This paper aims at exploring the relationship between corporate wrongdoing and CEOs’careers. We hypothesize that the managerial labor market does not punish CEOs of companies involved with wrongdoing. The analysis of data on 16 companies charged by the SEC supports this hypothesis.

El problema de la intencionalidad ha sido el foco de discusiones losó cas desde sus inicios hasta el día de hoy y las diferentes explicaciones que se han dado al respecto han dado pie a la construcción de sistemas losó cos de todo tipo. Lo común a estos sistemas ha sido el uso del término intencionalidad, en sentido losó co, separado del de intención, en el sentido vulgar, pese a que ambos son actos voluntarios dirigidos hacia objetos. Dicho uso da (...) lugar a confusiones que evitan la producción de nuevo conocimiento y que, para ser aclaradas, implican un nuevo tratamiento de la intencionalidad, para la cual es útil la losofía del lenguaje y de la mente de John Searle. Mediante la lectura crítica de algunos de sus textos más representativos al respecto y de algunos autores que han hecho un análisis de ellos, este artículo comienza clari cando el concepto de intencionalidad, entendiéndolo como una característica, tanto de la conciencia, como de la voluntad. Luego, expone a grandes rasgos la teoría de la intencionalidad en John Searle, pasando de los actos de habla a los estados mentales. Por último, describe los rasgos constitutivos del lenguaje humano y lo compara con el lenguaje computacional. Se concluye que la intencionalidad es una característica hasta ahora exclusiva de los seres humanos y que está en directa relación con el lenguaje y el seguimiento de reglas. (shrink)

Entre as modernas teorias em Metaética a Teoria do Erro de John Mackie é uma das mais influentes. Isso não é acidental. A teoria de Mackie é nova, é interessante e está apoiada em argumentos claros e desafiadores. A despeito de tudo isso, aqui uma crítica às principais teses de Mackie será apresentada. Em primeiro lugar se sustentará que se o seu principal argumento, o argumento do caráter estranho, é tomado como aceitável, o que se segue não é a (...) falsidade sistemática dos enunciados morais, como Mackie alega, mas algo diferente. Em segundo lugar, argumentar-se-á que o próprio argumento do caráter estranho não é aceitável. O resultado é uma rejeição dos pontos principais da teoria de Mackie. (shrink)

This article shows how feminism welcomed and was influenced by the pragmatism of John Dewey. While in real terms his impact on European feminism has been minimal, this was not the case in contemporary America. In this article we study both how Dewey’s ideas were received amongst American feminists, as well as certain aspects of his thinking that could be enormously useful in present-day debates between critical and postmodern feminists. We compare the Deweyan and feminist arguments against the traditional (...) dualisms that acted as philosophical support for social inequality, paying particular attention to mind–body dualism, and the consequent undervaluation of physical and emotional wellbeing. We also show that John Dewey’s proposals were, in fact, more radical than those of the feminists of the day. Indeed, democracy has to be understood as a way of life that affects every dimension of experience, and is crucial to the personal and social growth that enables the unjust social inequalities between men and women to be overcome. (shrink)

In this article I pay attention to some of the reviews that Reason in Common Sense of George Santayana received from some of the most outstanding philosophers of his time: E. Albee, J. Dewey, A.W. Moore, G. E. Moore, C. S. Peirce and F. C S. Schiller. My paper is arranged in six sections: 1) Biographical circumstances of Reason in Common Sense; 2) Peirce’s reading of Santayana; 3) The reviews of John Dewey; 4) Other readers of Reason in Common (...) Sense; 5) Santayana returns on his book; and, finally, by way of conclusion, 6) Reading today Reason in Common Sense. (shrink)

El artículo da noticia del marco de la discusión contemporánea acerca del lenguaje en el ámbito angloamericano, con el objetivo de lograr una mejor comprensión del trabajo en torno al lenguaje que viene desarrollándose en los últimos años. Se ofrece un breve panorama histórico de la filosofía del lenguaje de la primera mitad del siglo XX que se centró particularmente en la lógica y de describe la transformación pragmatista de la filosofía del lenguaje acaecida en las últimas décadas, para finalmente (...) desvelar algunas de las claves que —a juicio del autor— resultan decisivas para una cabal comprensión del lenguaje jurídico. (shrink)

