The Changing Temper of American Philosophy

1972 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 129-137
Author(s):  
C. F. Delaney

When the question of a “new age” is put to a philosopher there are two quite different ways in which he can define the issue and accordingly respond. On the one hand, he might construe his task as that of a clarifier of some general claim about cultural revolutions. From this perspective he would set about the task of analyzing the concept of a cultural revolution in terms of some loose analogue of necessary and sufficient conditions. These criteria having been laid down, he could then make suggestions as to whether or not those conditions obtain which would justify the claim that we are in the midst of such a cultural revolution. On the other hand, he might construe his charge more specifically as that of assessing the present state of his own field to see if something like a shift in perspective is manifest in this narrower domain. In this paper I am going to take the latter tack. I will, first, briefly survey the contemporary scene in philosophy to illustrate the “changing temper” I am to talk about; secondly, locate these phenomena in a broader historical context; and, thirdly, try to get at the reasons underlying the changes on which I am focusing. The major part of the paper will be devoted to the third point.

2011 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROSWITHA HOFER ◽  
PETER KRITZER

AbstractWe discuss the distribution properties of hybrid sequences whose components stem from Niederreiter–Halton sequences on the one hand, and Kronecker sequences on the other. In this paper, we give necessary and sufficient conditions on the uniform distribution of such sequences, and derive a result regarding their discrepancy. We conclude with a short summary and a discussion of topics for future research.


Author(s):  
Natalie Stoljar

This chapter defends externalist or “constitutively relational” conceptions of autonomy through an examination of an alternative approach developed by Andrea Westlund. Westlund develops her approach in response to what has been called the “agency dilemma.” On the one hand, constraining external circumstances seem to undermine autonomy; on the other, the claim that people are nonautonomous because of their circumstances seems to erase their agency and disrespect their evaluative commitments. This chapter distinguishes the necessary and sufficient conditions of several interrelated aspects of agency: autonomy, authentic agential perspective, and moral responsibility. I argue that whereas answerability may be sufficient for moral responsibility, it is not sufficient for autonomy. Objections to externalist conceptions of autonomy, including the agency dilemma, wrongly assume that denying autonomy implies erasing agency. Once it is recognized that autonomy does not always overlap with authentic agential perspective or moral responsibility, the objections lose their force.


Author(s):  
Tamara Totazovna Tedeeva

In theoretical and sociopolitical discourses, the semantic construct “The Third Rome" is often used in denotative meaning of imperial ideology. At the same time, it has multivariate connotation, the disclosure of which in the cultural-historical context on the one hand allows deeper understanding of the semantic aspect of the construct, while on the other – more precisely characterizing the culture of different epochs. The object of this research is the historical process of saturation of the semantic construct “The Third Rome" with meaningful content. The subject of this research is the basic cultural- historical connotations the concept “The Third Rome”. The goal of this work is to establish correlation between the basic connotations of the concept under review and the historical cultures by means of culturological attribution. Alongside the general theoretical philosophical-analytical toolset, the author tests the method of culturological attribution in relation to cultural-historical meanings of the concept “The Third Rome" as intangible cultural artifacts. The novelty of this article consists in elucidation of the historical subjectivity of cultural meanings of the concept “The Third Rome”. Attribution of this concept to several historical cultures allows determining its multiple connotation, which at times are antipodal. The most common interpretation (“The Third Rome” as an empire) is applicable only to certain historical cultures.


1983 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hobson

This paper examines at a philosophical level the justification for making education compulsory, concentrating on those arguments based on the welfare of the child. These arguments rest on the principle of paternalism which, as a form of interference with a person's liberty, is distinguished from such interferences based on concern for the welfare of society on the one hand and with upholding a moral or religious principle on the other. After noting the dangers involved in the use of paternalism, possible ways of determining when it is justified are examined prior to presenting what this author holds to be the two necessary and sufficient conditions for justified paternalism. After some discussion and amplification of these conditions, they are applied to the case of compulsory education. It is found that they are satisfied in this case but only with regard to education up to a certain level. The paper ends by attempting to answer some possible objections to the argument presented.


2016 ◽  
Vol 146 (5) ◽  
pp. 1081-1090
Author(s):  
Aureliano M. Robles-Pérez ◽  
José Carlos Rosales

We study some questions on numerical semigroups of type 2. On the one hand, we investigate the relation between the genus and the Frobenius number. On the other hand, for two fixed positive integers g1, g2, we give necessary and sufficient conditions in order to have a numerical semigroup S such that {g1, g2} is the set of its pseudo-Frobenius numbers and, moreover, we explicitly build families of such numerical semigroups.


