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The Practical PastIn The shape of the past, Oxford University Press. 1997.A distinction has long been drawn between the desire to have knowledge of the past entirely for its own sake and a more practical attitude which aims to uncover hidden meanings of relevance to the conduct of life. The idea that humanity might learn from its mistakes is an old one. The chapter also discuses views of Italian political theorist Machiavelli, and English philosopher David Hume. While it is necessary for historical narratives to be built out of fact, factuality is not a sufficient con…Read more
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The Possibility of Philosophical HistoryIn The shape of the past, Oxford University Press. 1997.This chapter is concerned with fundamental objections to the logical possibility of philosophical history. Philosophical history is a combination of two disciplines which are often conceived to be distinct. This results in the scepticism that the formulation of such a discipline is not plausible. Immanuel Kant was the most prominent philosopher who formulated the idea of a universal history. According to Kant, though, the empirical study of historical phenomena is essential to the understanding …Read more
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RecurrenceIn The shape of the past, Oxford University Press. 1997.According to the philosopher Lurcretius, ‘Some races wax and other wane’. The history of the world, at any one point in its past, has seen remarkable civilizations of which there is hardly any trace left now. The 18th-century philosophers of history J. G. Herder's views on historical recurrence are also discussed in this chapter. According to him historical discontinuity means that it is inappropriate for one culture to pass judgment on another. The belief that the past consists of discrete cult…Read more
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DeclineIn The shape of the past, Oxford University Press. 1997.The concept of decline has been a constant in the historical thinking of all societies. This chapter discusses this concept, the possible socio-psychological reasons for this concept, and the implications for the understanding of history. Though a belief in a Golden Age is often caused by and sustained by pessimism or nostalgia, it does not follow that there is no truth in such beliefs. The chapter presents some secular counterparts which also harbor same nostalgia for a remote past when everyth…Read more
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CollapseIn The shape of the past, Oxford University Press. 1997.The concept of collapse in history is one of the normative conceptions through which human past gets a shape. There is no necessary incompatibility between progress and decline, because the decline of some things can itself be interpreted as a mark of progress. This chapter provides an overview of philosophers like Alasdair MacIntyre, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Darwin on this issue. This chapter tries to illustrate through an example the differences between Christian morality and Nietzsche's conce…Read more
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4Institution of Intellectual Values: Realism and Idealism in Higher EducationImprint Academic. 2005.This is a revised and expanded version of the much praised short book _Universities: The Recovery of An Idea_. It contains chapters on the history of universities; the value of university education; the nature of research; the management and funding of universities plus additional essays on such subjects as human nature and the study of the humanities, interdisciplinary versus multidisciplinary study, information systems and the concept of a library, the prospects for e-learning, reforming unive…Read more
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1Human Nature and Social TransformationIn J. E. Katz & J. Floyd (eds.), Philosophy of Emerging Media: Understanding, Appreciation and Application, Oxford University Press. 2015.This chapter investigates the question of how a “philosophy” of emerging technologies should be conceived. Part 1 distinguishes between prediction and explanation as the end goal of such a philosophy, and explores empirical social science and idealist philosophy as alternative approaches to explanation. It uses the basic ideas of actor network theory to uncover weaknesses in both. Part 2 sets out a third possibility, namely the empirical-cum-normative philosophical method that underlies the writ…Read more
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16Mary Shepherd: a guide Mary Shepherd: a guide, by Deborah Boyle, Oxford, Oxford University Press, Oxford Guides to Philosophy, 2023, 329pp, £82.00 (hbk), ISBN: 9780190090326 (review)History of European Ideas 50 (3): 567-569. 2024.Lady Mary Shepherd is a name that is almost unknown among historians of philosophy. Thanks to Deborah Boyle and others, this is changing. Recently, a small but increasing number of scholars have be...
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Beauty, taste, rhetoric, and languageIn Aaron Garrett & James Anthony Harris (eds.), Scottish Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century, Volume I: Morals, Politics, Art, Religion, Oxford University Press. 2015.
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4Music and the Emotions: the philosophical theories By MALCOLM BUDD Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985. xiv + 190 pp. £14.95 (review)Philosophical Books 28 (2): 114-115. 2009.
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13Simon Grote, The Emergence of Modern Aesthetic Theory: Religion and Morality in Enlightenment Germany and ScotlandJournal of Scottish Philosophy 17 (3): 248-252. 2019.
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21Stephen Cowley, Rational Piety and Social Reform in Glasgow: The Life, Philosophy, and Political Economy of James MylneJournal of Scottish Philosophy 14 (2): 172-174. 2016.
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52: Stephen Buckle (ed.), Hume's Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) Cambridge University Press 2007 pp 232 + xli ISBN 0-521-60403-6 ; David Womersley (ed.), Liberty and American Experience in the Eighteenth Century, Indianapolis, Liberty Fund 2006 ISBN 0-86597-629- (review)Journal of Scottish Philosophy 5 (2): 229-230. 2007.Stephen Buckle , Hume's Enquiry concerning Human Understanding Cambridge University Press 2007 pp 232 + xli ISBN 0-521-60403-6 David Womersley , Liberty and American Experience in the Eighteenth Century, Indianapolis, Liberty Fund 2006 ISBN 0-86597-629-5
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16Review: Adam Ferguson: History, Progress and Human Nature (review)Journal of Scottish Philosophy 7 (1): 107-111. 2009.
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32Review of Jeffry H. Morrison: John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic (review)Journal of Scottish Philosophy 3 (2): 190-193. 2005.
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14David Fordyce ,The Elements of Moral Philosophy with a Brief Account of the Nature, Progress, and Origin of Philosophy, with an introduction by Thomas D. Kennedy, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2003. xvii + 212 pp. Paperback, £8.95. ISBN: 0-86597-390-3 (review)Journal of Scottish Philosophy 2 (1): 100-101. 2004.