Philosophy Department Spring 2000 Electives
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Renewing the Self
Renewing the Self Renewing the Self: Contemporary Religious Perspectives Edited by Benjamin J. Wood Renewing the Self: Contemporary Religious Perspectives Edited by Benjamin J. Wood This book first published 2017 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2017 by Benjamin J. Wood and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-9885-6 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-9885-0 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ................................................................................... vii Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Individuality and Sociality in Christian Social Thought Jonathan Chaplin Section A: Historical Orientations Chapter One ............................................................................................... 10 The Canadian Red Tory Tradition: Individualism, Selfhood, Community and the Good Ron Dart Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 30 Autonomous Selves or Loved Others: A Theo-Political Perspective on the Individual Roger Haydon Mitchell Chapter Three -
The Spirit of Transformational Politics: Human Nature, Communication, and Community
THE SPIRIT OF TRANSFORMATIONAL POLITICS: HUMAN NATURE, COMMUNICATION, AND COMMUNITY Mary Elizabeth Domenico A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Communication Studies. Chapel Hill 2017 Approved by: Christian Lundberg William Balthrop Elizabeth Grosz Randall Styers Eric King Watts @ 2017 Mary Elizabeth Domenico ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Mary E. Domenico: The Spirit of Transformational Politics: Human Nature, Communication, and Community Under the Direction of Christian Lundberg This project in communication ethics explores the interrelations among views of human nature, theories of communicative action, and conceptualizations of the constitutive forces of community in Western thought. The central argument, that doctrines of human nature that include extra-material human capacities open avenues for rethinking contemporary political agency, is developed through a genealogy of doctrines of human nature intended to display how ideas of the self are historically configured and influential in thinking about human capacities. I begin with ancient Greek theories of a robust human spirit as portrayed by Homer, Plato, and Aristotle. The second cluster of theorists depicts the degradation of human spirit in religious (Augustine), philosophical (Descartes), and modern scientific doctrines. The third cluster addresses the recuperation of human spirit in the theories of Spinoza, Bergson, and Nancy. These genealogical clusters represent three distinct ways of viewing human nature and capacities for political agency. I challenge theories that presume ideational rationality and discourse are constitutive of community and reformulate the foundation of ethical community based on human spiritual capacities for knowledge beyond the empirical, the creation of new ways of relating to one another, and materializing our ontological connectedness. -
Christianity and Modernity: Why the Liberal Democratic Regime Needs the Church
***Please note: This is a translation of the paper delivered at the conference in June 2009. The original version in Spanish has undergone subsequent revisions that are not reflected in this translation.*** CHRISTIANITY AND MODERNITY: WHY THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC REGIME NEEDS THE CHURCH The comprehension of tolerance in pluralistic societies with liberal constitutions requires that, when dealing with non-believers and those of different [religious] faiths, the believers must understand that the dissent they encounter will reasonably persist . liberal political culture expects that the non-believers also understand the same thing in their dealings with believers.1 Jürgen Habermas The Christian faith is not a system. It cannot be portrayed as a finished and complete intellectual construction. It is a road and the characteristic of a road is that it is only recognized as such if one enters it, and begins to follow it.2 Josef Ratzinger, THE PLACE OF THE CHURCH 1. “The evangelistic task of the Church in all times and all over the world necessarily reverberates in the life of human society. The Church cannot be confined their temples, as God cannot be confined to the conscience.”3 This assertion, made by Pope John Paul II in Asunción during his only visit to Paraguay in May 1988, reasserted not only the position of the Church in relation to politics, and the Paraguayan State, but also against its policy of exclusion and repression of that time. The historical-political context in mid-1988 was delicate: the national- populist regime of General Alfredo Stroessner had hardened greatly, trying to further stifle the yearning for greater freedom of the people, desires that the Catholic Church echoed by taking on a role as the “voice of the voiceless,” which upset the dictator and his henchmen, who criticized Ramos-Reyes its intervention in political affairs. -
Libertarians in Bush's World
