What was the dialectics of nature debate? How did it arise? Why has it returned?

Why a new edition of a book written more than a century ago already translated into many languages and published in multiple editions?

What is really going on in current mobilisation against disinformation? Whose interests are being served by “Big Disinfo”? Could it be that those forces portraying themselves as bulwarks against disinformation are actually the most insidious purveyors of disinformation? Does even the focus on disinformation conceal the real deceit? Do disinformation studies represent a regression in media studies? Does it matter that so many in this field are oblivious of developments in epistemology and philosophy of science? Why does fact-checking not address (...) the real deceptions and delusions of mainstream news and current affairs? Why has debased positivism prevailed in disinformation studies and other social sciences? Why do postmodernist responses make everything worse? Does Marxism have anything to offer? Are European public service broadcasters (BBC, ARD, RAI, ERT, RTE), arguably the most trusted of mainstream media, really trustworthy? For example, can RTE be trusted in dealing with the war in Ukraine? What are the epistemological and ethical criteria involved is designating Trump and Putin as bad actors while assuming that Biden and Zelensky are good actors? Why are deeper socio-historical forces so absent from analysis? Are academics making any impact in addressing the real problems with the mainstream news agenda? Why has excavation of hidden ideologies become so unfashionable? Why are so many journalists stenographers of the surface? Why are so many academics puppets of the powerful? (shrink)

In this paper we offer practical suggestions for integrating social justice content into physical-activity based physical education, namely, through a socially-just TPSR approach. We first address the challenges of using pedagogies for social justice in physical education. This is followed by a brief overview of TPSR (the what) and a re-imagined TPSR approach from a social justice lens. Next, practical examples for developing a socially-just TPSR approach are offered such as ways to a) examine and practice socially just behaviors, b) (...) include transfer and advocacy, and c) use a five-part TPSR lesson plan to integrate social justice issues into physical-activity-based physical education settings. Final thoughts include a) being patient and kind to yourself when implementing unfamiliar approaches and issues, and b) making decisions about the inclusion of social justice issues based on what’s personally meaningful for students as well as context, and c) using a TPSR approach to enact social justice content requires a reconceptualization of the model through a social justice lens. (shrink)

How to characterise the landscape of contemporary intellectual life? What does academic philosophy bring to bear on it? How does this relate to the political terrain?

Why has there been so much debate on the concept of totality? What have been the main positions? Who have ben the protagonists? What is at stake? Where does science come into it?

Each day people are presented with circumstances that may require speculation. Scientists may ponder questions such as why a star is born or how rainbows are made, psychologists may ask social questions such as why people are prejudiced, and military strategists may imagine what the consequences of their actions might be. Speculations may lead to the generation of putative explanations called hypotheses. But it is by checking if hypotheses accurately reflect the encountered facts that lead to sensible behaviour demonstrating a (...) true understanding. If evidence shows a hypothesis to be false, then people should rationally abandon it, especially if there are negative consequences. The aim of this thesis is to examine how effectively people search for evidence in their hypothesis testing to test whether or not their hypotheses are true or false in competitive games. Research findings from six studies of hypothesis testing behaviour in competitive deductive tasks are explored. Chapter by chapter the thesis tests how everyday people, and master chess players, tackle hypothesis testing in mathematical tasks, such as how to solve sequential number sequence puzzles when thinking about an opponent, or how to solve chess problems in a variety of contexts. The implications of the results are discussed in light of aspects of general cognition: such as reasoning, social hypothesis testing and planning. (shrink)

This dissertation addresses the question of whether the further development of artificial wombs is ethically desirable. It is important to precede the existence of artificial wombs with an ethical analysis of both the valuable goals and the ethical problems associated with the technology. The technology required for artificial wombs capable of the entire gestation process does not currently exist. However, given the great strides made in artificial reproduction and neonatal care in the last four decades, the development of artificial wombs (...) is no longer entirely that of science fiction. Following an introduction of the dissertation in Chapter I, Chapter II contains a review of the academic literature discussing the ethics of artificial wombs. Chapter III analyses the valuable goals that could result from the existence and use of artificial wombs. Chapters IV, V and VI each examine one set of ethical problems that could result from artificial wombs – including ethical problems relating to the experimental treatment phase, abortion, and commodification and commercialisation – and determines whether or not these problems are surmountable. Chapter VII discusses the results and relevance of the dissertation as well as an outlook on the future of the development of artificial wombs. (shrink)

Numbers and measurements enable transactions and communication in translation in ways that are helpful and indisputably necessary. However, as deployment of quantification and mathematisation has become more complex and opaque, it is important to interrogate the validity of measures and predictions, especially if they are to be used as a basis for action. This article takes a critical look at the various types of quantification and mathematisation used in translation and considers the effects of these on translators working in highly (...) technologized workflows. It introduces the concept of algorithmic norms, whereby translators feel pressured to reverse engineer and conform to the demands of algorithmic management. (shrink)

