This book has been specifically designed to support the student of the IB Diploma Programme in Theory of Knowledge. It will stimulate students to think about learning and knowledge from their own and from others' perspectives in a way that crosses disciplines and cultures. It will encourage reflection, discussion, critical thinking, and awareness of the ways in which knowledge is constructed, and will lead students to recognize the implications of knowledge for issues of global concern. The book is rooted in (...) classroom experience and provides class activities and supporting material for the whole of the TOK course. (shrink)
Developed in collaboration with the International Baccalaureate Organization, Oxford's Course Companions provide extra support for students taking IB Diploma Programme courses. They present a whole-course approach with a wide range of resources, and encourage a deep understanding of each subject by making connections to wider issues and providing opportunites for critical thinking. This companion stimulates students to think about learning and knowledge from their own and from others' perspectives in a way that crosses disciplines and cultures. It encourages reflection, discussion, (...) critical thinking, and awareness or the ways in which knowledge is constructed, and will students to recognize the implications of knowledge for issues of global concern. Places students at the center of the course, with lively material providing opportunities for questioning, discussion, and interaction Invites students to add their own voices to those in the book, which include students, teachers, and professionals in various areas of knowledge Encourages students to frame their own perspectives with international awareness and recognition of the impact of knowledge on the world Contains guidance for current assessment, with support for the Theory of Knowledge essay and class presentation Written by experienced teachers, authors, and examiners, including recent deputy and chief examiners of Theory of Knowledge. (shrink)
In recent years, the ontological argument and theistic metaphysics have been criticized by philosophers working in both the analytic and continental traditions. Responses to these criticisms have primarily come from philosophers who make use of the traditional, and problematic, concept of God. In this volume, Daniel A. Dombrowski defends the ontological argument against its contemporary critics, but he does so by using a neoclassical or process concept of God, thereby strengthening the case for a contemporary theistic metaphysics. Relying on (...) the thought of Charles Hartshorne, he builds on Hartshorne's crucial distinction between divine existence and divine actuality, which enables neoclassical defenders of the ontological argument to avoid the familiar criticism that the argument moves illegitimately from an abstract concept to concrete reality. His argument, thus, avoids the problems inherent in the traditional concept of God as static. (shrink)
In this article I concentrate on three issues. First, Graham Oppy’s treatment of the relationship between the concept of infinity and Zeno’s paradoxes lay bare several porblems that must be dealt with if the concept of infinity is to do any intellectual work in philosophy of religion. Here I will expand on some insightful remarks by Oppy in an effort ot adequately respond to these problems. Second, I will do the same regarding Oppy’s treatment of Kant’s first antinomy in the (...) first critique, which deals in part with the question of whether the world had a beginning in time or if time extends infinitely into the past. And third, my examination of these two issues will inform what I have to say regarding a key topic in philosophy of religion: the question regarding the proper relationship between the infinite and the finite in the concept of God. (shrink)
The purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between the thought of Richard Rorty and that of his former teacher, Charles Hartshorne. There are important similarities between the two, but ultimately the differences are more readily apparent, especially in terms of the battle between poetry (in the wide sense of the term conceived by Rorty) and (Hartshornian) metaphysics. Hartshorne is defended against Rorty.
In this short article I call into question the view that the current United States war in Afghanistan is a war of necessity. In this effort I am primarily engaged with the thought of the famous just war theorist Michael Walzer as it has developed from 1977 until 2009.
There is a well known debate between those who defend a traditional (or classical) concept of God and those who defend a process (or neoclassical) concept of God. Not as well known are the implications of these two rival concepts of God in the effort to understand religious experience. With the aid of the great pragmatist philosopher John Smith, I defend the process (or neoclassical) concept of God in its ability to better illuminate and render as intelligible as possible mystical (...) experience. (shrink)
In “Rawls and Animals” I try to do two things. First, I try to bring together for the first time Rawls’ thoughts on animals in “A Theory of Justice” as well as the often contradictory secondary literature on this topic. And second, I examine for the first time Rawls’ treatment of animals in his recent work “Political Liberalism.”.
While considered by many as one of the greatest philosophers of religion and metaphysicians of the 20th century, Charles Hartshorne’s (1897-2000) contributions to the study of aesthetics are perhaps the most neglected aspect of his extensive and highly nuanced thought. DIVINE BEAUTY offers the first detailed explication of Hartshorne’s aesthetic theory and its place within his theocentric philosophy.
It is my good fortune to have three critics to respond to who are both insightful readers of two of my books and productive dialectical partners in the (Peircian) asymptotic approach to truth. I would like to initiate my response to Zandra Wagoner by thanking her for her clear and insightful comments and for the opportunity to clarify the relationship between the political liberalism that I defend and Wagoner’s own radical democracy. My comments will be divided into two main sections, (...) dealing respectively with: (1) the different emphases in political philosophy that she notices in her own version of radical democracy and my political liberalism; and (2) the complicated issue of religious participation in .. (shrink)
The present article constitutes an attempt at a review of a few selected questions related to the complexity paradigm and its implications for research on cognition, especially within the so-called ecological approach framework. I propose several theses, among others concerning the two contrary tendencies within the dominant methodology (the propensity to search for simplicity and the growing emphasis on recognizing complexity), as well as the ontological consequences of the phenomenon under discussion (ontological emergence and processual emergentism).