ESSAY ON LIBERTY+ LIBERTARIANS IN BUSH’S WORLD Todd Seavey* Imagine ordinary, non-ideological people hearing about an obscure politi- cal sect called libertarianism, which emphasizes self-ownership, property rights, resistance to tyranny and violence, the reduction of taxation and regulation, control over one’s own investments, and the de-emphasizing of litigation as a primary means of dispute resolution. Since this philosophy has very few adherents in the general population and is very much a minority position among intellectuals, one might expect proponents of the creed to count themselves lucky, given the likely alternatives, if the president of the country in which most of them live increasingly emphasized the themes of freedom and ownership in his major speeches; toppled brutal totalitarian regimes in two countries while hounding democracy-hating theocratic terrorists around the globe; cut taxes (despite howls even from some in the free-market camp that the cuts were too deep); called for simplification of the tax code; appointed relatively industry-friendly officials to major regulatory bodies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration despite frequent criti- cism by the media; proposed partially privatizing Social Security (America’s largest socialist boondoggle but one long regarded as sacrosanct by political analysts); and pushed tort reform to combat the chilling effect of lawsuits on doctors and manu- facturers. + Essays on Liberty is a continuing series of the Journal of Law & Liberty, dedicated to explorations of freedom and law from perspectives outside the legal academy. * Director of Publications for the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH.org, HealthFactsAnd- Fears.com), which does not necessarily endorse the views expressed here. -
Chapter 14 Modernities, Sciences, and Democracy
Chapter 14 Modernities, Sciences, and Democracy Sandra Harding The “modern” in “modern science” is a relatively uninterrogated and untheorized concept within the sciences and in the philosophy, sociology, and history of science. This is so today at a time when other aspects of Western sciences have been fruit- fully explored in critical and illuminating ways (see Christensen and Hansen, Chap. 13; and Skovsmose, Chap. 15). In particular, the exceptionalism and triumphalism characteristic of Western attitudes toward our sciences have been explicitly criti- cized and purportedly abandoned by many of the scholars working in science studies fields. By exceptionalism is meant the belief that Western sciences alone among all human knowledge systems are capable of grasping reality in its own terms – that these alone have the resources to escape the human tendency to project onto nature cultural assumptions, fears, and desires. By triumphalism is meant the assumption that the history of science consists of a history of achievements – that this history has no significant downsides. According to this view, Hiroshima, environmental destruction, the alienation of labour, escalating global militarism, the increasing gap between the “haves” and the “have nots,” gender, race, and class inequalities – these and other undesirable social situations are all entirely consequences of social and political projects, to which the history of Western sciences makes no contribution. Such conventional Euro centric assumptions can no longer gather the support either in the West or elsewhere that they could once claim. In recent decades a huge amount of literature on modernity has emerged from the social sciences and humanities. Stimulated by the massive shifts in local and global social formations during the last half of the Twentieth Century, and by the post-modern response to such changes, social theorists, literary and other cultural critics, and, especially, historians have debated the uneven and complex origins, nature, and desirable futures of modernity, modernization, and modernism. -
MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES to MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Dissertation Submitted to the College of Arts and Sciences Of
MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES TO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Dissertation Submitted to The College of Arts and Sciences of the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology By Matthew Glen Minix UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON Dayton, Ohio December 2016 MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES TO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Name: Minix, Matthew G. APPROVED BY: _____________________________________ Sandra A. Yocum, Ph.D. Dissertation Director _____________________________________ William L. Portier, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader. _____________________________________ Anthony Burke Smith, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader _____________________________________ John A. Inglis, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader _____________________________________ Jack J. Bauer, Ph.D. _____________________________________ Daniel Speed Thompson, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Religious Studies ii © Copyright by Matthew Glen Minix All rights reserved 2016 iii ABSTRACT MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES TO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Name: Minix, Matthew Glen University of Dayton Advisor: Dr. Sandra A. Yocum This dissertation considers a spectrum of five distinct approaches that mid-twentieth century neo-Thomist Catholic thinkers utilized when engaging with the tradition of modern scientific psychology: a critical approach, a reformulation approach, a synthetic approach, a particular [Jungian] approach, and a personalist approach. This work argues that mid-twentieth century neo-Thomists were essentially united in their concerns about the metaphysical principles of many modern psychologists as well as in their worries that these same modern psychologists had a tendency to overlook the transcendent dimension of human existence. This work shows that the first four neo-Thomist thinkers failed to bring the traditions of neo-Thomism and modern psychology together to the extent that they suggested purely theoretical ways of reconciling them. -
