In a special issue of this journal, a range of authors addressed the critical problem of difference in bioethics. To what extent do class, culture, ethnicity, and race affect the ethical decisions that patients and professionals must make in a medical context? Those arguing for an understanding of cultural influences in bioethical decisionmakingtypically argue from the perspective of individual case studies to demonstrate the importance of these social constructs. Others, like Erika Blacksher, however, worry that this approach will obscure the (...) uniqueness of individual decisionmakng patterns, allowing all persons of a single group to be aggregated as if their class, cultural construct, or religious affiliation were the single motive element in their medicolegal decisionmaking. There is, she cautions, a risk of misuse if a professional care provider reflexively assumes individual patient or surrogate reactions on the basis of ethnicity or culture. (shrink)

In Book II of the Republic, Socrates briefly depicts a city where each inhabitant contributes to the welfare of all by performing the role for which he or she is naturally suited. Socrates calls this city the `true city ' and the `healthy one'. Nearly all commentators have argued that Socrates' praise of the city cannot be taken at face value, claiming that it does not represent Socrates' preferred community. The point of this paper is to argue otherwise. The claim (...) is that Socrates genuinely believes the city is a healthy and desirable city, and that he believes that the First City is in fact superior to the Kallipolis. (shrink)

Praise and Reviews `Thom Braun`s mission, in this eclectic and readable book, is to get us thinking and, whether he`s relating Plato to Persil or Descartes to Diet Coke, that`s just what he does. No marketer will think about their job in the same way after reading this. Enjoyable and thought-provoking` James Thompson, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Diageo, North America `Thom Braun, The Thinking Man`s Brand Manager, has created a whole new sizzling discourse on branding which provides (...) a terrific antidote to the anodyne filler of standard business texts. Armed with brains and a little Braun, brand managers can become brand leaders.` Paul Walton, Chairman, The Value Engineers `An original and witty reminder that the most successful brands are driven by talented thinkers.` Simon Clift, President, Marketing, Unilever Home & Personal Care `At last, a brand book with a big idea. Braun`s entertaining distillation of some of the greatest thinkers of the last 3,000 years offers provocative yet practical conclusions on how we should rethink managing our own brand. A wonderfully fresh and stimulating read.` Adam Morgan, author of Eating the Big Fish `A thoroughly stimulating and enjoyable read. By looking at brands and branding through the lens of Western philosophy, Braun helps us review afresh some of the fundamentals of marketing.` Jim Carroll, Deputy Chairman, BBH London In this original and imaginative slant on contemporary brand management, Thom Braun takes us into the minds of the worlds greatest Western thinkers... Heraclitus Socrates Plato Aristotle Descartes Spinoza Leibniz Locke Hume Rousseau Kant Hegel Nietzsche Wittgenstein Popper...to reveal what they might say about branding if they were alive today. Filled with contemporary examples, pragmatic insights and summaries of each philosopher's "top tips", this elegant and witty book will resonate with all marketing and branding professionals who want their intellectual and professional faculties stimulated by some new thinking. (shrink)

Contemporary just war thinking has mostly been split into two competing camps, namely, Michael Walzer’s approach and its revisionist critics. While Walzerians employ a casuistical method, most revisionists resort to analytical philosophy’s reflective equilibrium. Importantly, besides employing different methods, the two sides also disagree on substantive issues. This article focuses on one such issue, the moral equality of combatants, arguing that while a methodological reconciliation between the two camps is impossible, contemporary debate would benefit from a ‘third-way’ approach. Presenting (...) class='Hi'>James Turner Johnson’s historical method as such an approach, the article suggests that while revisionists are correct in considering the symmetry thesis as ethically indefensible, in order to arrive at this judgement, it is not necessary to employ far-fetched thought experiments and the use of historical cases is preferable. The root cause of Walzer’s problematic reasoning vis-à-vis the symmetry thesis, the histori... (shrink)

