Once More Unto the Breach,My Dear Friends,Once More

Philosophical Studies -     

Once More into the Breach of Self-Ownership: Reply to Narveson and Brenkert

In reply to Narveson, I distinguish his no-proviso argument from his liberty argument, and I show that both fail. I also argue that interference lacks the strategic status he assigns to it, because it cannot be appropriately distinguished, conceptually and morally, from prevention; that natural resources do enjoy the importance he denies they have; that laissez-faire economies lack the superiority he attributes to them; that ownership can indeed be a reflexive relation; that anti-paternalism does not entail libertarianism; and that he misrepresents the doctrines of a number of philosophers, including John Locke, Ronald Dworkin, and myself. In reply to Brenkert, I show that he seriously misconstrues my view of the nature of freedom, and of its relationship to self-ownership. I then refute his criticisms of my treatment of the contrasts between self-ownership, on the one hand, and autonomy and non-slavery, on the other. I also show that his attempt to exorcize the demon of self-ownership is multiply flawed.     

Once More Unto the Breach: Type B Physicalism,Phenomenal Concepts,and the Epistemic Gap

Type B, or a posteriori, physicalism is the view that phenomenal-physical identity statements can be necessarily true, even though they cannot be known a priori—and that the key to understanding their status is to understand the special features of our phenomenal concepts, those concepts of our experiential states acquired through introspection. This view was once regarded as a promising response to anti-physicalist arguments that maintain that an epistemic gap between phenomenal and physical concepts entails that phenomenal and physical properties are distinct. More recently, however, many physicalists have lost confidence in the view, and have proposed less promising defences of physicalism—or have become outright sceptical about its prospects. I argue here that these physicalists have underestimated the resources of Type B physicalism and are thereby retreating too quickly—or fighting battles that have already been won.     

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Books reviewed in this article:
Jonathan G. Campbell, Deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls , Second Edition
Tina Beattie, God's Mother, Eve's Advocate: A Marian Narrative of Women's Salvation     

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Re-issues reviewed:
Jaroslav Pelikan, Mary through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture
W. Cantwell Smith, Patterns of Faith around the World     

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Short notices of reissued books:
Paul Dundas, The Jains, Second Edition
Mary Pat Fisher, Religions Today: An Introduction
Richard B. Hays, The Faith of Jesus Christ: The Narrative Substructure of Galatians 3:1–4:11, Second Edition
D. Moody Smith, John Among the Gospels Second Edition
Vincent L. Wimbush and Richard Valantasis (eds), Asceticism     

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Short notices of reissued books:
Paul F. Bradshaw, The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship: Sources and Methods for the Study of Early Liturgy , Second Edition
Paul D. Hanson, The People Called: The Growth of Community in the Bible
Walter Brueggemann, The Bible Makes Sense , Revised Edition with a New Introduction
Richard N. Soulen and R. Kendall Soulen, Handbook of Biblical Criticism , Third Edition
Douglas Stuart, Old Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors , Third Edition
Stanley Hauerwas, Wilderness Wanderings: Probing Twentieth–Century Theology and Philosophy
David Weiss Halivni, Revelation Restored: Divine Writ and Critical Responses
Sallie McFague, Speaking in Parables
Frances Young, The Making of the Creeds
Karl Barth, Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century: Its Background and History , New Edition
John Macquarrie, Twentieth–Century Religious Thought , Fifth Edition
Patrick Sherry, Spirit and Beauty: An Introduction to Theological Aesthetics , Second Edition
Douglas J. Davies, Death, Ritual and Belief: The Rhetoric of Funerary Rites , Second Edition     

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Short notices of reissued books:
Walter Brueggemann, A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming.
Owen Chadwick, Michael Ramsey: A Life.
Julius Lipner, Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices.
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer.
William J. O'Malley, S.J., Meeting the Living God     

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Books reviewed:
Bernhard W. Anderson with Stephen Bishop, Out of the Depths
Stephen Pattison, A Critique of Pastoral Care
Ninian Smart, World Philosophies
Padmasiri de Silva, An Introduction to Buddhist Psychology     

Value and Obligation Once More

In Understanding Moral Obligation (2012), Robert Stern sets out to provide a fresh interpretation of the role of autonomy in Kant's moral philosophy and attempts to rectify J. B. Schneewind's standard account in The Invention of Autonomy (1998). While Stern agrees that Kant's resort to autonomy is at the basis of a constructivist account of moral obligation, he claims that autonomy plays no role in Kant's theory of value, such that, in this respect, Kant remains a realist. Accordingly, Stern characterizes Kant's moral philosophy as a “hybrid” view because he sees it as involving a compromise between realism with regard to value and constructivism with regard to obligation. Stern's interpretation relies on a sharp distinction between value and obligation. The purpose of the present article is to question Stern's reliance on that rigid distinction, which involves intermixing theoretical and practical reason and assumes a distorted view of human agency.     