The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand
THE CONTESTED LEGACY OF AYN RAND Truth and Toleration in Objectivism THE CONTESTED LEGACY OF AYN RAND THE CONTESTED LEGACY OF AYN RAND Truth and Toleration in Objectivism DAVID KELLEY The OBJECTIVIST CENTER Transaction Publishers Poughkeepsie, New York New Brunswick (U.S.) & London (U.K.) First Printing, February, 1990 Second Revised Edition, 2000 Copyright © 1990 by David Kelley Copyright © 2000 by David Kelley All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted in any form without written permission from the author. For information address Dr. David Kelley, The Objectivist Center, 11 Raymond Avenue, Suite 31, Poughkeepsie, New York 12603 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kelley, David, 1949– The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand: Truth and Toleration in Objectivism/ David Kelley Includes bibliographic references (p. 103–111) and index. ISBN 1-57724-010-3 Printed in the United States of America The Objectivist Center 11 Raymond Avenue, Suite 31 Poughkeepsie, New York 12603 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE TO THE 2ND EDITION 9 INTRODUCTION 13 I. MORAL JUDGMENT 19 COGNITION AND EVALUATION 19 MORAL JUDGMENT 21 TYPES OF MORAL JUDGMENT 23 THE TEMPERAMENT OF A JUDGE 28 II. SANCTION 31 EXISTENTIAL AID AND MORAL SANCTION 31 THE CASE OF LIBERTARIANISM 36 III. ERROR AND EVIL 39 IDEAS AND ORIGINAL SIN 40 THE ROLE OF IDEAS IN HISTORY 43 THE SCOPE OF HONEST ERROR 50 INHERENTLY DISHONEST IDEAS 57 IV. TOLERATION 61 TOLERANCE, JUSTICE, AND BENEVOLENCE 61 TOLERANCE AND OBJECTIVITY 63 V. OBJECTIVISM 71 OPEN AND CLOSED SYSTEMS 73 OBJECTIVISM AS AN OPEN SYSTEM 75 WHAT IS OBJECTIVISM? 81 THE OBJECTIVIST MOVEMENT 85 POSTSCRIPT 95 NOTES 103 APPENDIX A: A QUESTION OF SANCTION 113 APPENDIX B: BETTER THINGS TO DO 119 INDEX 123 PREFACE TO THE 2ND EDITION 2000 Ayn Rand’s philosophical novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged made her the most controversial author of her age. -
Voegelin and Strauss on Thomas Hobbes
A Comparison and Evaluation of Interpretation: Voegelin and Strauss on Thomas Hobbes Copyright 2002 Jeremy J. Mhire In the beginning of his essay on Thomas Hobbes in What is Political Philosophy, Leo Strauss asks the rather salient question of why we, as students of political philosophy in contemporary times, should read Hobbes?29 [1] The simplicity of this question, to say nothing of its relevance, cannot be overlooked. To study Hobbesian political philosophy is to say that it is relevant to us in some way; it speaks to us precisely because it allows us the ability to understand ourselves more fully. As our self‐ understanding is at least partially informed through the modern perspective, it makes sense to return to the thoughts of one who was influential in creating that perspective. This was certainly the standpoint of both Strauss and Eric Voegelin, two of the most influential political philosophers of the last century. By returning to Hobbes�s thought, both Strauss and Voegelin wished to revive those insights that 29 [1] Leo Strauss, What is Political Philosophy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1959), p. 170. played a crucial role in defining how we understand ourselves today. This essay, then, is first and foremost a general attempt to understand the ways in which both Eric Voegelin and Leo Strauss used Hobbes�s political philosophy as a means through which the modern project, or modernity more simply, could be better understood. This will involve an examination of the key themes that both Voegelin and Strauss thought important to properly understand Hobbes�s political philosophy in particular, and its relationship to modernity more generally. -
The Loss of the Modern Project of Future, Humanity and Individuality: the Philosophy of Education in the Plan of Immanence
American Journal of Educational Research, 2017, Vol. 5, No. 7, 747-751 Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/education/5/7/8 ©Science and Education Publishing DOI:10.12691/education-5-7-8 The Loss of the Modern Project of Future, Humanity and Individuality: The Philosophy of Education in the Plan of Immanence Cestari Luiz Artur dos Santos1, Gouveia Gleidson2,* 1Department of Philosophy and Human Sciences, University of Southwestern Bahia (UESB), Vitória da Conquista-BA, Brazil 2University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA *Corresponding author: [email protected]; [email protected] Abstract This text aims to discuss a purpose to present a philosophy of education based on the arguments from Deleuze and Gutarri’s thinking, specifically about the concept of plan of immanence. Two tasks are playing at this context. First, the evaluation of modernity will put in debate three important notions from it: the modern project of future, the humanity and individuality. Then, it will point out the end of the modern promises as emancipatory discourses to be achieved in the future and consolidated during the history, as well as the process that have transformed at same time the human beings in subject and the individuality in individualism. At the second task, it will talk about the terms by which we can present a proposal to philosophize in immanence of life, thinking about how education can working as line of escape of the ephemeral capitalist socialization and discussing two concepts of Deleuze and Guatarri’s thinking: affections and perceptions. Keywords: humanity, individuality, plan of immanence Cite This Article: Cestari Luiz Artur dos Santos, and Gouveia Gleidson, “The Loss of the Modern Project of Future, Humanity and Individuality: The Philosophy of Education in the Plan of Immanence.” American Journal of Educational Research, vol. -