The purpose of the present article is to explicate John Rawls’s views on war as they are scattered across several of his writings. Three claims are made: (1) Rawls is generally a just war theorist who usually argues against the “realist” view of war; (2) Under the influence of Michael Walzer, however, Rawls ends up making an illadvised concession to the realist view concerning conditions of “supreme emergency”; and (3), despite Rawls’s blend of just war theory/realism, the logic of his (...) theory of justice and his political liberalism should push him in the opposite direction toward a blend of just war theory/pacifism. (shrink)
While the academic discussion of gender and family issues often adopts the contractarian and consensual approach of liberalism, the work of Stephen R. L. Clark provides an interesting contrast. Clark turns to ethology as a guide to modes of social existence congruent with our evolutionary nature. Although an Aristotelian, Clark is not a sexist in arguing that household life is more important than what moderns call ?political? life. Clark is premature, however, in accusing liberals who defend the rights of individuals (...) of ignoring the ethological evidence. Liberals need not so emphasize the individual that they destroy the family as the locus of moral education. (shrink)
The ancient background -- Weiss and the pursuit of bodily excellence -- Huizinga and the homo ludens hypothesis -- Feezell, moderation, and irony -- The process of becoming virtuous.
This work contains thirteen essays that constitute Hartshorne's final contributions to "technical philosophy." Although they deal with a wide range of topics, they hang together in terms of the common themes of creativity and freedom. I will discuss these essays in terms of three groups.First, it should be noted that five of the essays have never before been published; hence they are welcome additions to philosophical literature in process thought. One example is "My Eclectic Approach to Phenomenology." Here Hartshorne relies (...) on both his experiences studying under Husserl and Heidegger in Germany in the 1920s (he wrote the first review in English of Heidegger's Being and Time) and his thorough knowledge of .. (shrink)
What does it mean for an individual (a one) to come to be? This question has been close to the center of attention throughout the history of metaphysics. St. Thomas Aquinas’s contributions to a defensible response to this question (in terms of esse) are well documented. Not as well known are the responses to this question offered in the past decade by two learned Jesuit Thomists who have also been heavily influenced by the process thought of Alfred North Whitehead: James (...) Felt and Norris Clarke. It is the purpose of this article to examine carefully and criticize their responses to the above question. (shrink)
I have argued elsewhere that the overall method that is required in liberal political philosophy is that of reflective equilibrium and that this method can be best understood in processual terms. In the present article I try to show how neoclassical (and other) theists can bring their convictions to bear in a politically liberal society, within the confines of this method, in a rational (rather than irrational or mad) manner.
I first examine Origen’s notion of nature as personal, and secondly a modern presentation of the same theme by Erazim Kohak. I then consider possible scientific support given to both these authors’ accounts by Lovejoy. I conclude that there are many strengths in viewing nature as a whole as both divine and personal.
Democracy requires a rather large tolerance for confusion and a secret relish for dissent. I am delighted to respond to Daniel Dombrowski’s book Rawls and Religion. Dombrowski and I share a number of what he would call comprehensive doctrine, such as the ethical treatment of animals, the relational worldview of process thought, and the idiosyncratic love of pacifism. So, immediately I was drawn in and claimed Dombrowski as a kindred spirit. With so many commonalities, including an interest (...) in political philosophy and religion, I approached this book with a built-in desire to engage with and respect his thinking. To be honest, I wondered if I would be able to critically engage Dombrowski’s book given our .. (shrink)
In this highly useful book, Eileen Sweeney offers an overall interpretation of Anselm’s thought and output. Her method is to go through Anselm’s treatises and other writings in roughly chronological order, dividing them into seven groups, each to be discussed in its own chapter. In doing so, the author draws attention to material that is often neglected in discussions of Anselm’s thought. This is particularly the case with chapters 1 and 2, in which Anselm’s prayers and letters are discussed, (...) respectively; as for the letters, the author mainly focuses on those containing spiritual guidance. The order of presentation can be supported on chronological grounds, as many of the prayers and some of the letters are among .. (shrink)
Just about a decade ago, at the very beginning of what has proven now to be a staggeringly long midlife crisis, I wrote a little book about the religious significance of boredom. (I think of this as yin to the yang of more commonplace considerations of the religious significance of beauty.) That book concluded with a brief meditation on “waiting,” in which I distinguished between waiting for meaning and the more proactively creative exercise of waiting on meaning. Daniel Dombrowski’s (...) splendid book on Charles Hartshorne’s aesthetics is of the latter sort, a real service to meaning, both a careful attentiveness to meaning as it is embodied in Hartshorne’s writing and the insightful extension of the latter’s .. (shrink)
