflective virtue, through systematic ethical debate or dialectic, a form of virtue based on, but deepening or modifying, pre-reflective virtue.1 This model can be subdivided into On this model, and the alternative Greek model, in which reflection is a prerequisite for virtue, see Gill 1996b, 4.6, 5.7; also, on the characteristic structures of thinking in Greek ethical philosophy, Annas 1993, esp. chs. 1 and 22. Here, as elsewhere, I use 'her/him' and 'he/she' indifferently as indefinite two versions. The first is represented by Aristotle's ethical writings, especially the Nicomachean Ethics, and Stoic theory, at least in one prevalent pattern? In this version, the development towards pre- reflective virtue can occur, in principle, within conventional societies; post-reflective virtue may modify pre-reflective virtue, but needs to be based on this. -
Course Description an Examination of Philosophical Issues on the Theme of Relativism. Are Moral Standards Relative to Cultures A
Course Description An examination of philosophical issues on the theme of relativism. Are moral standards relative to cultures and/or moral frameworks? Are there incompatible or non-comparable ways of thinking about the world that are somehow equally good? Is science getting closer to the truth? Is rationality -- the notion of a good reason to believe something -- relative to cultural norms? What are selves? Is there a coherent form of relativism about the self? Discussion of these questions through the writings of contemporary philosophers such as Thomas Kuhn, Karl Popper, Gilbert Harman, Judith Thomson, and Derek Parfit. Emphasis on ways of making these vague questions precise, and critical evaluation of philosophical arguments. Texts Perry, John. A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality. Parfit, Derek. Reasons and Persons. Harman, Gilbert, and Judith Jarvis Thomson. Moral Relativism and Moral Objectivity. Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3 ed. Additional Readings Pryor, James. "How to Write a Philosophy Paper." Blackburn, Simon. "The World." Popper, Karl. Selections from Logic of Scientific Discovery. Putnam, Hilary. "The 'Corroboration' of Theories." Alston, William. "Yes, Virginia, There Is A Real World." Assignments There is a reading assignment for each class meeting. These are often relatively short, but many require close study, and you should not postpone them. In accordance with HASS- D regulations, you will be expected to write approximately 20 pages. These will be divided among 4 papers (the HASS-D requirement is at least 3). There will sometimes be short reading quizzes or study questions for the recitation sections. You must complete these in order to pass the course. -
Non-Religious Ethics? a Critical Notice of Derek Parfit, on What Matters
Non-Religious Ethics? A critical notice of Derek Parfit, On What Matters The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Rosen, Michael. 2013. “Non-Religious Ethics? A critical notice of Derek Parfit, On What Matters.” International Journal of Philosophical Studies 21, no. 5: 755–772. Published Version doi:10.1080/09672559.2013.857818 Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:12967839 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Open Access Policy Articles, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#OAP Non-Religious Ethics? A critical notice of Derek Parfit, On What Matters The History Workshop was a movement of radical social historians which flourished in Britain in the 1960s and 70s. Its goal was to promote “history from below” – to tell the stories of those left out of conventional narratives, and, at the same time, to open up the practice of history itself. Anyway, when the group decided to start a journal, there was a debate over whether it should carry book reviews. Weren’t book reviews – the ranking of others’ work, delivered in a tone of apparent omniscience – examples of exactly the kind of academic gate-keeping against which they had set themselves? So, in its early issues at least, the History Workshop Journal didn’t carry reviews but “Enthusiasms” – contributions in which someone would introduce a new book to readers in positive terms, without pretending to be marking it in some transcendental Prize Fellowship Examination. -
Richard Swinburne's Arguments for Substance Dualism
Richard Swinburne’s arguments for substance dualism. MA by Research in Theology and Religion David Horner September 2018 Richard Swinburne’s arguments for substance dualism. Submitted by David Horner to the University of Exeter as a dissertation for the degree of MA by Research in Theology and Religion in September 2018 This dissertation is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the dissertation may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this dissertation which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. 1 Acknowledgements. I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr Jonathan Hill and Dr Joel Krueger for their support and encouragement in the writing of this dissertation and for their patience in trying to keep me on the straight and narrow. I want to acknowledge the many conversations, on this and other topics, I have had with my friend and philosopher, Dr Chris Boyne, who sadly died in June of this year. I thank all my other chums at The Bull, Ditchling, for listening to my metaphysical ramblings. And finally, I thank my wife, Linda, for once more putting up with this kind of thing. 2 Abstract This dissertation is a contribution to debates in the philosophy of mind and of personal identity. It presents a critical account of arguments for substance dualism to be found in Richard Swinburne’s Mind, Brain, and Free Will (2013). -
Is Psychology What Matters in Survival?
