War As Morally Unintelligible: Sovereign Agency and the Limits of Kantian Autonomy

Kant’s treatment of war is usually discussed as part of his political philosophy or philosophy of history. In contrast, this essay locates these discussions in direct reference to major elements of his moral philosophy: autonomy, the categorical imperative, and the moral relationality of the kingdom of ends. Within this context, Kant’s account of war, particularly in writings from the 1790s, can be read as affirming war as morally unintelligible: It is the expression of a collective withdrawal from the constitutive relationality of moral community. This results in a radical disparity in the exercise of moral autonomy by the sovereign agency of the state with respect to peace, on one hand, and with respect to war, on the other

Strictly speaking

A type of argument occasionally made in metaethics, epistemology and philosophy of science notes that most ordinary uses of some expression fail to satisfy the strictest interpretation of the expression, and concludes that the ordinary assertions are false. This requires there to be a presumption in favour of a strict interpretation of expressions that admit of interpretations at different levels of strictness. We argue that this presumption is unmotivated, and thus the arguments fail

Machine art or machine artists? Dennett, Danto, and the expressive stance

As art produced by autonomous machines becomes increasingly common, and as such machines grow increasingly sophisticated, we risk a confusion between art produced by a person but mediated by a machine, and art produced by what might be legitimately considered a machine artist. This distinction will be examined here. In particular, my argument seeks to close a gap between, on one hand, a philosophically grounded theory of art and, on the other hand, theories concerned with behavior, intentionality, expression, and creativity in natural and artificial agents. This latter set of theories in some cases addresses creative behavior in relation to visual art, music, and literature, in the frequently overlapping contexts of philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. However, research in these areas does not typically address problems in the philosophy of art as a central line of inquiry. Similarly, the philosophy of art does not typically address issues pertaining to artificial agents

Discourse in a coma; A Comment on a Comma in the Title of Jean François Lyotard’s Discourse, Figure

One of the key claims in Jean-Francois Lyotard's "Discourse, Figure" is that the dialectical method (the backbone of Western philosophy) tends to obscure and hide all which is invisible, illegible and sensual. Lyotard's strategy in exposing this rift within language (and philosophy) is by way of showing that the distance between the sign and the referent should not be thought of as negation but as a form of expression. Instead of the dialectical relation between the image and the object Lyotard proposes radical heterogeneity that he names 'thickness'. This paper examines Lyotard's non-dialectical approach in relation to the title of the book and argues that the comma is positioned as the sensual technology that creates the possibility of discursive continuity

Shuttle Global Positioning (GPS) System design study

Investigations of certain aspects and problems of the shuttle global positioning system GPS, are presented. Included are: test philosophy and test outline; development of a phase slope specification for the shuttle GPS antenna; an investigation of the shuttle jamming vulnerability; and an expression for the GPS signal to noise density ratio for the thermal protection system

The Scenery of Knowledge"s Language-Game in Wittgenstein"s Philosophical Investigations

Our purpose is to take into account Wittgenstein"s analyses about knowledge in the Philosophical Investigations, in order to articulate them and elaborate a concept of knowledge (Wissen). My first claim is that this is possible. My second claim is that the complexity of this concept has not been taken into consideration and its originality has been misunderstood in the horizon of the Philosophy of Mind (Vohra, A. 1986), of Philosophy of Psychology (Schulte, J. 1993; Budd, M. 1989). My objection is that the analysis of "knowledgeâ€? presupposes the dissolution of mind and psychology. My third claim concerns the interpretation of the verb "to knowâ€? from K. Bühler"s point of view as a kind of signal (Signal), at least in some uses, and as a symbol or an expression in some others. This connection concerning "knowledgeâ€? has not been brought out in, e.g., (Hacker, P.M.S. 1993; von Savigny, E. and Scholz, O.R. 1995)

Meta-Illusionism and Qualia Quietism

Many so-called problems in contemporary philosophy of mind depend for their expression on a collection of inter-defined technical terms, a few of which are qualia, phenomenal property, and what-it’s-like-ness. I express my scepticism about Keith Frankish’s illusionism, the view that people are generally subject to a systematic illusion that any properties are phenomenal, and scout the relative merits of two alternatives to Frankish’s illusionism. The first is phenomenal meta-illusionism, the view that illusionists such as Frankish, in holding their view, are themselves thereby under an illusion. The second is qualia quietism, the view that nothing worth saying is said by employing any of the aforementioned inter-defined technical terms

1. The Logical Atomism of Bertrand Russell

As can easily be seen, the impact of these three schools of contemporary philosophy — the linguistic, the logical analytical, and the logical empiricist — has been largely negative, critical, and destructive, especially with regard to theological beliefs, metaphysical systems, and value judgment. Thus the particular growing edges of contemporary philosophy have contributed their full share to the shaking of the foundations of Western Civilization. But, during the last few decades they have presented less of a united front than before. The differences which have appeared have come largely from a rethinking of the status and role of value, and these differences have found expression in a large number of philosophers both in England and the United States. One of the most articulate and influential of the men who have been identified with the whole critical movement is Bertrand Russell. While he has characteristically never accepted the label of any school of thought, it is with this movement of criticism and analysis that he is most closely associated. His thought and his life, as he himself has said, is reminiscent of that of the aristocratic rebels of the early nineteenth century. [excerpt

7. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Absolute Idealism

It is quite fitting for a number of reasons that this chapter on the post-Enlightenment should conclude with a section on Hegel\u27s interpretation of idealism. He gave expression to most of the criticisms of the Enlightenment, and appropriated many of its constructive suggestions. He gave voice and content to the later period\u27s demand for a positive and constructive philosophy, one which made room for ethics, art, and religion. The influence of his thought was tremendous, immediately in Prussia where it became a philosophical basis for the expansion of that state, and later as it spread to England and the United States, where it became the leading school of philosophy for some time. Another way of indicating the position of Hegel\u27s idealism is to recognize the fact that most of our contemporary twentieth century philosophy represents some form of criticism of idealism as it was expressed by Hegel. [excerpt

Creativity in the Philosophy Class. Concrete Research

The issue of creativity among teachers and pupils in terms of the dialogical praxis represented a real challenge concerning the research that we have done in high school classes in which philosophy is being taught. We have come to the conclusion that there is a direct linking between the diversity of the dialogical forms which pupils and teachers use and the forms of expression of creativity that are used during philosophy classes. Philosophical themes seem more attractive and interesting if the working methods in classes are modified and if pupils have to evaluate critically their own knowledge. (DIPF/Orig.)Die Kreativität der Schüler und Lehrer in der Methode dialogischer Praxis während des Philosophieunterrichts von Oberschulklassen stellte im Kontext dieser repräsentativen Untersuchung eine Herausforderung dar. Unsere Feststellungen zeigen die direkte Verknüpfung zwischen der Vielfalt dialogischer Formen, welche die Schüler und Lehrer übernommen haben und den Formen und Ebenen der Kreativität der Schüler während des Philosophieunterrichts. Philosophische Themen gewinnen an Attraktivität, wenn die Arbeitsmethoden in der Klasse dahin gehend geändert werden, dass die Schüler gefordert sind, ihre Kenntnisse kritisch zu bewerten und ihre Position aus einem philosphischen Blickwinkel zu überprüfen. (DIPF/Orig.