The Review of Metaphysics back issues from June 2008:
Aristotle's defense of the theoretical life: comments on Politics 7.(Critical essay)
Jun 01, 2008; ... ARISTOTLE OPENS POLITICS 7, his discussion of the "best form of government" (politeias aristes), which he later calls "the city according to prayer" (kat'euchen), by informing his audience of his plan of attack. (1) Anyone who undertakes an inquiry into the ideal city must, he says, first ...
Precedents in Aristotle and Brentano for Husserl's concern with metabasis.(Bernard von Brentano and Edmund Husserl)(Critical essay)
Jun 01, 2008; ... HUSSERL'S WORK is marked by an abiding, if not always explicit, concern to avoid metabasis eis allo genos (a change into some other genus). This concern stands as a common element linking the pre-transcendental and the transcendental phenomenological phases of Husserrs thought. The theme ...
Spinoza's virtuous passions.(Critical essay)
Jun 01, 2008; ... A CENTRAL MESSAGE OF SPINOZA'S ETHICS is that we achieve freedom by mastering the emotions. (1) Harkening back to the ancient Stoics, Spinoza describes human bondage as "man's lack of power to control and check the emotions. For a man at the mercy of his emotions is not his own master but ...
Camus on Sartre's "freedom"--another "misunderstanding".(Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre)(Critical essay)
Jun 01, 2008; ... SARTRE'S EARLY, formative view of freedom has bothered both passing readers of Sartre and eminent scholars--among them Gabriel Marcel, Merleau-Ponty, and the brilliant philosophical writer, Albert Camus. Sartre's attribution of "absolute," "total" or complete freedom to the human being ...
The influence of Schleiermacher's second speech On Religion on Heidegger's concept of Ereignis.(Friedrich Schleiermacher and Martin Heidegger)(Critical essay)
Jun 01, 2008; ... MARTIN HEIDEGGER'S CONCEPT OF THE EREIGNIS has fascinated and puzzled interpreters of his philosophy. The strangeness of this concept is illustrated by the number of different translations. It has been rendered as "event of appropriation," "enowning," "happening," and "emergence" (1)--and ...
Ameriks, Karl. Kant and the Historical Turn: Philosophy as Critical Interpretation.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... AMERIKS, Karl. Kant and the Historical Turn: Philosophy as Critical Interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006. vi + 335 pp.--Kant and the Historical Turn is the fourth of Karl Ameriks' studies on Kant. As one would expect it includes crucial and often decisive interventions in the ...
Bencivenga, Ermanno. Ethics Vindicated: Kant's Transcendental Legitimation of Moral Discourse.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... BENCIVENGA, Ermanno. Ethics Vindicated: Kant's Transcendental Legitimation of Moral Discourse. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. xiv + 193 pp. Cloth, $55.00--Bencivenga reconstructs what he takes to be Kant's transcendental answers to the most basic problems for ethics: freedom, ...
Barnes, Jonathan. Truth, etc.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... BARNES, Jonathan. Truth, etc. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007. viii + 551 pp. Cloth, $65.00--"Ancient logic is not sexy," laments Jonathan Barnes in his introduction to Truth, etc. Yet in the tradition of Lewis Carroll, Barnes has given us a book on logic that is witty, entertaining, and ...
Corrigan, Kevin and Turner, John, eds.: Platonisms: Ancient, Modern, and Postmodern.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... CORRIGAN, Kevin and TURNER, John, eds. Platonisms: Ancient, Modern, and Postmodern. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2007. xi + 278 pp. Cloth, $167.00--These studies on the "history of Platonisms" approach the Dialogues "textually and intertextually" as "an inexhaustible mine of possible ...
DeBrabander, Firmin. Spinoza and the Stoics: Power, Politics, and the Passions.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... DeBRABANDER, Firmin. Spinoza and the Stoics: Power, Politics, and the Passions. London and New York: Continuum, 2007. x + 149 pp. Cloth, $120.00--In his study, Firmin DeBrabander argues that Spinoza is to be understood in light of his profound indebtedness to ancient Stoicism and of his ...
Francis, Mark. Herbert Spencer and the Invention of Modern Life.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... FRANCIS, Mark. Herbert Spencer and the Invention of Modern Life. xiv + 443 pp. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007. Cloth, $45.00--If the prolific nineteenth-century English intellectual Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) is remembered at all nowadays, it is as a prototypical "social ...
Guldmann, Rony. Two Orientations Toward Human Nature.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... GULDMANN, Rony. Two Orientations Toward Human Nature. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2007. 231 pp. Cloth, $99.95.--Rony Guldmann makes the case that our culture has a bifurcated view of human nature that is manifested through at least two flawed orientations. The first ...
