“THE IDEA of PROGRESS”: a MODEL COURSE Dr
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Load more
Recommended publications
-
Lenin and the Russian Civil War
Lenin and the Russian Civil War In the months and years after the fall of Tsar Nicholas II’s government, Russia went through incredible, often violent changes. The society was transformed from a peasant society run by an absolute monarchy into a worker’s state run by an all- powerful group that came to be known as the Communist Party. A key to this transformation is Vladimir Lenin. Who Was Lenin? • Born into a wealthy middle-class family background. • Witnessed (when he was 17) the hanging of his brother Aleksandr for revolutionary activity. • Kicked out his university for participating in anti- Tsarist protests. • Took and passed his law exams and served in various law firms in St. Petersburg and elsewhere. • Arrested and sent to Siberia for 3 years for transporting and distributing revolutionary literature. • When WWI started, argued that it should become a revolution of the workers throughout Europe. • Released and lived mostly in exile (Switzerland) until 1917. • Adopted the name “Lenin” (he was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov) in exile to hide his activities from the Tsar’s secret police. Lenin and the French Revolution Lenin admired the revolutionaries in France 100 years before his time, though he believed they didn’t go far enough – too much wealth was left in middle class hands. His Bolsheviks used the chaotic and incomplete nature of the French Revolution as a guide - they believed that in order for a communist revolution to succeed, it would need firm leadership from a small group of party leaders – a very different vision from Karl Marx. So, in some ways, Lenin was like Robin Hood – taking from the rich and giving to the poor. -
The Significance and Shortcomings of Karl Marx
Class, Race and Corporate Power Volume 6 Issue 2 Article 3 2018 The Significance and Shortcomings of Karl Marx Chris Wright Hunter College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Wright, Chris (2018) "The Significance and Shortcomings of Karl Marx," Class, Race and Corporate Power: Vol. 6 : Iss. 2 , Article 3. DOI: 10.25148/CRCP.6.2.008310 Available at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower/vol6/iss2/3 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts, Sciences & Education at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Class, Race and Corporate Power by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Significance and Shortcomings of Karl Marx Abstract In this essay I explain both why Karl Marx remains an important thinker and why he is in some respects inadequate. I focus on the central issue of 'materialism vs. idealism,' and briefly explore ways in which contemporary intellectuals still haven't assimilated the insights of historical materialism. In the last section of the paper I examine the greatest weakness of Marxism, its theory of proletarian revolution, and propose an alternative conceptualization that both updates the theory for the twenty-first century and is more faithful to historical materialism than Marx's own conception was. Keywords Karl Marx, Marxism, socialism Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. This article is available in Class, Race and Corporate Power: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/ classracecorporatepower/vol6/iss2/3 I often have occasion to think that, as an “intellectual,” I’m very lucky to be alive at this time in history, at the end of the long evolution from Herodotus and the pre-Socratic philosophers to Chomsky and modern science. -
Seven Atheisms
SEVEN ATHEISMS Andrew Walker SEVEN ATHEISMS Exploring the varieties of atheism in John Gray’s book Seven Types of Atheism Andrew Walker Emeritus Professor of Theology, Culture and Education, King’s College London Christian Evidence Society christianevidence.org Text copyright © Andrew Walker 2019 Published by the Christian Evidence Society, London, 2019 christianevidence.com All rights reserved Editing and design: Simon Jenkins Cover photograph by PhotoDu.de / CreativeDomainPhotography.com. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) license Contents Introduction 5 The seven atheisms 19th century atheism 6 Secular humanism 8 Science as religion 12 Modern politicial religion 15 God-haters 18 Atheism without progress 22 The atheism of silence 25 Conclusion 27 Index 30 Introduction John Gray’s Seven Types of Atheism (Allen Lane, 2018) is an important book for both religious and non-religious readers. John Gray, who describes himself as an atheist, is nevertheless critical of most versions of atheism. His attitude to atheism is the same as his attitude to certain types of religion. This attitude is predicated upon Gray’s conviction that human beings are intrinsically dissatisfied and unpredictable creatures who can never get along with each other for any length of time. His view is based on a reading of human nature that sails close to the wind of the Christian concept of original sin, and is out of step with most modern forms of atheism. In particular, Gray is allergic to any forms of cultural progress in human behaviour especially if they are couched in positivistic or evolutionary terms. 5 ATHEISM 1 19th century atheism Gray sets out his stall in his first chapter, ‘The New Atheism: A Nineteenth- century Orthodoxy’. -
