PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS AND BIOLOGICAL FINDINGS, PART II: PLAY, ART, RITUAL, AND RITUAL SACRIFICE

Zygon® ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 1090-1106
Author(s):  
Marcia Pally
Keyword(s):  
Ritual Sacrifice ◽  
Philosophical Questions

Wilde’s New Republic

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marylu Hill
Keyword(s):  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
Classical Training ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
New Republic ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Philosophical Questions

As a result of his classical training in the Honours School of Literæ Humaniores at Oxford, Oscar Wilde drew frequently on the works of Plato for inspiration, especially the Republic. The idea of a New Republic and its philosophy resonated profoundly with Wilde—so much so that the philosophical questions raised in Plato’s Republic become the central problems of The Picture of Dorian Gray. This chapter maps the parallels between the Republic and Dorian Gray, with specific focus on several of Plato’s most striking images from the Republic. In particular, the depiction of Lord Henry suggests not only the philosophical soul gone corrupt, but also the ‘drone’ who seduces the oligarchic young man into a life of ‘unprincipled freedom’, according to Plato’s definition of democracy. By invoking the Socratic lens, Wilde critiques Lord Henry’s anti-philosophy of the ‘New Hedonism’ and contrasts it with the Socratic eros.

Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy, Volume 2

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Experimental Philosophy ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
New Research ◽  
Philosophical Questions

This is the second volume in Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy, a series with the aim of providing a venue for publishing work in this emerging field. Experimental philosophy is a new movement that seeks to use empirical techniques to illuminate some of the oldest issues in philosophy. It is an interdisciplinary field at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, and related disciplines, such as linguistics and sociology. Although the movement is only a few years old, it has already sparked an explosion of new research, challenging a number of cherished assumptions in both philosophy and the cognitive sciences. This volume includes both theoretical and experimental chapters as well as chapters that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries. It is divided into three parts that explore epistemology, moral and political philosophy, and metaphysics and mind, showcasing the diversity of work that has arisen as traditionally philosophical questions have met the tools of social science.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Textor
Keyword(s):  
Simple Event ◽  
Philosophical Questions

The introduction outlines and motivates the main questions of the book. I will engage with two philosophical questions—‘What is the nature of mind?’ and ‘What is the structure of consciousness’—through Brentano’s work. My interest is not so much to find a plausible reading of Brentano’s often dense and difficult texts, but to evaluate the arguments and views that can be distilled from them for truth. I will argue that Brentano’s answer to the first question is in interesting ways wrong. Intentionality is not the mark of the mental. I will argue that Brentano’s student Husserl succeeded where Brentano failed: he developed a mark of the mental. Brentano’s answer to the second question is defensible and illuminating. The relation between a mental act and awareness of the mental act is identity. There is one metaphysically simple event or process that can be brought under different partial concepts because it is directed on several objects, among them itself.

scholarly journals Francis Hutcheson on Liberty

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 121-142
Author(s):  
Ruth Boeker
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Character Development ◽  
Francis Hutcheson ◽  
Detailed Treatment ◽  
Philosophical Writings ◽  
Philosophical Questions ◽  
Independent Thinking

AbstractThis paper aims to reconstruct Francis Hutcheson's thinking about liberty. Since he does not offer a detailed treatment of philosophical questions concerning liberty in his mature philosophical writings I turn to a textbook on metaphysics. We can assume that he prepared the textbook during the 1720s in Dublin. This textbook deserves more attention. First, it sheds light on Hutcheson's role as a teacher in Ireland and Scotland. Second, Hutcheson's contributions to metaphysical disputes are more original than sometimes assumed. To appreciate his independent thinking, I argue, it is helpful to take the intellectual debates in Ireland into consideration, including William King's defence of free will and discussions of Shaftesbury's views in Robert Molesworth's intellectual circle. Rather than taking a stance on the philosophical disputes about liberty, I argue that Hutcheson aims to shift the focus of the debates towards practical questions concerning control of desire, cultivation of habits, and character development.

scholarly journals Kant and the forms of realism

Synthese ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dietmar Heidemann
Keyword(s):  
Pure Reason ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Metaphysical Realism ◽  
Critique Of Pure Reason ◽  
Philosophical Questions

AbstractRealism takes many forms. The aim of this paper is to show that the “Critique of pure Reason” is the founding document of realism and that to the present-day Kant’s discussion of realism has shaped the theoretical landscape of the debates over realism. Kant not only invents the now common philosophical term ‘realism’. He also lays out the theoretical topography of the forms of realism that still frames our understanding of philosophical questions concerning reality. The paper explores this by analysis of Kant’s methodological procedure to distinguish between empirical (i.e. nonmetaphysical) and transcendental (metaphysical) realism. This methodological procedure is still of great help in contemporary philosophy, although it has its limits.