This is a repository copy of Is Psychology What Matters in Survival?. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/164032/ Version: Published Version Article: Gustafsson, Johan orcid.org/0000-0002-9618-577X (2020) Is Psychology What Matters in Survival? Australasian Journal of Philosophy. pp. 1-14. ISSN 1471-6828 https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2020.1791193 Reuse This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. This licence allows you to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the work, even commercially, as long as you credit the authors for the original work. More information and the full terms of the licence here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Australasian Journal of Philosophy ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rajp20 Is Psychology What Matters in Survival? Johan E. Gustafsson To cite this article: Johan E. Gustafsson (2020): Is Psychology What Matters in Survival?, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, DOI: 10.1080/00048402.2020.1791193 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2020.1791193 © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Published online: 19 Oct 2020. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 209 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rajp20 AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2020.1791193 Is Psychology What Matters in Survival? Johan E. -
Derek Parfit (Excerpted from Reasons and Persons, 1984, Pgs
The Badness of Extinction by Derek Parfit (excerpted from Reasons and Persons, 1984, pgs. 453-454) I believe that if we destroy mankind, as we now can, this outcome will be much worse than most people think. Compare three outcomes: (1) Peace. (2) A nuclear war that kills 99% of the world's existing population. (3) A nuclear war that kills 100%. (2) would be worse than (1), and (3) would be worse than (2). Which is the greater of these two differences? Most people believe that the greater difference is between (1) and (2). I believe that the difference between (2) and (3) is very much greater. My view is held by two very different groups of people. Both groups would appeal to the same fact. The Earth will remain habitable for at least another billion years. Civilization began only a few thousand years ago. If we do not destroy mankind, these few thousand years may be only a tiny fraction of the whole of civilized human history. The difference between (2) and (3) may thus be the difference between this tiny fraction and all of the rest of this history. If we compare this possible history to a day, what has occurred so far is only a fraction of a second. One of the groups who holds my view are Classical Utilitarians. They would claim … that the destruction of mankind would be by far the greatest of all conceivable crimes. The badness of this crime would lie in the vast reduction of the possible sum of happiness. Another group would agree, but for very different reasons. -
The Generative Dimension, in the Light of Aristotle's Substance
90 THE GENERATIVE DIMENSION, IN THE LIGHT OF ARISTOTLE’S SUBSTANCE (HYPOKEIMENON) THEORY Xiaoyu XU1 and Xinlei LIU1 ABSTRACT: The paper is dedicated to the analysis of Aristotle’s substance theory within the overall Organicist perception of the universe as a living organism. The suggested analytical pathway begins with the generative substance (in Stagirite’s original term – generative hypokeimenon) and leads to the primary causes, prompted by the constant movement of the “thing”. We argue that Aristotle’s analysis of “matter and form” (in his original texts: “ὕλη – hyle” and “μορφή – morphe”)2 leads to the generative function, reaffirming its dynamism and process expression. KEYWORDS: Aristotle, hypokeimenon, hyle, morphe, potential, reality, dynamism, universe, organism, process, generative function Contents Introduction 1. From the studying of Aristotle’s theory of substance (hypokeimenon) – to realizing the generative dimension 2. From Aristotle’s analysis of “hyle” and “morphe” – to examining the generative potentials that are their natural essences Conclusion 1 Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, CHINA. 