Aaron Ridley posed the question of whether results in the ontology of musical works would have implications for judgements about the interpretation, meaning or aesthetic value of musical works and performances. His arguments for the conclusion that the ontology of musical works have no aesthetic consequences are unsuccessful, but he is right in thinking (in opposition to Andrew Kania and others) that ontological judgements have no aesthetic consequences. The key to demonstrating this conclusion is the recognition that ontological judgments are (...) a priori and aesthetic judgments are empirical. A priori judgements have no empirical consequences. Neither fundamental ontology of music nor higher- order ontological reflections have any aesthetic consequences. (shrink)

We argue that in contemporary business organizations, in which fundamental purpose is construed to be increased value—especially in ‘participative’ organizations, in which non–hierarchal interaction (for example, work teams) is the norm; and in ‘adaptive’ organizations, in which unpredictable change is the rule—a process of values covenanting will be much more valueable than just espoused values or even values covenants. We propose such a process model for organizational values covenanting and argue that such covenanting reflects an anthropomorphism of the human character (...) development process, validated in terms of the theory of viable systems. (shrink)

This chapter contains section titled: The Aesthetic Handicap Thesis The Cultural Experience Argument Aesthetic Properties and Cultural Context Authenticity and Appropriation Authentic Appropriation Cultural Experience and Subject Appropriation Appropriation and the Authentic Expression of a Culture.

Although the recent collapse and dissolution of the Soviet Union has significantly reduced the near-term probability of nuclear disaster, it constitutes wishful thinking to imagine that meaningful and effective global governance is possible in today's world. The term "global governance" suggests and implies a degree of order and control in the international community far beyond that which presently exists, and that in fact could only be achieved by means of a global government. The global governance myth has emerged to help (...) people cope with the uncongenial and presumably unavoidable reality that we are living in a world in which global government is impossible, and in which therefore the international condition is most accurately described as "international anarchy." A dysfunctional myth is a belief that not only is false, but that discourages and deters thought and action toward overcoming uncongenial realities which are not, in fact, unavoidable. Global governance, in all likelihood, falls into the category of dysfunctional myth. (shrink)

The name of Hero of Alexandria is associated today with numerous mechanical and mathematical treatises ranging from the construction of pneumatic contrivances, automata, siege weaponry and surveyin...

Cicero’s first criminal speech, Pro Roscio Amerino, gained acquittal for his client but also presented Cicero himself as an advocate of legality at a time of great political turmoil and uncertainty. He emphasizes the importance of good-faith contracts to the maintenance of civil society, while demonstrating that his opponents have abused the contracts of societas and mandatum in persecuting Roscius. Cicero’s positive model is his teacher Scaevola—murdered during the civil war and advocate of good-faith contracts and of the broader ideal (...) of vitae societas, a metaphorical contract that embodies the values of civil society which Cicero shares. (shrink)

This commentary raises a number of questions in connection with Colin Koopman's paper “Conceptual Analysis for Genealogical Philosophy: How to Study the History of Practices after Foucault and Wittgenstein.” Specifically, this commentary asks about the precise relationship between concepts and practices in Koopman's account and the possibility of resisting certain practices of subjectivation.

That art historians have felt it necessary to emulate this effort to express personal input can be explained by our need to gain credibility in that aspect of our work that is indistinguishable in method from other historical research: the reconstruction, through documents and artifacts, of past events, conditions, and attitudes. Most of us simply ignore the ambivalence of our position; I cannot recall having heard or read discussions of it, but it is bound to creep out from under the (...) rug. If a student asks me why I think Rembrandt and Picasso are good artists—which most students are too well trained to do—and if I answer that judgments of value are not discussed by historians, I am within my rights, like a witness at a congressional hearing claiming the protection of the Fifth Amendment. But I ought to be found in contempt of the classroom. And if I try to answer seriously, I ought not begin by saying that I chose Rembrandt because he has been acknowledged by generations to have been a great artist but rather because I find more to think, feel, and speak about in his works than in those of, for example, Nicolaes Maes, and because I believe that the student stands to gain more by looking at them. I want the student to have the most rewarding experiences, and, as a result, perhaps to learn to make value discriminations of his own—even ones different from mine and from the so-called consensus of history—and ultimately to explain the grounds on which he makes them. This means having to know and to explain what I think is "rewarding." James S. Ackerman, professor of fine arts at Harvard University, is the author of, among other works, The Architecture of Michelangelo, Art and Archaeology, The Cortile del Belvedere, and Palladio. He is currently writing on Renaissance art, science, and naturalism and making a film on Andrea Palladio and his influence in America. "Transactions in Architectural Design," his previous contribution to Critical Inquiry, appeared in the Winter 1974 issue. (shrink)

