In the Shadow of Gillian Rose: Truth as Education in the Hegelian Philosophy of Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams, ex-Archbishop of Canterbury (2002–2012), is a polymath of remarkable breadth and depth. But there remains at least one area in which his philosophical work has gone relatively unacknowledged and that is his view of education. My aim here is to explore a philosophically nuanced notion of truth as education in his work by examining its indebtedness to Hegel, and the recent Hegelianism of Gillian Rose. I argue that not only does a radical re-reading of the negative by Williams shape a formidable social and political critique but that therein the question of the Absolute is renewed in and for our time as one of learning.     

Scientific whaling and how philosophy of science can help break the international deadlock

Despite widespread public interest on the topic of whaling, there is at present relatively little work on how philosophy might contribute to analysis of the status of whaling in international law. When philosophers have looked at the topic of whaling, they have confined their attention to a fairly narrow set of ethical questions, such as whether international law should permit certain forms of traditional indigenous whaling or extend legal rights to whales themselves. However, there is another important issue which has so far been largely neglected by philosophy, even though it is at the forefront of current international legal disputes over the status of whaling: the issue of so-called ‘scientific whaling’. This article considers the international legal dispute between Australia, New Zealand and Japan over the latter’s lethal harvesting of whales in the Southern Ocean, and the recent attempt at resolution by the International Court of Justice. On its face, this required that the Court demarcate ‘scientific’ from ‘unscientific’ activity; however, it effectively baulked at this task. The authors argue that this approach of the Court was unfortunate, and that demarcating science from commerce is not only achievable in philosophy, but might also inform international legal practice. Resolving this issue is important for genuine progress to be made in the current international stand-off over Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean.     

The reader of confession in María Zambrano

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is an attempt to understand the concept of ‘confession’ as a literary genre in the works of Spanish philosopher María Zambrano. Firstly, we will try to understand confession within Zambrano's most relevant philosophical concepts, in particular her study La confesión: género literario y método [Confession. Literary Genre and Method]. Secondly, we will offer reinterpretation to confession in dialogue with theories of Reception by Wolfgang Iser and Hans Robert Jauss, and other authors like St. Agustin, Rosa Chacel, Mikhail Bakhtin, Miguel de Unamuno and Michel Foucault. Finally we will highlight the performative aspect of confession as something that is truly relevant to Zambrano’s theory. Zambrano understands confession as a method that can bring people's experiences closer to knowledge, and therefore a method that can change life. In this context, we propose that the reader of confession plays a fundamental role in understanding Zambrano’s conception.     

Philosophy of archaeology: Current issues

Recent literature reflects continuing concern with problems such as explanation, skepticism, and objective knowledge. Some authors urge archaeologists to abandon positivism in favor of new philosophical approaches, such as feminism, Marxism, hermeneutics, and critical theory. Ethical issues have received increased attention as archaeologists have become involved in determining public policy with regard to disposition of artifacts and uncovering of human burials.     

From Oblivion to Post-History: Sublime Othering in Rider Haggard and W. E. B. Du Bois

This article addresses the ways in which art and philosophy have been discursively used to conceptualize critical political changes and frame narratives of liberation by including and excluding primitive consciousness simultaneously. More concretely, it analyzes the contribution of art and philosophy to the understanding of history and post-history through different representations of black bodies, black desires, and black agencies in the novels She (1886) by Rider Haggard and The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911) by W. E. B. Du Bois. At stake is the question of the archeology of the past as a living memory in the post-historical time. This past is politically relevant especially if its cognitive fossils negate the idea of exhausted primitive consciousness in the modern world and give meanings to incongruous bedfellows such as civilization and slavery, neoliberalism and poverty, democracy and Nazism, globalization, terrorism and racism, liberalism and homophobia. Arguably, the triumph of scientific ideas has left us with a perpetual quest for liberation rather than the actualization of liberation as a world phenomenon. I hypothesize the relation between exhaustible elements of technical consciousness simulating progress and their inexhaustible materiality at critical historical junctures as a struggle for taste and self-determination. Critical in this relation is the sense that not only primitive stages of consciousness are never fully exhausted at historical junctures, but that one never comes close to thinking about genuine liberation without engaging with real world matters both domestic/intimate and foreign.     