2 Following the approach of the BCnA-journal, we consider it essential to apply the genuine terms and notions, used by the Stagirite in his original works, in expressing the authentic (and our own – neo-Aristotelian) conceptual constructions. Thus, we use (adding Italics); hyle – instead of “matter”; morphe – instead of “form”; hypokeimenon – instead of “substance”, etc. Vol. 8, No. 1, BIOCOSMOLOGY – NEO-ARISTOTELISM Winter 2018 91 ГЕНЕРАТИВНОЕ ИЗМЕРЕНИЕ, В СВЕТЕ АРИСТОТЕЛЕВСКОЙ ТЕОРИИ СУБСТАНЦИИ (ГИПОКЕЙМЕНОНА) Чиаю ЗЮЕ и Шинлей ЛЬЮ АБСТРАКТ: Статья посвящена анализу теории субстанции (гипокейменона) Аристотеля в общем восприятии органической вселенной как живого организма. Предлагаемый аналитический путь начинается с порождающего вещества (в первоначальном выражении Стагирита – порождающего гипокейменона) и приводит к основным причинам, побуждающим постоянное движением «вещи». -
Leibniz's Ontology of Individual Substance
THE SCIENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL: LEIBNIZ’S ONTOLOGY OF INDIVIDUAL SUBSTANCE TOPOI LIBRARY VOLUME 6 Managing Editor: Ermanno Bencivenga, University of California, Irvine, U.S.A. Editorial Board: Daniel Berthold-Bond, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, U.S.A. William James Earle, Baruch College, City University of New York,NewYork, U.S.A. Ann Ferguson, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, U.S.A. David Lloyd, Scripps College, Claremont, U.S.A. Topoi Library is sponsoredbythe Department of Philosophy and theSchool of Humanities at the University of California, Irvine Scope: Likethe journal TOPOII, the TOPOI Library is based on the assumption that philosophy isa lively, provocative, delightful activity, which constantly challenges our inherited habits, painstakingly elaborates on how things could be different, in other stories, in counterfactual situations, inalternative possibleworlds. Whatever its ideology,whether with the intent of uncovering a truer structure of reality or of shooting our anxiety, of exposing myths or of following them through, the outcome of philosophical activity is always the destabilizing, unsettlinggeneration ofdoubts, of objections, of criticisms. It follows that this activity is intrinsically a dialogue, that philosophy is first andforemost philosophicaldiscussion, that it requires bringing out conflicting points of view, paying careful, sympathetic attention to their structure, and using this dialectic to articulate one’s approach,tomake itricher, more thoughtful, more open to variation and play.Andit follows that thespiritwhich one bringstothis activity must be one of tolerance, of always suspecting one’s own blindness and consequently looking with unbiased eye in every corner, without fearing to pass a (fallible)judgment on what isthere but also without failing to show interest and respect. -
Overview of Leibniz.Cwk
Overview of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) Paul R. Shockley Dissatisfied with Descartes and Spinoza’s descriptions of substance, believing they had distorted one’s understanding of human nature, freedom, and God, Leibniz synthesis both a teleological (traditional) and mechanical views into a rationalistic worldview that is striking but uncompelling. “...compound substance is the collection of monads. Monas is a Greek word which signifies unity, or that which is one; simple substances, lives, souls, spirits are unities. Consequently all of nature is full of life. ” His aim is demonstrate that God & teleology are not all passe’ in a mechanistic universe: (1) He denies the fundamental relation of extension (substance is primary matter (vs. Descartes; Spinoza); (2) There are no causal relations between created substances; (3) in order to explain universe he appeals to preestablished harmony. I. SUBSTANCE: II. GOD: III. KNOWLEDGE & NATURE Leibniz accepted Spinoza’s single-substance theory & mechanical model of A. Existence: A. Theory of Knowledge: universe but turned Spinozism upside in such a way to speak of individuality of The preestablished harmony of universe provides proof of God’s (1) A person is similar to a subject in grammatical sense : For any true sense or persons, transcendence of God, & reality of purpose & freedom in universe. existence with "surprising clearness ” : “this perfect harmony of so proposition, the predicate is already contained in the subject. Principle of Sufficient Reason. Thus, to know the subject is already to know certain predicates: “ All men are many substances which have no communication with each other”: mortal” is a true proposition because the predicate “mortal” is already contained the A. -
