University of Edinburgh
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1975
Greenwich Village, New York, United States of America
  •  29
    Idealism as Modernism (review)
    Dialogue 38 (3): 674-676. 1999.
    According to Robert Pippin, the standpoint of philosophical modernism claims that, with the coming of modernity—with the emergence of a disenchanted natural world as projected by modern science, a political language of rights and equality, a secular morality, a burgeoning sense of subjective consciousness, and autonomous art—the task of philosophy becomes that of providing a wholly critical and radically self-reflexive conception of reason and rationality that will demonstrate the immanent groun…Read more
  •  68
    Hegel's Ladder
    Dialogue 39 (4): 803-818. 2000.
    The goal of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit is to achieve absolute knowing. Minimally, knowing can be absolute only if it is unconditioned or unlimited; that is, only if it is not essentially contrasted with some other possible knowing—say, God's—or is not restricted such that it necessarily does not pertain to certain items—say, freedom of the will, the immortality of the soul, or God. Knowing can be absolute only if these items, appropriately interpreted, are within its scope. However, if it c…Read more
  •  39
    Constitutional Patriotism and the Problem of Violence
    Southern Journal of Philosophy 39 (S1): 97-109. 2001.
  •  16
    Benjamin's Speculative Cultural History
    Theory, Culture and Society 16 (3): 141-150. 1999.
  •  38
    Blind Intuitions: Modernism's Critique of Idealism
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 22 (6): 1069-1094. 2014.
    Adorno contends that something of what we think of knowing and rational agency operate in ways that obscure and deform unique, singular presentations by relegating them to survival-driven interests and needs; hence, in accordance with the presumptions of transcendental idealism, we have come to mistake what are, in effect, historically contingent, species-subjective ways of viewing the world for an objective understanding of the world. And further, this interested understanding of the world is d…Read more
  •  79
  •  17
    Anerkennung und Verleiblichung. Überlegungen zu Fichtes Materialismus
    In Christopher F. Zurn & Hans-Christoph Schmidt am Busch (eds.), Anerkennung, Akademie Verlag. pp. 53-90. 2009.
  •  21
    Animal research
    Journal of Medical Ethics 23 (2): 119-119. 1997.
  •  29
    Amery’s devastation and resentment an ethnographic transcendental deduction
    Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 76 (1): 5-30. 2014.
    What is the relation between philosophical categories and everyday experience? Can an effectively first-person account of an historical experience rise to the level of a philosophical argument? This essay argues that Jean Amery’s account of his sufferings under the Nazis intends to generate a justificatory argument, a transcendental deduction of sorts, for the category of ”resentment’ against its philosophical critics, most importantly, Nietzsche.
  •  36
    Jurgen Habermas' construction of a critical social theory of society grounded in communicative reason is one of the very few real philosophical inventions of recent times that demands and repays extended engagement. In this elaborate and sympathetic study which places Habermas' project in the context of critical theory as a whole past and future, J. M. Bernstein argues that despite its undoubted achievements, it contributes to the very problems of ethical dislocation and meaninglessness it aims …Read more
  •  34
    Hegel’s Hermeneutics
    Philosophical Review 107 (1): 158. 1998.
    Arguably, the most promising and compelling route to demonstrating the significance of Hegel’s thought to contemporary philosophy has been the series of recent readings that construe Hegel as continuing and completing Kant’s Copernican turn. Paul Redding explicitly locates his interpretation within this program, seeing the hermeneutic dimension of Hegel’s thought as providing for the possibility of continuing the Kantian project. Kant’s Copernican turn can be loosely stated as the procedure of r…Read more
  •  13
    Essex Kant Conference
    Hegel Bulletin 4 (1): 1-4. 1983.
  •  19
  •  2
    Melville, Herman concept of ultimate reality and meaning in'moby-dick'
    Ultimate Reality and Meaning 5 (2): 104-117. 1982.
  •  26
    This set of six volumes provide a full picture of the School by examining the important developments that have occured since the deaths of the original core of Frankfurt scholars. In particular the work of Jurgen Habermas is fully assessed.
  •  2
    Negative dialectic as fate: Adorno and Hegel
    In Tom Huhn (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Adorno, Cambridge University Press. pp. 19--50. 2004.
  •  27
    Love and Law: Hegel's Critique of Morality
    Social Research: An International Quarterly 70 (2): 393-431. 2003.
  •  214
    Animal rights v animal research: a modest proposal
    Journal of Medical Ethics 22 (5): 300-303. 1996.
    The practical problem of assuaging the opponents of animal research may be solved without formally addressing (or resolving) the underlying ethical questions of the debate. Specifically, a peaceful boycott of the "fruits" of animal research may lead to a wider cessation of such research, than, say, vocal or even violent protest. To assist those who might wish to participate in such a boycott- and, moreover, to critically inform them of the implications of their actions-1 offer a modest proposal:…Read more
  • P Hoffman's The Anatomy Of Idealism (review)
    Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain 10 54-56. 1984.
  • M Westphal's Method And Speculation In Hegel's Phenomenology (review)
    Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain 6 33-36. 1982.