Representational and attitudinal sexual objectification : philosophical insights from James Tiptree, Jr.’s "And I awoke and found me here on the Cold Hill’s Side'

“James Tiptree Jr.” is a pseudonym of Alice B. Sheldon, US Air Force intelligence officer, CIA analyst, experimental psychologist, and one of the most important and highly acclaimed science fiction writers of the twentieth century. Sheldon’s work as Tiptree (both fiction and nonfiction) deals with a variety of important feminist concerns—among them, sexism, misogyny, objectification, sexual assault, the “otherness” of women, and silencing. This paper explores in a philosophical mode some of the important insights about objectification conveyed in one of Tiptree’s most well-known stories, “’And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side.” These insights lead naturally to a characterization of sexual objectification that both avoids problems with standard philosophical characterizations and also sheds important light on the relationship between objectification and silencing.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Wright on Theodicy: Reflections on Evil and the Justice of God

In "Evil and the Justice of God", N.T. Wright presses the point that attempting to solve the philosophical problem of evil is an immature response to the existence of evil--a response that belittles the real problem of evil, which is just the fact that evil is bad and needs to be dealt with. As you might expect, I am not inclined to endorse this sort of sweeping indictment of the entire field of research on the philosophical problem of evil. (I sort of doubt that Wright really meant to either.) But I do think that there is a kernel of truth in what I take to be Wright's fundamental objection to attempts to solve the philosophical problem of evil. In the first section of what follows, I will try briefly to explain why. I will then go on to argue that, despite this fact, certain efforts at solving the problem of evil avoid Wright's objection. Indeed, drawing on recent work by Elenore Stump, I will argue that one perfectly legitimate way to try to solve the philosophical problem of evil is to follow precisely what seems to be the main piece of advice in "Evil and the Justice of God": namely, to look more seriously than we have at the attitudes taken toward evil by human authors of and characters in the Bible, and to attend more carefully to what the Bible says about how God deals with evil

Divine Hiddenness, Divine Silence

In the present article, he explains why divine silence poses a serious intellectual obstacle to belief in God, and then goes on to consider ways of overcoming that obstacle. After considering several ways in which divine silence might actually be beneficial to human beings, he argues that perhaps silence is nothing more or less than God’s preferred mode of interaction with creatures like us. Perhaps God simply desires communion rather than overt communication with human beings, and perhaps God has provided ways for us to experience God’s presence richly even amidst the silence

Realism in Theology and Metaphysics

The paper will have three sections. In section one I briefly present and respond to Byrne’s argument against theological realism. In section two, I present van Fraassen’s argument against analytic metaphysics and I show how, if sound, it constitutes a reason to reject both metaphysical and theological realism. In section three, I show how van Fraassen can be answered. Obviously what I am doing here falls far short of a full-blown defense of realism in either metaphysics or theology. But the objections raised by van Fraassen and Byrne are tokens of a type of objection that I think is rather widely endorsed among those who are suspicious of these two brands of realism. Thus, responding to those objections constitutes an important first step in the direction of a defense

How Successful is Naturalism?

The question raised by this volume is “How successful is naturalism?” The question presupposes that we already know what naturalism is and what counts as success. But, as anyone familiar with the literature on naturalism knows, both suppositions are suspect. To answer the question, then, we must first say what we mean in this context by both ‘naturalism’ and ‘success’. I’ll start with ‘success’. I will then argue that, by the standard of measurement that I shall identify here, naturalism is an utter failure

Naturalism and Moral Realism

My goal in this paper is to show that naturalists cannot reasonably endorse moral realism. My argument will come in two parts. The first part aims to show that any plausible and naturalistically acceptable argument in favor of belief in objective moral properties will appeal in part to simplicity considerations (broadly construed)—and this regardless of whether moral properties are reducible to non-moral properties. The second part argues for the conclusion that appeals to simplicity justify belief in moral properties only if either those properties are not objective or something like theism is true. Thus, if my argument is sound, naturalists can reasonably accept moral realism only if they are prepared to accept something like theism. But, as will become clear, naturalists can reasonably accept theism or something like it only if belief in some such doctrine is justified by the methods of science. For present purposes, I’ll assume (what I think virtually every naturalist will grant) that belief in theism and relevantly similar doctrines is not justified by the methods of science. Thus, I will conclude that naturalists cannot reasonably accept moral realism

The role of the lateral spinal nucleus in nociception

The lateral spinal nucleus (LSN), located in the dorsolateral funiculus, is an area that has been poorly understood, but has been implicated in nociception. To investigate the function of this nucleus, three broad areas were investigated: responses to nociceptive stimuli, neurochemical relations to the NK-1 receptor, and projections from this nucleus to several brain centres, to try to gain a greater understanding of the functions of this nucleus. The following conclusions can be drawn from the studies undertaken here: • A series of double-labelling experiments for confocal microscopy were carried out in the rat (Sprague-Dawley) to investigate the LSN responses to a variety of peripheral cutaneous noxious stimuli. It was found that the LSN responds to both thermal and chemical peripheral cutaneous noxious stimulation. However, unlike as previously thought, only a small number of neurons in the LSN are activated by a peripheral noxious stimulus, with hot water (55°C applied to the hind-paw) activating the most, as revealed by Fos immunoreactivity. Only 15% of LSN neurons showed response to this peripheral noxious stimulus. Interestingly, unlike the superficial dorsal horn (SDH), bilateral activation of LSN neurons after the application of a peripheral noxious stimulus was found in most of the experiments carried out. • Triple and quadruple-labelling experiments for confocal microscopy were carried out in the rat to investigate neurochemical relations at this site. It was found that although the LSN is abundant in staining for substance P, the number of LSN neurons showing immunoreactivity for the target of substance P (the NK-1 receptor) represented only one-third of all neurons at this site. However, substance P and nitric oxide synthase were associated with NK-1 neurons, and specifically nitric oxide synthase terminals were preferentially associated with NK-1 neuronal cell bodies. However, unlike the superficial dorsal horn, nitric oxide synthase terminals were not associated with inhibitory GABAergic neurons. • Using retrograde injection techniques (in the rat) combined with multiple immunolabelling for confocal microscopy, the LSN was shown to project to areas traditionally associated with nociception (caudal ventrolateral medulla and mediodorsal thalamus) but also projected to the hypothalamus and also the lateral globus pallidus. Indeed, the regions found to have the most projections from the LSN were the lateral and medial hypothalamus, with most of those neurons (>80%) possessing the NK-1 receptor. Interestingly, although numbers of retrogradely labelled neurons were low, they represented 30% of all labelled neurons that projected from the LSN to the lateral globus pallidus. In conclusion, the extent of involvement of the LSN in nociception is less than previously thought, but with projections to the hypothalamus, it could be postulated that the LSN functions as an integrative nucleus for autonomic and homeostatic functions, and related motivational and affective responses to autonomic function

The Historic Inability of the Haitian Education System to Create Human Development and its Consequences

This study aims to evaluate the role that a lack of literacy and education has played in Haiti\u27s historic and presently low level of human development. The pedagogical philosophies of two educationists, Paolo Friere and Maurice Dartigue, are used throughout the study as lenses from which to read and interpret the history of Haitian education -its many failed attempts, and recurrent challenges- in creating a literate and educated population. The author concludes that mass literacy is prerequisite if the Haitian people are to achieve self-realization and actualization, which essentially equates to what the United Nations Development Program calls Human Development . Only after human development is achieved for the vast majority of Haitian people, will Haitians achieve a stable democracy, viable economy and self-determination