In this reply to Professor Hookway's lecture the comments are focused, first, on the topic of what dichotomies really are, since it is an illuminating way of understanding pragmatism in general and Putnam's pragmatism in particular. Dichotomies are artifacts that we devise with some useful purpose in mind, but when inflated into absolute dichotomies they become metaphysical bogeys as it is illustrated by the twentieth century distinction between fact and value. Secondly, a brief comment on the so-called "thick" ethical concepts (...) and artifact terms is presented, and finally it is added a word on John L. Austin, whose approach to dichotomies is aligned with pragmatism and Putnam. (shrink)

Written in response to what he recognizes as the problematic philosophical underpinnings of “orthodox research ethics,” Alex John London’s For the Common Good reimagines what is called for in any effort to create a better system of oversight and regulation in biomedical research. London weaves a common thread — justice — through this historical and critical account of the practice of research ethics and its organization of stakeholders, institutions and regulations. By introducing the idea of “a common good” London (...) reframes the narrative and responsibilities of the research ethics field to demonstrate that scientific research and regard for the rights and welfare of individuals are not mutually exclusive. This impressive monograph encourages its readers to push past the limitations of traditional research ethics to consider the context in which the discipline is embedded. That is, rather than settling for analysis at the level of researchers and research participants alone, London encourages us to expand our inquiry to encompass a wider array of stakeholders who co-labor in the social undertaking of biomedical knowledge production. London accomplishes the difficult task of upstream analysis — turning his attention to the conditions and assumptions which create ethical dilemmas rather than applying a retrospective ethical salve to injuries near-guaranteed by a broken system. As opposed to the limited domain of orthodox research ethics (researchers, participants, and the institutional bodies which regulate interaction between the two) London also considers the role and contributions of affected communities, pharmaceutical firms, philanthropic organizations, and journal editors among others. (shrink)

Escuela neoclásica del derecho natural o la nueva teoría del derecho natural - La discusión conceptual y metodológica de Finnis con el positivismo jurídico y la jurisprudencia analítica - Supuestos gnoseológicos para la definición de la ley natural - Definición de los principios básicos de la ley natural - La definición del sistema jurídico - Derivación de la ley humana a partir de la ley natural - La recepción crítica de la obra de Finnis.

In 2015, the Retraction Watch leadership, Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky, retracted an article that they had written for The Lab Times in 2013. According to Marcus and Oransky, in the 2013 piece, they had offered “bad advice” to academics. In the 2013 piece, Marcus and Oransky suggested that when an error, actual or potential, was detected in a published paper, that they should first contact – by name or anonymously – the editor, then the author, and finally the research (...) institute, following Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines. They also recommended readers to copy Retraction Watch on their communications – most likely so that Retraction Watch could gather a scoop – suggesting even that by mentioning or copying Retraction Watch would twist the arm of the editor, and perhaps speed up – or influence – the journal’s action, or decision. Offering such bad, flawed and unscholarly advice, claiming boldly, without any citations “that cronyism can protect obvious fraud”, the 2013 Lab Times piece was a clear act of antiscience advice. Clearly recognizing their own bad advice, and flawed and misleading logic, but taking considerable time to do so, Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky retracted their 2013 article in December of 2015, but replaced it with a substitute offering even worse advice, indicating to concerned academics to scrap their 2013 advice of contacting authors, editors and academic institutes, and opting instead for a potentially biased anonymous option, using a whistle-blower website, PubPeer. Marcus and Oransky failed to indicate any financial or other conflicts of interest in their Lab Times piece. This is important, because, as we now know, the marriage between these watchdogs has been in the pipe-line for years now, reaching public prominence in early 2016 during a meeting in UC Berkeley, and culminating in generous financial backing – in the hundreds of thousands of US$ – by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, to both Retraction Watch and PubPeer. This commentary examines how the retraction of one badly written journalistic piece for lack of professionalism led to the emergence of an even worse article full of biases. Perspectives on how this could be interpreted, and what should happen, are provided. (shrink)