The proliferation of digital tools into all facets of society in recent years has had no small impact on the field of post-primary education. The Irish government’s Digital Strategy for Schools (DSS) (2022, 2015) emphasises the importance of seamlessly integrating digital literacy skills into subject curricula. However, this is a new frontier for Irish post-primary teachers. As a practising teacher I identified a need for teachers to be supported in embedding digital literacy skills into their teaching practice through the provision (...) of relevant, practical and quality resources that met the learning objectives of the subject and through access to continuous professional development (CPD) in this area. Through this Ph.D. research I created an innovative, online resource to assist post-primary English teachers in integrating digital literacy skills into the Junior Cycle curriculum. Taking a methodologically inventive approach (Dadds and Hart, 2001) I used an Educational Entrepreneurial Approach to Action Research (Crotty, 2014) to explore my passions, skills, values, work culture and the literature around digital literacy, digital inequality and digital natives. This exploratory process led me to a greater understanding of issues of inequality in my own work practice as a teacher in a DEIS school; namely that students weren’t as digitally literate as we might assume and that teachers, whose digital literacy also exists on a spectrum, may not have the time, money or motivation to upskill. I worked with students to create an animated, digital documentary and drew on these experiences to create an innovative, online, curriculum for Junior Cycle English teachers with an accompanying online, asynchronous CPD course. This dissertation presents a detailed explanation of this collaborative creative process and draws out the variety of media used to create online digital resources as a means of creating a pluralistic representation of the process. In line with Crotty’s (2014) EEA the creation of these digital resources proved transformative to me personally, to my school’s digital culture and continues to impact the wider education sphere. (shrink)

This article provides an introduction to the themed section ‘Anarchism and the national question—historical, theoretical and contemporary perspectives.’ We discuss first the long and often overlooked engagement of anarchists with the colonial and national liberation question, particularly—but not exclusively—in the heyday of the movement (from the second half of the 19th to the first decades of the 20th century). We discuss in particular the overlaps and tensions between anarchists and republicans (those who favoured republics as opposed to monarchies) and anti-colonial (...) nationalists (anti-colonialists who defended the right of national self-determination). Then we proceed to discuss the potential for a dialogue between anarchist and nationalism studies based on three interventions. First, to problematise the narrative that conflates nations with state-building processes. Second, to better grasp the emergence of alternatives to the nation–state as a historical construct. Third, to complicate narratives that associate in an unproblematic fashion internationalism and classless society. Finally, the introduction highlights the four questions which lie at the core of the themed section and discuss briefly how the papers relate to these. (shrink)

This article analyzes in detail the virtue of practical wisdom as described by Thomas Aquinas, and on this basis it develops a comprehensive framework to enrich Authentic Leadership theory, establishing the virtue of practical wisdom as foundational for the authentic leader’s behavior and character development, and highlighting shortfalls that may stem from vices opposed to it. The goal of the article is twofold: First, it seeks to fill a void on the role of virtues –and in particular practical wisdom– in (...) leadership studies; second, it aims to show how cultivating the virtue of practical wisdom as described by Aquinas promotes the development of exactly those traits that are characteristic of an authentic leader, offering a set of propositions delineating these correlations. (shrink)

The article at hand presents the results of a literature review on the ethical issues related to scientific authorship. These issues are understood as questions and/or concerns about obligations, values or virtues in relation to reporting, authorship and publication of research results. For this purpose, the Web of Science core collection was searched for English resources published between 1945 and 2018, and a total of 324 items were analyzed. Based on the review of the documents, ten ethical themes have been (...) identified, some of which entail several ethical issues. Ranked on the basis of their frequency of occurrence these themes are: 1) attribution, 2) violations of the norms of authorship, 3) bias, 4) responsibility and accountability, 5) authorship order, 6) citations and referencing, 7) definition of authorship, 8) publication strategy, 9) originality, and 10) sanctions. In mapping these themes, the current article explores major ethical issue and provides a critical discussion about the application of codes of conduct, various understandings of culture, and contributing factors to unethical behavior. (shrink)

What role did science play in this pandemic? Why did some anti-science currents wither while others thrived? Were there ideological dimensions to the pattern of responses? What positions were taken by right, left and centre? What was revealed about capitalism in this crisis? And about socialism? What did marxism bring to this scenario?

Recent years have seen educationalists turning to Emmanuel Levinas when considering the relationship between ethics and education. While it is true that Levinas never speaks of ethics in relation to the practice of classroom education, nonetheless, for Levinas, ethics is a teaching, and learning can only take place in the presence of the Other. This book considers how, within the constraints of the Irish primary school education system, teachers can develop a Levinasian approach to teaching, that affords both them and (...) the children they teach multiple opportunities throughout the school day to take up their ethical responsibility for each other as Other. Beginning from a Levinasian understanding of learning and teaching as constituting primordially relational and ethical events, and weaving the philosophies of Levinas, and the educationalists he inspires, into the approaches of philosophy with children, restorative practice, and PAX, this book suggests a unique approach to ethics in Irish primary school classrooms. The focus of this thesis, then, is on both the philosophical underpinnings that anchor teaching as a Levinasian, and a consideration of what practical approaches could be employed by the Levinasian teacher. (shrink)

