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52Ought Hobbes's Natural Condition of Mankind Be Represented As A Prisoner's Dilemma ?Hobbes Studies 18 (1): 27-49. 2005.
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37The Aesthetics of NaturePhilosophy in the Contemporary World 6 (3-4): 21-34. 1999.Three paradigms for making sense of the aesthetic experience of nature---Specularism, Scientific Exemplarism and Perspectivalism---are found in the literature on the aesthetics of nature. The first focuses on seeing nature as a picture, the second on grasping aesthetic experience through the categories of scientific enquiry and the third emphasizes a more phenomenological relation between the experienced and the experiencer. After the historical development which fashioned Specularism’s approach…Read more
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33Science as a Paradigm in the Formation of Socio-Ethical JudgmentsSocial Philosophy Today 18 45-61. 2002.Whether science can be regarded as value-neutral remains a contestable issue. Much of that debate is confused because it is not made clear exactly what the term science is meant to include. Three conceptions can be delineated: the iconic, the indexical, and the interpretative. The iconic employs a wide usage of the term science to include any process of inquiry. The indexical refers to the way the outcomes of inquiry can be made subject to testing and criticism. The interpretative conception, gr…Read more
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26Sartre’s Existential ConsciousnessPhilosophy in the Contemporary World 5 (4): 11-23. 1998.Sartre’s Degrees of Consciousness Theory is developed in order to ascertain what this existential conception implies for an account of human intersubjectivity. Once active involvement in instrumental concerns---first degree consciousness---and reflection, whether of an impure kind characterizing second degree consciousness or a pure consciousness---that of a third degree---are distinguished, attention is focused upon the kinds of social relations typifying each kind of consciousness. A model for…Read more
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26Between Anthropocentrism and EcocentrismPhilosophy in the Contemporary World 2 (4): 1-8. 1995.Three ways of relating the structures of human existence to the world are offered by ecological holism, moral extensionism, and biotic communitarianism. Leopold’s attempt to reconcile these three is examined in the light of Peirce’s categories, in order to ascertain how far Leopold’s final position is anthropocentric, ecocentric, neither, or both.
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24Is Life Worth Living?Philosophy in the Contemporary World 16 (1): 89-104. 2009.James offers ways for escaping pessimism: i) leaving "the bare facts by themselves" - in construing the scientific order of nature - or permitting ii) a "religious reading to go on" by postulating "supplementary facts which may be discovered" or iii) "believed in". Adopting ii), we can trust the idea that "a still wider world may be there" as a "maybe" and then act as if the invisible world thereby suggested was real, enabling us "to live in the light of " our "religious demands". One way of app…Read more
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18In Defence of a ‘Three-Tiered Structure’ Within the Interpretative ProcessPhilosophy in the Contemporary World 12 (1): 9-21. 2005.An account of what Michael Krausz refers to as “a three tiered structure” within the interpretative process is defended. Starting with the employment of Peircian nomenclature, as employed by Joseph Margolis, artworks and persons - cultural entities - are distinguished from physical entities as tokens of types. But even if culturally emergent entities con be attributed to certain physical atributes in relation to their materiality at the first level of interpretation - the elucidatory - in which …Read more
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15The Aesthetics of NaturePhilosophy in the Contemporary World 6 (3-4): 21-34. 1999.Three paradigms for making sense of the aesthetic experience of nature---Specularism, Scientific Exemplarism and Perspectivalism---are found in the literature on the aesthetics of nature. The first focuses on seeing nature as a picture, the second on grasping aesthetic experience through the categories of scientific enquiry and the third emphasizes a more phenomenological relation between the experienced and the experiencer. After the historical development which fashioned Specularism’s approach…Read more
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12Conceptions of Experienced Time and the Practice of LifeProcess Studies 51 (1): 46-69. 2022.This article is prompted by some ideas from Robert S. Brumbaugh and Alfred North Whitehead, in particular. Four different views of experienced time are considered as well as four different conceptions of the practice of life that are the implications of these views of time. Further, four different famous works of literature are considered in the effort to understand these views of time and their implications for the practice of life.