Lorenz, Hendrik. The Brute Within: Appetitive Desire in Plato and Aristotle.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... LORENZ, Hendrik. The Brute Within: Appetitive Desire in Plato and Aristotle. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. 229 pp. Cloth, $74.00--The concept of motivation is as troublesome in philosophy as in psychology, and this is for a variety of reasons. At the level of explanation, accounts ...
Keys, Mary M.: Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... KEYS, Mary M. Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. xiii + 255 pp. Cloth, $70.00--The relation between St. Thomas Aquinas and the pagan philosopher Aristotle is a subject of endless debate for scholars. It is also of vital ...
MacIntyre, Alasdair. The Tasks of Philosophy: Selected Essays, Volume 1.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... MACINTYRE, Alasdair. The Tasks of Philosophy: Selected Essays, Volume 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 244 pp. Cloth, $70.00; Ethics and Politics: Selected Essays, Volume 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 252 pp. Cloth, $70.00--The twenty-two essays and ...
Manent, Pierre. Democracy without Nations? The Fate of Self-Government in Europe.(Brief article)(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... MANENT, Pierre. Democracy without Nations? The Fate of Self-Government in Europe. Trans. Paul Seaton. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2007. xiv + 109 pp. Cloth, $20.00--This slim volume may be read as an extended meditation on the condition of Europe, that is, on the nature of democracy and the ...
McAdams, James A., ed.: The Crisis of Modern Times: Perspectives from The Review of Politics, 1939-1962.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... McADAMS, James A., ed. The Crisis of Modern Times: Perspectives from The Review of Politics, 1939-1962. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007. xiii + 444 pp. Cloth, $75.00; paper, $35.00--No short review can do this volume justice. All one can do is to call attention to an ...
Murphy, Nancey, and W. R. Stoeger, S.J.: Evolution and Emergence: Systems, Organisms, Persons.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... MURPHY, Nancey, and W. R. STOEGER, S.J. Evolution and Emergence: Systems, Organisms, Persons. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. xii + 378 pp. Cloth, $110.00--Divided into sections on philosophy, science, and theology, the anthology consists of an introduction and postscript by the ...
Olson, Kevin. Reflexive Democracy: Political Equality and the Welfare State.(Brief article)(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... OLSON, Kevin. Reflexive Democracy: Political Equality and the Welfare State. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006. xii + 249 pp. Cloth, $35.00--The author is a political scientist who seeks to provide sophisticated (or, in one of his favorite words, "elegant") arguments to justify public ...
O'Shea, James R.: Wilfrid Sellars: Naturalism with a Normative Turn.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... O'SHEA, James R. Wilfrid Sellars: Naturalism with a Normative Turn. Key Contemporary Thinkers series. Cambridge, UK, and Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2007. xii + 256 pp. Cloth, $64.95; paper, $24.95--Books about Wilfrid Sellars's complex and systematic philosophy are beginning to multiply, as ...
Rawls, John. Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... RAWLS, John. Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy. Edited by Samuel Freeman. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007. xix + 476 pp. Cloth, $35.00--The title of this book is misleading: the lectures are not on the history of political philosophy ...
Rosenblum, Bruce and Kuttner, Fred. Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... ROSENBLUM, Bruce and KUTTNER, Fred. Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. 211 pp. Cloth, $29.95--At the heart of the 'quantum enigma' lies the measurement problem. Put crudely, this runs as follows: the dynamics of quantum theory tells us ...
Selinger, Evan, ed.: Postphenomenology: A Critical Companion to Ihde.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... SELINGER, Evan, ed. Postphenomenology: A Critical Companion to Ihde. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006. xi + 308 pp. Cloth, $86.50--This volume is a critical review of how Don Ihde has contributed to and stimulated phenomenology, postphenomenology and the philosophy of ...
Sellars, Wilfrid S.: In the Space of Reasons: Selected Essays of Wilfrid Sellars.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... SELLARS, Wilfrid S. In the Space of Reasons: Selected Essays of Wilfrid Sellars. Edited by Kevin Scharp and Robert B. Brandom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. xxviii + 491 pp. Cloth, $45.00--The editors of this volume boldly proclaim Sellars to be the greatest American philosopher ...
Setiya, Kieran. Reasons without Rationalism.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... SETIYA, Kieran. Reasons without Rationalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. xii + 131 pp. Cloth, $29.9--This is an excellent book: original, intricately argued, yet admirably compact. It makes important contributions to both the philosophy of action and ethics. ...
Sim, May. Remastering Morals with Aristotle and Confucius.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... SIM, May. Remastering Morals with Aristotle and Confucius. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xi + 224 pp. Cloth, $85.00--Sim tells us in her introductory chapter that "My aim is to involve these authors in each other's problems and to engage both in reconsidering the ...