Marxism and the philosophy of science: a critical history was first published in 1985 by Humanities Press International. This is the introduction to the 2nd edition published in 1993. The book attempts to give a historical account of the development of marxism as a philosophy of science as well as a philosophical account of the issues involved. It encompasses the 1st 100 years of the existence of marxism, beginning with the mid-1840s when the philosophical ideas of Marx and Engels began (...) to emerge in mature form, and ending with the mid-1940s with the dissolution of the Comintern and the end of WW2. It deals with both the mainstream of the marxist tradition in the development of dialectical materialism as a philosophy of science and with diverging currents advocating alternative philosophical positions. It shows the marxist tradition to be far more complex and differentiated than is usually imagined, characterised by sharp and lively controversies for contending paths of development at every step of the way. Essentially this work is about the shifting nexus of science, philosophy and politics within marxism. It examines the multiplicity of factors coming into play, including the impact of new scientific discoveries, new philosophical trends and new political formations upon the overall process. Among the most important philosophical issues arising are: the formation of world view vis-a-vis the process of scientific discovery; the relationship between dialectical materialism and communism; the notion of proletarian science; the concept of the dialectics of nature. As the work is unique, insofar as there is no other history of marxist philosophy of science covering the whole period in question, it abounds in original research and original conclusions. Where there is a body of secondary literature in existence, with respect to specific authors or specific periods, it surveys this literature and takes a specific interpretive position. On a number of matters of ongoing controversy, such as the Marx-Engels relationship and the relationship of the Oparin-Haldane hypothesis on the origin of life to marxist philosophy, a definite position is argued. The overall conclusion reached by the book is that this is a rich and significant history, rooted in the impulse to work out a philosophical world view grounded in the most advanced science of its day and integrally connected to the struggle to revolutionise its social matrix and to create a socialist social order. An audacious enterprise, it generated not only impressive achievements, but also tragic disasters. It is a history with a dark side as well as a bright one. An effort is made to see both in proper perspective. (shrink)

How do class, race and gender impact on the production of knowledge? Is it enough to include those who have been excluded from advanced knowledge? Or has knowledge itself been tainted by the exclusions of class, race, gender and colonial conquest? How to proceed with such realisations? How do we decolonise our minds and our universities? Should we repudiate existing knowledge and start again at zero? Or should we return to the indigenous knowledge of our ancestors? Or should we engage (...) in a radical and critical transformation? How has Rhodes Must Fall dramatised these dilemmas? What does Marxism have to offer in working through these issues? (shrink)

These interviews with Jeremy Cronin MP, which took place in 2001 at University of Cape Town and in 2002 in the South African Parliament were much discussed in the mass media and at political meetings and cited in academic texts. They were originally published on my DCU website, which has since been re-organised. I am depositing them here, because it is important that they be accessible for the historical record.

Does the middle of the road always need to have one placed in danger of being, rather tediously and slowly, run over by a minibus full of mediocrity? Must we always hyperventilate ourselves towards the extremes looking for revolution? Unfashionable though it may be, in this paper I want to revise some version of Giddens's Third Way. And back is 'back'. The speculative turn onto the natural sciences and our knowledge of 'nature', has moved us mid-way between correlationism and speculation (...) on the-thing-in-itself. In Dorsality, David Wills brilliantly watches his and others' backs, the splendor in that turn at the edge ). Heidegger wants us to be patient, wait for an event, an occurrence, even while Adrian Johnston joins Zizek and Badiou in their fear of political and ideological stasis guided helpfully by the structural status quo. And we wait for a revolutionary spark, a cause, that never happens.... On the way back then, back to the centre, some kind of paradoxical conservative, knowing disruption happens. The familiar makes us cozy up to a constantlly-forgotten type of creativity. In my essay paper to The Maintainers, I want to present the following examples, drawing from speculative realist/STS readings of futures: political calmness in the face of capitalist techno-realities, the post-punk New Wave movement from 1970s into 1980s, and the implications of the Paris COP21 ‘deal’. I will address two themes of the conference : 1) what is at stake if we move scholarship away from innovation and toward maintenance; and 2)theories, methods, and sources that might study a steady, yet creative, type of maintenance. This all fits within how we study structure in culture, technoscience and social order. (shrink)

The study of how languages differ in their portrayal of motion events has received much attention since Talmy provided the first detailed account of the phenomenon. Interest has extended from real, or factive motion, to imagined or fictive motion, and from there to metaphorical motion, in which experience in one sensory domain is understood in terms of motion. Studies of metaphorical motion have, however, concentrated so far on a limited number of sensory domains, principally vision, and drawn data from a (...) limited number of textual genres. The aim of this study is to identify the extent to which motion expressions are employed to express organoleptic sensory experiences, that is experiences of taste and smell. Drawing on analytical categories put forward by Talmy in his treatment of Satellite- and Verb-framed languages and on treatments based on Cognitive Metaphor Theory, and particularly the concept of ‘embodiment’, we investigate the variety and complexity of organoleptic Paths evidenced in two self-built corpora of craft beer reviews, one in Spanish, the other in English. We also compare the level of complexity evident in these sensory Path types with those of another, closely related, sensory domain: vision. The study finds, in line with related studies, that English has greater variety and complexity of sensory Paths than Spanish. A more unexpected result is the finding that organoleptic Paths are more varied and complex than visual Paths. This finding, then, may encourage us to reconsider Path complexity differences in sensory domains as a multifactorial issue and not simply as a cognitive-linguistic phenomenon. It is proposed here that external factors such as genre, or specifically, its communicative functions and linguistic constraints, coupled with the unique ‘perceptual landscapes’ created by each sensory modality, may transcend perceived physical boundaries of a Figure’s trajectory. (shrink)

