•  5
    Political Sophistry Ancient and Contemporary
    Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 69 345-349. 2018.
    Sophistry is alive and thrives. I argue that this less than venerable tradition modern and contemporary political philosophers continue to this day. I take Protagoras as the archetype sophist, and I show that John Stuart Mill, as does Protagoras, advocates happiness not in an ancient, rational, sense but in a sophistical, passional, sense. Despite their protestations, John Rawls and Robert Nozick continue to advocate a utilitarian happiness of a similar passional sort. The upshot of their sophis…Read more
  •  25
    Aristotle and Women: Household and Political Roles
    Polis 20 (1-2): 22-42. 2003.
    A survey of recent literature would suggest that Aristotle has become a whipping boy for philosophers who would advocate equality between the sexes. What I hope to show is that we can actually advance the cause of sexual equality by treating him more judiciously. Aristotle does argue that men and women by nature have different psychologies, and even that men are psychologically superior to women. But contrary to what many today think he himself does not conclude from this proposition that men an…Read more
  •  3
    Many contemporary philosophers develop political theories in an attempt to justify the societies that we currently live in. But the distribution of wealth in our societies today is becoming ever more polarized. Can these philosophers offer theories that are truly just? Paul Schollmeier takes us back to ancient political philosophy in order to present an original theory of what a society in our era ought to be, and to highlight the flaws in the liberal and libertarian political theories set forth…Read more
  •  25
    What is a Public?
    Proceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 50 721-728. 2008.
    The American philosopher John Dewey defines a public as those who are affected by indirect consequences of transactions to such an extent that they deem it necessary to care systematically for these consequences. Unfortunately, his definition enables a public to cooperate merely for the control of the negative consequences of human action. Plato suggests that we might better define a public as those who deem it desirable to care for human action for the sake of itself as well as for the sake of …Read more
  • Human Goodness presents an original, pragmatic moral theory that successfully revives and revitalizes the classical Greek concept of happiness. It also includes in-depth discussions of our freedoms, our obligations, and our virtues, as well as adroit comparisons with the moral theories of Kant and Hume. Paul Schollmeier explains that the Greeks define happiness as an activity that we may perform for its own sake. Obvious examples might include telling stories, making music, or dancing. He then d…Read more
  •  20
    Aristotle on Comedy
    Philosophical Inquiry 40 (3-4): 146-162. 2016.
  •  21
    Toward a rhetoric of anthropology
    Social Epistemology 18 (1). 2004.
    What I wish to do in this essay is to explain how ancient rhetoric and modern anthropology share a common methodology. I shall argue that a theory of rhetoric developed by Aristotle can provide paradigms to account for new approaches to anthropology developed fairly recently. Among rhetorical arguments Aristotle distinguishes enthymene and example, and he recognizes historical, mythological, and philosophical examples. But contemporary anthropologists distinguish historical, mythological, and ph…Read more
  •  85
    Practical Intuition and Rhetorical Example
    Philosophy and Rhetoric 24 (2). 1991.
    Let us assume with the classical philosophers that we have a faculty of theoretical intuition, through which we intuit theoretical principles, and a faculty of practical intuition, through which we intuit practical principles. This modest assumption would allow us to distinguish conceptual intuitions from perceptual intuitions. l wish to ask how we could then know if our intuitions of practical principles are true or not. Could we justify or verify our theoretical and practical intuitions in the…Read more
  •  2
    Aristotle, Virtue and the Mean (review)
    Dialogue 38 (3): 610-613. 1999.
    The ancient Greeks present a moral outlook which is not without considerable difficulty for contemporary philosophers. This difficulty has origins which may go back as far as the Renaissance, but we can surely trace its sources at least to Descartes. We tend to think that we had best use a moral theory to address problems of morality. What better way to determine how we ought to conduct ourselves than to define, once and for all, some basic principles of action! If only we could get our ethical …Read more
  •  22
    An Aristotelian Motivation for Good Friendship
    Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 91 (3). 1986.
    Aristote veut prouver que la bonne amitié a sa motivation dans un objet intellectuel de plaisir. Nous agissons pour le bonheur d'autrui parce que nous trouvons que ce bonheur est quelque chose de plaisant. Le bonheur d'autrui est quelque chose de plaisant parce que c'est un bien qui nous appartient. Le bonheur d'autrui est un bien parce que quelqu'un qui est heureux possède le bien humain. Et le bonheur d'autrui nous appartient parce que nous aidons notre ami à devenir ou demeurer heureux. Notre…Read more
  •  8
    Why We Love the Land
    Ethics and the Environment 2 (1). 1997.