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Short notices of reissued books:
John J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature
Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking and Pieter W. van der Horst (eds), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
Carol P. Christ, Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality
Judith R. Baskin (ed.), Jewish Women in Historical Perspective
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, The Book of Revelation: Justice and Judgment
Richard N. Longenecker, Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period
Kenneth E. Kirk, Conscience and Its Problems: An Introduction to Casuistry
Gerard Loughlin, Telling God's Story: Bible, Church and Narrative Theology
Judith Taylor Gold, Monsters and Madonnas: The Roots of Christian Anti-Semitism, revised edition     

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Adrian Hastings, A History of English Christianity 1920–2000
Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, The Lion Christian Quotation Collection
Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, The Lion Christian Meditation Collection
Gerald Bonner, St Augustine of Hippo: Life and Controversies     

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Books reviewed: Graham Ward, Theology and Contemporary Literary Theory Raymund Schwager S.J., Must there be Scapegoats? Violence and Redemption in the Bible René Latourelle and Rino Fisichella (eds), Dictionary of Fundamental Theology H. R. Mackintosh, The Person of Jesus Christ     

The Kant and Race Debate: A Frederick Douglass Intervention

Samuel Fleischacker is interested in two questions that are—what he refers to as—a rephrasing of three implications Charles Mills takes away from his encounter with Kant: (1) Is Kant's moral philosophy racist at its core? and (2) Whether it is or not, how should we respond to the fact that Kant displays open racism in some of his writings when we study, teach, or try to make use of his purportedly egalitarian teachings? Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist who wrestled with similar questions regarding the liberatory and inclusive nature of emancipatory documents like the Constitution. In this essay, I want to consider Douglass's changing views on this issue and reasons behind them to think about how he might offer insights into this current debate concerning Kant and race. In doing so, I will consider to what extent Fleischacker adheres to Douglass's guidelines on this matter as he makes his case. I then offer suggestions on how to move forward.     

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Short notices of reissued books:
J. Philip Wogaman, Christian Perspectives on Politics
J. Philip Wogaman, Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction
J. Philip Wogaman and Douglas M. Strong (eds), Readings in Christian Ethics: A Historical Sourcebook     

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Books reviewed:
Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices
Maryanne Dunn and Linda Kay Davidson (eds), The Pilgrimage to Compostela in the Middle Ages
D. Bruce Hindmarsh, John Newton and the English Evangelical Tradition: Between the Conversions of Wesley and Wilberforce
George Guiver CR, Company of Voices: Daily Prayer and the People of God     

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Short notices of reissued books:
Gwilym Beckerlegge (ed.), The World Religions Reader
Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow
W. Y. Evans-Wentz (ed.), The Tibetan Book of the Dead
Andrew Rippin, Muslims, their Religious Beliefs and Practices
Robert L. Short, The Gospel According to Peanuts
Sharon D. Welch, A Feminist Ethic of Risk,
Brian Martin, John Henry Newman: His Life and Work     

Reckoning With Kant on Race*

This essay develops Kant’s theory of reform to theorize racial justice reform. I assess the function of Kant’s philosophy of race as part of his nonideal theory of justice, which offers a racist pragmatic anthropology that uses the concept of race to determine the practical effectiveness of legislative reason. His philosophy of race defends a teleological account of the natural history of the human species to fulfill the requirements of justice and assumes that certain racial groups have failed to develop their innate capacity for legislative reason. I show that we need an alternative Kantian nonideal theory of justice that demonstrates how legislative reason actualizes practical freedom. Rather than appeal to anthropology, I expand Kant’s model of public reason to advance racial justice reform under the conditions of partial compliance to the requirements of justice in a profoundly nonideal republic such as the U.S. I then showcase the promise—and limits—of the a priori ideals of citizenship and publicity for racial justice reform and introduce the new ideal of interracial civic fellowship to guide the public use of reason in nonideal circumstances.     

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Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction (3rd edition)
Alister E. McGrath, The Christian Theology Reader (2nd edition)