Searchers After Horror Understanding H
Mats Nyholm Mats Nyholm Searchers After Horror Understanding H. P. Lovecraft and His Fiction // Searchers After Horror Horror After Searchers // 2021 9 789517 659864 ISBN 978-951-765-986-4 Åbo Akademi University Press Tavastgatan 13, FI-20500 Åbo, Finland Tel. +358 (0)2 215 4793 E-mail: [email protected] Sales and distribution: Åbo Akademi University Library Domkyrkogatan 2–4, FI-20500 Åbo, Finland Tel. +358 (0)2 -215 4190 E-mail: [email protected] SEARCHERS AFTER HORROR Searchers After Horror Understanding H. P. Lovecraft and His Fiction Mats Nyholm Åbo Akademis förlag | Åbo Akademi University Press Åbo, Finland, 2021 CIP Cataloguing in Publication Nyholm, Mats. Searchers after horror : understanding H. P. Lovecraft and his fiction / Mats Nyholm. - Åbo : Åbo Akademi University Press, 2021. Diss.: Åbo Akademi University. ISBN 978-951-765-986-4 ISBN 978-951-765-986-4 ISBN 978-951-765-987-1 (digital) Painosalama Oy Åbo 2021 Abstract The aim of this thesis is to investigate the life and work of H. P. Lovecraft in an attempt to understand his work by viewing it through the filter of his life. The approach is thus historical-biographical in nature, based in historical context and drawing on the entirety of Lovecraft’s non-fiction production in addition to his weird fiction, with the aim being to suggest some correctives to certain prevailing critical views on Lovecraft. These views include the “cosmic school” led by Joshi, the “racist school” inaugurated by Houellebecq, and the “pulp school” that tends to be dismissive of Lovecraft’s work on stylistic grounds, these being the most prevalent depictions of Lovecraft currently. -
The Style of Video Games Graphics: Analyzing the Functions of Visual Styles in Storytelling and Gameplay in Video Games
The Style of Video Games Graphics: Analyzing the Functions of Visual Styles in Storytelling and Gameplay in Video Games by Yin Wu B.A., (New Media Arts, SIAT) Simon Fraser University, 2008 Thesis Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology Yin Wu 2012 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2012 Approval Name: Yin Wu Degree: Master of Arts Title of Thesis: The Style of Video Games Graphics: Analyzing the Functions of Visual Styles in Storytelling and Gameplay in Video Games Examining Committee: Chair: Carman Neustaedter Assistant Professor School of Interactive Arts & Technology Simon Fraser University Jim Bizzocchi, Senior Supervisor Associate Professor School of Interactive Arts & Technology Simon Fraser University Steve DiPaola, Supervisor Associate Professor School of Interactive Arts & Technology Simon Fraser University Thecla Schiphorst, External Examiner Associate Professor School of Interactive Arts & Technology Simon Fraser University Date Defended/Approved: October 09, 2012 ii Partial Copyright Licence iii Abstract Every video game has a distinct visual style however the functions of visual style in game graphics have rarely been investigated in terms of medium-specific design decisions. This thesis suggests that visual style in a video game shapes players’ gaming experience in terms of three salient dimensions: narrative pleasure, ludic challenge, and aesthetic reward. The thesis first develops a context based on the fields of aesthetics, art history, visual psychology, narrative studies and new media studies. Next it builds an analytical framework with two visual styles categories containing six separate modes. This research uses examples drawn from 29 games to illustrate and to instantiate the categories and the modes. -
Disraeli and the Early Victorian ‘History Wars’ – Daniel Laurie-Fletcher