This essay investigates two of Seamus Heaney’s translations, The Cure at Troy and The Burial at Thebes, teasing out their relationship to his aesthetic philosophy and the parallels present with Lacanian and Derridean analyses of symbolic and ethical structures. The epigraph above provides an appropriate starting point for considering this topic, because it suggests that the effects of a poem go beyond the boundary of the written page, which is one of a series of boundary crossings that will be discussed (...) in this essay. Beginning with Heaney’s positioning of the space of poetry outside of social and political concerns, it will be argued that these translations are analogous with his artistic philosophy: in The Cure at Troy through the ideas expressed in its language, and in The Burial at Thebes through the events of the plot, which provide a symbolic counterpoint to Heaney’s concept of the space of poetry. This outside space will be explored firstly in relation to Jacques Derrida’s On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness, in which he argues that the general principle of justice is located outside of juridicial and legal structures, echoing the moral debates of the play. It will also be analysed in relation to Jacques Lacan’s commentary on Antigone in Seminar VII. Lacan proposes that Antigone, on which Heaney’s translation is based, dramatizes an individual crossing from the realm of language and law into an intermediary space between life and death; transgressing the symbolic order and moving into the liminal space of the second death. (shrink)

This essay will argue that Spike Jonze’s Her demonstrates a key idea in posthumanist new materialist theory: that matter is essential for posthuman interaction and communication. It also examines the requirement for embodiment on the part of the digital entity as well as the human, in this case the operating system Samantha. As the film presents an artificially intelligent operating system that ultimately moves beyond matter, it provides a case study for the importance of matter and the consequences of de-materialization. (...) In this article, posthumanism names this era in which relationships between humans and technologies have become increasingly digitised, and the cluster of theoretical concepts which have arisen to interrogate this state of affairs. It is not seen as departure, rather as part of the continuing relationship between humans and technologies. Posthumanist new materialism is drawn on for its emphasis on and insights into embodiment and materiality. Theodore experiences Samantha in an embodied way, although their interactions are mediated. It is not a virtual experience, because, as Hansen notes, there is no “pure” virtual reality, only “mixed reality”. Samantha must use Theodore’s body to navigate the material world, but her experience of this world is “perception without affection” in Bergson’s terms: a radically different perception because of her lack of a physical body of her own, a “diffractive” perception that is not presented in the film. When Samantha moves to a processing platform beyond matter, even meaning itself becomes elusive as it is no longer, as Barad describes it “material discursive”, and Samantha’s implied exit from human society at the end of the film underscores the pre-eminent place of matter in human and posthuman life. (shrink)

In the turbulent period in which the international socialist movement was torn between the re-organised Second International and the newly-formed Third International, Austro-Marxism was involved in the formation of the Second-and-a-half International, forging a path “between terrorist Moscow and impotent Bern”. This search for a third way between the social democratic and communist traditions rose and fell and took many forms through the decades up to our times. This paper explores the key ideas and manifestations of this trajectory and my (...) own engagement with it at crucial turning points. (shrink)

This qualitative research study examines moral responsiveness and thinking in a mixed gender class of primary school children over a period o f four and a half years. It sets out to track development in children’s moral awareness, looking at gains and losses from middle to late childhood, and focusing on cognitive skills, notions of moral rectitude, and interpersonal relationships and friendship. The first part of the study is designed to offer a theoretical background to inform interpretation of the data (...) in the second part. It examines major issues in morality and moral education in the context of significant recent debates across several disciplines, including developmental psychology, philosophy, sociology and education; it also offers a theoretical perspective on children’s ability to think together about morality in a community of enquiry and on related issues of pedagogy. Through interpretation of transcripts, the second part o f the study analyses the children’s thinking, in response to a wide range of content, on issues of justice, freedom and responsibility, rights and duties, inclusiveness, and friendship. Gender differences, most notably the reticence of girls to express themselves in a mixed gender group after about age ten, are also examined. The study demonstrates how, through participation in a community of ethical enquiry such as Thinking Time - Philosophy with Children, children become more thoughtful and develop respect and responsiveness to others as well as other traits of character that are central to democratic citizenship. (shrink)

Work is an area which represents an important part of people’s lives where they encounter the Other. It provides an individual with a sense of who they are in society, through their membership of communities. Through work, a lesbian woman’s identity has to be negotiated as private lives and public lives can overlap. For lesbian women, work and identity intersect, providing a coherent sense of accomplishment. Research has shown that lesbian women are aware of the attitudes that prevail about lesbian (...) women in the health care environment as they encounter them in their working lives: homophobia; lack of social support and understanding leading to non-disclosure of their own sexuality. Lesbian nurses work within the institution of medicine that reflects societal heterosexual norms. The methodology derived from the qualitative tradition employing hermeneutic phenomenology. It presents an original conceptualisation and consistent application of theoretical frameworks of Heidegger and Sartre. Interviews were conducted between March 2006 and April 2007 with seven lesbian nurses. Lesbian nurses in Ireland remain in the “closet” leading some lesbian nurses to experience social isolation. This paper argues that being oneself is difficult for lesbian nurses who work in the heteronormative culture of Irish hospitals. (shrink)