The natural instinct for members of the Committee on Publication Ethics, which now number almost 12,200, as well as academia, is to assume that this organization works under strict and clearly defined ethical parameters, with a solid vision, and an independent mandate that is not influenced by power, think tanks, or partisan interests. Naturally, whistle-blowing and science shaming are not practices that one would usually associate with an ethics organization like COPE, because they involve ethically and morally questionable practices. Despite (...) this, ethical borders have become blurred between the objectives of Retraction Watch and PubPeer, two self-moderated science watchdogs that rely heavily on these questionable practices, in their efforts to grow and survive, and the values espoused by COPE. A Retraction Watch post, in which the former COPE Chair, Virginia Barbour, made a claim of apparent harassment, is the most striking example of the dangers when collaboration may take place between science-shaming websites, and an ethics organization, COPE. These bonds appear to have been in development for a number of years already, with the inclusion of Elizabeth Wager, the former COPE Chair, as a director of The Center for Science Integrity Inc., Retraction Watch’s parent organization. Retraction Watch was financed by, among other groups, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, whose leader, John Arnold, an ex-Enron trader, declared a “war on bad science”, which may naturally include the destruction of aspects of science as well. Retraction Watch embraces several infamous pseudonymous personas under the broad umbrella of freedom of speech, liaising thereby with PubPeer. There is no doubt that errors in the literature need correcting, but this apparent connection with COPE raises questions about the basic ethical foundation of this relationship. Are scientists to embrace this bond between COPE and science watchdogs and pseudonymous whistle-blowers as the new normal in the correction of the scientific literature? This opinion piece puts forward arguments why the author believes that the ethical compass of COPE has become skewed. (shrink)

Traducción de Jaime Bermúdez Escamilla sobre Political Aphorisms (1659), en The Oceana and other Works of James Harrington, with an Account of his Life by John Toland, Londres, printed for T. Becket, T. Cadell y T. Evans, 1771, pp. 483-490. Texto inglés consultado en The Online Library of Liberty, Liberty Fund (www.libertyfund.org).

En el presente trabajo se analizan las tensiones surgidas a partir de la pregunta ¿América Latina desde Marx o Marx desde América Latina? Para hacerlo se utilizan los conceptos de escritura idealista y escritura materialista, que identifican dos de las opciones más importantes en la producción teórica marxista. La primera se asocia a la perspectiva que concibe una forma universal de la historia, ligada a ciertos textos de Karl Marx y Friedrich Engels, continuada por la socialdemocracia alemana y cuyo punto (...) máximo es la filosofía de Georg Lukács. Del otro lado están las perspectivas abiertas por el mismo Marx en ciertos segmentos de El capital y en sus cartas a Vera Zasúlich. Así mismo, se retoman algunas de las implicaciones de esta última opción en las tradiciones latinoamericanas. Particularmente se señala la importancia de la obra de Álvaro García Linera. (shrink)

John Locke is widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment philosophers. This volume, edited by J. W. Adamson and published as a second edition in 1922, contains two of John Locke's essays concerning education; Some Thoughts Concerning Education and Of the Conduct of the Understanding. Some Thoughts Concerning Education expands on Locke's pioneering theory of mind by explaining how to educate a child using three complementary methods: the development of a healthy body; the formation (...) of a virtuous mind; and the pursuit of an academic curriculum including the emerging sciences, mathematics and languages. Of the Conduct of the Understanding continues the theme of the earlier essay by describing how to develop rational thought. For over a century after the publication of these essays, John Locke's views on education were considered authoritative, and his work was translated into almost all major European languages. (shrink)

