A Long and Consistent Life of Creating: James Krenov,Cabinetmaker and Teacher

James Krenov (1920–2009), a lifelong cabinetmaker and teacher, demonstrated and encouraged a balance of discipline and playfulness in his work and writings. He gave voice to woodworkers who objected to the commercialism of creativity. Taimi Barty, a student of Krenov, explores his physical workspaces throughout his life in an effort to understand his effectiveness in inspiring an international audience of craftspeople.     

Ethics and Intuitions

For millennia, philosophers have speculated about the origins of ethics. Recent research in evolutionary psychology and the neurosciences has shed light on that question. But this research also has normative significance. A standard way of arguing against a normative ethical theory is to show that in some circumstances the theory leads to judgments that are contrary to our common moral intuitions. If, however, these moral intuitions are the biological residue of our evolutionary history, it is not clear why we should regard them as having any normative force. Research in the neurosciences should therefore lead us to reconsider the role of intuitions in normative ethics.     

THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS

Abstract: This article seeks to explain how thought experiments work, and also the reasons why they can fail. It is divided into four sections. The first argues that thought experiments in philosophy and science should be treated together. The second examines existing accounts of thought experiments and shows why they are inadequate. The third proposes a better account of thought experiments. According to this account, a thought experimenter manipulates her worldview in accord with the “what if” questions posed by a thought experiment. When all necessary manipulations are carried through, the result is either a consistent model or a contradiction. If a consistent model is achieved, the thought experimenter can conclude that the scenario is possible; if a consistent model cannot be constructed, then the scenario is not possible. The fourth section of the article uses this account to shed light on the circumstances in which thought experiments fail.     

Ontological Epistemology: William James and the Chinese Traditional Philosophy of Experience

William James’s understanding of the concept of experience has much in common with ideas in Chinese traditional philosophy. This connection, however, has remained unexplored. Here we introduce the idea of ontological epistemology as a way to bring these important commonalities into view. By highlighting two features of the concept of experience in Chinese philosophy, we suggest that the perspectives of holism and relationism are common to both James and the Chinese tradition. With regard to the personal and impersonal characteristics of radical experience and its commensurability with Chinese philosophy, we will pay attention to the self-dissolving aspect of both. However, there are still some theoretical complexities that remain unresolved, which clearly show the possibility of further research in the comparative study of contemporary pragmatism and Chinese philosophy.     

Personal and Political Emotions in the Mind of the Diplomat

Despite growing research on the role of emotions in international relations, little work has analyzed how diplomats and decision‐makers themselves make sense of feelings generated by relationships that have both individual and state‐level implications. Do diplomats consciously experience feelings on behalf of the state? If so, how? How might individual embodied emotions affect how diplomats carry out their roles during negotiations? In the first systematic effort to address and conceptualize these questions empirically, with Henry Kissinger as a case study, we investigate the interplay between the experience of being an individual with personal emotions, on the one hand, and the practice of evaluating performative emotional cues relevant to the state, on the other. We suggest that diplomats recognize some emotional inputs as accruing not to them as individuals but to the state they represent, typically in connection with traditional diplomatic protocols and rituals that are firmly established as state‐level performances. At the same time, however, especially but not exclusively in high‐stakes negotiations involving strong personal relationships, individually embodied feelings with little‐to‐no state relevance can have significant influence on how diplomats define and pursue the national interest.     

Rawls on Human Rights: A Review Essay

In this essay, I first evaluate the conceptual analysis of human rights by Wilfried Hinsch and Markus Stepanians. Next I criticize Allen Buchanan’s claim that Rawls did not address basic human interests/capabilities theories of human nature. I argue Buchanan is doubly mistaken when he claims that John Rawls sought to avoid such theories because they are comprehensive doctrines. Then I evaluate David Reidy’s defense of Rawls, while questioning his efforts to show how Rawls’s list of human rights could be expanded. Finally, I accept James Nickel’s argument that Rawls has tied human rights too closely to intervention on their behalf. However, I reject his, and by implication Rawls’s, refusal to accept a two-tiered approach to human rights.     

Whistler’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mother</Emphasis>: Devotional Center of Male Melancholic Religion

In previous writings, I have argued that the 3-to-5-year-old boy’s emotional separation from his mother is the key experience in his development of a melancholic orientation to life (Capps, Men, religion, and melancholia: James, Otto, Jung, and Erikson, 1997) and that men’s religious proclivities (based on honor, hope, and humor) reflect this emotional separation (Capps, Male melancholia: Guilt, separation, and repressed rage, 2001). In an earlier article published in Pastoral Psychology (Capps, Leonardo’s Mona Lisa: Iconic center of male melancholic religion, 2004), I argued that Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is the iconic center of the male melancholic religion, that it displaces the Virgin Mother Mary of traditional Christianity in this regard, and that the painting aids in the difficult task of transforming melancholia into the mourning of the lost maternal object. In this article, I argue that James McNeill Whistler’s painting of his mother plays a similar role in male melancholic religion, but with an important variation: I use Ernst Troeltsch’s classic church-sect typology to show that Leonardo’s Mona Lisa is the iconic center of the churchly form of male melancholic religion, while Whistler’s mother is the devotional center of its sectarian form.

Explicating Those "Troublesome" Texts of the Creeds: The Promise of Realistic Fiction

Understanding what appear to be outdated creedal commitments can be enhanced by reading "realistic fiction." The creedal "conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary" is dramatically underscored by showing how a birth can be salvific in a sterile society as portrayed in The Children of Men by P.D. James. "The Resurrection of the Body" is underscored by miraculous healings after death in Graham Greene's The End of the Affair.     

Approaching Terra Incognita with James F. T. Bugental: An Interview and an Overview of Existential-Humanistic Psychotherapy

The purpose of this article is to report on the existential-humanistic approach to psychotherapy advanced by James F. T. Bugental. A brief biography is presented, along with an overview of the method, followed by an interview conducted with Dr. Bugental in November of 2002. Included is a discussion of key concepts such as subjectivity, presence, and the living moment. The major goals of this approach are outlined, along with suggestions and contraindications for use. Directions for future research and consideration are offered.