The sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church captured headlines and mobilized public outrage in January 2002. But much of the commentary that immediately followed was reductionistic, focusing on single "causes" of clerical abuse such as mandatory celibacy, homosexuality, sexual repressiveness or sexual permissiveness, anti-Catholicism, and a decadent secular culture. _Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims: The Sexual Abuse Crisis and the Catholic Church_, a collection of groundbreaking articles edited by Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea and Virginia Goldner, eschews such one-size-fits-all theorizing. In (...) its place, the abuse situation is explored in all its troubling complexity, as contributors take into account the experiences, respectively, of the victim/survivor, the abuser/perpetrator, and the bystander. Setting polemics to the side, _Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims_ provides a sober and sobering analysis of the interlacing historical, doctrinal, and psychological issues that came together in the sexual abuse scandal. It is mandatory reading for all who seek thoughtful, informed commentary on a crisis long in the making and yet to be resolved. (shrink)

This paper advances the thesis that sensory concepts have as a semantic component the first-person indexical. It is argued that the private nature of our access to our own sensations forces, in our talking about them, an indexical reference to the inner states of the speaker in lieu of publicly accessible properties by which reference is usually fixed. Indexicals, such as ‘here’, can be understood despite ignorance of their referent. Such is the case with sensory terms. Furthermore, the thesis that (...) sensory terms are indexical has considerable explanatory power. I give two examples: firstly, I argue that clashes of intuition over Block's ‘inverted spectrum’ thought experiment can be explained by appeal to semantic properties of indexicals. Secondly, I argue that multiple realisability intuitions can be shown to be consistent with the view that sensations are type-identical with brain states. (shrink)

The representational theory of phenomenal experience is often stated in terms of a supervenience thesis: Byrne recently characterises it as the thesis that “there can be no difference in phenomenal character without a difference in content”, while according to Tye, “[a]t a minimum, the thesis is one of supervenience: necessarily, experiences that are alike in their representational contents are alike in their phenomenal character.” Consequently, much of the debate over whether representationalism is true centres on purported counter-examples – that is (...) to say, purported failures of supervenience. The refutation of putative counter-examples has been, it seems to me, by and large successful. But there is a certain class of these for which the representationalist response has been something less than completely convincing. These are the cross-modality cases. I will explain what I mean, and then argue that the response in question is not only unconvincing but actually undermines the representationalist position. (shrink)

Perceptual constancy, often defined as the perception of stable features under changing conditions, goes hand in hand with variation in how things look. A white wall in the orange afternoon sun still looks white, though its whiteness looks different compared with the same wall in the noon sun. Historically, this variation has often been explained in terms of our experience of “merely sensory” or subjective properties – an approach at odds with the fact that the variation does track objective features (...) of the perceptual situation, such as illumination. One approach, becoming more common, is to account for the variation in terms of further “dimensions” to perceptual experience. Especially in colour perception, this is a natural thought to have but the idea is often left vague. In this paper I argue that the “dimensional” strategy has problems of its own, but is useful in drawing out some interesting complications in the way perceptual experience is structured. Specifically, the structure of “constancy spaces” brings out the different ways in which there is stability and instability in the experience of constancy, without the need for novel or merely subjective features. Instability arises in a contingent structural feature of perceptual experience. (shrink)

In North America, across the political spectrum, we have a strong tendency to reduce religion to nothing more than a tool to promote our own socio-political views. This is a natural consequence of our hyper-polarized culture and our impoverished view of “religion.” It is also, however, a problem—particularly for those inspired by the call to renewal through an integration of the quest for social justice and the pursuit of the spiritual life. By focusing on the value of participating in religious (...) liturgy, I show how a renewed respect for religion can help the proponents of social justice fulfil some of the foundational desires of the original movement and, thereby, to bring to fruition some of its dormant promise. This includes, in particular, the desire for social harmony and the desire to pay greater attention to our concrete reality. (shrink)

