Philosophical Pictures from Philosopher Portraits

Portraits of Wittgenstein and Hume are used as test cases in some preliminary investigations of a new kind of philosophical picture. Such pictures are produced via a variety of visual transformations of the original portraits, with a final selection for display and discussion being based on the few results that seem to have some interesting relevance to the character or philosophical views of the philosopher in question

Equality and Justification: the Original Position Reconsidered

The original position has an elegance and power beyond most philosophical pictures. It has captured the attention of readers across the world through many generations of students, and is famous well beyond philosophical circles. Yet, as renowned as the original position has become, it is also typically misrepresented and misunderstood. In particular, John Rawls’ method of reasoning behind the veil of ignorance is frequently presented as drawing a conclusion mandated by rational choice theory. My aim, in this brief note, is to clarify the main purpose of the original position and to articulate its main defining features in contrast to this dominant misreading

Creativity and Imagination in the Practice of Philosophy

This paper argues that the exercise of the imagination requires us 1) to attempt to describe features of a certain practice that appear, at first blush, natural and obvious; 2) to understand that that which appears natural and obvious could be otherwise; and 3) to be open to the introduction of changes to that which appears natural and obvious. Imagination, in this sense, is quite different to creativity. The latter works on the basis of the introduction of variations to settled phenomena. This exercise of creativity is important, but ultimately, it contributes principally to the stability and identity of a community and reinforces its most firmly established features. Imagination, on the other hand, is more difficult, for it strikes at the very heart of that which is settled. Changes to that which is settled may not only be resisted, but may also be violently opposed. And yet, it is precisely the very ability and willingness to be open to such changes that may be of the most ethical and political significance. These differences between creativity and imagination are illustrated in the context of the practice of philosophy

Mark Eli Kalderon, "Sympathy in Perception"

Mark Eli Kalderon's book boldly positions itself as a work in speculative metaphysics. Its point of departure is the familiar distinction between presentational and representational philosophies of perception. Kalderon notes that the latter has been more popular of late, as it is more amenable to "an account" explicating causal or counterfactual conditions on perception; but he wishes to rehabilitate the former, at least in part. One widely perceived disadvantage of presentationalism has been the way that understanding perception merely as registering the presence of things might seem to leave us vulnerable to error about the nature of what is presented. Kalderon seeks to remedy this not by dealing at length with various disjunctivist positions concerning perception which may be friendly to his position, nor by spending much time criticising opposing views, but by explicating presentationalist perception through a series of tactile metaphors, thereby providing a radically new philosophical view. He claims that we do not just 'stand before' reality, we grasp it-the metaphor survives tellingly in ordinary language-and he thereby seeks to defend a form of realism which is robust, though he admits, "pre-modern". He draws on a remarkably rich variety of thinkers to defend this position, including pre-modern, modern, and various figures from both analytic and continental philosophy-however, although there is plenty of solid scholarship here, the book is aimed at metaphysics more than the history of ideas

From Pictures to Employments: Later Wittgenstein on 'the Infinite'

With respect to the metaphysics of infinity, the tendency of standard debates is to either endorse or to deny the reality of ‘the infinite’. But how should we understand the notion of ‘reality’ employed in stating these options? Wittgenstein’s critical strategy shows that the notion is grounded in a confusion: talk of infinity naturally takes hold of one’s imagination due to the sway of verbal pictures and analogies suggested by our words. This is the source of various philosophical pictures that in turn give rise to the standard metaphysical debates: that the mathematics of infinity corresponds to a special realm of infinite objects, that the infinite is profoundly huge or vast, or that the ability to think about infinity reveals mysterious powers in human beings. First, I explain Wittgenstein’s general strategy for undermining philosophical pictures of ‘the infinite’ – as he describes it in Zettel; and then show how that critical strategy is applied to Cantor’s diagonalization proof in Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics II

