In this highly original book, Victor Kestenbaum calls into question the oft-repeated assumption that John Dewey's pragmatism has no place for the transcendent.

My paper is the outcome of a puzzlement concerning the absence of a word in Dewey and a refinement of a disagreement with Stanley Cavell. It also is motivated by my recognition (nearly thirty-five years after the publication of The Phenomenological Sense of John Dewey: Habit and Meaning)1 of how much more remains to be said regarding habit, drama, and the dramatic in Dewey's pragmatism. Clarification of the convergence of these seemingly disparate elements requires a brief introduction to each of (...) them. I will start with the disagreement with Stanley Cavell.The disagreement goes back a number of years, but it began to loom larger in my thinking while I was writing The Grace and the Severity of the Ideal: John Dewey .. (shrink)

Although John Dewey was a notoriously unstylish writer, he not only enjoyed the striking phrases he borrowed from other writers, poets particularly, but coined a few of his own. By the same token, he resolutely defended the sufficiency of the world of experience, and at the same time kept on observing that it was what happened at the edge of experience that was really fascinating. Conversely, he eschewed ’aggressive atheism,’ but for most of his life remained a mild, but unmistakable (...) atheist. The world did not present itself to us tidily pre-arranged, with its implications for understanding and action plain upon its face; careful and thoughtful attention is needed to elicit the meaning of experience. But, there is no deep mystery at the heart of experience; indeed, there is, in that sense, no ’heart’ to generate the deep mystery. (shrink)

In chapter 8 of The Grace and the Severity of the Ideal, Victor Kestenbaum disputes the naturalistic-instrumentalist reading of John Dewey's A Common Faith. Rather than accept the orthodox reading, he challenges mainstream Dewey scholars to read Dewey's theism from a phenomenological perspective. From this vantage, Kestenbaum contends that Dewey was wagering on transcendence, gambling on an ideal realm of supersensible entities, and hoping that the payoff would be universal acknowledgement of "a widening of the place of (...) transcendence and faith in every area of his philosophy." In a long-neglected correspondence between John Dewey and Albert Balz, Dewey responds to Balz's misreading of his logic as a correspondence theory of truth by stating that through the translation of all the ontological into the logical in the context of inquiry, he is "on the side of the angels." I argue that Dewey is accomplishing much the same thing in A Common Faith by naturalistically unifying the real and the ideal under the heading of the religious. In this respect, Dewey's naturalism and instrumentalism, rather than Kestenbaum's transcendentalism, is firmly "on the side of the angels.". (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Notes.

Resumen: La presente contribución gira en torno al significado del atentado terrorista del 11 de septiembre de 2001 para la hermenéutica filosófica, en particular la de Gianni Vattimo. El turinés gestó en sus textos de entre 2006 y 2014 una versión nueva de la hermenéutica que se basa en la experiencia de este acontecimiento. Esta nueva hermenéutica estaría atenta al conflicto y a las transformaciones sociales y tendría por núcleo la noción de “evento”, Sin embargo, Vattimo mismo no ofrece una (...) definición operativa adecuada del término. Ante esto, propongo incorporar a la tradición hermenéutica conceptos como “evento” y “milagro”, acuñados por Joseph de Maistre. Se trata de una propuesta de “maistrianización” de la hermenéutica para hacer de ella un discurso viable y fructífero en un mundo violento e inestable. (shrink)

Verdejo, Víctor_A Puzzle about Disagreement.

A student of Étienne Gilson and Joseph Owens, John P. Doyle taught medieval and Scholastic philosophy at Saint Louis University for forty years. Of continuing interest to Doyle has been the thought of Francisco Suárez, S.J. On this topic Doyle has published over a dozen articles and four English translations of portions of Suárez's key works. This volume celebrates the life and career of one of those rare kinds of scholars who has mastered an entire field of inquiry and thought.