Disraeli and the Early Victorian ‘History Wars’ – Daniel Laurie-Fletcher FJHP Volume 25 (2008 ) Disraeli and the Early Victorian ‘History Wars’ Daniel Laurie-Fletcher Flinders University The American historian, Gertrude Himmelfarb, once put the question: ‘Who now reads Macaulay?’ Her own reply to the rhetorical question was: Who, that is, except those who have a professional interest in him–and professional in a special sense: not historians who might be expected to take pride in one of their most illustrious ancestors, but only those who happen to be writing treatises about him. In fact, most professional historians have long since given up reading Macaulay, as they have given up writing the kind of history he wrote and thinking about it as he did. i The kind of history and thinking Himmelfarb was referring to is the ‘Whig interpretation of history’ which is one based on a grand narrative that demonstrated a path of inevitable political and economic progress, a view made famous by the Whig politician and historian Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859). ii In his History of England: From the Accession of James II (1848-1860), Macaulay maintained that the development of political institutions of the nation had brought increased liberties accompanied by the growth of economic prosperity. Macaulay’s study was begun when the educated classes of early Victorian Britain held a widespread fear of a French-style revolution during a time of extensive social, economic and political change. Many, in order to cope with such changes, looked to British history to yield role models as well as cautionary tales of what to avoid in creating a better society. -
J.S. Mill and Marx on Freedom and Alternative Structures of Political Economy: a Reconstructive, Critical and Comparative Inquiry [ 第一日目 ] 第二会場 Armando C
J.S. Mill and Marx on Freedom and Alternative Structures of Political Economy: A Reconstructive, Critical and Comparative Inquiry [ 第一日目 ] 第二会場 Armando C. Ochangco, Ph.D. Associate Professor University of the Philippines Abstract: The proposed paper is intended to provide critical and comparative perspectives on the ideas of freedom to be found in the works of John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx, and how these normative conceptions relate to their visions of alternative economic, social and political systems. Drawing ideas and perspectives from their classic texts (by Mill, such as those from: On Liberty, Principles of Political Economy, On the Subjection of Women, Utilitarianism; and by Marx, such as those from: The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, Critique of the Gotha Program, German Ideology, Capital, among others), I shall provide interpretive and reconstructive accounts of the conceptions of freedom which may be implicit or explicit in their written works, and how they relate to their alternative conceptions of the political economy—the latter understood as alternative configurations of socio-economic and political structures. With these possible interpretations and reconstructions, I shall proceed to argue that these, in certain ways, different but related conceptions of freedom, based on ideas which may be implicit or explicit in their works, are crucial to understanding their normative conceptions of political economy. Moreover, I shall suggest that their views on freedom go deeper and more systematic than what tends -
Christianity, Natural Law and the So-Called Liberal State
Christianity, Natural Law and the So-called Liberal State James Gordley According to the Book of Genesis, “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Gen. 1:26–7) Here, my former colleague Jeremy Waldron has said, is “a doctrine [that]is enormously attractive for those of us who are open to the idea of religious foundations for human rights.”1 What is special about man is that he is created in the image of God. Waldron noted that “[m]any object to the political use of any deep doctrine of this kind. For some, this is a special case of a Rawlsian commitment to standards of public reason generally.”2 He quotes Rawls: “In discussing constitutional essentials and matters of basic justice we are not to appeal to comprehensive religious or philosophical doctrines” but only to “plain truths now widely accepted, and available, to citizens generally.”3 I will come back to this objection later. Rawls’ claim is particularly important for present purposes since he has said the most about what other people can and cannot say in the public forum. Waldron’s own difficulty is with “the further question of what work [this doctrine] can do.”4 Why does it matter? He quoted Anthony Appiah who said, “[w]e do not have to agree that we are created in the image of God ... to agree that we do not want to be tortured by government officials.”5 Towards the end of his article Waldon noted that “[c]onsistently, for almost the whole of the Christian era imago Dei [the image of God] has been associated with man’s capacity for practical reason...”6 He quoted Thomas Aquinas: “man is united to God by his reason or mind, in which is God’s image.”7 I think if he had pursued this point further he could have answered his question. -