Selective attention depends on goal-directed and stimulus-driven modulatory factors, each relayed by different brain rhythms. Under certain circumstances, stress-related states can change the balance between goal-directed and stimulus-driven factors. However, the neuronal mechanisms underlying these changes remain unclear. In this study, we explored how psychosocial stress can modulate brain rhythms during an attentional task and a task-free period. We recorded the EEG and ECG activity of 42 healthy participants subjected to either the Trier Social Stress Test, a controlled procedure to (...) induce stress, or a comparable control protocol, flanked by an attentional task, a 90 s of task-free period and a state of anxiety questionnaire. We observed that psychosocial stress induced an increase in heart rate, self-reported anxiety, and alpha power synchronization. Also, psychosocial stress evoked a relative beta power increase during correct trials of the attentional task, which correlates positively with anxiety and heart rate increase, and inversely with attentional accuracy. These results suggest that psychosocial stress affects performance by redirecting attentional resources toward internal threat-related thoughts. An increment of endogenous top-down modulation reflected an increased beta-band activity that may serve as a compensatory mechanism to redirect attentional resources toward the ongoing task. The data obtained here may contribute to designing new ways of clinical management of the human stress response in the future and could help to minimize the damaging effects of persistent stressful experiences. (shrink)

En este artículo se sitúa el tema de la muerte en el contexto de la antropología filosófica de Julián Marías: así, se estudian los aspectos que conciernen al hombre, sus peligros, los elementos del morir, las interpretaciones en torno a la muerte y por último la razonabilidad de la esperanza en la vida futura.

Bentham.--Coleridge.--M. de Tocqueville on democracy in America.--On liberty.--Utilitarianism.--From Considerations on representative government.--From An examination of Sir William Hamilton's philosophy, volume 1.--From Three essays on religion.--John Stuart Mill, a select bibliography (p. [525]-530).

Escrito em 1703, no ano anterior à morte de John Locke, este breve ensaio nos fornece uma visão das concepções pedagógicas maduras de Locke, que de certa forma complementam aquilo que podemos depreender da leitura dos seus “Alguns Pensamentos sobre a Educação”, obra datada de 1693. Estritamente ancorado nas concepções empiristas de Locke, este último tratado se ocupa da educação da criança e de sua relação com os pais ou, alternativamente, os preceptores. O texto que o leitor tem em (...) mãos, por seu turno, destina-se a não a educadores de crianças mas ao homem – ou, mais precisamente, ao “cavalheiro” (gentleman) inglês sequioso de obter uma boa educação. De caráter eminentemente prático, os conselhos de Locke aqui não se baseiam fundamentalmente nas suas teorias epistemológicas mas antes na sua vasta experiência como um homem de cultura e um homem do mundo, bem versado nas artes da política e da diplomacia. Nunca é demais enfatizar que a contribuição de Locke para o sucesso da Revolução Gloriosa, de 1688, não foi puramente teórica. Locke participou da conspiração que depôs Jaime II e levou ao trono Guilherme de Orange. (shrink)

Clinical and Care Bioethics Committees at Public and Private Healthcare Institutions of Medium and High Complexity Levels in Cities of the Atlantic Coast of Colombia Comitês de Bioética clínico-assistencial nas instituições de saúde públicas e privadas dos níveis de média e alta complexidade das cidades da Costa Atlântica da Colômbia Care bioethics committees are interdisciplinary groups engaged in providing education to members of said committees, all the staff in the hospital —including professors and students in their internship—, and members of (...) the community. The objective of this study is to determine the situation of clinical and care bioethics committees at healthcare institutions in the Atlantic Coast of Colombia between 2010-2016. The study is cross-sectional, descriptive, and retro-prospective. Twenty-six health institutions that met the inclusion criteria were selected and administered a semi-structured survey. The statistical software SPSS version 22 was used to analyze the information. This study adhered to ethical research guidelines. The name most commonly given to committees is Hospital Ethics Committee. Only half have staff trained in ethics or bioethics and the most outstanding function is education in ethics; however, in the same percentage there are committees whose opinion is divided as their operation is unclear. Committees should follow existing ethical and bioethical models, and bills should be brought forward to help committees at healthcare institutions become more effective as regards their structure and operation. Para citar este artículo / To reference this article / Para citar este artigo Carrillo González S, Lorduy-Gómez J, Muñoz-Baldiris R. Comités de Bioética Clínico-Asistencial en las instituciones de salud públicas y privadas de los niveles de mediana y alta complejidad de las ciudades de la Costa Atlántica de Colombia. Pers Bioet. 2019; 23: 122-136. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pebi.2019.23.1.8 Recibido: 23/08/2018 Aceptado: 25/02/2019. (shrink)

