In a recent issue of Faith and Philosophy, Stephen Davis argues that it is rational for supernaturalists, though not for naturalists, to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ in (roughly) the sense of an event which happened to Jesus in which Jesus, though he had truly died, was restored to life and consciousness and after which his living body left the tomb. After making some clarifications regarding supernaturalism and the concept of a miracle, I argue that Davis has not (...) shown this. My case against Davis rests essentially on two claims: (1) we cannot today reconstruct what the resurrection involved because there is no clear, historically reliable account of what the resurrection was thought to be by those who directly experienced the Easter event; and (2) we do not have sufficient evidence to make it rational to believe that the resurrection is part of a pattern of nonnatural events in which God has acted for similar ends, yet belief that there is such a pattern is needed if belief in the resurrection in Davis’ sense is to be rational. (shrink)

20세기 후반 탈냉전기 국제 정치 질서가 와해되고 동서 이데올로기의 대립과 그에 기인된 군사적 대립이 종식된 상황에서 새천년 21세기의 국제 관계와 세계 체제를 ‘문명’으로 해석하고자 하는 ‘문명패러다임’이 제시되었다. 이 논의가 기점이 되어 인류의 미래를 공분모적 복합체인 ‘문명’에서 그 해법을 강구하고자 하는 여러 형태의 현대적인 ‘문명 담론’이 폭발된 것이다. 본 논고는 여기에 부응하여 ‘현대 문명 담론’의 원형적 발제라고 할 수 있는 문명패러다임을 단․복수적 문명론 차원에서 비판적으로 분석했다. 이를테면 대표적인 두 학자의 이론 즉 후쿠야마의 단수적 문명 전파론과 헌팅턴의 복수적 문명 충돌론을 중심으로 현대 (...) 문명 담론의 이해와 전망을 시도했다. 사실 ‘문명’의 개념사로 볼 때 ‘문명’은 두 가지의 서로 다른 의미를 가진다. 하나는 단수적(singular) 의미의 문명이고 또 다른 하나는 복수적(plural) 의미의 문명이 그것이다. 현대 서구에서는 동서 냉전의 종결과 함께 주로 두 방향에서 미래의 전망이 이루어졌다. 그것은 현대 문명 담론과 밀접한 연관 속에 있는 후쿠야마의 단수적 ‘역사의 종말’과 헌팅턴의 복수적 ‘문명의 충돌’에 대한 논의라고 할 수 있다. 그러나 이 문명론적 미래 전망에는 탈냉전 시대의 ‘서구 중심적 패권주의’가 내장되어 있다. 곧 이 양자에는 세계 문명을 ‘동’과 ‘서’의 분열 구도로 구획하여 서구의 이익을 조장하는 마니교적 이분법이 작동하고 있다. 이 글은 이러한 단․복수적 문명패러다임의 치명적인 결점을 극복하고 그 문명 담론으로서의 본래적 기능을 복원하기 위해 기획된 것이다. 그 일환으로서 후쿠야마의 문명 전파론과 헌팅턴의 문명 충돌론을 ‘세계화’라는 문맥 속에서 비판적으로 검토했다. 그리고 그 분석과 비판 과정 속에서 발전적이고 체계적인 ‘현대 문명 담론’의 학문적 토대를 기초하고 참된 문명관의 밑그림을 그려보고자 시도했다. 요컨대 진정한 의미의 ‘문명 담론’은 관점의 탈중심화 속에서 ‘모두가 누리는 행복’이라는 인류문명공동체의 진지한 염원을 담아내야 한다는 것이다. (shrink)

A critical and creative reconstruction of Adorno's conception of truth that shows its relevance for comtemporary philosophy, art, and politics.

Philosophers on Education offers us the most comprehensive available history of philosopher's views and impacts on the directions of education. As Amelie Rorty explains, in describing a history of education, we are essentially describing and gaining the clearest understanding of the issues that presently concern and divide us. The essays in this stellar collection are written by some of the finest comtemporary philosophers. Those interested in history of philosophy, epistemology, moral psychology and education, and political theory will find Philosophers (...) on Education to be both an engaging and fascinating read. (shrink)

In this work, Robert Solomon tries to put the fun back in philosophy, recapturing the heart-felt confusion and excitement that originally brings us all into philosophy. It is not a critique of comtemporary philosophy so much as it is an attempt to engage in philosophy in a different kind of way, beginning with a re-evaluation of Socrates and the nature of philosophy and defending the passionate life in contrast to the calm life of thoughtful contemplation so often held up (...) as an ideal by traditional philosophers. In short, it is an attempt to recapture the kind of philosophy that Nietzsche celebrated as a "joyful wisdom". The author tries to break down the walls between academic philosophy and its lost audience, between thin logic and thick rhetoric, between philosophical reason and philosophical passion, between 'analytic' and 'continental' philosophy, between philosophy and life. (shrink)

_Contemporary Chinese Philosophy_ features discussion of sixteen major twentieth-century Chinese philosophers. Leading scholars in the field describe and critically assess the works of these significant figures. Critically assesses the work of major comtemporary Chinese philosophers that have rarely been discussed in English. Features essays by leading scholars in the field. Includes a glossary of Chinese characters and definitions.