According to a family of metasemantics for demonstratives called intentionalism, the intentions of speakers determine the reference of demonstratives. And according to a sub-family I call proximal intentions (PI) intentionalism, the intention that determines reference is one that occupies a certain place—the proximal one—in a structure of intentions. PI intentionalism is thought to make correct predictions about reference where less sophisticated forms of intentionalism make the wrong predictions. In this article I argue that this is an illusion: PI intentionalism also (...) suffers from predictive inadequacy. In Sect. 1, I present the problem of predictive inadequacy for intentionalism and an ad hoc response to it. In Sect. 2, I sketch a version of PI intentionalism that aims to provide the most principled response to this problem. In Sect. 3, I explain why PI intentionalism cannot solve the problem after all. In Sect. 4, I indicate where I think metasemanticists should go next. (shrink)

En este artículo analizamos conceptos fundamentales que sirven para entender mejor Das Kontinuum. Asimismo, defendemos la interpretación de Feferman —sobre todo, en lo referente al tratamiento de los conjuntos aritméticos, y al alcance del sistema que Weyl introdujo en el libro— como la más apropiada para entender la idea original, frente a la interpretación que Arnon Avron propuso recientemente.

Our attitudes to wrongdoers, and what social and institutional practices we apply to them or engage them in, depend on whether (in our eyes) they are responsible for their wrongdoing. They also depend on whether we see them as fully or partially responsible agents more generally. Very crudely, we hold to account agents who are responsible for their conduct to account, where we treat the non-responsible. This chapter explores the relationship between treatment and accountability by critically engaging with P F (...) Strawson’s influential views on the issue. It argues that the appropriate distinction between treatment and accountability is based primarily on the content of interpersonal exploration of wrongdoing rather than the attitudes and practices that are involved in these practices. (shrink)

Ever since John Perry's developments in the late 70s, it is customary among philosophers to take de se contents as essentially tied to the explanation of action. The target explanation appeals to a subject-specific notion of de se content capable of capturing behavioural differences in central cases. But a subject-specific de se content leads us, I argue, to a subject-specific notion of intentional action that prevents basic forms of generalisation. Although this might be seen as a welcome revision of our (...) pre-theoretical conceptions, I propose, instead, a strategy to circumvent this rather unexpected result: to reject subject-specific de se contents in favour of subject-specific ways of thinking that do not enter into the content of one's attitudes. (shrink)

v. 1. Music and the external world.--v. 2. Man the musician.

Presents a comprehensive history of multiverse theory, reviewing the discoveries that shaped astrophysicists' current consensus view while showing that the multiverse is able to be explained entirely in naturalistic terms.

El libro estudia las ideas sociales y los referentes de la generación de políticos y pensadores peruanos que se denomina "Generación del 9i00", centrándose en "Carácter de la literatura en el Perú independiente" (1905) de José de la Riva-Agüero, connotado pensador político y polígrafo peruano, Se ve la influencia del pensamiento reaccionario, la Escuela teológica y el maurrasianismo en el quehacer intelectual peruano del periuodo que aparece en la cubierta.

This book examines the thought of scholasticism’s Doctor eximius in its entirety: both philosophically and theologically. Many of the most distinctive features of Suárez’s thought are identified and evaluated in light of his immediate historical context. What emerges from the studies contained in this volume is the picture of a thinker who is profoundly steeped in the riches of divergent schools of thought and yet who manages to find his own unique voice to add to the chorus of scholasticism.

This chapter is a response to Derek Baker’s careful and subtle reading of, and critical engagement with, both my paper, and P F Strawson’s ‘Freedom and Resentment’.

Evolutionary stasis is discussed in light of the idea that the common output of every successful evolution is the creation of the entities that are increasingly resistant to further change. The moving force of evolution is entropy. This general aspiration for chaos is a cause of the mortality of organisms and extinction of species. However, being a prerequisite for any motion, entropy generates (by chance) novelties, which may happen to be (by chance) more resistant to further decay and thus survive. (...) The entities that change rapidly disappear. All existing entities are endowed with an ability to resist further change. In simple organisms, the stasis is primarily achieved by means of the high fidelity of DNA reproduction. In organisms with a large genome and complex development, the achievable fidelity of genome reproduction fails to guarantee homeorhetic reproduction: there is more mutation than reproduction. Such species must be capable of surviving and remain phenotypically unchanged at continuous changes of their genes. This capability (canalization or robustness) reflects a global degeneracy of the link structure-function: there are more genotypes than phenotypes. Hence, function (i.e. meaning), not structure, is selected. The selection for successful ontogenesis in a varying environment creates developmental robustness to mutational and environmental perturbations and, consequently, to the halt of evolution. Evolution is resistance to entropy, the adaptation to environment being only one of the means of this resistance. Everything essential in biology is determined not by physical causality but by semantic rules and goal-directed programs. This principal operates on various levels of biological organization. (shrink)