Philosophical implications of Tarski's work

1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Suppes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
English Translation ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Congress ◽  
Unity Of Science ◽  
Scientific Philosophy ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
Concept Of Truth ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Philosophical Questions

In his published work and even more in conversations, Tarski emphasized what he thought were important philosophical aspects of his work. The English translation of his more philosophical papers [56m] was dedicated to his teacher Tadeusz Kotarbiński, and in informal discussions of philosophy he often referred to the influence of Kotarbiński. Also, the influence of Leśniewski, his dissertation adviser, is evident in his early papers. Moreover, some of his important papers of the 1930s were initially given to philosophical audiences. For example, the famous monograph on the concept of truth ([33m], [35b]) was first given as two lectures to the Logic Section of the Philosophical Society in Warsaw in 1930. Second, his paper [33], which introduced the concepts of ω-consistency and ω-completeness as well as the rule of infinite induction, was first given at the Second Conference of the Polish Philosophical Society in Warsaw in 1927. Also [35c] was based upon an address given in 1934 to the conference for the Unity of Science in Prague; [36] and [36a] summarize an address given at the International Congress of Scientific Philosophy in Paris in 1935. The article [44a] was published in a philosophical journal and widely reprinted in philosophical texts. This list is of course not exhaustive but only representative of Tarski's philosophical interactions as reflected in lectures given to philosophical audiences, which were later embodied in substantial papers. After 1945 almost all of Tarski's publications and presentations are mathematical in character with one or two minor exceptions. This division, occurring about 1945, does not, however, indicate a loss of interest in philosophical questions but is a result of Tarski's moving to the Department of Mathematics at Berkeley. There he assumed an important role in the development of logic within mathematics in the United States.

Theoretical Difficulties in the Study of Nationalism

1996 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 63-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Reasoning ◽  
Philosophical Problem ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Isaiah Berlin ◽  
Nationalist Discourse ◽  
Mathematical Problems ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Philosophical Questions

Philosophical questions are not like empirical problems, which can be answered by observation or experiment or entitlements from them. Nor are they like mathematical problems which can be settled by deductive methods, like problems in chess or any other rule-governed game or procedure. But questions about the ends of life, about good and evil, about freedom and necessity, about objectivity and relativity, cannot be decided by looking into even the most sophisticated dictionary or the use of empirical or mathematical reasoning. Not to know where to look for the answer is the surest symptom of a philosophical problem.Isaiah BerlinCritics of recent philosophical analyses of nationalism suggest that nationalism is a unique social phenomenon that cannot, and need not, be theorized. Are there, indeed, some special features constitutive of nationalism that might defy theorization? Those answering this question in the affirmative point to the plurality and specificity of national experiences, as well as to the emotional and eclectic nature of nationalist discourse.

scholarly journals ‘God kan net doen wat God wel doen’: Petrus Abelardus se Megariaanse argument in Theologia ‘Scholarium’, Opera Theologica III

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann Beukes
Keyword(s):  
Specific Reference ◽  
Medieval Philosophy ◽  
Restricted Access ◽  
Master Argument ◽  
Philosophical Questions ◽  
The Way

‘God can only do what God does do’: Peter Abelard’s Megarian argument in Theologia ‘Scholarium’, Opera Theologica III Peter Abelard’s contribution to a constellation of central themes in post-Carolingian medieval philosophy, namely on causation, necessity and contingency, with its discursive undertone of the relation between potentiality and actuality, is worked out in a rather informal way in one of his later works, Theologia ‘Scholarium’. Typical of the fusion of philosophical questions and theological premises in medieval philosophy, Abelard addresses the issue by asking whether God can only do what God does. Abelard argues that God can do or not do or omit doing only those things which God does do or does not do or omits doing and that God can do or can not do or omit doing those things only in the way or at the time at which God does and not at any other. Given Abelard’s fragmented and restricted access to the Aristotelian corpus regarding causality, how did he come to this Aristotelian-orientated conclusion? This article stresses the ancient quality of Abelard’s argument from another angle, reminiscent of the so-called Master Argument of the Megarians, with specific reference to the dialectical legacy of Diodorus Cronus, according to whom what can be is what is: what is, in turn, is what must be. Actuality, for the Megarians, exhausts potentiality. The path of actuality cannot be undermined or compromised by issues of potentiality. God’s actions are thus for both the Megarians and Abelard strictly determined and determining. God, in the end, can only do what God does. This article contributes to scholarship in medieval philosophy or theology by making this connection explicit and by thoroughly exploring the link between Abelard and his ancient predecessors.

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