Contemporary Chinese Philosophy features discussion of sixteen major twentieth-century Chinese philosophers. Leading scholars in the field describe and critically assess the works of these significant figures. Critically assesses the work of major comtemporary Chinese philosophers that have rarely been discussed in English. Features essays by leading scholars in the field. Includes a glossary of Chinese characters and definitions.

My aims has been to approach the debate about health service priorities from the perspective of political philosophy, but to keep the discussion firmly anchored in comtemporary problems of health care provision. The chapters are designed to provide the groundwork for anyone interested in the ethical problems in modern health care. I have used examples of health care delivery in Britain, the USA, the USSR, and the People's Republic of China to illustrate different aspects of the problem of priorities. (...) The issues can be summarised under three broad headings: Distribution, effectiveness, and authority to make decisions. (shrink)

Locke on Human Understanding, is a comprehensive introduction to John Locke's major work, Essay Concerning Human Understanding . Locke's Essay remains a key work in many philosophical fields, notably in epistemology, metaphysics and the philosophies of mind and language. In addition, Locke is often referred to as the first English empiricist. Knowledge of this influential work and figure is essential to Enlightenment thought. E. J. Lowe's approach enables students to effectively study the Essay by placing Locke's life and works in (...) their intellectual and historical context. The book provides a critical examination of the leading themes in the Essay , illuminating the main lines in Locke's thinking. Such topics include innate ideas, perception, primary and secondary qualities, personal identity, free will, action and language. Finally, E. J. Lowe examines the comtemporary work being done on this highly influential English philosopher. (shrink)

This paper aims to show how at the end of the Sixteenth Century, translating in latin modern and comtemporary historiography, first written in Italian, had limits: as S. Lambino saw reading Nicola Stupan’s translation into latin of the Dialoghi della historia by Francesco Patrizi, the latin language could not carry out the vivacity and the colours of the modern discourse, and even could not translate exactly the meanings. The modern texts in this kind of translation could acquire a larger (...) audience, but could also lost part of their identity: in this case, the fact does not depend from the ability of the translator but actually from the convenience, or inconvenience, of the ancient language, unable to adapt exactly the modern concepts to ancient ways of thinking and writing. (shrink)

Nanda writes disparagingly of "Hindu" intellectuals--including those in the West - who try to produce alternative sciences often inspired by post-modernism. She is unaware that many - including Einstein and Schrödinger - fit her descriptions of such "Hindu" Western prophets "facing backward" who revolutionized science by "alternative sciences". She misreads those positions she criticizes into one anti-science conspiracy of post-modernism and Vedic science adherents. Her misconstructions are easy to spot Examples: Key citations on India are Western; her statements often ex-cathedra (...) statements. Her history is patchy, sometimes wrong. She derides social-constructionism but turns to it when she wants it. A presumed Western leftist she quotes Daniel Bell ("End of Ideology") approvingly. "Third Ways" and "Alternatives" between alleged Western liberalism and Marxism which she denounces are in the Western left agenda for nearly thirty years. She ignores key factors in India's predicament like low literacy. Nanda derides contemporary Hindu nationalism as a scavenger picking up from different sources. This "scavenging" however, is a sign of confidence, paralleling the attitude of Europeans during hte Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Although she claims that there are a few elements from the Indic tradition which are useful, she does not explore this except for Ambedkar Buddhism. Here she puts more emphasis on its alleged western roots than on Ambedkar's declared Buddhism. For her, Western modernity is one universal ignoring the many different trajectories different western societies have taken in their science development. She regrets the breaking down in comtemporary India of conventional boundaries between presumed right, left, progress and development. Instead of rewriting received Western wisdom to fit this real historical experience of India, she resorts to only Western conceptual categories. She damns both Indian social reality as well as attempts at fresh Indian conceptualization. For her, secularization means brainwashing the local populaton into an unashamed McCauleyite template illustrating deep feelings of insecurity about her own culture. (shrink)

Man's duties and responsibilities in comtemporary society analyzed in the light of moral philosophy and the findings of modern economics.

From the ancient Greeks to the formative voices of contemporary analytic philosophy, this collection of readings deftly blends the foremost classical sources with important comtemporary philosophical thinkers to present a wide-ranging and in-depth examination of the major theories of knowledge.

Recovers some of the value in the Wittgensteinian period of philosophy, using certain logical systems: Prior's theory of operators and Hilbert's epsilon calculus. This work applies, discursively, the previous largely technical results published in Prolegomena to Formal Logic (Aldershot, Gower 1989) and Intensional Logic (Aldershot, Ashgate 1994) to resolve matters of current interest in philosophy, logic and linguistics - notably attacking a variety of realisms found in comtemporary cognitive science and the philosophy of mathematics.

The current rationale for Freedom of Speech is entangled in Enlightenment assumptions about the relationship of discourse to public life. This article critiques those assumptions and proposes an alternative rationale for Freedom of Speech based in assumptions of contemporary rhetorical theory.