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17Artistic Visions and the Promise of Beauty: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (edited book)Springer. 2017.This volume examines the motives behind rejections of beauty often found within contemporary art practice, where much critically acclaimed art is deliberately ugly and alienating. It reflects on the nature and value of beauty, asking whether beauty still has a future in art and what role it can play in our lives generally. The volume discusses the possible “end of art,” what art is, and the relation between art and beauty beyond their historically Western horizons to include perspectives from As…Read more
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71On the value of happiness: Herder contra KantCanadian Journal of Philosophy 37 (4): 515-546. 2007.IntroductionIn November of 1785, Kant published a highly unsympathetic review of the second part of Johann Gottfried Herder's Ideas for a Philosophy of the History of Mankind. Herder had once been Kant's pupil, and had greatly admired his teacher, but the content of this review shows how profound the philosophical differences between them had by then become. A central area of dispute emerging from the review concerns the nature of happiness, and its place within the ‘destiny’ or ‘vocation’ of th…Read more
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1375The role of philosophy in the academic study of religion in IndianArgument: Biannual Philosophical Journal 6 (1): 55-80. 2016.Joseph T. O’Connell drew attention to the relative scarcity of academic work on religion in South Asia, and o ered as a plausible explanation for this state of a airs the tension between secular and religio‐political communal interests. This paper explores the potential role of phi‐ losophy as an established academic discipline within this situation, in the context of India. It argues that objective study, including evaluation, of the truth claims of various religious traditions is an important …Read more
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21Kantian Ethics in Being and TimeJournal of Philosophical Research 31 309-334. 2006.Heidegger’s Being and Time has been accused of espousing empty decisionism and relativism. I argue, first, that in fact Being and Time’s stress on the situated character of human judgment is supplemented by a very Kantian account of being human that defi nes appropriate behavior towards all entities possessing a certain character. Its analysis of conscience and guilt attempts to uncover the existential basis for the distinction Kant draws between the phenomenal and the noumenal aspects of the se…Read more
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10Heidegger, Morality and Politics: Questioning the Shepherd of BeingCambridge University Press. 2017.Heidegger has often been seen as having no moral philosophy and a political philosophy that can only support fascism. Sonia Sikka's book challenges this view, arguing instead that Heidegger should be considered a qualified moral realist, and that his insights on cultural identity and cross-cultural interaction are not invalidated by his support for Nazism. Sikka explores the ramifications of Heidegger's moral and political thought for topics including free will and responsibility, the status of …Read more
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52On the Value of HappinessCanadian Journal of Philosophy 37 (4): 515-546. 2007.IntroductionIn November of 1785, Kant published a highly unsympathetic review of the second part of Johann Gottfried Herder'sIdeas for a Philosophy of the History of Mankind. Herder had once been Kant's pupil, and had greatly admired his teacher, but the content of this review shows how profound the philosophical differences between them had by then become. A central area of dispute emerging from the review concerns the nature of happiness, and its place within the ‘destiny’ or ‘vocation’ of the…Read more
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SJ McGrath, The Early Heidegger & Medieval Philosophy: Phenomenology for the GodforsakenPhilosophy in Review 27 (5): 362. 2007.
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46Questioning the Sacred: Heidegger and Levinas on the Locus of DivinityModern Theology 14 (3): 299-323. 1998.
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31The philosophical bases on Heidegger's politics: a response to WolinJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology 25 (3): 241-262. 1994.
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86On the truth of beauty: Nietzsche, Heidegger, keatsHeythrop Journal 39 (3). 1998.This article is concerned with the validity of what I term the “metaphysico‐religious” interpretation of beauty. This term is intended to cover descriptions and interpretations of beauty which suggest that it indicates: 1) a connectedness of man with nature, of natural things with one another, and/or of man with man in and through some encompassing ground or unity; and, 2) the existence of another and better world, a transcendent reality in which the negative elements of factual existence are so…Read more
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8Questioning the sacredIn Claire Elise Katz & Lara Trout (eds.), Emmanuel Levinas, Routledge. pp. 3--282. 2005.
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16How Not to Read the Other: "All the Rest Can Be Translated"Philosophy Today 43 (2): 195-206. 1999.
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57Nietzsche's contribution to a phenomenology of intoxicationJournal of Phenomenological Psychology 31 (1): 19-43. 2000.Through a reading of Nietzsche's texts, primarily of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, this article develops a phenomenological description of the variety of intoxication exemplified in conditions of drunkenness, or in states of emotional excess. It treats Thus Spoke Zarathustra as a literary expression of such intoxication, arguing against attempts to find a coherent narrative structure and clear authorial voice behind this text's apparent disorder. Having isolated the intoxicated characteristics of Thus…Read more
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41Herder on Humanity and Cultural Difference: Enlightened RelativismCambridge University Press. 2011.Herder is often criticized for having embraced cultural relativism, but there has been little philosophical discussion of what he actually wrote about the nature of the human species and its differentiation through culture. This book focuses on Herder's idea of culture, seeking to situate his social and political theses within the context of his anthropology, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, theory of language and philosophy of history. It argues for a view of Herder as a qualified relativist,…Read more
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68Moral Relativism and the Concept of CultureTheoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 59 (133): 50-69. 2012.
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37“Learning to Be Indian”: Historical Narratives and the “Choice” of a Cultural IdentityDialogue 43 (2): 339-354. 2004.RésuméCet article analyse le besoin qu'éprouvent certaines personnes de se «reconnecter», ou renforcer lews liens, à une culture dans laquelle elles n'ont jamais été enchâssées, eu égard aux critères auxquels se mesure généralement un tel enchâssement (langue, valeurs, croyances, modes de vie, coutumes religieuses, etc.). Situant les résultats de son analyse par rapport à la pensée de Kymlicka et autres, il fait valoir que des facteurs tels que les liens de parenté, l'identification à autrui et …Read more
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46Enlightened relativism: The case of HerderPhilosophy and Social Criticism 31 (3): 309-341. 2005.Johann Gottfried Herder has been described as the founder of cultural relativism within the German philosophical tradition, which would make him the starting-point for one thread in the pattern of ideas leading to the Nazi disaster. More recently, some scholars have rejected this interpretation, arguing that Herder actually supported the universalist values of the Enlightenment. I argue that Herders position is actually a complex, and laudable, blend of universalism and relativism. It includes:…Read more