I defend a solution to a long-standing problem with perceptual appearances, brought about by the phenomenon of perceptual constancy. The problem is that in conditions which are non-ideal, yet within the range that perceptual constancy works, we see things veridically despite an “appearance” which is traditionally taken to be non-veridical. For example, a tilted coin is often taken to have an “elliptical appearance”, shadowed surfaces a “darker appearance”. These appearances are puzzling for a number of reasons. I defend and elaborate (...) on an approach taken by Sean Kelly, and earlier by the art historian E.H. Gombrich, according to which we can be tricked by our ability to bring about a kind of Gesltalt shift between different possible perceptual interpretations of a scene. (shrink)

Representationalist theories of sensory experience are often thought to be vulnerable to the existence of apparently non-representational differences between experiences in different sensory modalities. Seeing and hearing seem to differ in their qualia, quite apart from what they represent. The origin of this idea is perhaps Grice’s argument, in “Some Remarks on the Senses,” that the senses are distinguished by “introspectible character.” In this chapter I take the Representationalist side by putting forward an account of sense modalities which is consistent (...) with that view and yet pays due regard to the intuition behind Grice’s argument. Employing J.J. Gibson’s distinction between exploratory and performatory behaviour, I point to a proprioceptive element in perceptual experience, and identify this as crucial in any account of what makes a particular way of perceiving a sense modality. (shrink)

If we assume that the operation of each sense modality constitutes a different experience – a visual experience, an auditory experience, etc – we are faced with the problem of how those distinct experiences come together to form a unified perceptual encounter with the world. Michael Tye has recently argued that the best way to get around this problem is to deny altogether that there are such things as purely visual (and so forth) experiences. Here I aim to show not (...) simply that Tye’s proposed solution fails, but that its failure is highly instructive because it allows us to see that the transparency thesis, which lies at the heart of the case against qualia, and of most representationalist theories of experience, is more problematic than is often supposed. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper suggests a much more serious purpose for an education in music-making than play or pleasure or even the training of professional musicians. It presents and explicates a possible connection between musical performance training and the development of practical wisdom. Music in performance constitutes in effect a form of virtuous conduct, where one learns through doing and thereafter comes to love and to be capable of wise practical judgement. Excellence in this field requires the exercise of a species (...) of reasoning and judgement analogous to Aristotelian practical wisdom, and develops the distinctive qualities of character and vision of the practically wise person. (shrink)

School shootings publicized worldwide inevitably awaken the debate about contemporary communication media and violence. It is often conjectured that regular exposure of young people to countless acts of aggression in contemporary popular media leads them to become more aggressive and, in some cases, to commit violent crimes. But is this claim valid? Media guru Marshall McLuhan argues that it is not so much the content of such media that incites aggressive actions as the sociostructural conditions they bring into being. In (...) this article, Jane O'Dea draws on the cultural context of postmodernity and on Jean Baudrillard's thought to explore and critically assess the validity of the linkage McLuhan proposes, identifying the kinds of questions, inquiries, and educational implications it potentially raises. (shrink)

Higher-order theories of consciousness, such as those of Armstrong, Rosenthal and Lycan, typically distinguish sharply between consciousness and phenomenal character, or qualia. The higher-order states posited by these theories are intended only as explanations of consciousness, and not of qualia. In this paper I argue that the positing of higher-order perceptions may help to explain qualia. If we are realists about qualia, conceived as those intrinsic properties of our experience of which we are introspectibly aware, then higher-order perception might have (...) an explanatory role as the means by which we are aware of these properties. This would also allow us to treat qualia as the inner appearances resulting from inner perceptions, and therefore to treat them as intentional objects. (shrink)

Uses a virtue-based approach to the ethical dimension and to the roles of virtuosity and historical authenticity in musical performance.