This book is an interdisciplinary study of the cultural representations of Jesus in the context of contemporary religious theory and continental philosophy. It looks at Jesus in view of an updated Derridean hauntology and spectrality, with an emphasis on the inherent plasticity of the Christian heritage. While the work engages with the recent Jesus-centered writings of Slavoj Žižek, François Laruelle, and Giorgio Agamben, it places a greater and much needed emphasis on the philosophical, theological, and cultural links between a plastic, (...) hauntological Christian heritage and Jesus's historically evolving plural subjectivity, with the latter explored in texts of popular culture. It is a multidisciplinary study of Jesus, as well as a dynamic Christian heritage that simultaneously constructs and deconstructs Jesus's philosophical, political, and cultural centrality. (shrink)

This book examines leadership strategies that allow administrators to be proactive, visionary, and flexible while increasing collaboration, open communication, and closely integrating theory and practice to ensure successful administration in higher education settings.

The story of a triumphant idea from Democritus to the Higgs boson, one of the most successful scientific hypotheses ever devised is chronicled in this history of atomism. Stenger makes the case that in the final analysis atoms and the void are all that exists.

A pioneer in the field of behavioral science delivers a groundbreaking work that shows how finding your purpose in life leads to better health and overall happiness.Your life is a boat. You need a rudder. But it doesn't matter how much wind is in your sails if you're not steering toward a harbor--an ultimate purpose in your life.While the greatest philosophers have pondered purpose for centuries, today it has been shown to have a concrete impact on our health. Recent studies (...) into Alzheimer's, heart disease, stroke, depression, functional brain imaging, and measurement of DNA repair are shedding new light on how and why purpose benefits our lives.Going beyond the fads, opinions, and false hopes of "expert" self-help books, The Science of Purpose explores the incredible connection between purposeful living and the latest scientific evidence on quality of life and longevity. Drawing on ancient and modern philosophy, literature, psychology, evolutionary biology, genetics, and neuroscience, as well as his experience in public health research, Dr. Vic Strecher reveals the elements necessary for a purposeful life and how to acquire them, and outlines an elegant strategy for improving energy, willpower, and long-term happiness, and well-being. He integrates these core themes into his own personal story--a tragedy that led him to reconsider his own life--and how a deeper understanding of purposeful living helped him not only survive, but thrive.Illuminating, accessible, and authentically grounded in real people's experiences, The Science of Purpose is essential reading for everyone seeking lasting improvement in their lives. (shrink)

In multiple essays, CLR James lays out what a theory of subjectivity must account for to resolve issues stemming from reducing subjectivity to a singular identity. Most proposals for a theory of subjectivity do so by making the subject the object of another’s propositions or claims about the world. I argue that this is an identity claim. The converse of this process is also true, that the subject who claims another as the object of their proposition must also be the (...) object of a proposition themselves, leaving the capacity to form these expressions untouched. In Black Cultural studies, there has been a lot of attention paid to the capacity for one to become the object of their own propositions due to the conception that Black identity overdetermines Black subjects’ expressions prior to their articulation. Our reorientation to the study of subjectivity posits an entity whose operation functions to mobilise as well as implement identity claims. Subjectivity is a capacity while identity becomes the object of that capacity, an object shared between subjects that are known by becoming the object of propositions regarding the world, including their own. This essay attempts to resolve the conflicts that arise once the mistake of conflating subjectivity with identity claims is made and proposes a model whereby the concept of Black subjectivity can be explained. (shrink)