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10Forms of Domination and Conceptions of Violence: A Semiotic ApproachPhilosophy in the Contemporary World 28 (1): 37-62. 2022.By employing Peirce’s semiotics, Totalitarianism is distinguished indexically from forms of Dictatorship and Authoritarianism. The former can be cast, as Arendt argued, to initiate a project for world domination dispensing with any sense of Authoritarianism in forwarding some purely fictitious conception where violence is manifested in terror. Alternatively, distortion of intellectual activity may issue within Populism so that the rule of Demagogy emerges initiating Despotism or a form of Dictat…Read more
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7Orality, writing, imagery and the rise of the imagisticEmpedocles European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication 12 (1): 35-55. 2021.Language can be cast through words and images where truth claims are thought to lie. They may be either embodied within language or indicate what transcends it. Yet expression is formed through the spoken, written words or images. But what about the imagistic: words doing the work of an image without employing the visual? To grasp how the latter has emerged, the shift in authority from the spoken to the written word will be undertaken. The importance of the shift from the written word to the ima…Read more
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7In Defence of a ‘Three-Tiered Structure’ Within the Interpretative ProcessPhilosophy in the Contemporary World 12 (1): 9-21. 2005.An account of what Michael Krausz refers to as “a three tiered structure” within the interpretative process is defended. Starting with the employment of Peircian nomenclature, as employed by Joseph Margolis, artworks and persons - cultural entities - are distinguished from physical entities as tokens of types. But even if culturally emergent entities con be attributed to certain physical atributes in relation to their materiality at the first level of interpretation - the elucidatory - in which …Read more
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6The God of Religion and the God of Philosophy Debate RevisitedProcess Studies 50 (1): 88-106. 2021.This article explores the relationship between "the God of religion" and "the God of philosophy" via four key concepts: existence, actuality, reality, and mystical experience. The exploration of these key concepts relies heavily on the thought of Charles Hartshorne, but it also relies on crucial insights from Charles Sanders Peirce and Simone Weil.
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6Between Anthropocentrism and EcocentrismPhilosophy in the Contemporary World 2 (4): 1-8. 1995.Three ways of relating the structures of human existence to the world are offered by ecological holism, moral extensionism, and biotic communitarianism. Leopold’s attempt to reconcile these three is examined in the light of Peirce’s categories, in order to ascertain how far Leopold’s final position is anthropocentric, ecocentric, neither, or both.
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6The Iconic, Indexical and Intellective are conceptions derived from Charles Sanders Peirce's use of his sign theory. In characterizing different kinds of interpretative activity, they can be used to address certain problems in science, technology and the arts.
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6Identity: Duality or Tripartism?Process Studies 51 (2): 185-203. 2022.This article explores the relationship between three elements—personality, character, and script—to interpret the idea of someone's identity. A common way to deal with this relationship is in terms of a duality, but a tripartite analysis works better. The article relies heavily on the thought of Charles Hartshorne, with the aid of Simone Weil and Charles Sanders Peirce.
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5Is Life Worth Living?Philosophy in the Contemporary World 16 (1): 89-104. 2009.James offers ways for escaping pessimism: i) leaving "the bare facts by themselves" - in construing the scientific order of nature - or permitting ii) a "religious reading to go on" by postulating "supplementary facts which may be discovered" or iii) "believed in". Adopting ii), we can trust the idea that "a still wider world may be there" as a "maybe" and then act as if the invisible world thereby suggested was real, enabling us "to live in the light of " our "religious demands". One way of app…Read more
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2Science as a Paradigm in the Formation of Socio-Ethical JudgmentsSocial Philosophy Today 18 45-61. 2002.Whether science can be regarded as value-neutral remains a contestable issue. Much of that debate is confused because it is not made clear exactly what the term science is meant to include. Three conceptions can be delineated: the iconic, the indexical, and the interpretative. The iconic employs a wide usage of the term science to include any process of inquiry. The indexical refers to the way the outcomes of inquiry can be made subject to testing and criticism. The interpretative conception, gr…Read more
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1Materialistic Motionalism or Motional Materialism: Hobbes's Conception of Ultimate Reality and MeaningIn B. K. Dalai (ed.), Ultimate Reality and Meaning, Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit, University of Pune. pp. 30--3. 2007.
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1From Kathmandu to Toronto, what to do with waste has become a major problem. In the UK this problem is dealt with by public inquiries. These tend to involve emotive issues where human energy becomes embroiled passionately, to satisfy personal desires. The author deals with these issues by introducing the reader to the philosophy of an American scientist and philosopher, Charles Sanders Peirce, whose particular interest was logic - 'the science of drawing conclusions': the greatest need of inquir…Read more
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The emergence of the land ethic: Aldo Leopold's idea of ultimate reality and meaningUltimate Reality and Meaning 19 (3): 168-188. 1996.
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Charles S. Peirce's idea of ultimate reality and meaning related to humanity's ultimate future as seen through scientific inquiryUltimate Reality and Meaning 16 (1-2): 9-26. 1993.
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Thomas E. Hosinski, "Stubborn Fact and Creative Advance: An Introduction to the Metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead" (review)Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 30 (4): 1081. 1994.