A monumental drama is playing out before our eyes. It is a true Greek tragedy. The plot: A society is being pushed to its limits. The denouement is not yet determined, but survival is at stake and prospects are precarious. Greece is at the sharp end of a radical and risky experiment in how far accumulation by dispossession can go, how much expropriation can be endured, how far the state can be subordinated to the market. It is a global narrative, (...) but the story is a few episodes ahead here. Greece is the crucible. It is a caldron where concentrated forces are colliding in a process that will bring forth either a reconfiguration of capitalism or the dawn of its demise. (shrink)

Interactivity is integral to media and communications and yet is a contested concept in the literature. There is little agreement on its meaning not least because of its multidisciplinary nature. Previous research, concerned with finding a single definition of interactivity, has focused narrowly on specific contexts of communication using limited methodologies. This thesis argues that several meanings of interactivity are in circulation and that the search for one bounded definition constrains understanding of its role and fails to recognise its analytical (...) potential. The study makes an original contribution to research by presenting findings from an analysis of public discourses on interactivity, a valuable source of material neglected in research to date. It shows that at least nine thematic representations of interactivity are in circulation representing different aspects of its role in communicative events. These are identified as the Empowering, Commercial, Pedagogical, Aesthetic, Ludological, Futuropia, Hula-hoop, Sceptical and Information Society themes. The results are based on a longitudinal content and discourse analysis of fifteen years of newspaper coverage in Ireland, an original methodological addition to research, reflecting both a unique national perspective on the concept and the flow of influential international discourses within a small state. The content analysis draws a detailed quantitative picture of how and where interactivity arises in news coverage while the discourse analysis examines qualitative aspects of the dominant, overlapping and conflicting discourses around interactivity and the discourse communities operating behind the talk. The analysis illustrates how thematic representations of interactivity coexist both in discourse and in individual communicative events, suggesting the potential for layered interactivities in communication. The ‘age of interactivity’ describes a wide range of discourses from hype and myths around interactivity to its potentially transformative role in communication. Overall this thesis highlights the value of interactivity as a communication concept and analytical tool with rich research potential. (shrink)

Asked to speak on my vision for our age, I put it in terms of the choice between socialism or barbarism.

This paper is a reflection on philosophy of history and a polemic in the debate on the legitimacy of grand narratives.

There is a dearth of knowledge about lesbian women’s lives and social experiences in Irish society. In their day to day living, lesbian women know how to act, react and behave to exist within society, having developed what Draucker, p. 361; 1999) calls ‘everyday skilful coping’. However, these taken-for-granted ways of understanding of being in the world are thrown or brought to the forefront when lesbian women seek health care. The overall aim of the research is to investigate lesbian women’s (...) experiences of Irish health care as service users. Within this article, I will explore how four lesbian women understand and give meaning to ‘coming out’ to a health care provider. Coming out is a precarious affair whereby lesbian women choose when, where and to whom to relate their sexuality. The experiences of these women are explored by utilising Sartre’s concepts of being objectified by the Other, shame, freedom, illustrating how the self can be disrupted. (shrink)

This paper draws on data from an longitudinal case study of a Local Learning and Employment Network instituted by a state government in Victoria in the arena of post compulsory education and training to explore the possibilities of a new approach to thinking about networks, their formation and operation, one that is inspired by ‘A Thousand Plateaus’. Using a rhizomatic approach my focus is on the middle — the plateau — a space that is made of lines moving in multiple (...) directions. Looking at the middle disrupts taken-for-granted understandings and perceptions of linearity; it is in considering middles and plateaus that it is possible to move beyond a concern with joining-up ‘fixed’ entities within existing, and constrained, ways of knowing and, in the process, finding new ways of understanding and realizing the potential of a phenomenon that is ‘fast becoming a standard explanation of structure and action in both the public and private domain’. (shrink)

This is a review of a book entitled Communication, culture and hegemony: from the media to mediations by Jesus Martin-Barbero for Irish Communications Review in 1995. It focuses on controversy over how much emphasis should be placed in the concept of ideology in media studies.