Staging an encounter between anthropology and philosophy: Hits and misses in the work of Michael Jackson

This review essay assesses Michael Jackson’s ongoing project of staging an encounter between anthropology and philosophy in two books: Lifeworlds (2013) and As Wide as the World Is Wise (2016). Considering his philosophical enrichment of ethnographic theory and method, this essay addresses foundational questions about the prospects and practices of interdisciplinary engagement. It also suggests future avenues for continued dialogue between philosophy and anthropology.     

Cesare Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments: the meaning and genesis of a jurispolitical pamphlet

At the heart of the criminal reform proposed in Cesare Beccaria’s 1764 Dei delitti e delle pene (On Crimes and Punishments) are the principles of penal parsimony derived from a precise interpretation of the social contract. Punishment, being no more than a necessary evil devoid of any intrinsic virtue, must serve no more than a preventative function to the smallest possible extent; its application strictly bound by the principle of legality. Beccaria’s criminal philosophy, therefore, attempts to drastically reduce the power of the penal institution. After recounting its principal aspects, this article seeks to propose a new interpretation of Beccaria’s theory from the perspective of its historical context. The Italian Enlightenment philosopher did not so much express indignation against the barbarism of the Milanese penal system, but rather instigate a rebellion against the political dominance of its patriciate, whose power had long been validated by its juridical functions. In this respect, Beccaria sought to combat the political hegemony of the jurists, concluding his treatise by excluding juridical thought from, and thus removing the intellectual foundations of, the practice of criminal law.     

Clarifying divine discourse in early modern science: divinity,physico-theology,and divine metaphysics in Isaac Newton’s chymistry

Isaac Newton, like many of his contemporaries, appears to have distinguished between the practice of divinity, founded on divine revelation, and philosophical considerations of God derived from the study of nature. This article evaluates these distinct modes of divine discourse through a close reading of the chymical content of Newton’s optical writings and his correspondence with Thomas Burnet regarding Genesis. Newton’s chymical exploration of divine activity in the natural world in Query 31 to the Opticks (1704) seems independent from Scripture in its physico-theological demonstration of God from natural phenomena and its divine metaphysical reliance on a priori concepts of God to establish principles of nature. Nonetheless, the sensorium analogy by which he explored divine agency in nature drew directly from the biblical doctrine of the imago Dei. Moreover, Newton used his chymical understanding of nature to access the natural-philosophical realities behind the accommodated words of the Mosaic creation account.     

《历史》与命运:希罗多德命运观初探

对人类命运的关注是希罗多德《历史》最突出的主题。这个主题的形成与他所处的时代氛围密切相关。古希腊自然哲学直接启发了希罗多德对命运的思考,史诗和悲剧更进一步促成了他对人类命运的关注和同情。希罗多德敏锐地把握到了命运的变化无常,作品着力于人物命运的书写,传达了历史的变易意识。命运对希罗多德而言,既是变化不定、不可把握和预测的,又是命中注定、无从逃脱的,一切生灭变化导致了命运的无常,命运本身就是变化,就是无常,无常是命运的永恒特性。他对命运的思考既充满了哲学的深邃,又力显史家情怀,诗家笔法。这使得他的《历史》历久弥新,吸引着一代代的史家和普通读者。因为命运不拘何时,总是牵动着人心,人类面对的根本问题从未改变。     

传统与非传统:对石油安全的双重解读

石油安全是关系到中国发展的一项重大议题,目前对它尚存在着不同解读,但大多把它归入非传统安全范畴。石油安全不应仅仅被视为非传统安全,事实上它早已被纳入传统安全的视野。在安全议题日益复杂化的时代背景下,运用传统与非传统安全的双重视角来考察石油安全问题,无疑具有重大意义。而且,石油安全问题的解决思路集中体现了综合安全观的发展。