Jesus Christ the philosopher: An exposé

Rarely do philosophers and scholars endeavour to examine Jesus Christ‟s teachings from the perspective of philosophy this is because it is presumed that Christ‟s teachings fall within the ambience of religion and theology.Philosophy as a discipline of study has been misunderstood and most times characterized by abstract considerations. This article titled: Jesus Christ the Philosopher:An Expose'brings out the fact that some teachings of Jesus Christ are and ought to be understood as being philosophical. The article looks at Jesus as a historic person, exclusive of post-resurrection Jesus Christ which is fundamentally an issue of faith. The main objective of this work is to uncover, expose and write on the teachings of Jesus Christ which are philosophical. Certain areas of philosophy inherent in Christ teachings are in the areas of Social Philosophy viz: Leadership Philosophy, Philosophy of Peace and Conflict Resolution, Ethics and Virtue Ethics and Law. The conclusion of this article is that Jesus Christ‟s teachings are philosophical and thereby captures Jesus Christ as a philosopher

Searching for our foremothers: A philosophical journey through the alternative genres of women writers

In the history of philosophy, there is a shortage, and often a total absence, of women’s voices in the philosophical canon. I take this notable lack of female philosophical contribution not as evidence that women were not ‘capable’ or ‘interested’ in philosophical inquiry, but rather that their contributions are mainly to be found in alternative genres that were more open for women to participate in. I propose that present-day philosophers who are interested in locating the philosophical activities of women would benefit from an exploration of what I am terming “alternative genres.” I shall focus in particular on personal correspondence during the Early Modern period, the novel in the nineteenth century, and feminist cinema in the twentieth century. Each of these forms contributes a richly unique perspective on central philosophical themes and affords contemporary philosophers a venue through which to access the philosophical thought of women writers in these historical periods

Life without theory: biography as an exemplar of philosophical understanding

This article discusses recent attempts to provide the genre of biography with a philosophical, theoretical foundation and attempts to show that such efforts are fundamentally misguided. Biography is, I argue, a profoundly nontheoretical activity, and this, precisely, makes it philosophically interesting. Instead of looking to philosophy to provide a theory of biography, we should, I maintain, look to biography to provide a crucially important example and model of what Ludwig Wittgenstein called "the kind of understanding that consists in seeing connections." This kind of understanding stands in sharp contrast to the theoretical understanding provided by science and is, Wittgenstein maintained, what we as philosophers are, or should be, striving for

Filosofía y figuras en las investigaciones filosóficas de Wittgenstein

Indexación: Revista UNABEn las investigaciones filosóficas Wittgenstein examina el impacto sobre la comprensión filosófica de ciertos modelos o figuras. Se distinguen cuatro tipos de figuras de esa naturaleza que serán denominadas aquí 'figuras ingenuas', 'figuras de la falsa mitología', 'figuras filosóficas' y 'figuras para alterar el modo de ver'. El objetivo de este artículo es interpretar el proyecto filosófico de Wittgenstein coordinando estas diversas categorías de figuras con su descripción de la vivencia de aspectos y su examen de la comprensión del significado. De acuerdo con esta interpretación, la filosofia del último Wittgenstein debe ser entendida como un intento de proponer maneras alternativas a partir de las cuales sería posible ver o interpretar la experiencia y los problemas de la filosofia tradicional. Abstract: In the Philosophical Investigations Wittgenstein examines the impact on the philosophical understanding of certain models or pictures. Four types of pictures of that nature wiIl be distinguished and denominated here 'naive pictures', 'pictures of the false mythology', 'philosophical pictures' and 'pictures to alter the way of seeing'. The aim of this paper is to interpret the philosophical project of Wittgenstein by coordinating those diverse categories of pictures with his description of the experience of noticing an aspect and his account of the meaning understanding. According to this interpretation, the philosophy ofthe later Wittgenstein should be understood as an attempt of positing altemative ways by which it would be possible seeing or interpreting the experience and the traditional philosophy problems

A Good Exit: What to Do about the End of Our Species?

We know that Homo sapiens will not exist forever. Given this, how should our species end? What are the reasons, if any, to delay our extinction? In this paper, I show that the pre-eminent reasons which favour prolonging the existence of the species are partial: they will arise from the particular attachments and projects of the final few generations. While there may also be impartial reasons to prolong the species, these reasons are liable, with time, to reverse their valence: we can be reasonably confident that they will ultimately recommend hastening the demise of the species. Consequently, it is likely that our descendants will eventually face a difficult -- possibly tragic -- conflict, between partial duties that recommend living on, and an impartial duty to extinguish the species