Jason Costanzo

Conception Seminary College
  •  3
    On the Therapeutic Value of Contemplation
    International Journal of Philosophical Practice 7 (1): 79-88. 2021.
    In recent times, we have seen a resurgence of interest in the application of philosophy as a therapeutic for the purpose of alleviating the existential ills of human life. Within this paper, it is argued that not only can philosophy be applied as a therapeutic, but that the very act of doing philosophy is therapeutic. The paper begins with a discussion of human nature as bound to finitude and the suffering of existence. The necessity to labor along with the need for relief from labor in the form…Read more
  •  1
    On the Therapeutic Value of Contemplation
    International Journal of Philosophical Practice 1 (7): 79-88. 2021.
    In recent times, we have seen a resurgence of interest in the application of philosophy as a therapeutic for the purpose of alleviating the existential ills of human life. Within this paper, it is argued that not only can philosophy be applied as a therapeutic, but that the very act of doing philosophy is therapeutic. The paper begins with a discussion of human nature as bound to finitude and the suffering of existence. The necessity to labor along with the need for relief from labor in the form…Read more
  •  621
    Aristotle and the Classical Paradigm of Wisdom
    Philosophy International Journal 4 (3). 2021.
    The essay examines the ancient Greek origin of philosophy relative to the concept of wisdom. The nature of the sage is first considered. The sage is one who is deemed wise in his or her performances. But what is ‘wise’ about such performances? The Socratic denial of sage status is considered in reference to this. Socrates concludes that he is not wise as the gods are wise, but that he is wise insofar as he knows that he is not wise. The apparent contradiction is resolved through the distinction …Read more
  •  31
    Schopenhauer’s Interpretation of the Platonic Ideas
    International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 14 (2): 153-175. 2020.
    A contentious feature in the thought of Arthur Schopenhauer is his account of the Platonic Ideas. This is no doubt evidenced by the scholarly literature where various difficulties have been identified in regards to this introduction, and often varying positions maintained. Within this essay, I offer a survey of the major debates surrounding this issue. Following this, I turn to a specific question related to Schopenhauer’s claim that his own account of the Platonic Ideas is authentic to the orig…Read more
  •  4
    Being, Goodness and the Relation of Desirability
    Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 21 11-15. 2018.
    Within the following paper I attempt to offer a preliminary analysis and a sketch of the foundations of the scholastic notion of the convertibility of Being and the good from the perspective of its roots within Aristotle and, in particular, in relation to the view expressed within the first book of the Nichomachean Ethics, that the good is that of which all things desire. The paper thus initiates with a brief examination of the scholastic notion of the relation of convertibility, and in particul…Read more
  •  804
    Shadows of consciousness: the problem of phenomenal properties
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 14 (4): 851-865. 2014.
    The aim of this essay is to show that phenomenal properties are contentless modes of appearances of representational properties. The essay initiates with examination of the first-person perspective of the conscious observer according to which a “reference to I” with respect to the observation of experience is determined. A distinction is then drawn between the conscious observer and experience as observed, according to which, three distinct modifications of experience are delineated. These modif…Read more
  •  903
    The Euclidean Mousetrap
    Idealistic Studies 38 (3): 209-220. 2008.
    In his doctoral dissertation On the Principle of Sufficient Reason, Arthur Schopenhauer there outlines a critique of Euclidean geometry on the basis of the changing nature of mathematics, and hence of demonstration, as a result of Kantian idealism. According to Schopenhauer, Euclid treats geometry synthetically, proceeding from the simple to the complex, from the known to the unknown, “synthesizing” later proofs on the basis of earlier ones. Such a method, although proving the case logically, ne…Read more
  •  23
    This is the most comprehensive book ever published on philosophical methodology. A team of thirty-eight of the world's leading philosophers present original essays on various aspects of how philosophy should be and is done. The first part is devoted to broad traditions and approaches to philosophical methodology. The entries in the second part address topics in philosophical methodology, such as intuitions, conceptual analysis, and transcendental arguments. The third part of the book is devoted …Read more
  •  125
    In this thesis, I examine the perceptibility of the Platonic Ideas in the thought of Arthur Schopenhauer. The work is divided into four chapters, each focusing and building upon a specific aspect related to this question. The first chapter (“"Plato and the Primacy of Intellect"”) deals with Schopenhauer’s interpretation specific to Platonic thought. I there address the question of why it is that Schopenhauer should consider Plato to have interpreted the Ideas as 'perceptible', particularly in vi…Read more
  •  331
    Subjectivity and the Encounter with Being
    Review of Metaphysics 68 (3): 593-614. 2015.
    Following the Kantian critique of metaphysics, the conscious subject is discovered to be an insurmountable obstacle with respect to knowledge of things themselves. For this reason, Kant concludes that metaphysics as the science of being as being is impossible. In this essay, the possibilities of metaphysics in light of the problem of subjectivity are reexamined. The nature and relationship between the conscious subject and the embodiment of the subject is first examined. Following this, the subj…Read more
  •  496
    Since Descartes, the nature of doubt has played a central role in the development of metaphysics both positively and negatively. Despite this fact, there has been very little discussion centering round the specific nature of doubt which led, for example, to the Cartesian discovery of the cogito. Certainly, the role of doubt has been well recognized: through doubt Descartes arrives at his indubitable first principle. But what can it mean to doubt the existence of the sensible world? This would se…Read more