    Philosophers today recognize that we love the land, but they do not explain satisfactorily why we do. Holmes Rolston, for example, argues that we find values in nature, but he does not explain why we love them. J. Baird Callicott explains why we love nature, but he does not argue that it has values in itself. I want to suggest that we feel love for the land because it is itself lovable. I agree with Rolston that an ecosystem has properties which are intrinsically valuable and inherent, but I wis…Read more
  • Rezension (review)
    Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 47 (3): 495-498. 1993.
  • Intuición práctica y ejemplo retórico
    Cuadernos de Filosofía 20 (33): 41. 1989.
  •  39
    Aristotle on Practical Wisdom
    Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 43 (1). 1989.
  •  109
    The Greeks and Us: Essays in Honor of Arthur W. H. Adkins (edited book)
    University of Chicago Press. 1996.
    Arthur W. H. Adkins's writings have sparked debates among a wide range of scholars over the nature of ancient Greek ethics and its relevance to modern times. Demonstrating the breadth of his influence, the essays in this volume reveal how leading classicists, philosophers, legal theorists, and scholars of religion have incorporated Adkins's thought into their own diverse research. The timely subjects addressed by the contributors include the relation between literature and moral understanding, m…Read more
  •  1
    The democracy most in accordance with equality
    History of Political Thought 9 (2): 205-209. 1988.
  •  128
    Pragmatic Method and Its Rhetorical Lineage
    Philosophy and Rhetoric 35 (4): 368-381. 2002.
    Paul Schollmeier 1. “A new name for some old ways of thinking,” William James subtitled his most popular book. With typical diffidence, he did not hesitate to acknowledge that many earlier philosophers were cognizant of and practiced in the pragmatic method. He mentions by name not only Locke, Berkeley, and Hume but also Socrates, “who was adept at it,” and Aristotle, “who used it methodically” (1916, 50). Nor was he alone in his acknowledgement of his predecessors. Charles Sanders Peirce, who i…Read more
  •  19
    Equine Virtue
    Between the Species 8 (1): 10. 1992.
  • An Aristotelian Origin for Good Friendship
    Revue de Philosophie Ancienne 8 (2): 173-190. 1990.
  •  1011
    Aristotle and Women: Household And Political Roles
    Polis 20 (1-2): 22-42. 2003.
    A survey of recent literature would suggest that Aristotle has become a whipping boy for philosophers who would advocate equality between the sexes. What I hope to show is that we can actually advance the cause of sexual equality by treating him more judiciously. Aristotle does argue that men and women by nature have different psychologies, and even that men are psychologically superior to women. But contrary to what many today think he himself does not conclude from this proposition that men an…Read more
  • Ineluctable Slavery
    Skepsis: A Journal for Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Research 12. 2001.
  •  27
    Ancient tragedy and other selves
    Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 2 175-188. 1998.
  •  10
    The Problem of Example
    In Paolo C. Biondi & Louis F. Groarke (eds.), Shifting the Paradigm: Alternative Perspectives on Induction, De Gruyter. pp. 231-250. 2014.
  •  10
    Purgation of Pitiableness and Fearfulness
    Hermes 122 (3): 289-299. 1994.
  •  29
    Happiness and Luckiness
    The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 44 207-214. 1998.
    Moral philosophers, beginning with Bernard Williams and Thomas Nagel, have recently broached the topic of moral luck in the philosophical literature. They limit their discussion however to considerations of how luck affects our ability to carry out actions or how it affects the consequences of our actions. I wish to suggest that luck is also an important factor in determining our actions as ends in themselves. What actions we may choose to perform for their own sake in a given situation depends …Read more
  •  4
    A Classical Rhetoric of Modern Science
    Philosophy and Rhetoric 17 (4). 1984.
  •  15
    Simian Virtue
    Between the Species 10 (1): 6. 1994.
  •  39
    Other Selves: Aristotle on Personal and Political Friendship
    State University of New York Press. 1994.
    This book presents a thorough and systematic integration of Aristotle's analysis of friendship with the main lines of the rest of his work in Politics and Nicomachean Ethics.