1 What Is Scientific Progress?
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by PhilSci Archive What is Scientific Progress? Lessons from Scientific Practice Moti Mizrahi St. John’s University Forthcoming in Journal for General Philosophy of Science Abstract: Alexander Bird argues for an epistemic account of scientific progress, whereas Darrell Rowbottom argues for a semantic account. Both appeal to intuitions about hypothetical cases in support of their accounts. Since the methodological significance of such appeals to intuition is unclear, I think that a new approach might be fruitful at this stage in the debate. So I propose to abandon appeals to intuition and look at scientific practice instead. I discuss two cases that illustrate the way in which scientists make judgments about progress. As far as scientists are concerned, progress is made when scientific discoveries contribute to the increase of scientific knowledge of the following sorts: empirical, theoretical, practical, and methodological. I then propose to articulate an account of progress that does justice to this broad conception of progress employed by scientists. I discuss one way of doing so, namely, by expanding our notion of scientific knowledge to include both know-that and know-how. Keywords: aim of science; Alexander Bird; Darrell Rowbottom; scientific knowledge; scientific practice; scientific progress 1 1. Introduction According to Chang (2007, p. 1), “Scientific progress remains one of the most significant issues in the philosophy of science today.” This is partly because it seems rather odd to deny that science is making progress, but it is difficult to articulate in what sense exactly science is making progress. -
The Relation of History of Science in the Structure of Scientific
The Relation of History of Science to Philosophy of Science in The Structure of Scientiªc Revolutions and Kuhn’s later philosophical work Vasso Kindi University of Athens In this essay I argue that Kuhn’s account of science, as it was articulated in The Structure of Scientiªc Revolutions, was mainly defended on philosophical rather than historical grounds. I thus lend support to Kuhn’s later claim that his model can be derived from ªrst principles. I propose a transcendental reading of his work and I suggest that Kuhn uses historical examples as anti-essentialist Wittgensteinian “reminders” that expose a variegated land- scape in the development of science. T. S. Kuhn was a physicist who became a historian, but who also wrote a book, the Structure of Scientiªc Revolutions (1970),1 that proved seminal in philosophy of science. In that book, unlike what was typical in philosophy of science before the so-called historical turn, there are quite a few refer- ences to particular cases from the history of science. After the Structure, and all the praise and controversy that it evoked, Kuhn published Black- Body Theory and Quantum Discontinuity (1987), a book of history of science. The question that repeatedly arose was: what is the relation of Kuhn’s phi- losophy of science to the history of science? He was asked, for example, whether the Black-Body book exhibited the pattern of development that was elaborated in the Structure. His commentators wanted to know whether the facts pertaining to quantum theory provided conªrmation for his philosophical model, whether they could serve as a testing ground, but also, whether his account of these particular facts was shaped by his philo- sophical model. -
From Liberalisms to Enlightenment's Wake
JOURNAL OF IBERTARIAN TUDIES S L S JL VOLUME 21, NO. 3 (FALL 2007): 79–114 GRAY’S PROGRESS: FROM LIBERALISMS TO ENLIGHTENMENT’S WAKE JEREMY SHEARMUR The progress of that darkness . from its first approach to the period of greatest obscuration. William Robertson, History of the Reign of Charles the Fifth I HAVE KNOWN JOHN Gray for quite a few years, and have long admired his work. We were among the (very few) political theorists in the U.K. who, in the early 1970s, had an interest in the work of Hayek, and more generally in issues relating to classical liberalism. During the 1980s, he emerged as the most powerful and effective theorist of classical liberalism in the U.K., notably through his re- interpretations of John Stuart Mill in Mill on Liberty (1983a), his Hayek and Liberty (1984), and his overview and critical assessment of the lib- eral tradition, Liberalism (1986). We had, over the years, various dis- cussions about Hayek and liberalism—as Gray mentions in his Hayek on Liberty—and in that connection we shared many intellectual con- cerns; notably, with problems about how classical liberalism related to particular traditional cultures, and about the value of lives that did not involve autonomy in any significant sense. Our discussions about these and related matters were occasional, and typically by telephone or at Liberty Fund conferences. In the course of one of these conversations, I suggested to Gray that he might consider col- lecting some of his essays on liberalism into a volume, as he kindly JEREMY SHEARMUR is Reader in Philosophy at the Australian National University. -
Desiring the Big Bad Blade: Racing the Sheikh in Desert Romances
Desiring the Big Bad Blade: Racing the Sheikh in Desert Romances Amira Jarmakani American Quarterly, Volume 63, Number 4, December 2011, pp. 895-928 (Article) Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: 10.1353/aq.2011.0061 For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/aq/summary/v063/63.4.jarmakani.html Access provided by Georgia State University (4 Sep 2013 15:38 GMT) Racing the Sheikh in Desert Romances | 895 Desiring the Big Bad Blade: Racing the Sheikh in Desert Romances Amira Jarmakani Cultural fantasy does not evade but confronts history. — Geraldine Heng, Empire of Magic: Medieval Romance and the Politics of Cultural Fantasy n a relatively small but nevertheless significant subgenre of romance nov- els,1 one may encounter a seemingly unlikely object of erotic attachment, a sheikh, sultan, or desert prince hero who almost always couples with a I 2 white western woman. In the realm of mass-market romance novels, a boom- ing industry, the sheikh-hero of any standard desert romance is but one of the many possible alpha-male heroes, and while he is certainly not the most popular alpha-male hero in the contemporary market, he maintains a niche and even has a couple of blogs and an informative Web site devoted especially to him.3 Given popular perceptions of the Middle East as a threatening and oppressive place for women, it is perhaps not surprising that the heroine in a popular desert romance, Burning Love, characterizes her sheikh thusly: “Sharif was an Arab. To him every woman was a slave, including her.