Our popular conception of integrity brings to mind uncompromising figures like Socrates or Sir Thomas More whose steadfast stands on matters of principle we accept and admire. The paper considers the implications of this for two committed feminists, both of whom are teachers. Their pedagogical philosophies are sufficiently different to lead one to charge the other with selling out her feminist principles. But is this a fair assessment? Is there room for compromise within the complex notion of integrity? How might (...) feminist teachers rework the concept to do justice to the complexities involved? (shrink)

Entry for the Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand.

Following important work by Pizarro, Uhlmann and Salovey (2003) on moral judgments of uncontrolled/impulsive versus controlled/ deliberate action, we focus on the related issue of the moral evaluation of emotion-motivated versus principle-driven behavior. We examine: (a) the potential lesser blameworthiness of antisocial acts perceived as driven by emotion as opposed to principle; (b) how factors governing the moral evaluation of antisocial acts might extend to the evaluation of prosocial acts; and (c) how overriding a moral emotion in favor of a (...) moral principle affects moral attributions. (shrink)

Ethical review of applications to conduct research projects continues to be a focus of scrutiny and controversy. We argue that attention to the actual practices of ethical review has the potential to inform debate. We explore how research ethics committees (RECs) establish their position and authority through the texts they use in their correspondence with applicants. Using a discursive analysis applied to 260 letters, we identify four positions of particular interest: RECs positioned as disinterested and responsible; as representing the interests (...) of potential participants; as facilitating ethically sound, high-quality research; and as engaged in dialogue. These positions are used strategically to deflect criticism or complaint. This analysis has implications for reducing contestation between researchers and RECs, suggesting that more dialogic rather than hierarchical approaches to positioning might be helpful. (shrink)

This book is a collection of secondary essays on America's most important philosophic thinkers—statesmen, judges, writers, educators, and activists—from the colonial period to the present. Each essay is a comprehensive introduction to the thought of a noted American on the fundamental meaning of the American regime.

The last 20 years have seen the development of a new form of therapy, compassion focused therapy. Although CFT has a growing evidence base, there have been few studies of CFT outside of an Anglo-European cultural context. In this paper, we ask: Might a CFT-based approach be of value for Indigenous Australians? If so, what kind of cultural adaptations might be needed? We report the findings from a pilot study of an arts-based compassion skills training group, in which usual CFT (...) group processes were significantly adapted to meet the needs of Indigenous Australians. At face value, CFT appeared to be a promising approach to enhancing the social and emotional wellbeing of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. However, despite initial consultations with Indigenous health professionals, the first attempts to offer a more conventional group-based CFT to Indigenous clients were largely unsuccessful. Following a review and advice from two Indigenous clients, we combined elements of CFT with visual arts to develop a new approach, “arts-based compassion skills training”. This paper reports an evaluation of this pilot ABCST group. The group had 6 × 4 h sessions of ABCST, facilitated by two psychologists and two artists. There were 10 participants, who attended between 2 and 6 sessions: five were clients, five were health professionals. Between 1 and 3 months later, six of the participants were interviewed. Qualitative analysis of interview data identified that two key processes—creating a positive group atmosphere and channeling compassion skills training through the medium of visual arts—led to four positive outcomes for participants: planting the seeds of new understandings, embodying the skills of compassion, strengthening relationships with others, and evolving a more self-compassionate relationship. We suggest that the preliminary results are sufficiently encouraging to warrant further development of ABCST in Indigenous communities. (shrink)

Western philosophy’s relationship with prisons stretches from Plato’s own incarceration to the modern era of mass incarceration. Philosophy Imprisoned: The Love of Wisdom in the Age of Mass Incarceration draws together a broad range of philosophical thinkers, from both inside and outside prison walls, in the United States and beyond, who draw on a variety of critical perspectives (including phenomenology, deconstruction, and feminist theory) and historical and contemporary figures in philosophy (including Kant, Hegel, Foucault, and Angela Davis) to think about (...) prisons in this new historical era. All of these contributors have experiences within prison walls: some are or have been incarcerated, some have taught or are teaching in prisons, and all have been students of both philosophy and the carceral system. The powerful testimonials and theoretical arguments are appropriate reading not only for philosophers and prison theorists generally, but also for prison reformers and abolitionists. (shrink)

