I review ornithological literature in order to demonstrate that conventions of description and illustration, as well as some aspects of biological theory relating to birds, put a strong focus on male birds. I criticize the sexist aspects of ornithology from the standpoint of recent feminist philosophy of science, establishing connections between the ways in which we view animals and the ways in which we viewourselves and arguing that it is costly to humans, specifically women, to suggest that females of the (...) nonhuman species are biologically inadequate in relation to their male counterparts. Finally, I note that failure to notice and excise residual sexism in animal science also encourages people to be inattentive to and less considerate of a large and significant part of nature. I conclude with some suggestionsfor reform. (shrink)

The aim of the paper is to show and document the husserlian concern to validate a position of ontological realism, and the inappropriateness of his method to this task. It is precisley the scientific charachter of his philosophy that drew Husserl to idealism and solipsism, despite his original intentions and motivations.

Krukowski, a painter/philosopher, tries to understand postmodern art and then speculates about what post-postmodern art will be. He gives a valuable account of the roots of modernism in 19th C philosophy and of its slide into skepticism about art serving any epistemic function. Postmodern aesthetics though is just an inconsistent mix of modernist ideas and their opposites. Postmodern artists believed themselves creative only by coming up with a work, or an idea, unconnected to modernism. Post-postmodernists will likely do the same (...) to postmodernism since they too are constrained to deny any purpose or progress in art. In that case, Krukowski thinks, art will remain local and marginal, or end altogether. (In the sequel most artists now ignore the philosophical conundrum and get on with producing works, sometimes playful, sometimes deep, sometimes beautiful. This 21st C eclecticism is a welcome respite from the theory wars.). (shrink)

Nicholson's goal is to show that interpretation of a text can be done rigorously and be true. He argues this by showing that perception also has an interpretative dimension yet we usually accept claims rooted in perception as true. This effort to show the soundness of hermeneutical criticism is in fact an attempt to show that anti-foundationalism does not default to relativism. I trace his well-prosecuted argument for the truth of interpretation to the point where it becomes opaque. The argument (...) is nonetheless instructive and helps to better see the conundrum that anti-foundationalists create for epistomologists and perhaps for themselves. (shrink)

Jones sketches a theory of interpretation of literary works and tests it on Middlemarch, Anna Karenina, Brothers Karamazov and A la recherche du temps perdu. The theory centers on creativity and the strong parallelisms between artistic and critical production. The result is that the critic is shown to have considerable latitude in reading a text--perhaps too much. Jones acknowledges the danger of stressing inferred rather than observed features of texts. He sees his sketch of a theory of interpretation as a (...) creative process as a corrective to historical interpretation which has the reader uncover the author's meaning embedded in the text. A fuller account of his theory might skirt the radical subjectivism of criticism beyond the traditional boundaries. (shrink)