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22Tools, Machines and MarvelsRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 38 159-176. 1995.Technology, according to Derry and Williams's Short History, ‘comprises all that bewilderingly varied body of knowledge and devices by which man progressively masters his natural environment’. Their casual, and unconscious, sexism is not unrelated to my present topic. Women enter the story as spinners, burden bearers and, at long last, typists. ‘The tying of a bundle on the back or the dragging of it along upon the outspread twigs of a convenient branch are contributions [and by implication the …Read more
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21Berkeley on religionIn Kenneth P. Winkler (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Berkeley, Cambridge University Press. 2005.
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21The Better PartRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 35 29-49. 1993.According to Aristotle, the goal of anyone who is not simply stupid or slavish is to live a worthwhile life. There are, no doubt, people who have no goal at all beyond the moment's pleasure or release from pain. There may be people incapable of reaching any reasoned decision about what to do, and acting on it. But anyone who asks how she should live implicitly agrees that her goal is to live well, to live a life that she can think worth living. That goal, eudaimonia, is something that is sought …Read more
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20Living the Pyrrhonian Way1In S. Campbell & P. Bruno (eds.), The Science, Politics, and Ontology of Life-Philosophy, Bloomsbury Academic. 2013.
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19Tools, Machines and MarvelsRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 38 159-176. 1995.Technology, according to Derry and Williams's Short History, ‘comprises all that bewilderingly varied body of knowledge and devices by which man progressively masters his natural environment’. Their casual, and unconscious, sexism is not unrelated to my present topic. Women enter the story as spinners, burden bearers and, at long last, typists. ‘The tying of a bundle on the back or the dragging of it along upon the outspread twigs of a convenient branch are contributions [and by implication the …Read more
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19The verge of philosophy . By John Sallis. University of chicago press: Chicago, 2007. 144 pp (review)Philosophy 84 (1): 156-158. 2009.
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19Ancient Mediterranean Philosophy: An IntroductionContinuum. 2013.In composing this study of 'Ancient Mediterranean Philosophy', I have chosen to draw attention to other philosophical traditions than the Classical Greek and Latin , although we know much less about them. My working assumption is that ...
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19How Chesterton read historyInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 39 (3 & 4). 1996.Chesterton was a serious and even excellent philosopher, whose reputation has suffered because his style was so striking, and his conversion to Catholicism so unpopular with Whiggish Britons. He had many ?politically incorrect? opinions, but those ?faults? were symptoms of a greater virtue, his insistence that ?the whole object of history is to make us realize that humanity can be great and glorious, under conditions quite different and even contrary to our own?. His desire for a United Europe w…Read more
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19Deference, degree and selfhoodPhilosophy 80 (2): 249-260. 2005.The world we lost, and now barely understand, was one where everyone knew her place, and her attendant duties. Civilized groups were the likeliest to insist on a diversity of rôle and rule. Primitive societies are ones where there are rather fewer such distinctions. Slaves and merchants offered a way of being outside the orders, and from the older point of view, the life of slaves and merchants is exactly what the ‘liberal’ ideal entails. No one can count on her connections; everything is up for…Read more
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18On Wishing There Were UnicornsProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 90. 1990.Stephen R. L. Clark; XIV*—On Wishing there were Unicorns, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 90, Issue 1, 1 June 1990, Pages 247–266, https://doi.o.
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18Philosophic Silence and the 'One' in Plotinus by Nicholas BannerJournal of the History of Philosophy 57 (3): 554-555. 2019.The principle that is, for Plotinus, both origin and goal of all things is labelled, for convenience, the One, or—equivalently—the Good. Plotinus is clear that even these titles may be misleading, since this principle is not one thing among many, nor can we even truly say that it exists. Nothing that we can say of it is really true, and we cannot ever strictly know or understand it. It must seem to follow that, having nothing true to say of it, nor any way of grasping its nature, we had better s…Read more
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17Class Ideology and Ancient Political Theory, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in Social ContextPhilosophical Quarterly 30 (120): 276-278. 1980.
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17The Limits of Explanation: Limited ExplanationsRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 27 195-210. 1990.When I was first approached to read a paper at the conference from which this volume takes its beginning I expected that Flint Schier, with whom I had taught a course on the Philosophy of Biology in my years at Glasgow, would be with us to comment and to criticize. I cannot let this occasion pass without expressing once again my own sense of loss. I am sure that we would all have gained by his presence, and hope that he would find things both to approve, and disapprove, in the following venture.
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17The Aristotelian Ethics: A Study of the Relationship between the Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics of AristotlePhilosophical Quarterly 29 (117): 356-358. 1979.
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17Thinking About How and Why to ThinkPhilosophy 71 (277): 385-403. 1996.1. Believing Enough to ThinkThe Scottish system of university education requires most aspirants to an Ordinary Degree to study some philosophy. Philosophers in Scottish Universities must therefore contend with enormous first-year classes, stocked with youngsters who have little real desire to be philosophers, or even to philosophize. Some years ago, at Glasgow, a question in the final exam was as follows: ‘“Philosophy is of no use, and so should not be studied.” Discuss’. A couple of hundred stu…Read more
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16Platonists and ParticipationRevista Portuguesa de Filosofia 71 (2-3): 249-266. 2015.Resumo O autor começará por examinar a noção de participação, tal como é aplicada por Platão, primeiro à distinção gramatical entre identidade e predicação e depois às questões metafísicas acerca de sujeitos reais, sendo eles indivíduos contáveis, de um “material” subjacente, ou Formas que aparecem mais ou menos reconhecíveis na nossa experiência. Mesmo os materialistas modernos admitem uma distinção entre a realidade tal como ela “é” e tal como “aparece”. Surge então a questão, mais ainda para …Read more
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14God and Greek Philosophy; The Philosophy in Christianity (review)Ancient Philosophy 13 (1): 255-258. 1993.
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14Money, obedience, and affection: essays on Berkeley's moral and political thought (edited book)Garland. 1989.This book, first published in 1985, presents a key collection of essays on Berkeley's moral and political philosophy. They form an introduction to, and analysis of, Berkeley's immaterialist arguments, part of his consciously adopted strategy to subvert Enlightenment thought, which he saw as a danger to civil society.
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14Value Judgments: How to Reason About Value JudgmentsRoyal Institute of Philosophy Lectures 24 173-190. 1988.When opinion polls are conducted on some urgent matter of the day those polled are permitted to declare themselves ‘Don't Knows’. It is usually a minority who are so ill-disposed as to forget their civic duty to have an opinion on each and every subject, and they can usually expect to be rebuked as fence-sitters or slugabeds. People confronted by the demand that they take sides can generally produce a ‘view’ which they maintain against all-comers without the slightest attempt to seek out confirm…Read more
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University of BristolHonorary Research Fellow
Liverpool, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
Philosophical Traditions |