It is possible to describe certain basic principles that underlie Leibniz’s political activities. These principles do not literally determine the specific steps Leibniz takes, but play a much more decisive role than that due to mere metaphysical principles. They provide a general frame work for his activities and a point of reference towards which his reflections tend. Particular attention is paid here to the concept of perspective and its presence in Leibniz’s correspondence with Bossuet, Pellison and Madame de Brinon and (...) the way in which a theological dialogue enables Leibniz to develop his vision of reality. (shrink)

Resumen: En el presente estudio tratamos de aportar algunas concisas indicaciones relativas a la posibilidad de reconstruir una “teoría estética” a partir de las indicaciones formuladas en este sentido por el filósofo checo Jan Patočka. Partiendo de su distinción entre “arte tradicional” y “arte moderno”, esto es, entre el arte concebido como “signo” y el arte entendido de forma autónoma, se trata de mostrar el modo en el que Patočka localiza la esencia del arte en el acto de revelar la (...) cara oculta de lo real. Aquella dimensión extraordinaria de las cosas que se pone de manifiesto en su puro y simple aparecer: más allá de toda mirada pragmática o utilitaria.: In the present work we try to provide some concise remarks concerning the possibility of rebuilding an “aesthetical theory” from the indications framed in this respect by the Czech philosopher Jan Patočka. On the basis of his distinction between “traditional art” and “modern art”, that is, between the art conceived as a “sign” and the art intended in an authonomous manner, we try to show the way in which Patočka places the essence of art in the act of revealing the hidden side of reality. It would be that extraordinary dimension of the things that is revealed in its pure and simple appearing: beyond all utilitarian or pragmatic gaze. (shrink)

"Investigates the role of Catholic philosophers in confronting the ideas brought about by modern developments in philosophy, medicine,and politics"--Provided by publisher.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Oxford Handbook of Charles S. Peirce ed. by Cornelis de WaalRoger WardThe Oxford Handbook of Charles S. Peirce Cornelis de Waal, editor. Oxford, 2024.As scholars of the American tradition, we know Charles Sanders Peirce as an original thinker with personal foibles and complex ideas, a primary source and yet an enigma in the main channel of the tradition. He is most profound in developing an architectonic system (...) that rivals and proceeds beyond Kant in the interest of furthering the inquiry necessary for self-control and the development of the community of inquiry. The object of the Real consistently appears as a figure to Peirce's inquiry as its true home, and the community of self-and-other correcting minds sharing this goal of inquiry may bring themselves together in experience and work. This handbook is an example of such work that extends beyond this immediate occasion, as Peirce reminds us, because once alive within us, how could we conceive of such inquiry ever ending?The vision of Peirce that comes clear in this volume arises from the coherence of his philosophical, logical, and mathematical thought, drawn out by historical as well as recent applications. The significant advance of this handbook is the combination of US and international scholars drawing upon a wide circle of Peirce's influence and interest. The depth and breadth of analysis speaks to the power of Peirce's method of self-correction; it is the engine of his method. We can assess the changes, the principles, and the expressed sentiments, but the origin or character of Peirce's sentiments themselves or the full ground of the emergence of his ideas remains obscure. De Waal organizes the book in six parts. What follows is an interpretation of the content of these parts via summaries of the chapters and a brief concluding observation.Part I examines Peirce's personal life and interactions with organizations in order to qualify his successes and failures and perhaps explain why this genius had such a difficult life. Daniel L. Everett (chap. 1) represents Peirce as a special case of academic genius and faults the leadership of Johns Hopkins and Harvard for failing to accommodate his behavior and eccentricities and also includes touching narratives of children who knew and cared for the Peirces in Milford (17). Jaime Nubiola and Sara Barrena (chap. 2) examine Peirce's career through his five European trips and their importance for his collaborative scientific ventures, encounters with beauty (39), and as occasions of family drama with first wife Zina Fay and later with Juliette Froissy. [End Page 78] Cheryl Misak (chap. 3) focuses on the difficult behavior of Peirce that finds its complement in the personal animus of Simon Newcomb, who assailed Peirce both at Johns Hopkins and at the US Coast Survey (51, 54). Despite these attacks, Peirce's genius was recognized by Venn, C. I. Lewis, and—through Lady Welby—by Ramsey and Wittgenstein. Pierce's uniqueness as a scientist, philosopher, and logician was mishandled by Charles Eliot and Daniel Gilman, who failed to recognize him as America's leading thinker (55). This beginning brings Peirce's personality forward as an angle of vision on his philosophical and scientific production, setting the ground for the technical evaluations of Peirce's philosophical and scientific career and the lasting impact of his logic and metaphysics after his death.Part II develops the topics of phenomenology and the normative sciences in six chapters. Richard Kenneth Atkins (chap. 4) provides a brilliantly clear description of the development of Peirce's categories and the phaneron that "needs no special tools and is open to all" to engage "whatever comes before the mind" (71). But this does not exhaust the "phaneron" due to the Real that remains beyond the representation by minds. Nathan Houser (chap. 5) develops Peirce's empiricism as the "rain of percepts" that is the inflow of phenomenal content: the "deeper levels of our bottomless lake of consciousness and subconscious mind consists mainly of conceptual or intellectual content based on our perceptual judgments" (88). This challenges Locke's and Dennett's attempts to articulate a completely materialist account of reality. Tiago da Costa... (shrink)