In the course of his argument for a common law conception of Constitu- tional Bills of Rights and judicial review, Wil Waluchow claims that there is a principled distinction to be drawn between a community’s ‘opinions’ or ‘mere moral preferences’ and its ‘true’ or ‘authentic’ moral commitments. Moreover, he argues that it is possible for judges to identify a community’s authentic moral commitments and apply them to decide particular cases. If he is right, it is not the case that judges, (...) in making a decision about the application and scope of constitutional rights, are inevitably importing their own subjective moral standards into the decision. I analyze Waluchow’s use of the moral opinions -moral commitments distinction. I argue first that the distinction presupposes a descriptive methodology of constitutional interpretation. I suggest however, that the methodology of interpretation in Bills of Rights cases is constructive and involves substantive, ‘evaluative and justificatory’ reasoning by interpreters and judges. I then argue that the moral opinions-moral commitments distinction either cannot do the work that Waluchow’s argument requires, or, if it is modified to do the work, it becomes a substantive distinction. A substantive conception of authenticity creates a problem for Waluchow because it undermines his purely procedural account of democratic self-governance.Resumen:Wil Waluchow al desarrollar su argumento a favor de una concepción propia del common law para las constituciones y para el judicial review, sostiene que existe una distinción de principio entre las “opiniones” de la comunidad o sus “simples preferencias morales” y los compromisos morales “verdaderos” o “auténticos”. Además, sostiene que para los jueces es posible identificar los compromisos morales auténticos de una comunidad y aplicar los mismos en la decisión de casos concretos. Si tiene razón, entonces los jueces al decidir casos concretos sobre el alcance de los derechos constitucionales no canalizan sus propios estándares mora- les subjetivos a las decisiones. En este estudio analizo el uso que hace Waluchow de la distinción entre opiniones morales y compromisos morales. Argumento en primer término que la distinción presupone una metodología descriptiva de la interpretación constitucional, y sugiero que no obstante lo anterior, la metodología de interpretación de los derechos constitucionales es constructiva e implica por parte de los intérpretes y jueces un razonamiento “evaluativo y de justificación” sustantivo. Posteriormente argumento que la distinción entre opiniones morales y compromisos morales no tiene el alcance que pretende y requiere el trabajo de Waluchow y si se modifica, entonces se convierte en una distinción sustantiva. Una concepción sustantiva de autenticidad le genera un problema a Waluchow porque debilita su explicación puramente procedi- mental de un auto-gobierno democrático. (shrink)

The first annual Alchemy Lecture brings four deep and agile writers from different geographies and disciplines into vibrant conversation on a topic of urgent relevance: humans and borders. Borders, Human Itineraries, and All Our Relation captures and expands those conversations in insightful, passionate ways. Architect, artist, and urban theorist Dele Adeyemo (UK/Nigeria) calls attention to the complexity of Black infrastructures, questioning how "the environments that surround us condition the possibility of our being." Poet Natalie Diaz (US/Mojave/Akimel O'otham) writes: "Like (...) story, migration is the sensual movement of knowledge," and asks, "What is the language we need to live right now?" Philosopher Nadia Yala Kisukidi (France) suggests there is no diasporic life "without the dynamics of fabulation, where we pass down, from generation to generation, the stories of our ancestors who walked barefoot for many months." And cultural theorist Rinaldo Walcott (Canada) asks us to consider inheritances beyond white supremacist logics: "What might it mean to live a life, if we can't risk desiring and working towards utopia?" As each Alchemist considers the legacies of anticolonial struggle, the future of the planet, and the textures of Black and Indigenous life, their essays speak to each other in multiple ways, creating something startling and revelatory: a vision of the world as it is, and as it could be. (shrink)