Author(s):  
Kok-Chor Tan

The ‘institutional approach’ to justice holds that persons’ responsibility of justice is primarily to support, maintain, and comply with the rules of just institutions. Within the rules of just institutions, so long as their actions do not undermine these background institutions, individuals have no further responsibilities of justice. But what does the institutional approach say in the non-ideal context where just institutions are absent, such as in the global case? One reading of the institutional approach, in this case, is that our duties are primarily to create just institutions, and that when we are doing our part in this respect, we may legitimately pursue other personal or associational ends. This ‘strong’ reading of our institutional duty takes it to be both a necessary and sufficient duty of justice of individuals that they do their part to establish just arrangements. But how plausible is this? On the one hand this requirement seems overly inflexible; on the other it seems overly lax. I clarify the motivation and context of this reading of the institutional duty, and suggest that it need not be as implausible as it seems.


Author(s):  
Patrick Colm Hogan

The introduction first sets out some preliminary definitions of sex, sexuality, and gender. It then turns from the sexual part of Sexual Identities to the identity part. A great deal of confusion results from failing to distinguish between identity in the sense of a category with which one identifies (categorial identity) and identity in the sense of a set of patterns that characterize one’s cognition, emotion, and behavior (practical identity). The second section gives a brief summary of this difference. The third and fourth sections sketch the relation of the book to social constructionism and queer theory, on the one hand, and evolutionary-cognitive approaches to sex, sexuality, and gender, on the other. The fifth section outlines the value of literature in not only illustrating, but advancing a research program in sex, sexuality, and gender identity. Finally, the introduction provides an overview of the chapters in this volume.


Author(s):  
Matthias Albani

The monotheistic confession in Isa 40–48 is best understood against the historical context of Israel’s political and religious crisis situation in the final years of Neo-Babylonian rule. According to Deutero-Isaiah, Yhwh is unique and incomparable because he alone truly predicts the “future” (Isa 41:22–29)—currently the triumph of Cyrus—which will lead to Israel’s liberation from Babylonian captivity (Isa 45). This prediction is directed against the Babylonian deities’ claim to possess the power of destiny and the future, predominantly against Bel-Marduk, to whom both Nabonidus and his opponents appeal in their various political assertions regarding Cyrus. According to the Babylonian conviction, Bel-Marduk has the universal divine power, who, on the one hand, directs the course of the stars and thus determines the astral omens and, on the other hand, directs the course of history (cf. Cyrus Cylinder). As an antithesis, however, Deutero-Isaiah proclaims Yhwh as the sovereign divine creator and leader of the courses of the stars in heaven as well as the course of history on earth (Isa 45:12–13). Moreover, the conflict between Nabonidus and the Marduk priesthood over the question of the highest divine power (Sîn versus Marduk) may have had a kind of “catalytic” function in Deutero-Isaiah’s formulation of the monotheistic confession.


2008 ◽  
Vol 45 (03) ◽  
pp. 879-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nader Ebrahimi

Nanosystems are devices that are in the size range of a billionth of a meter (1 x 10-9) and therefore are built necessarily from individual atoms. The one-dimensional nanosystems or linear nanosystems cover all the nanosized systems which possess one dimension that exceeds the other two dimensions, i.e. extension over one dimension is predominant over the other two dimensions. Here only two of the dimensions have to be on the nanoscale (less than 100 nanometers). In this paper we consider the structural relationship between a linear nanosystem and its atoms acting as components of the nanosystem. Using such information, we then assess the nanosystem's limiting reliability which is, of course, probabilistic in nature. We consider the linear nanosystem at a fixed moment of time, say the present moment, and we assume that the present state of the linear nanosystem depends only on the present states of its atoms.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rochelle Lieber

A lively introduction to morphology, this textbook is intended for undergraduates with relatively little background in linguistics. It shows students how to find and analyze morphological data and presents them with basic concepts and terminology concerning the mental lexicon, inflection, derivation, morphological typology, productivity, and the interfaces between morphology and syntax on the one hand and phonology on the other. By the end of the text students are ready to understand morphological theory and how to support or refute theoretical proposals. Providing data from a wide variety of languages, the text includes hands-on activities designed to encourage students to gather and analyse their own data. The third edition has been thoroughly updated with new examples and exercises. Chapter 2 now includes an updated detailed introduction to using linguistic corpora, and there is a new final chapter covering several current theoretical frameworks.


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