El 40 aniversario de la Pacem in Terris de Juan XXIII muestra su continuidad con Kant y Rawls. Los tres proclaman no a la guerra; se oponen al clash of civilisations; afirman que la paz exige el Estado de Derecho y de derechos, el respeto a los derechos humanos y fundamentales de las personas y de los pueblos y el sometimiento a las Naciones Unidas. Mientras que para Kant el imperativo ético conlleva la erradicación de la guerra, también para Rawls (...) el orden internacional supone la eliminación de la guerra y el triunfo del Derecho; para Juan XXIII el reconocimiento y el respeto universal a los derechos humanos y/o fundamentales es condición y a la vez presupuesto y efecto de la paz que también exige la igualdad y la garantía de las necesidades primarias. (shrink)

Thornhill, John Among the thinkers who have helped me expand my intellectual horizons, Dawson has a unique place. From an early date, I became aware of the importance of situating the Church's expression of our faith tradition in its historical and cultural context. In time I was to find that Dawson's interpretation of cultural history made it possible to do this within the enlightening framework he provided.

This chapter contains sections titled: Scientific History Scientific History and Scripture The Argument from Divine Signs The Argument from Apostolic Faith The Argument from Divine Character The Argument from Pseudo‐history.

Hill, John In a previous article, I broached the subject of priesthood as style, along the lines taken by Christoph Theobald and other contemporary French theologians.1 In that article I argued for a priestly style that fitted in with Theobald's vision of the Christian life as apprenticeship to Christ's own style of hospitable and eschatological messianism, and that also addressed current charges of clericalism and infantilism. I began to formulate that style in terms of citizenship, and I wish to (...) develop that approach in this article. (shrink)