Las emociones hacen referencia, tanto en el lenguaje común como en el filosófico y científico, a una dimensión de la vida subjetiva que no está suficientemente delimitada. El objetivo de este trabajo es el de aproximarnos al fenómeno emocional a través del estudio de varias problemáticas asociadas al mismo. Por un lado, se realiza un análisis etimológico y conceptual de algunas nociones habitualmente relacionadas con las emociones, como es el caso de los términos �afección�, �sentimiento�, �feeling� o �Stimmung�. Por otro (...) lado, se realiza un recorrido por aquellas disciplinas teóricas que implícita o explícitamente contienen una teoría de la emoción, desde la filosofía de Descartes hasta las ciencias cognitivas, pasando por la ética, la estética y la fenomenología. Por último se propone una fenomenología del corazón que permita dar cuenta del tipo de movilidad y de temporalidad propio del régimen emocional, permitiéndonos así tener acceso a un núcleo experiencial. (shrink)

La quinta parte de la Ética a Nicómaco (en adelante, EN) está dedicada al tema de la amistad. Su ubicación dentro del texto —en medio del discurso sobre el placer, el dolor y la eudaimonía— parece responder a que la amistad ya no es una virtud como tal, sino una clase de virtud o está acompañada de la virtud; por tanto, no se encuentra dentro de lo dedicado a la moralística, aunque parece que esta es fundamental dentro de la reflexión (...) de una vida buena. Podría situarse a la amistad dentro de los bienes relacionales, como aquellos absolutamente necesarios para una vida floreciente, pero que no obedecen a una virtud particular, sino que sus acciones se relacionan con el ejercicio de varias de ellas. También vale la pena apuntar el tratamiento de la philia dentro de un texto dedicado a la cosa pública, lo que evidencia que estamos entendiendo la philia dentro de un contexto amplio de relaciones sociales. El término philia es más extenso que nuestra versión reductiva de amistad, aunque lo implica. La amistad en Aristóteles permite ver la conexión entre las diferentes relaciones sociales que se tejen en una vida floreciente (dimensión familiar, social, política y económica). Así, dentro de un proyecto de vida buena, las actividades de interacción con el otro implican los vínculos de la amistad que permiten lograr la adquisición del bien, ya sea entendido como placer, utilidad y/o virtud. Lo anterior permite entender la importancia de seguir pensando con Aristóteles sobre el lugar de la amistad en nuestras vidas y la necesidad de un pensar filosófico sobre la amistad. En aras de la exposición, la reflexión sobre la amistad se puede descomponer en los siguientes apartados: la naturaleza de la amistad, el amor a sí mismo y la necesidad de la amistad. (shrink)

Carlo Natali se ocupa de examinar las bases y detalles del debate de Alejandro con los deterministas, así como sus razones para mostrar el papel decisivo de la deliberación en la explicación de la acción. El punto de partida de Alejandro es el capítulo 9 del De interpretatione, texto que indica de una manera bastante clara que Aristóteles visualizó las consecuencias, absurdas en su opinión, del determinismo. En su discusión Natali examina la influencia de los argumentos de Alejandro en el (...) comentario de Boecio al De interpretatione; un aspecto particularmente destacable del ensayo de Natali es que éste muestra que Alejandro –y Aspacio antes de él–, aun dando por supuesta la relevancia decisiva de la deliberación en la explicación de la acción, modifica en parte la teoría aristotélica de la deliberación, ya que trata de adaptarla a la nueva situación cultural y al nuevo debate filosófico de su tiempo. Natali hace notar que la aparente incorporación por parte de Alejandro de terminología y nociones estoicas (como la de asentimiento) es parte de una inteligente estrategia para combatir a los deterministas estoicos en su propio terreno: lo decisivo es la deliberación como ingrediente central en la explicación de la acción, así como el hecho de poder elegir una cosa o algo distinto de ella (De fato 178, 22), si eso parece preferible. (shrink)