Originally published in in 1893, this book contains the text of the Socratic dialogue Protagoras, which discusses a variety of Sophistic and Socratic tenets, including the teachability of virtue. The dialogue also provides an interesting view on the connection between pederasty and education in ancient Athens. Notable Plato scholars James and Adele Adams present an introduction addressing the purpose and themes of the dialogue; a biography of Protagoras and extant fragments of his works are also included. This book will (...) be of value to anyone with an interest in the Platonic, Socratic or Sophistic philosophies. (shrink)

In this book, James Boyd White shows how texts by some of our most important thinkers and writers—including Plato, Shakespeare, Dickinson, Mandela, and Lincoln—answer these questions, not in the abstract, but in the way they wrestle ...

James Bahoh proposes a new methodology for explaining Heidegger's philosophy that solves a set of interpretive problems in his difficult later work and led to substantial inconsistencies in the scholarship. Bahoh reconstructs Heidegger's concept of event in relation to his theories of history, truth, difference, ground and time-space.

James McGrath's contribution to the proceedings of the first global conference of the Cyberworlds, Virtual Reality project, which took place from Monday 11 August - Wednesday 13 August 2003, in Prague, as part of the At the Interface conference series.

Recent years have seen the publication of a number of significant studies of Plutarch’s Adversus Colotem. The Adv. Col. has always been of interest, of course, as a source for Presocratic philosophers and also the philosophy of the Hellenistic Epicureans, Cyrenaics, and Academics. But in these recent studies it has also been considered as a whole work in its own right, with critics and interpreters becoming increasingly interested not just in looking through Plutarch to access a Hellenistic o...

Perception is fascinating and is inextricably bound up with all levels and kinds of thinking. Perceptual knowledge, descriptive data, serves as raw material for any and all processing operations. Certainly all kinds of constructing and processing operations await, e.g., imagining, describing, generalizing, comparing, day-dreaming, thousands of kinds. The mind is constantly at work with its symbols, such as images and language, formulating and focusing percepts out of sensory stimuli and then making thought and feeling constructs.

In this essay, I make the interpretive claim that we cannot properly understand the Federalist without appreciating the extent to which the papers mount a sustained rejection of extra-constitutional democracy—practices in which people aim to assert authority over the terms of common life in ways that are not sanctioned by existing laws. I survey such practices, which were common in America before and after the Revolution. I argue that there is continuity between Publius’s justification for rejecting extra-constitutional democracy and his (...) justification for his preferred system against constitutional alternatives. Adequate analysis and evaluation of the Federalist’s arguments about faction, representation, and institutional design require attention to the double duty the arguments play against constitutional and extra-constitutional opposition. This interpretive argument supports several analytic and evaluative conclusions. First, we must distinguish a new form of “non-hierarchical dualist” constitutionalism, according to which irregular democratic activity need not be limited to extraordinary “constitutional moments” or revolutions. Second, the politically egalitarian character of procedures depends not on the procedures alone, but how the maintenance of such procedures limits other forms of democratic practice. Third, the argument suggests a novel defense of “uncivil” disobedient politics: one grounded not in contributions to democratic deliberation, but in the entitlements of citizens to direct assertions of authority over common life. (shrink)

“This chapter looks at four arguments which Microsoft has used to justify the claim that illegal copying of software is wrong: software piracy is theft; software piracy violates the rights of copyright holders; software piracy is free riding; and software piracy reduces incentives to future innovation. It argues that the first argument is simply wrong, and the other three do not establish that it is in fact wrong to pirate Microsoft’s programs.

This essay argues that there is no alethic basis for adopting one ontology of jazz music rather than another. Any ontology of jazz that is consistent with the available empirical evidence may be adopted, though pragmatic reasons may exist for favouring one ontology of jazz over another. There are empirical differences between jazz and much of classical music, but one may adopt the same ontology for jazz that one adopts for works classical music.