_This autobiographical essay explains how a Japanese girl growing up in Japan goes to the USA to become a philosopher as well as a feminist. After living a life of a philosophy professor and a feminist, however, she ends up becoming a homemaker and mother in Germany. Currently she is again an academic, spending several months in Japan, contemplating on creating a feminist theory based on Japanese philosophy._.

_This inquiry joins the idea of a vital principle at work in two systems for spiritual liberation and medical treatment, South Asian Yoga and Āyurveda, to an interpretation of the second axiom of thermodynamics applied to open systems, a predictive mathematical account of matter. Though often first associated with philosophy or religion, Yoga and Āyurveda take human physiology as a function of the natural world, as does thermodynamics. The idea of “life force” or “vitality” emerges at the intersection of these (...) two epistemologies. The religious or philosophical principle of prā__ṇ__a__ (succinctly, life energy) has its roots in a naturalist perspective, and a principle from mathematics and physical science yields the abstract concept of entropy (succinctly, energy loss). The discussion reconsiders the philosophical idea of a life force, or vital principle, and its potential application in health care._. (shrink)

_Much of academic philosophy is narrow. There are several ways to understand what narrow means in this context. One aspect has to do with the focus of academic publications and presentations, which are often exceedingly limited, in terms of both the scope of scholarship included in the discussion as well the ideas considered. Relatedly, the main orientation in academic philosophy is on picking things apart and considering concepts, relationships, and the world according to smaller and smaller parts. In this paper (...) we would like to draw attention to another type of philosophizing, which is also practiced but is less welcomed in many academic settings, we call this “open philosophy.” Open philosophy invites new ways of thinking about the world, and generally brings more things into its scope. Rather than striving for simplicity and minimizing, open philosophizing appreciates complexity and introduces approaches for people to consider themselves, as opposed to stating propositions, solutions, standards, or calculations. In particular we will explore how more research on Chinese Philosophy that is open could contribute to comparative and post-comparative perspectives._. (shrink)

_In two parts, this review essay focuses on the question of contradiction between a universal ethic and its partial application. Following the presentation of Kant’s position the author’s key reframing arguments are discussed in relation to the globalizing eighteenth-century economy. A persistent problem of translation will conclude part one. Part two argues for a wider historical framework that includes the eighteenth century’s emancipatory theory and practice. The reviewer supports the author’s call for further teaching and research into the book’s themes._ (...) _ _. (shrink)

_This article considers the author’s friendship with the late bell hooks. Through conceptualizing the notion of wayward immobility as well as exploring the significance of bell’s work on the author’s life and academia, this article celebrates bell and her incredible thinking and writing practice. _.

_Mu__ḥ__ammad Ghazālī (d. 1111) influenced some of the key metaphysical teachings of Shia Safavid philosophers, most prominently, Mullā __Ṣ__adrā Shīrāzī (d. ca. 1636). In this paper, I argue that Mullā __Ṣ__adrā reads Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037) through the lens of Mu__ḥ__ammad Ghazālī’s Sufi Ash__ʿ__arism to offer a solution to the problem of freewill in the Islamic context. In his adaptation of causal necessity from Ibn S__ī__n__ā__, Mull__ā_ _Ṣ__adrā argues that “necessity” as a concept is co-extensional with “existence” because in reality (...) all that is the case is necessarily so. On the other hand, all things including voluntary actions and will are only relatively existent since the only independent existence is that of God. I demonstrate that like Ibn Sīnā, Mullā __Ṣ__adrā acknowledges the existence of a causal chain in which all intermediary causes including human freewill have causal power. But, similar to Ghazālī’s account, all human acts including voluntary ones are from God since in Mullā __Ṣ__adrā’s universe freewill is a lower degree of God’s Will. For Mullā __Ṣ__adrā, the acquisition of action by human beings in the case of voluntary actions, a notion that he adopts from Ghazālī, is the same as “acquiring” existence from God’s existence._. (shrink)