Americans are greatly concerned about the number of our troops killed in battle--100,000 dead in World War I; 300,000 in World War II; 33,000 in the Korean War; 58,000 in Vietnam; 4,500 in Iraq; over 1,000 in Afghanistan--and rightly so. But why are we so indifferent, often oblivious, to the far greater number of casualties suffered by those we fight and those we fight for? This is the compelling, largely unasked question John Tirman answers in The Deaths of Others. (...) Between six and seven million people died in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq alone, the majority of them civilians. And yet Americans devote little attention to these deaths. Other countries, however, do pay attention, and Tirman argues that if we want to understand why there is so much anti-Americanism around the world, the first place to look is how we conduct war. We understandably strive to protect our own troops, but our rules of engagement with the enemy are another matter. From atomic weapons and carpet bombing in World War II to napalm and daisy cutters in Vietnam and beyond, we have used our weapons intentionally to kill large numbers of civilians and terrorize our adversaries into surrender. Americans, however, are mostly ignorant of these facts, believing that American wars are essentially just, necessary, and "good." Tirman investigates the history of casualties caused by American forces in order to explain why America remains so unpopular and why US armed forces operate the way they do. Trenchant and passionate, The Deaths of Others forces readers to consider the tragic consequences of American military action not just for Americans, but especially for those we fight. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:THE INCOMMUNICABILITY OF HUMAN PERSONS JOHN F. CROSBY, III Franciscan University of Steubenville Steubenville, Ohio I PROPOSE TO explore the idea that persons do not exist as replaceable specimens of or as mere instances of an ideal or type, but rather exist in some sense for their own sakes, each existing as incommunicably his or her own.1 I undertake this study in the conviction that the incommunicability of (...) persons is profoundly characteristic for them precisely as persons, and has a major role to play in any philosophy of the person. And there is an entirely different reason which attracts me to this subject. I think that most of what I have to say here can find acceptance across a broad spectrum of philosophical positions. At a time when thinkers are increasingly suspicious of universally valid truth about man, when many of them think that a vision of man is proper only to some tradition and valid only within that tradition and not beyond it, one can offer a salutary challenge to one's contemporaries by showing a centrally important truth about persons which, as I say, can be accepted by philosophers coming from the most various points of view. Suppose that you were to minimalize the death of someone by saying that at least the human species did not die with him or her, as if the immortality of the species more than compensated for the mortality of this individual : everyone understands that you would thereby radically depersonalize the deceased. Or suppose that you were grieving over the death of someone dear to you, and a friend tried to comfort you with the thought that the 1 My thanks to Josef Seifert, William Frank, Damian Fedoryka, and Katryna Fedoryka for their comments on earlier drafts of this study. The text of this article forms Chapter Two of my book, Essay on Personal Selfhood, which is close to completion. 403 404 JOHN F. CROSBY, III particular excellences of the deceased, which awakened your love, also exist in other human beings who are still living, as if you could continue to love in them what you had loved in the deceased. Again, everyone understands that if you treat people having excellences as if they were replaceable specimens of those excellences, then you lose your grip on them as persons. But why is this? Why is personhood driven out of human beings as soon as their species-membership, or their particular excellences, are thought to predominate in them? What is that incommunicability of each person which is obscured as soon as persons are thought to be only specimens? One commonly thinks that this aspect of personal selfhood has been recognized only in modern thought; in fact it was recognized already by St. Thomas Aquinas. Creatura autem rationalis divinae providentiae substat sicut secundum se gubernata et provisa, non solum propter speciem, ut aliae corruptibiles creaturae : quia individuum quod gubernatur solum propter speciem, non gubernatur propter seipsum; creatura autem rationalis propter seipsam gubernatur, ut ex dictis manifestum est. Sic igitur solae rationales creaturae directionem a Deo ad suos actus accipiunt non solum propter speciem, sed secundum individuum.2 Notice that Aquinas teaches here the metaphysical ultimacy of personal incommunicability; it exists even before God in the sense 2 " Now, a rational creature exists under divine providence as a being governed and provided for in himself, and not simply for the sake of his species, as is the case with other corruptible creatures. For the individual that is governed only for the sake of the species is not governed for its own sake, but the rational creature is governed for his own sake, as is clear from what we have said (ch. 112). And so, only rational creatures receive direction from God in their acts, not only for the species, but for the individual." Summa Contra Gentiles, III, ch. 113 (Bourke translation). By the way, Chapters 111-114 of Book III seem to me to constitute the most " personalist " passage' in the entire corpus of St. Thomas. The modern reader sees to his amazement that St. Thomas here has already made his own the Kantian idea that each person in a sense exists for his... (shrink)

Levack, John Having just read another poem about how a city-bred agnostic finds God after spending a weekend away in the Australian bush..