Contemporary Political Theory As an Anti-Enlightenment Project
Dennis C. Rasmussen Brown University Contemporary Political Theory as an Anti-Enlightenment Project [NB: I am aware that the argument of this paper – that the majority of contemporary political theorists seek to dissociate themselves from the Enlightenment – isn’t actually much of an argument. I am currently beginning a book project that will seek to defend the Enlightenment (to some extent or another) from the attacks of its contemporary critics; the material gathered here includes part of the introduction and the introductions to each of the five substantive chapters, along with a few underdeveloped remarks at the beginning and end that seek to tie things together. In other words, this material wasn’t written as a stand-alone paper, so I apologize if it seems incomplete – it is! I also apologize for the length; for those who don’t have the time or desire to read it all, the main line of argument comes in the first 18 pages, with the rest fleshing out some details. I will, however, be eager to hear your thoughts about the charges I have outlined, and especially if I have missed any major critics or criticisms of the Enlightenment.] Like it or not, we are all children of the Enlightenment, utterly incapable of escaping the clutches of ideals and arguments put forth over two centuries ago. Or so, at least, many critics of the Enlightenment seem to believe. Michel Foucault claims, for instance, that the Enlightenment has largely determined “what we are, what we think, and what we do today,”1 and John Gray insists that “all schools of contemporary political thought are variations on the Enlightenment project.”2 There is, of course, something to such claims: given the number of values, practices, and institutions that we have inherited from the eighteenth century, it is difficult to imagine what our world would look like without its Enlightenment heritage. -
Tara Smith's Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: a Positive Contribution?
Reason Papers Vol. 35, no. 1 Response to Eyal Mozes, “Tara Smith’s Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: A Positive Contribution?” Carrie-Ann Biondi Marymount Manhattan College Irfan Khawaja Felician College 1. Introduction In this discussion note, we respond to Eyal Mozes’s critique of Tara Smith’s Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics via his criticism of Carrie-Ann Biondi’s review of that book in Reason Papers.1 We take issue with Mozes’s discussion of Ayn Rand’s non-conflicts-of-interest principle (NCIP) along with his discussion of the nature of moral virtue. We end by taking issue with his inappropriately moralized conception of philosophical discourse. Since we agree with many (though not all) of Mozes’s claims about emergencies and the scope of morality, we leave those topics undiscussed. 2. Conflicts of Interest Mozes offers two objections to Smith’s discussion of the NCIP: For any book that purports to be a presentation of Rand’s normative ethics, a crucial part of its task is to give an elaborate explanation and defense of Rand’s no-conflicts-of-interest-principle, filling in the details of Rand’s own cursory discussion. In evaluating such a book, I don’t think there’s any question more important than how well it succeeds in explaining and defending this principle. Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics disgracefully fails in this task.2 We reject every element of this criticism. 1 Tara Smith, Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), hereafter ARNE; Carrie-Ann Biondi, “Review Essay: Tara Smith’s Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist,” Reason Papers 30 (Fall 2008), pp. -
UC Irvine UC Irvine Electronic Theses and Dissertations
UC Irvine UC Irvine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Louis Althusser, Leo Strauss, and Democratic Leadership Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4cr249vp Author Tamulis, Bron Cohen Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Louis Althusser, Leo Strauss, and Democratic Leadership DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Political Science by Bron Cohen Tamulis Dissertation Committee: Associate Professor Keith Topper, Chair Associate Professor Kevin Olson Professor John H. Smith 2014 © 2014 Bron Cohen Tamulis DEDICATION To Political Scientists of all kinds, but especially to my Committee, without whom this work would not be, and to my family, who endured it. But also to the White Dragon Noodle Bar, who taught me the answer to that pestering question: “why?” And lastly, to all those who refused to forget and who thus deserve to be remembered. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv CURRICULUM VITAE ix ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION x INTRODUCTION: Political Leadership in the Twentieth Century 1 CHAPTER 1: Reasoned Humility: Strauss, Neoconservatism, and Us 21 CHAPTER 2: Pre-Modern Lessons For a Post-Stalinist Age: Leo Strauss on Machiavelli 72 CHAPTER 3: In Defense of Contemplation 133 CHAPTER 4: Dictatorship, Democracy, and Political Leadership 178 CHAPTER 5: Hearing the Call: Machiavelli, Althusser, and Us 253 CHAPTER 6: Out of Utopia: Althusser’s Solitude 316 CONCLUSION: Navigating the Theoretical Turn 386 BIBLIOGRAPHY 398 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS When I entered graduate school in Fall of 2007, I left behind a full time, well-paid vocation as a Jaguar technician.