This text tries to give some initial scopes for a constructivist approach to political philosophy and social organization based on the fact of friendship; particularly in the greeting taken as an event of friendship. The mere greeting, the most basic approach to empathy, would be the happening of a world, of a whole world characterized by its demand to be, to be realized and preserved. This requirement would come from an unfathomable archaic background, which would be accessible in the idea (...) of ​​the number of friends. It is an aporia that shows both the open, but not infinite, character of a reference group based on the tenderness of something common. (shrink)

El texto combina una mirada sobre algunos elementos filosóficos y aspectos anecdóticos que ligan a Heidegger, el ser, el pensar y la pregunta por la metafísica con un eventual curso de “Lógica” dictado en 1934 y cuyo contenido es la relación ética entre el hombre y el Estado. Al final aparece la figura del Führer, sus manos y el destino de la humanidad.

El artículo presenta el panorama entero de las ideas políticas del notorio conservador peruano Monseñor Bartolomé Herrera. Se trata por vez primera de un estudio exhaustivo de las redes conceptuales y filosóficas de su peculiar concepción del republicanismo, que se califica aquí de “reaccionario”. Luego de incluirlo en su contexto en la historia de las ideas en la polémica entre liberales y conservadores, el texto sostiene que, aparte de sus influencias neoconservadoras restauracionistas, Herrera, considerado hasta hoy un conservador liberal, habría (...) sido más bien un consumidor militante –pero encubierto- del pensamiento reaccionario del Conde De Maistre, el Vizconde de Bonald y, más particularmente, de Agustín Barruel, fuente reaccionaria descuidada por los especialistas en el pensamiento político peruano. Herrera habría sido un tipo peculiar de republicano: Un republicano reaccionario. Aunque de manera simulada y escondiendo sus fuentes, el Obispo de Arequipa, en tono análogo al Valdegamas de 1848, habría desarrollado una concepción anticontractualista y antiliberal de la república peruana desde una teología política contrarrevolucionaria. (shrink)

José Ignacio Moreno es uno de los fundadores de la independencia del Perú. En calidad de tal acompañó el proyecto del General rioplatense José de San Martín de transformar en 1822 la monarquía peruana en un reino independiente. Pero, a diferencia de la multitud de sus contemporáneos, la historiografía apenas lo presenta como un circunstante en la epopeya de la emancipación, de quien no se conserva ni un retrato. El motivo es la extraña adherencia de este personaje a las ideas (...) del ultramontanismo y su temprana cercanía con la obra del contrarrevolucionario francés Joseph de Maistre. Un discurso monárquico extremista en 1822 lo colocaría como el fundador involuntario del Perú como República. (shrink)

De 1904 à 1918, l'écrivain et voyageur Victor Segalen (1878-1919) travaille à la rédaction d'un traité systématique qu'il aurait appelé Essai sur l'Exotisme. Une Esthétique du Divers, mais qui ne sera pas publié de son vivant. Seule demeure aujourd'hui, de ce projet, une série complexe de notes prises au jour le jour, puis conservées à la Bibliothèque nationale de France : c'est sur le dossier manuscrit qu'a été établie ici, sur nouveaux frais, cette édition originale des brouillons de l'ouvrage (...) en devenir. Loin de toute réalisation définitive, et avec sa forme actuelle qui le rapproche d'un journal de travail, ce document apparaît comme capital pour comprendre la pensée et l'oeuvre de Segalen. À l'heure où les sciences humaines et sociales interrogent l'identité et l'altérité, et où la question de la "diversité" agite les cultural studies, l'Essai sur l'Exotisme nous renseigne sur les élargissements que la notion classique d'interculturalité est susceptible de connaître. Il dessine ainsi une éthique particulière qui peut nous aider à considérer les questionnements de notre époque et à les réinscrire dans leur histoire conceptuelle."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

This book explores three worlds shared by the humans in their collective experiences. It identifies and explores the world of commonsense, the world of religion, and the world of science as three essential dimensions of human experience. The book helps understand that humans can gain comfort and pleasure in commonsense, achieve meaning and purpose from religion, and attain truth and rationality through science. It actively applies theories to and develops theoretical explanations from different domains or situations of human existence. This (...) book is of interest to theorists, researchers, instructors, and students across major academic disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. (shrink)