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31Absolute Knowledge and the Problem of Systematic Completeness in Hegel’s PhilosophyDissertation, Northwestern University. 1981.As an important corollary of this interpretation of absolute knowledge, the dissertation concludes with the suggestion that Hegelian philosophy need not be regarded merely as an interesting curiosity in the history of ideas, but rather that it can serve as a vital and potentially rewarding source of fresh theoretical insights. ;Instead, the concrete completeness of speculative philosophy can only consist in the activity of a dynamical, ceaselessly self-examining and self-regulating intellectual …Read more
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15The paradox of cognitive relativism revisited: A reply to jack w. MeilandMetaphilosophy 15 (3-4): 157-171. 1984.EDITORS NOTE: Typographical corrections of page proofs were accidentally left out of Dr. Beach's article, which appeared in the January issue of this volume. The omission diminishes the value of the article; and the Editor apologizes for the oversight to Dr. Beach and the readers of Metaphilosophy. A typographically correct version is given below.
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96Hegel’s Misunderstood Treatment of Gauss in the Science of LogicIdealistic Studies 36 (3): 191-218. 2006.This essay explores Hegel’s treatment of Carl Friedrich Gauss’s mathematical discoveries as examples of “Analytic Cognition.” Unfortunately, Hegel’s main point has been virtually lost due to an editorial blunder tracing back almost a century, an error that has been perpetuated in many subsequent editions and translations.The paper accordingly has three sections. In the first, I expose the mistake and trace its pervasive influence in multiple languages and editions of the Wissenschaft der Logik. …Read more
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52The Later Schelling’s Conception of Dialectical Method, in Contradistinction to Hegel’sThe Owl of Minerva 22 (1): 35-54. 1990.Schelling is best known in the Anglo-American philosophical community for work he did in his twenties, between 1797 and 1803. During this time, he appropriated Fichte’s standpoint of transcendental idealism and developed some of its implications for the philosophies of nature, history, and art. Schelling did not claim at this stage to be formulating an original standpoint of his own, but simply to be extending the Fichtean principles in new directions. In this endeavor he was quite successful, a…Read more
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16The Potencies of God(S): Schelling's Philosophy of MythologyState University of New York Press. 1994._Explores the metaphysical, epistemological, and hermeneutical theories of Schelling’s final system concerning the nature and meaning of religious mythology._
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15The paradox of cognitive relativism revisited: A reply to jack w. MeilandMetaphilosophy 15 (3-4): 157-171. 1984.EDITORS NOTE: Typographical corrections of page proofs were accidentally left out of Dr. Beach's article, which appeared in the January issue of this volume. The omission diminishes the value of the article; and the Editor apologizes for the oversight to Dr. Beach and the readers of Metaphilosophy. A typographically correct version is given below.
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1Schelling's Philosophy of Mythology: A Critical AnalysisDissertation, Stanford University. 1988.This monograph explores the metaphysical and hermeneutical principles underlying Schelling's final system concerning the nature of religious mythology. This system was worked out in the last two decades of his life and delivered in a series of lectures in Berlin between 1841 and 1846. Treatment of this topic requires a combination of methodological approaches--hermeneutical, historical, and philosophical, but my primary emphasis is on the philosophy. I give a detailed analysis of Schelling's "Po…Read more
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52The Potencies of God(S): Schelling's Philosophy of MythologyState University of New York Press. 1994.Explores the metaphysical, epistemological, and hermeneutical theories of Schelling’s final system concerning the nature and meaning of religious mythology
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49The paradox of cognitive relativism revisited: A reply to jack W. MeilandMetaphilosophy 15 (1). 1984.EDITORS NOTE: Typographical corrections of page proofs were accidentally left out of Dr. Beach's article, which appeared in the January issue of this volume. The omission diminishes the value of the article; and the Editor apologizes for the oversight to Dr. Beach and the readers of Metaphilosophy. A typographically correct version is given below
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73The postulate of immortality in Kant: To what extent is it culturally conditioned?Philosophy East and West 58 (4). 2008.Kant's noncognitive argument based on practical reason claims that moral considerations alone suffice to justify the idea of personal immortality as a postulate. Some recent objections are considered here that have charged him with overstepping his own distinction between phenomenon and noumenon. After examining the arguments, Kant is exonerated of having violated his own principles. More troubling, however, is the peculiarity involved in postulating an infinite progression toward a goal whose a…Read more
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42Hegel’s Mediated ImmediaciesThe Owl of Minerva 42 (1-2): 153-217. 2010.Dieter Henrich has presented persuasive evidence that Hegel’s logic does not, in practice, provide a linear deduction of logical categories, but rather borrows thought-forms proper to subsequent stages in order to effect its dialectical transitions. In reply, I argue that the presented order of the categories is already implicitly sublated by a deep structure of circularity that determines the development. Thus, Hegel’s dialectic is deliberately nonlinear in terms of both its content and its met…Read more
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