What is Philosophical about Kant’s Anthropology?

Abstract

In this essay, I argue that Kant’s Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View is fundamentally about the sphere of civilization, and, with this, a particular kind of philosophical self-understanding. By civilization, Kant means to indicate the process by which human beings transform their inner natures based on pragmatic or prudential considerations born of our living together. Civilization is what we do to ourselves in order to get along with others with whom we share the earth. In the Anthropology, what we come to understand about ourselves is the possibility of transforming our inner natures based on our will.     

Psychotherapy and Religion: Rapprochement or Antithesis?

Religion and psychotherapy have long maintained separate directions, currently manifested in four viewpoints: orthodox, atheistic, neutralist, and moderate. Although each therapeutic viewpoint is distinct, each contains the seed for rapprochement. The need for a rapprochement that provides professional psychotherapy capable of addressing religious issues is clearly voiced by laypersons, who are clients or potential clients, and by members of the clergy and psychotherapeutic professions. Increasing numbers of ministers now receive professional preparation for pastoral counseling. It is timely for those in the counseling professions to consider seriously specialized education and certification in religious counseling for secular psychotherapists.     

Postmetaphysical Thinking or Refusal of Thought? Max Horkheimer’s Materialism as Philosophical Stance

Abstract

Frankfurt School critical theory has long opposed metaphysical philosophy because it ignores suffering and injustice. In the face of such criticism, proponents of metaphysics (for example Dieter Henrich) have accused critical theory of not fully investigating the questions is raises for itself, and falling into partial metaphysical positions, despite itself. If one focuses on Max Horkheimer’s early essays, such an accusation seems quite fitting. There he vociferously attacks metaphysics, but he also develops a theory that pushes toward metaphysical questions. His work can thus seem laden with unpacked metaphysical baggage, and fraught with contradiction. The aim of this paper is to show that Horkheimer’s critique of metaphysics makes sense and is not contradicted by a surreptitious metaphysics. To show this, Horkheimer’s views will be compared with Bas van Fraassen’s in The Empirical Stance. Ultimately, the paper should show that Horkheimer’s early philosophy can be reconstructed in such a way that it employs a ‘materialist stance’.     

Husserl’s Discovery of Philosophical Discourse

Husserl’s Idea of Phenomenology is his first systematic attempt to show how phenomenology differs from natural science and in particular psychology. He does this by the phenomenological reduction. One of his achievements is to show that the formal structures of intentionality are more akin to logic than to psychology. I claim that Husserl’s argument can be made more intuitive if we consider phenomenology to be the study of truth rather than knowledge, and if we see the reduction as primarily a modification in our vocabulary and discourse and not as simply a change in attitude. I briefly compare Husserl’s concept of philosophy with those of Plato and Kant.

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Philosophical Themes in Schleiermacher’s Christology

Philosophical foundations of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s christology are found in his rejection of the likeness theology found in many medieval theologians and in German rationalist philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries such as Leibniz and Kant. Instead, Schleiermacher offers a theology of divine otherness, as an interpretation of religious consciousness as awareness of oneself as “absolutely” (i.e., totally and unconditionally) dependent. On this basis all that we can characterize of that on which we are absolutely dependent (God) is its causality. Hence, Schleiermacher argues, Christian theology must not speak of a “nature” of God, but only of a causality of God, as present in Christ in a special way. It is argued that he identifies this divine causality as love (that is, as a causality tending toward human redemption), and as identical with Christ’s human love, on the basis of a teleology known in Christian experience of redemption.     

Philosophy of Religion or Philosophical Theology?

Books reviewed in this article:
Alvin Plantinga Warranted Christian Belief
Bruce Marshall Trinity and Truth     

The Play’s the Thing: Improvisation in Group Psychotherapy

Study of improvisational theater suggests practices that can help us respond more fully in a therapeutic way. Improvisation is a powerful tool that emphasizes present-centered awareness and spontaneity. It helps us respond effectively to present moment processes, a key requirement for psychodynamic group psychotherapy. It enhances our ability to communicate with our patients when traditional interventions fail. Improvisation requires a readiness to play and a willingness to be open to the challenges of non-rational modes of relating. This article provides clinical examples of improvised group interventions.     

