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10Stoicism and its TelosIn James M. Ambury, Tushar Irani & Kathleen Wallace (eds.), Philosophy as a way of life: historical, contemporary, and pedagogical perspectives, Wiley. 2020-10-05.This essay concerns the disputed nature of the telos in Stoicism and argues that Michel Foucault’s description of the Stoic telos plausibly constitutes an accurate characterization, despite the frequent criticism it has received and the fact that it apparently neglects the important role of nature or physics in Stoicism. To advance this claim, the essay draws upon a neglected set of observations made by Foucault in The Hermeneutics of the Subject, in which the telos is characterized in terms of …Read more
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Stoicism and its telos : insights from Michel FoucaultIn James M. Ambury, Tushar Irani & Kathleen Wallace (eds.), Philosophy as a way of life: historical, contemporary, and pedagogical perspectives, Wiley. 2020-10-05.
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10Santayana’s Epiphenomenalism ReconsideredEuropean Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 12 (2). 2020.The present essay argues against the view that Santayana’s philosophy can unproblematically be classified as epiphenomenalist. To this end, it examines the central tenets that provide the foundation for his position on metal causation as developed in Scepticism and Animal Faith. This analysis shows that a range of positions are available to Santayana that are compatible with his prohibition on invoking ideas as motor causes, perhaps even demanded by it. While Santayana is consistent in denying t…Read more
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23Stoicism and its TelosMetaphilosophy 51 (2-3): 335-354. 2020.This essay concerns the disputed nature of the telos in Stoicism and argues that Michel Foucault’s description of the Stoic telos plausibly constitutes an accurate characterization, despite the frequent criticism it has received and the fact that it apparently neglects the important role of nature or physics in Stoicism. To advance this claim, the essay draws upon a neglected set of observations made by Foucault in The Hermeneutics of the Subject, in which the telos is characterized in terms of …Read more
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17Definitions vs. IdealsAmerican Association of Philosophy Teachers Studies in Pedagogy 2 117-142. 2016.Traditional pedagogical approaches to the Platonic forms pose problems that can be best addressed by presenting students two rival interpretations: one that understands the forms in terms of definitions, and another in terms of ideals. The second, if not the first interpretation, models, for students of even a relativistic stripe, how one can conceive the existence of thought-objects about which no consensus exists. It also serves to illustrate how knowledge of such thought-objects may be attain…Read more
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42Stoic Utopia: The Use of Friendship in Creating the Ideal SocietyApeiron 49 (2). 2016.Journal Name: Apeiron Issue: Ahead of print
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78Arendt and the American Pragmatists: Her Debate with Dewey and Some American Strains in Her ThoughtPhilosophical Topics 39 (2): 185-205. 2011.Arendt and Dewey argue that action is only political when undertaken in a certain way and fear the abolition of a realm in which action can remain political in the strongest sense of the term. But unlike Dewey, Arendt seems to bar some activities from admittance to the public sphere on the grounds that they are insufficiently political. These purportedly nonpolitical activities include urgent measures undertaken to alleviate human want, the application of the sciences to human life, and endeavor…Read more
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53In Cicero's De Finibus, an Ars Vitae between Technê and TheôriaEpoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 17 (2): 351-384. 2013.Cicero’s De Finibus contains a debate about whether practical knowledge should be compared to theoretical knowledge (theôreia/sapientia), or to technical knowledge (technê/ars). The way in which practical knowledge is conceived by the Stoics on the one hand, and Peripatetics on the other, lies behind and explains, for Cicero, the tendency of Peripatetics to place greater priority upon harmony with the external world, and that of the Stoics to seek inner harmony at the cost of harmony with that e…Read more
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13Platonism, Christianity, Stoicism: The Subject, The Truth, And The Political Import Of Their Relationship In Three TraditionsFoucault Studies 18 213-237. 2014.Foucault has been criticized for overlooking the similarities among Platonism, Christianity and Stoicism, and overstating Stoicism’s distinctness. However, an examination of Stoic theories of truth shows that the Stoics sought out a particular kind of knowledge, and that this knowledge was necessarily sought by means of a certain circular process, to which Foucault himself vaguely alludes. This accounts for many of Foucault’s observations, and explains why, even when Stoics speak about such topi…Read more
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11Arendt and the American PragmatistsPhilosophical Topics 39 (2): 183-205. 2011.Arendt and Dewey argue that action is only political when undertaken in a certain way and fear the abolition of a realm in which action can remain political in the strongest sense of the term. But unlike Dewey, Arendt seems to bar some activities from admittance to the public sphere on the grounds that they are insufficiently political. These purportedly nonpolitical activities include urgent measures undertaken to alleviate human want, the application of the sciences to human life, andendeavors…Read more
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