Wlodek Rabinowicz Derek Parfit's Contributions to Philosophy
Wlodek Rabinowicz Derek Parfit's contributions to Philosophy Article (Accepted version) (Refereed) Original citation: Rabinowicz, Wlodek (2016) Derek Parfit's contributions to Philosophy. Theoria, 82 (2). pp. 104-109. ISSN 0040-5825 DOI: 10.1111/theo.12088 © 2016 Stiftelsen Theoria This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/66819/ Available in LSE Research Online: June 2016 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author’s final accepted version of the journal article. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. Derek Parfit’s Contributions to Philosophy Wlodek Rabinowicz In 2014, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Derek Parfit the Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy. In its motivation, the Academy stressed Parfit’s ground-breaking contributions to theory of personal identity, population ethics and analysis of the structure of moral theories. The list of philosophers and logicians who have received the Rolf Schock Prize is as yet relatively short. -
The Leibnizian Vision in Frank Ankersmit's Philosophy of History
INTENSION, SUBSTANCE AND CALCULUS – THE LEIBNIZIAN VISION IN FRANK ANKERSMIT’S PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY Oulu University Faculty of History Master’s thesis 20.5.2019 Aleksi Oja 1 Due to the abundance of referral to the extensive work of Frank Ankersmit and my general reliance on his published books and selected papers as sources, I ask the reader to use the following list of abbreviations of some of the most featured works: NL – Ankersmit, F. R. 1983: Narrative Logic – a Semantic Analysis of the Historian’s Language. Martinus Nijhoff publishers, The Hague, Netherlands. HT – Ankersmit, F. R. 1994. History and Tropology: The Rise and Fall of Metaphor. University of California Press. London, England. HR – Ankersmit, F. R. 2001: Historical Representation. Stanford University Press, California, USA. PR – Ankersmit, F. R. 2002: Political Representation. Stanford University Press, California, USA. SHE – Ankersmit, F. R. 2005: Sublime Historical Experience. Stanford University Press, California, USA. MTR – Ankersmit F. R. 2012: Meaning, Truth and Reference in Historical Representation. Stanford University Press, California, USA. HSI – Ankersmit, F. R. 2013: History as the Science of the Individual. Journal of the Philosophy of History Vol. 7 (3), 396 – 425. WEM – Ankersmit, F. R. 2017: Where the extremes meet. A presently still an unpublished paper, given as the handout for Frank Ankersmit’s opening speech at the Seminar of philosophy of history in October 2017 in Oulu university. 2 Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................. -
PARFIT's MISTAKEN METAETHICS Michael Smith in the First Volume of on What Matters, Derek Parfit Defends a Distinctive Metaethica
PARFIT'S MISTAKEN METAETHICS Michael Smith In the first volume of On What Matters, Derek Parfit defends a distinctive metaethical view, a view that specifies the relationships he sees between reasons, facts, beliefs, desires, aims, actions, and values. Parfit's metaethical view is a version of what he calls 'Objectivism', and he explicitly argues not just for his preferred version of Objectivism, but against all versions of Subjectivism, the metaethical view with which Objectivism is contrasted. Parfit's arguments for Objectivism, and his criticisms of Subjectivism, seem to me to be mistaken, so my aim is to identify where the mistakes lie. Though I do not expect Parfit to agree with me that the mistakes I identify are mistakes, I proceed on the assumption that this does not matter. The best we can do when we engage with philosophers like Parfit, whose detailed metaethical views are part and parcel of a comprehensive worldview with mutually supporting parts, is to state very carefully where our fundamental disagreements with them lie. 1. Reasons Fundamentalism and reasons for belief At the very beginning of On What Matters, Parfit tells us: We can have reasons to believe something, to do something, to have some desire or aim, and to have many other attitudes and emotions, such as fear, regret, and hope. Reasons are given by facts, such as the fact that someone's finger-prints are on some gun, or that calling an ambulance would save someone's life. It is hard to explain the concept of a reason, or what the phrase 'a reason' means.