Carlo Natali se ocupa de examinar las bases y detalles del debate de Alejandro con los deterministas, así como sus razones para mostrar el papel decisivo de la deliberación en la explicación de la acción. El punto de partida de Alejandro es el capítulo 9 del De interpretatione, texto que indica de una manera bastante clara que Aristóteles visualizó las consecuencias, absurdas en su opinión, del determinismo. En su discusión Natali examina la influencia de los argumentos de Alejandro en el (...) comentario de Boecio al De interpretatione; un aspecto particularmente destacable del ensayo de Natali es que éste muestra que Alejandro –y Aspacio antes de él–, aun dando por supuesta la relevancia decisiva de la deliberación en la explicación de la acción, modifica en parte la teoría aristotélica de la deliberación, ya que trata de adaptarla a la nueva situación cultural y al nuevo debate filosófico de su tiempo. Natali hace notar que la aparente incorporación por parte de Alejandro de terminología y nociones estoicas (como la de asentimiento) es parte de una inteligente estrategia para combatir a los deterministas estoicos en su propio terreno: lo decisivo es la deliberación como ingrediente central en la explicación de la acción, así como el hecho de poder elegir una cosa o algo distinto de ella (De fato 178, 22), si eso parece preferible. (shrink)

Resumen: En este artículo se presentan y discuten los resultados preliminares de una investigación en torno a la competencia lingüístico-comunicativa en mapuzungun de niños procedentes de una zona reconocida por su alta vitalidad lingüística. La muestra del estudio se compone de 34 niños mapuches, de 6 a 10 años. Los datos se recogieron mediante la aplicación de un instrumento de medición directa, realizada individualmente en dependencias de la escuela rural a la que asisten los participantes. Los resultados generales muestran que (...) la competencia en la lengua es de un bajo nivel, y que el desempeño es mejor en comprensión que en producción. Se destacan cuatro casos que presentan niveles de competencia media o alta, y que corresponden a niños de mayor edad. Se discuten las implicaciones de estos resultados a la luz de los procesos de adquisición y transmisión intergeneracional del mapuzungun.: This article presents and discusses the preliminary results of an investigation about the linguistic and communicative competence in mapuzungun of children from an area renowned for its high linguistic vitality. The sample consists of 34 Mapuche children between 6 and 10 years of age. Data were collected through the application of a direct measurement instrument. The application was carried out individually at the rural school attended by the participants. The overall results show low levels of language proficiency, and performance is better in comprehension than production. Four cases with medium or high level proficiency in mapuzungun, corresponding to older children, were highlighted. The implications of these results in light of the processes of language acquisition and the intergenerational transmission of mapuzungun are discussed. (shrink)

An analysis of Rousseau's interactions with the 'philosophes' and how this shaped his political ideas in the age of Enlightenment.

In substituting aesthetic criteria for the time-honoured yardsticks of reliability, validity and generalization, narrative researchers are sometimes criticized for devaluing the notion of truth. This paper suggests that what is an issue here is not so much empirical quantitative truth as rather artistic literary truth. The latter notion of truth is characterized in terms of ‘authenticity’ and the ramifications of authentic truth for narrative research are posited and explored. Only such an understanding of truth and the resolve seriously to apply (...) it will garner narrative researchers the epistemic respectability they seek. (shrink)

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy of Education, Department of Educational Foundations.

_Beyond the Subjectivity Trap_ challenges the paradigm of the hard problem of consciousness by contesting the relevance and primacy of human thought. By tracing the evolved egocentricity of the 'I' as an entrapping limitation on our thinking the book argues that once the Subjectivity Trap is understood and escaped we can appreciate the non-existence of the mind–body divide, the pure functionality of the brain, and the limitlessness of our potential.

In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in Philosophy of Education, Department of Educational Foundations.