_The article analyses the concept of “self-love” comparing it with ethical and psychological egoism, selfishness, and as well as it's inclusiveness of love for others. According to the hypothesis of this article, __Mullā __Ṣ__adrā Shīrāzī’s __special metaphysical and anthropological foundations provide a comprehensive rationale for synthesizing self-love and love for others. This is in harmony with his definition and criteria of love. The narrative, grounded in principles such as the principality of existence, analogical gradation, cognation of cause and effect, manifestation, (...) and Platonic theory of Ideas, depicts love as intertwined with the universe’s structure. Love, attuned to the divine origin of beauty, goodness, and perfection has a divine identity, and the affection directed towards oneself and others essentially extends from this divine form of love. However, the hierarchical nature of love this is analogous to existence, manifests at various stages of human development, with each phase embodying a distinct facet serving as a conduit toward the subsequent level._. (shrink)

_In this symposium, Roberto A. Carleo III, Gregory Doukas and Imogen M. Sullivan think alongside Carlos Alberto Sánchez about the contingency of human existence as it is understood in Mexican existentialism. They ask: Should the notion of a metaphysical substance be discarded altogether due to its misuse in the history of European philosophy? Or are there philosophical reasons to avoid ontological uncertainty by, for example, postulating the notion of a non-discrete substance? And if attempts to define human substantiality merely seek (...) to defy this accidentality, should scholars with deviant identities deliberately engage in a wandering beyond dominant frameworks to evade the material and hermeneutical hostility of these frameworks? How should they work alongside others to best take up their responsibility? In his reply, Sánchez considers what the project of accidentalization would imply for each of these carefully-crafted interventions._. (shrink)

_In this essay, I explore the meaning of place and geography as a Southern black woman philosopher. My reflections on these topics are informed by the work of bell hooks, a native Kentuckian who moved to the North and then back again to the South. I explore how bell hooks has helped me reconcile the racist history of the South with how I see myself today._.

_In a recent article, William Rees defends the proposition that ecological overshoot will propel human population decline in coming decades. He rightly highlights that decreasing energy availability will contribute to this demographic shift, although he understates the significance of this phenomenon. He is also correct to expect ecological overshoot to be inadequately addressed. Yet Rees’s reasoning betrays stark __neglect of the colonial roots of ecological overshoot and why it goes unaddressed. This leads him to reinforce the discursive dynamics driving ecological (...) overshoot despite avowing to criticize them. Ultimately, he makes several specious colonialist assumptions about the primary drivers of ecological overshoot. He also fails to recognize that human population decline will occur even if a suitable energy and infrastructure transition takes place. Is such a decline inevitable, as Rees claims? Yes, but this is not for the reasons he suggests. A careful analysis of his argument shows why._. (shrink)

_We are more than the circumstances of our lives, and what we do matters. In _We Are the Leaders We Are Looking For _(2024) one of the nation’s preeminent scholars and the _New York Times_ bestselling author, Dr Eddie S. Glaude Jr., argues that the challenging work of becoming a better person should be a critical feature of Black politics. We are more than the circumstances of our lives, and what we do matters. He interprets the leadership styles and compelling (...) voices of some of the most towering figures: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Ella Baker, to show us how we have the power to be the heroes that our democracy so urgently requires. Through these three leaders, Glaude displays how ordinary people have the capacity to be the heroes that our democracy requires, instead of outsourcing their needs to leaders who represent them. Glaude also integrates his own evolving views of Black politics with the assistance of Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Dewey, Sheldon Wolin, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Ralph Elison. Glaude’s book is a powerful reminder that if our US-American democracy is to survive, it requires a particular kind of person for this to work, and the engagement of ordinary people. _. (shrink)

I pay tribute to bell hooks in this essay by reflecting on the multiple provocations she offers to me and my feminist philosophy students: on revolutionary vs. reform feminism; the need for self-love and healing in the quest for social transformation; and deeply entrenched racist and sexist barriers to multiracial feminist coalition building. I consider hooks’s position, within academic spaces, as a Black Feminist killjoy who distinctively rejects respectability while offering sanctuary to those, like me, who come to theory from (...) a place of pain. I conclude by raising questions about hooks’s approach to the relationship between theory and praxis, arguing that she envisions a radical critical praxis theory while acknowledging that there may have been some limits on her “revolutionary” love. (shrink)