Rousseau's Descartes: The Rejection of Theoretical Philosophy as First Philosophy

Rousseau's Savoyard Vicar makes creative use of Descartes's meditative method by applying it to practical life. This ‘misuse’ of the Cartesian method highlights the limits of the thinking thing as a ground for morality. Taking practical philosophy as first philosophy, the Vicar finds bedrock certainty of the self as an agent in the world and of moral truths while distancing himself from Cartesian positions on the distinction, union and interaction of mind and body. Rousseau's Moral Letters harmonize with the Vicar's view. Descartes would reject the Vicar's appropriation, as real-life problems cannot wait on meditation to answer them.     

Women Philosophers in the Ancient Greek World: Donning the Mantle

This paper argues that there were women involved with philosophy on a fairly constant basis throughout Greek antiquity. It does so by tracing the lives and where extant the writings of these women. However, since the sources, both ancient and modern, from which we derive our knowledge about these women are so sexist and easily distort our view of these women and their accomplishments, the paper also discusses the manner in which their histories come down to us as well as the histories themselves. It discusses in detail the following women: the Pythagorean women philosophers of the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., Aspasia and Diotima of the 5th century B.C., Arete, Hipparchia, Pamphile and the women Epicureans—all from the 4th century B.C. the five logician daughters of a famous Stoic philosopher of the 3rd century B.C., and finally Hypatia who lived in the 4th century A.D.     

Entitlement in Gutting's Epistemology of Philosophy: Comments on What Philosophers Know

In What Philosophers Know, Gary Gutting provides an epistemology of philosophical reflection. This paper focuses on the roles that various intuitive inputs are said to play in philosophical thought. Gutting argues that philosophers are defeasibly entitled to believe some of these, prior to the outcome of the philosophical reflection, and that they then rightly serve as significant (again defeasible) anchors on reflection. This paper develops a view of epistemic entitlement and applies it to argue that many prephilosophical convictions of the kind Gutting discusses would be just the sort of belief for which entitlement would plausibly be defeated from the start. They then could not properly play the role in philosophical reflection that Gutting envisions for them.     

Defusing the Objectification of Women by Other Women: The Role of Competence

This study provides empirical evidence that the objectification of women by other women can be attenuated by drawing attention to their competence. Primarily European American female undergraduate participants (N?=?154) from the Midwestern part of the United States rated photographs of college-aged female models dressed provocatively a) standing against a plain background (control condition), b) showing athletic competence (standing near a swimming pool holding a trophy), and c) showing academic competence (solving a math problem on a whiteboard). Results showed that compared to the control condition, the models showing competence were rated lower on objectification variables and higher on capability variables regardless of their provocative manner of dress.     

The First Professor of Biblical Philosophy

The notion of a particular is what makes the Bible (the reference is to the Hebrew Scriptures) an original position in philosophy. (Particulars are self-contained spatio-temporal entities, and hence, though present in the system that is nature, are not essentially parts of it.) The early chapters of Genesis develop a comprehensive (anti-pagan) conceptualization of reality that gives particularity its due. Whether particularity can be secured without a fully extra-natural anchorage (i.e., without God) is a live issue. As the case may be, the philosophy of the Bible is not a footnote, not even a substantial footnote, to Plato. Plato’s metaphysical discourse cannot handle the particular. An irreducibly different, ontological, discourse is needed for that. Having conceived the new notion (the act of conception is dramatized in the theophany of Genesis 12), Abraham, the philosopher of the paper’s title, ‘called…on the name of the Lord’ (Genesis 21:33) to the men and women of the world. The particularity of God, I explain, not God’s numerical uniqueness, is the essence of monotheism.     

The Role of Philosophy in Academic Ethics

This paper seeks to provide some of the roles of philosophy in the field of academic ethics.     

Moral Philosophers as Ethical Engineers: Limits of Moral Philosophy and a Pragmatist Alternative

Ever since Kant, moral philosophers have been more or less animated by the mission of discovering inescapable law‐like rules that would provide a binding justification for morality. Recently, however, many have started to question (a) whether this is possible and (b) what, after all, this project could achieve. An alternative vision of the task of moral philosophy starts from the pragmatist idea that philosophizing begins and ends in human experiencing. It leads to a view where morality is seen as a “social technology” that aims to make living together possible, and strengthens people's capability to live a good life within a society. The role of moral philosophy is, accordingly, to develop our moral tools further. Moral philosophers become ethical engineers who use their expertise in ethical topics to criticize existing “moral technology” and construct new concepts, tools, and theories that better answer the current challenges for living a good life.     

Of Waters and Women: The Philosophy of Luce Irigaray

This article reviews three recent books that enhance our understanding of the work of French feminist Luce Irigaray: Marine Lover of Friedrich Nietzsche and The Irigaray Reader (both by Irigaray), and Philosophy in the Feminine, a commentary on Irigaray's work by Margaret Whitford. The author emphasizes a dynamic reading of Irigaray's philosophy and integrates theoretical concepts with poetic/utopian passages from the works.     

The Academic Interests of College Women: A Factorial Study

The extent to which college programs meet the needs and goals of women students has not been established. In this study, a sample of students and alumnae of the College of Home Economics, Iowa State University, responded to a set of attitude scales concerning their reactions to courses in their core curriculum. Factor analysis of the person-course interactions revealed 6 factors which were tentatively defined in terms of the courses loading most heavily on each. Implications for improved educational planning of women are discussed.     

The Developmental Mentoring Relationship Between Academic Women

This exploratory study focused on the needs and attributes that female doctoral students, during their academic and professional careers, seek in mentoring relationships with female faculty. Two domains—personal and professional—were identified as essential components in the developmental mentoring relationship. As a result, the Rheineck Mentoring Model was created.     

Being a Black Woman Philosopher: Reflections on Founding the Collegium of Black Women Philosophers

Although the American Philosophical Association has more than 11,000 members, there are still fewer than 125 Black philosophers in the United States, including fewer than thirty Black women holding a PhD in philosophy and working in a philosophy department in the academy. 1 The following is a “musing” about how I became one of them and how I have sought to create a positive philosophical space for all of us.     

我是如何研究罗尔斯的?

我觉得,我们现在这个学术活动应该包含两方面内容,一是我们研究室成员有价值的、有一定原创性的最新研究成果,二是取得这种成果的研究心得、经验和方法。搞现代西方哲学研究,说难很难,说容易也很容易。记得我念研究生和刚毕业的时候,我们那一批人的气势真是春风得意、所向披靡,因为“现外”是_片未开垦的处女地,只要你外语好、头脑灵活,一搞一个准,我们纷纷跑马占地,先下手为王。