The recent development of a field known as experimental philosophy—in particular, its subfield devoted to moral decision making—invites us to reflect on what it means to experiment in ethics and how it is that philosophers determine the good. Furthermore, as this new discipline uses the methods of experimental psychology to examine our intuitions about such things as praise, blame, and moral responsibility, we ought to consider the relationship between ethics and our psychological makeup. To this end, it will be beneficial (...) to consider the American pragmatists' interpretations of these issues. Ethics, for these thinkers, was both a psychological and an experimental enterprise, one in which all of our psychological .. (shrink)

An angel is just a belief, with wings […]Melting pot, multicultural mosaic, and welcoming recipient of the world’s tired, poor, huddled masses. Land of opportunity. Shining city on a hill, land of the free, and home of the brave. These are just some of the images of America that are supposed to represent its virtues or at least its aspirations.1 When treated as preordained truisms about what America is or means, these concepts can produce dogmatic, rigid, and reactionary attitudes toward (...) law, policy, and social practices. However, as idealizations of collectively held hopes for what our country can achieve, they can inspire creative solutions to new problems and, in turn, reshape themselves with the changing times.... (shrink)

This article will consider the unique contribution that the dramatic arts can make to philosophical practices of communication and reflection. While argumentation typically advocates a particular position over and against less plausible options, dramatic performance can convey the rich possibilities and tensions among conflicting points of view without ultimately taking a definitive stance. This genre, as a performed narrative involving multiple perspectives, can illuminate the complexity and legitimacy of a plurality of—often competing—theoretical commitments, whereas direct argumentation, by its very nature, (...) must weaken the opposition by putting it in a less compelling light. Theater, by its very methods, can .. (shrink)

Humor is an indispensable element of George Santayana's philosophy. Santayana is, in many ways, philosophy's fool, poking fun at endeavors to obtain epistemological and moral mastery over existence. Moreover, he reminds us of the over-arching benefits of a humorous attitude, suggesting a humility by which we may put into relative perspective our otherwise totalizing aspirations and pursue a moral life without succumbing to moralism. Ultimately, a sense of humor reminds us that comedy is as honest a narrative as tragedy and (...) that the benefit in living is the fun of it. (shrink)

This book addresses the nature of consciousness and the relation of mind to brain, body, and the material world. Against mechanistic and physicalist approaches, it employs a literary worldview that accommodates plural narratives, including those of neuroscience, pharmacology, psychology, and everyday experience.