Kuhn’s Legacy: Theoretical and Philosophical Study of History

This paper considers the legacy of Kuhn and his Structure with regard to the current history and philosophy of science. Kuhn can be seen as a myth breaker, whose contribution is the way he connected historical and philosophical studies of science, questioning the cumulativist image and demanding historical responsibility of the views of science. I build on Kuhn’s legacy and outline a suggestion for theoretical and philosophical study of history (of science), which can be subdivided into three categories. The first is the philosophical analysis of historical interpretation and its relation to the historical record. The second is ‘theoretical history’ in which one tries to infer philosophically relevant interpretations on the nature of science on the basis of historical evidence. The third is the conceptual reflection of the assumptions and implications of the contemporary historiography of science. At the end I suggest that theoretical and philosophical study of history offers a fresh way to make history and philosophy relevant to each other.     

Children’s orientation judgments: Retinally or environmentally determined?

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - Children between the ages of 3 and 9 years judged the uprightness of pictures of realistic figures under three conditions: tilt of the visual surround,...     

Pursuing Franklin’s Dream: Philosophical and Historical Roots of Service-Learning

Two decades ago service-learning as an innovation lingered on the periphery of the academy. Today, service-learning has spread across American higher education. Few educational innovations have achieved such relatively rapid success. This article describes the historical and philosophical underpinnings of service-learning. It notes some of the significant debates that have occurred among its practitioners. The authors draw from experience at their university, the University of Pennsylvania, to describe the importance of connecting service-learning to the core educational and civic missions of a college or university, as well as to provide a case study of how that connection might be made.     

Charles Rycroft’s Contribution to Contemporary Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Charles Rycroft played a significant part in gaining psychoanalysis understanding and intellectual acceptance within the wider intellectual community of post-war Britain. However he became gradually disaffected with the schisms and inward-looking character of UK psychoanalysis in its post-controversial discussions phase. He was ahead of his time in his interest in psychoanalysis as semantics, links between psychoanalysis and evolutionary and attachment theories, literary resonances with psychoanalytic thinking, and of the role of support as well as interpretation as a mutative agent. Renewed interest in his writings is long overdue.     

The world’s continuance: divine conservation or existential inertia?

According to the Doctrine of Divine Conservation, the world could not endure through time were God not actively sustaining its existence. An alternative to the conservationist view is one according to which the existence of whatever is the fundamental material of our universe is characterized by inertia, so that its continuance stands in no need of active causal intervention by some other being. In this article I develop in some detail the Doctrine of Existential Inertia and reply to some of the objections brought against it by conservationists.     

Psychotherapy Appointment No-Shows: Clinicians’ Approaches

Missed psychotherapy appointments and eleventh hour cancellations contribute to financial burdens, reduced scheduling efficiency, and lowered effectiveness of the therapeutic services delivered. This paper attempts to explore more specific clinical process factors related to patient no-shows. Psychotherapists and their patients in the outpatient psychiatry department of a public safety-net hospital were surveyed to examine how frequently patients missed scheduled psychotherapy appointments and for what reasons. Clinicians with the lowest rates of patient no-shows (n = 12) were asked to discuss their approaches to psychotherapy attendance and provided clinical examples. Clinicians’ responses were thematically grouped into five aspects of negotiating missed appointments and no-shows. Clinicians identified the importance of improving patient motivation, developing a positive therapeutic alliance, setting an established treatment frame, communicating about no-shows throughout the course of treatment, and maintaining their own scheduling accountability as important factors in their approaches to managing patient non-attendance.     

The Methodology of Philosophical Practice: Eclecticism and/or Integrativeness?

Philosophia - The need for philosophical practice to integrate various methods, both conceptual and those based on the use of emotions, raises the question as to whether its methodology is...     

Canada’s Same-Sex Marriage Law: Exception to or Exemplar of Canada’s Family Policy?

Family policy in Canada is primarily concerned with assisting parents raise their children. This fairly singular approach to family policy is ironic given that Canada does not have a nationally-coordinated family policy. The development of a national family policy has been hampered by Canada’s decentralized governmental structure (i.e., federal and provincial, as well as territorial, governments) and other factors such as diverse geography and different traditions (e.g., a tradition of common law in English Canada, and civil law in Quebec). A recent addition to Canada’s family policy is Bill C-38, The Civil Marriage Act (2005), the law legalizing same-sex marriage. To put Canada’s same-sex marriage law into context, this article presents some preliminary statistics about same-sex marriage in Canada, and considers whether same-sex marriage legislation is a good example of Canadian family policy, or an exception to the rule that Canadian family policy focuses primarily on helping parents socialize their children.