Interests without History: Some Difficulties for a Negative Aristotelianism

This paper focuses on 3 features of Freyenhagen's Aristotelian version of Adorno. (a) It challenges the strict negativism Freyenhagen finds in Adorno. If we have morally relevant interests in ourselves, it is implicit that we have a standard by which to understand what is both good and bad for us (our interests). Because strict negativism operates without reference to what is good, it seems to be detached from real interests too. Torture, it is argued, is, among other things, a violation of those interests. (b) Freyenhagen identifies the “impulse” in Adorno as an untutored yet moral reaction to morally demanding situations. The plausibility of this primitivism and its compatibility with Adorno's general worries about immediacy are considered. (c) The disruptive character of Adorno's version of the categorical imperative, its willingness to complicate action through wholesale reflection on the norms of what we are committing ourselves to, is set in contrast with Freyenhagen's Aristotelian claim that certain notions, such as “humanity,” cannot be intelligibly questioned

Infinity

Prose by Eric Baugh. Finalist in the 2018 Manuscripts Prose Contest

Empty, Useless, and Dangerous? Recent Kantian Replies to the Empty Formalism Objection

Like two heavyweight boxers exchanging punches, but neither landing the knock-out blow, Kantians and Hegelians seem to be in a stand-off on what in contemporary parlance is known as the Empty Formalism Objection. Kant?s ethics is charged with being merely formal and thereby failing to provide the kind of specific guidance that any defensible ethical system should have the resources to provide. Hegel is often credited with having formulated this objection in its most incisive way, and a wealth of Kantian responses has been deployed to answer it. In this paper, I take up the objection as it appears in �135R of Elements of the Philosophy of Right in order to scrutinise the contemporary debate between the two camps. I propose that there are, in fact, three different, albeit connected objections and examine (what I take to be) the best Kantian replies to them. I will not adjudicate which of these replies is the most accurate interpretation of Kant?s texts, nor trace the particular historical context in which Hegel takes up Kant?s ethics, nor the way the Empty Formalism Objection fits into Hegel?s wider system. This is partly because of constraints of space, and partly because many of the contemporary Kantian replies ? for better or for worse ? treat the Empty Formalism Objection as a self-standing philosophical problem, irrespective of its historical context or systematic place in Hegel?s theory. My limited aim here is to show that, even if one grants ? for argument?s sake ? the legitimacy of such a non-contextual approach, significant difficulties remain

How We Became Authentic

This is a postprint (accepted manuscript) version of the article published in Ethos 37(1):148-53. The final version of the article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1352.2009.01034_1.x (login required to access content). The version made available in Digital Common was supplied by the author.Accepted Manuscriptye

Conceivability and Possibility

Some people might be tempted by modal ontological arguments from the possibility that God exists to the conclusion that God in fact exists. They might also be tempted to support the claim that possibly God exists by appealing to the conceivability of God’s existence. In this chapter, I introduce three constraints on an adequate theory of philosophical conceivability. I then consider and develop both imagination-based accounts of conceivability and conceptual coherence-based accounts of conceivability. Finally, I return to the modal ontological argument and consider whether the premise that possibly God exists can be supported by some conceiving

Influence of pretreatments for extraction of lipids from yeast by using supercritical carbon dioxide and ethanol as cosolvent

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most studied and industrially exploited yeast. It is a non-oleaginous yeast whose lipids are mainly phospholipids. In this work, the extraction of yeast lipids by supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) and ethanol as a co-solvent was studied. In particular our attention was focused on the selectivity toward triglycerides, and in a subsequent extraction of the phospholipids present in the yeast. Indeed CO2 is a non-polar solvent and is not an efficient solvent for the extraction of phospholipids. However, SCCO2 can be used to extract neutral lipids, as triglycerides, and the addition of polar co-solvents like ethanol, at different compositions, allows a more efficient extraction of triglycerides, and also an extraction–fractionation of phospholipids. In this work SCCO2extractions of a specific membrane complex of S. cerevisiae, obtained from an industrial provider, were carried out at 20 MPa and 40 °C, using ethanol as a co-solvent (9%, w/w). It was shown that different pretreatments are necessary to obtain good extraction yields and have a great impact on the extraction. The kinetic of the extractions were successfully modeled using Sovova's model. From the fitting of the main parameters of the model it was possible to compare the effects of the pretreatments over the yeast material, and to better understand the extraction process. Among the seven tested pretreatments the more appropriate was found to be an acid hydrolysis followed by a methanol maceration