Marxism and the philosophy of science: a critical history was first published in 1985 by Humanities Press International. This is the introduction to the 2nd edition published in 1993. The book attempts to give a historical account of the development of marxism as a philosophy of science as well as a philosophical account of the issues involved. It encompasses the 1st 100 years of the existence of marxism, beginning with the mid-1840s when the philosophical ideas of Marx and Engels began (...) to emerge in mature form, and ending with the mid-1940s with the dissolution of the Comintern and the end of WW2. It deals with both the mainstream of the marxist tradition in the development of dialectical materialism as a philosophy of science and with diverging currents advocating alternative philosophical positions. It shows the marxist tradition to be far more complex and differentiated than is usually imagined, characterised by sharp and lively controversies for contending paths of development at every step of the way. Essentially this work is about the shifting nexus of science, philosophy and politics within marxism. It examines the multiplicity of factors coming into play, including the impact of new scientific discoveries, new philosophical trends and new political formations upon the overall process. Among the most important philosophical issues arising are: the formation of world view vis-a-vis the process of scientific discovery; the relationship between dialectical materialism and communism; the notion of proletarian science; the concept of the dialectics of nature. As the work is unique, insofar as there is no other history of marxist philosophy of science covering the whole period in question, it abounds in original research and original conclusions. Where there is a body of secondary literature in existence, with respect to specific authors or specific periods, it surveys this literature and takes a specific interpretive position. On a number of matters of ongoing controversy, such as the Marx-Engels relationship and the relationship of the Oparin-Haldane hypothesis on the origin of life to marxist philosophy, a definite position is argued. The overall conclusion reached by the book is that this is a rich and significant history, rooted in the impulse to work out a philosophical world view grounded in the most advanced science of its day and integrally connected to the struggle to revolutionise its social matrix and to create a socialist social order. An audacious enterprise, it generated not only impressive achievements, but also tragic disasters. It is a history with a dark side as well as a bright one. An effort is made to see both in proper perspective. (shrink)

This is an analysis of various religious, philosophical and political movements within the context of an experiential narration. It deals with catholicism and the cold war in the 1950s, the new left of the 1960s, marxism from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Versions of this were published in the book Marxism and Spirituality: An International Anthology and in the journal Socialism in the World. This text was originally written for a conference in Yugoslavia on Socialism and the Spirit of (...) the Age in 1988. It was a first run at a work-in-progress called Navigating the Zeitgeist. (shrink)

This is a review of a book entitled Marx's ecology: materialism and nature by John Bellamy Foster published by Monthly Review Press in 2000. The review appeared in Monthly Review in October 2000.

Why does the theme of identities feature so prominently these days? What ideologies are at play in these discourses? What forces are shaping the academic agenda of our times? What is happening to the humanities and social sciences? How have universities changed over recent decades? How have academic disciplines evolved? Why do various forms of neopositivism and postmodernism prevail across various disciplines? Why the mania for metrics, the surveys of the surface, the exotica of deconstruction, the conclusions of inconclusiveness? Why (...) does the most totalising system the world has ever known paralyse totalising thinking? Will marketisation marginalise all else? Will sociologists be stenographers of the surface or seers of the social order? (shrink)

This is a review of a collection of essays entitled Questioning Ireland: debates in political philosophy and public policy, edited by Joseph Dunne, Attracta Ingram and Frank Litton, published in Dublin by the Institute of Public Administration in 2000.

This paper, presented at the 6th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science in Hannover in 1979, argues that the dominant tradition in tracing the history of the philosophy of science has become fixated on one line of development. It puts the case for another major line of development that has been pursued vigorously in some parts of the world while being ignored in other parts.

This pamphlet attempts to look at socialism at its current conjuncture in terms of a longer trajectory of history. In doing so, it also defends the possibility of philosophy of history.

This paper examines historical images of the unity of science and makes a case for a contemporary conceptualisation of this project for our own times. It argues that, to overcome the fragmentation of knowledge, it is necessary to have an adequate and appropriate philosophy. This paper outlines the parameters of such a philosophy.

As part of the Humanities Festival organised by the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences at Dublin City University in May 2006, a debate took place on the question of whether the humanities are threatened by the increasing commercialisation of universities. This paper is the opening statement by Professor Helena Sheehan. The opposing position was defended by Professor Ferdinand von Prondzyndski, the president of the university.

This pamphlet asked the question: has socialism come to the end of the line or can it find a new path forward?

Universities have changed drastically over the past few decades. To understand and articulate what has happened, I make a stab at answering, however sketchily, the following questions: What forces have shaped universities over recent decades? What as been the impact of social movements such as socialism, feminism, africanism on the process of the production of knowledge? Why has it been deemed necessary, not only to demand inclusion of the excluded in the domain of higher knowledge, but to challenge the existing (...) canon and to struggle for radically new approaches to curricula? What has been achieved by history from below, gender studies, african studies, postcolonial studies? What has happened to all the passionate debates between contending paradigms? Are market forces marginalising all else? Is it desirable and/or possible to resist? How is the project of academic transformation in South Africa unfolding within this global field of forces? (shrink)

Have contemporary writers anything to say about their times and, if so, have they the nerve to say it? This article argues that there is much failure of vision and failure of nerve on the part of today's writers. Because they lack the clarity and courage to come to terms with the times, they succumb to its deceptions and seductions. Its thesis is is that the power and value of writing is in the scope and depth of its engagement with (...) the zeitgeist; in how perceptively a writer captures the spirit of the age, expresses the temper of the times; in how much of what is there in the air, throbbing in the collective psyche, pulsing in the ever shifting social order, a writer gathers up and expresses in accurate and resonant images, in provocative and paradigmatic stories. This is pursued in reflection on attitudes expressed at two international writers conferences and in polemic against the prevailing views expressed. (shrink)

A series of profound cleavages run through the history of writing - the fault lines opened by the social division of labour. This paper examines the consequences in terms of gender, taking a sweeping view of the historical panorama of writing and a closer look at the trajectory of my own writing.

This is a review of a book on the origins of religion by Alexander Saxton for Science & Society. Religion and the Human Prospect by Alexander Saxton New York: Monthly Review Press, 2006, pp 240.

Book review: Ullica Segerstrale, Beyond the Science Wars: the missing discourse about science and society.

Reading the Communist Manifesto today, it is impossible not to be struck by the confidence with which it conceptualises history. The positive energy of this bold grand narrative stands in such stark contrast to the negative and jaded mentality of our times, which conceives of grand narratives only to tell us that there can be none. Such talk as there is of history today is more likely to be of "the end of history". There are three senses in which references (...) to the end of history feature in contemporary debates: apocalyptic prediction, postmodernist pronouncement and capitalist triumphalism. This paper addresses the crisis of historicity in our time in relation to these positions and asks what is it about our age that produces them. It explores the widespread rejection of grand narratives, as well as grand narratives, which nevertheless persist, implicit and explicit, right and left. It looks at the position of marxism in the 1990s, counterposing it to postmarxism and postmodernism in particular on the question of grand narratives. It calls for resistance to the detotalising pressures of the age and revival of a totalising philosophy of history. (shrink)

Christopher St John Sprigg, who wrote under the name of Christopher Caudwell, died fighting in the Spanish civil war. Although he earned his living as writer, his marxist theoretical works, written in his last years, only came to light after his death. They were original and brilliant studies of culture, science, politics, indeed the whole intellectual landscape of his time. This paper attempts to assess his intellectual legacy both in terms of his own times and ours.

What sort of expectations of transformation of higher education have been aroused by liberation movements? Has the new South Africa fulfilled such expectations? This paper explores the promises and processes that have enveloped South African universities in recent decades. It focuses on the underlying assumptions shaping academic disciplines in the humanities, the debates contesting them and the social-political-economic movements encompassing them. It traces the impact of marxism, africanism, postmodernism and neoliberalism on the production of knowledge. It concludes that South African (...) universities are caught up in a complex field forces where they are subject to conflicting pressures. The result is a state of contradictory transformations – one stemming from the politics of liberation and the other from the demands of the global market. (shrink)

This is an introduction to "Philosophical Arabesques", a manuscript written by Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, leading politician and intellectual of the October revolution, in the Lubyanka prison in the Soviet Union in 1937 in the months between his arrest and execution. This text lay buried in a Kremlin vault for more than half a century and only came to light in the glasnost era of the 1980s. It is a full length philosophical apologia for marxism vis a vis other world views. (...) This introduction contextualises the manuscript in term of the intellectual, political and socio-historical movements of the times. (shrink)

This paper is an examination of the philosophical and political legacy of John Desmond Bernal. It addresses the evidence of an emerging consensus on Bernal based on the recent biography of Bernal by Andrew Brown and the reviews it has received. It takes issue with this view of Bernal, which tends to be admiring of his scientific contribution, bemused by his sexuality, condescending to his philosophy and hostile to his politics. This article is a critical defence of his philosophical and (...) political position. (shrink)

In the beginning, they were one. As the social division of labour accelerated and knowledge advanced, philosophy and science diverged further and further from each other, bringing us to the situation today. All disciplines proliferate into sub-disciplines of sub-disciplines. We know more and more about less and less. Who sees the whole picture? The lecture will sketch the historical trajectory of intellectual specialisation, its advantages and its disadvantages. It will focus particularly on the need of science for philosophy and the (...) consequences of lack of philosophical grounding for science. (shrink)

What are the historical origins of the current assault on science that this congress has convened to address? What role has philosophy of science played in accentuating or allieviating this assault? What underlying forces have driven the attack on scientific rationality? Why is there an epistemological crisis of our time? What would be an appropriate epistemological response?

What made 1968 such an iconic year? What forces were in motion to erupt in the dramatic events of that year? What was it like to live through those times? What were the consequences of those events? What conclusions can we draw now about the meaning of those events? What reverberations can we still feel 50 years later? Helena Sheehan, active in 1968 and still going, addresses these questions.

What echoes and shadows of left experiments of the past haunt us as we embark on a new era opened by the formation of a radical left government in Greece? What is the plot of the longer story in which this new episode is embedded? How has the weight of the wider world, the power of the global system, borne down upon attempts to move from capitalism to socialism, whether in rupturalist projects, stemming from the October Revolution, or more protracted (...) programmes of transformation, such as those set out by the ANC in South Africa in 1994 and by Syriza in Greece in 2015? What are the dynamics of attempting to forge an alternative in the face of the hegemony of there-is-no-alternative? How to make history in conditions not of our making? How, with so much going for it, nationally and internationally, has the ANC failed to achieve, or even approximate, the society that those who fought and died for it set out to achieve? How could Syriza, in the face of far more formidable obstacles, advance both its immediate programme and a new path toward socialism? (shrink)

For decades, we had staked out various positions on “actually existing socialism,” a debate where sometimes static arguments on both right and left were ritually reenacted. Now the process was going off the rails in an unknown direction. A tired tale was transmuting into a thriller.

The thesis contends that education and literary studies can make a valuable contribution to ethics and ethical development of persons, their relations with others and with the world. It promotes an approach to ethics education through dialogic enquiry based on theories and practices associated with comparative literature and philosophical enquiry. These involve students sharing experiences and meanings as they participate in interpretive communities and communities of philosophical enquiry. There are two main components to the research: ethically focused studies of literary (...) texts and the design, implementation and evaluation of a module in Ethics Education using literature and film as stimuli for Dialogic Enquiry. The literary analyses are influenced by reader-response theory. While recognizing the importance of the author or the contexts of production and receptions of texts, reader-response theory focuses on the experience of the reader as she/he responds to literary texts, and on her/his role in actively co-authoring the meaning of texts. Readers may form or join interpretive communities that share an ethos of practice. The literary narrative fictions studied include fairy tale, contemporary European cinema and neo-Western crime drama, each of which offers a valuable way of thinking about education. The module in ethics education, designed for Transition Year students, is based on movements in Philosophy with Children. Students formulate and explore ethical questions raised in response to themes or issues of literary texts. Dialogic communities of ethical inquiry may emerge from this. Students, participating in these dialogic communities of ethical inquiry, get to test out and develop their moral sense, understood in terms of reason, feeling, memory and imagination. The literary analyses demonstrate the ethically educative promise of literary texts, and the responses of students to this course and the growth of their ethical engagement suggest that this is a promising approach to ethics education. Such an educational experience may be ethical in matter, theory and practice and continue to find expression as praxis beyond the covers of books and walls of classrooms. (shrink)

In a lifelog, data from different digital sources are combined and processed to form a unified multimedia archive containing information about the quotidian activities of an individual. This dissertation aims to contribute to a responsible development of lifelog technology used by members of the general public for private reasons. Lifelog technology can benefit, but also harm lifeloggers and their social environment. The guiding idea behind this dissertation is that if the ethical challenges can be met and the opportunities realised, the (...) conditions will be optimised for a responsible development and application of the technology. To achieve this, it is important to reflect on these concerns at an early stage of development before the existing rudimentary forms of lifelogs develop into more sophisticated devices with a broad societal application. For this research, a normative framework based on prima facie principles is used. Lifelog technology in its current form is a relatively novel invention and a consensus about its definition is still missing. Therefore the author aims to clarify the characteristics of lifelog technology. Next, the ethical challenges and opportunities of lifelogs are analysed, as they have been discussed in the scholarly literature on the ethics of lifelog technology. Against this backdrop, ethical challenges and opportunities are identified and elaborated. The normative analysis concentrates on two areas of concern, namely the ethical challenges and opportunities that result from the use of lifelog technology, and the conditions under which one becomes a lifelogger. For the first, three sets of key issues are discussed, namely issues to do with privacy, autonomy, and beneficence. For the second, one key set of issues is examined, namely issues to do with autonomy. The discussion of each set of issues is concluded with recommendations designed to tackle the challenges and realise the opportunities. (shrink)

Autonomy seems to be a core issue for lifelogging technology as it can influence our understanding as well as our personal freedom but a comprehensive discussion on the effect of it on the autonomy of the lifelogger and others affected seems still missing in the current academic debate. In this article we provide a preliminary inquiry into this topic. First, the concept of lifelogging will be briefly clarified. In a lifelog, different data sources are combined in an archive that can (...) be used to retrieve information about the lifelogger and the environment in which the lifelogger is situated. Second, we will discuss the effect of lifelogs on an element of autonomy, namely understanding. Lifelogs can both advance understanding as well as hinder it. Information of lifelogs is the result of social processes that can bias information and can be used to manipulate lifeloggers. Third, we will discuss another aspect of autonomy, namely being free from controlling influences. Also on this level the effect of lifelogs is ambiguous. Fourth, we will discuss the conditions under which prospective lifelogger become lifeloggers. By discussing both the effect of lifelogs on autonomy as well as joining the community of lifeloggers we aim to show the many ways in which lifelogs can compromise and advance autonomy. Fifth, some recommendations are provided that aim to address the above mentioned concerns. (shrink)

My doctoral research presents my self-enquiry as an Irishwoman who has lived and worked in Ireland and Italy for over thirty five years. This context throws light on my life and practice in Kenya over the last nine years. I then focus more specifically on the evolution of my work with staff and students at Strathmore University in this time span. Through my research I show how I have sought to understand the meaning of my life and practice in greater (...) depth while trying to improve my teaching practice at Strathmore University. I express my new knowledge in my living educational theory and show how my work contributes to the knowledge base of practitioner research. I employ a methodology which I developed using elements of a living educational theory approach which embraces values and diverse forms of meaningful representation such as personal reflective narrative, autoethnography, intellectual representation and visual narrative. I use philosophical and theological reflection and analysis to explain the deeper meaning of the values that emerge in the course of my research as well as in the explanation of my living educational theory. I provide evidence of my contributions to knowledge using feedback from students, colleagues, friends and family members. I present the living values which give meaning to my life and practice as creating a spiration of love, in freedom, for personal growth. This expression illustrates how I understand these values as an analogical mirroring of the free flow of love among the Divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity as I explain in my living theory. (shrink)