Smith, David Woodruff. Husserl.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... SMITH, David Woodruff. Husserl. Routledge Philosophers Series. New York: Routledge, 2007, xiv + 467 pp. Paper, $24.95--Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) is, without doubt, not only one of the most influential philosopher of the 20th century but also one of the most important thinkers in the ...
Wippel, John F.: Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas II.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... WIPPEL, John F. Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas II. Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, vol. 47. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2007. ix + 316 pp. Cloth, $59.95--In this book John Wippel has gathered together nearly a dozen essays ...
Woolhouse, Roger. John Locke, a Biography.(Book review)
Jun 01, 2008; ... WOOLHOUSE, Roger. John Locke, a Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xviii + 528. Cloth, $39.99--Roger Woolhouse's Locke is the first major biography of John Locke to appear in fifty years and the second to be based on the rich collection of manuscripts (the Lovelace ...
American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly: Vol. 81, No. 4, Fall 2007.(PHILOSOPHICAL ABSTRACTS)
Jun 01, 2008 ... This article investigates the nature of Aristotelian syllogistics and shows that the categorical syllogism is fundamentally about showing the connection, in the premises of the syllogism, between the major and minor terms as stated in the conclusion. It discusses how this is important for ...
Australasian Journal of Philosophy: Vol. 86, No. 1, March 2008.(PHILOSOPHICAL ABSTRACTS)
Jun 01, 2008 ... Public Goods and Fairness, GARRETT CULLITY To what extent can we as a community legitimately require individuals to contribute to producing public goods? Most of us think that, at least sometimes, refusing to pay for a public good that you have enjoyed can involve a kind of ...
European Journal of Philosophy: Vol. 16, No. 1, April 2008.(PHILOSOPHICAL ABSTRACTS)
Jun 01, 2008 ... McDowell on External Reasons, JOHN BRUNERO The paper considers McDowell's reply to Williams's internalism about practical reason, specifically, McDowell's suggestion that externalists can appeal to conversion to explain how one comes to be motivated to do what one has reason to ...
International Philosophical Quarterly: Vol. 48, No. 1, March 2008.(PHILOSOPHICAL ABSTRACTS)
Jun 01, 2008 ... Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) found phenomenology very helpful for the analysis of concrete human experience and for overcoming the ethical formalism of Kant. Phenomenology, he believed, could also enrich classical Thomism by exploring the lived experience of freedom, interiority, and ...
Journal of the History of Philosophy: Vol. 46, No. 3, July 2008.(PHILOSOPHICAL ABSTRACTS)
Jun 01, 2008 ... Inquiry Without Names in Plato's Cratylus, CHRISTINE J. THOMAS The interlocutors of Plato's Cratylus agree that "it is far better to learn and to inquire from the things themselves than from their names" (439b6-8). Although surprisingly little attention has been paid to these ...
Mind: Vol. 117, No. 465, January 2008.(PHILOSOPHICAL ABSTRACTS)
Jun 01, 2008 ... Coherence as a Heuristic, STAFFAN ANGERE The impossibility results of Bovens and Hartmann (2003) and Olsson (2005) call into question the strength of the connection between coherence and truth. As part of the inquiry into this alleged link, Angere defines a notion of degree of ...
The Monist: Vol. 91, No. 2, April 2008.(PHILOSOPHICAL ABSTRACTS)
Jun 01, 2008 ... Against Consciousness Chauvinism, ITAY SHANI Consciousness chauvinism is the view that only conscious psychological states are intrinsically mental and that the mentality of unconscious psychological states is derived from the authentic mentality that is immanent to ...
Philosophy: Vol. 83, No. 1, January 2008.(PHILOSOPHICAL ABSTRACTS)
Jun 01, 2008 ... A Metaphysics of Ordinary Things and Why We Need It, LYNNE RUDDER BAKER Mainstream metaphysicians today take little ontological interest in the world as we interact with it. They interpret the variety of things in the world as variety only of concepts applied to things that are ...
Philosophy: Vol. 83, No. 2.(PHILOSOPHICAL ABSTRACTS)
Jun 01, 2008 ... How We Trust One Another, OSWALD HANFLING How is the possibility of promising to be explained without circularity? Appeal is made to the role of natural inclinations in linguistic behavior, which presupposes truth telling and promise keeping, and also to the social functions of ...
Phronesis: Vol. 53, No. 1.(PHILOSOPHICAL ABSTRACTS)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2008 ... The Place of Aporia in Plato's Charmides, VASILIS POLITIS The aim of the paper is twofold: to examine the argument in response to Socrates' question whether or not reflexive knowledge is, first, possible, and, second, beneficial; and by doing so, to examine the method of Plato's ...
Phronesis: Vol. 53, No. 2, 2008.(PHILOSOPHICAL ABSTRACTS)
Jun 01, 2008 ... False Names, Demonstratives and the Refutation of Linguistic Naturalism in Plato's Cratylus 427d1-431c3, IMOGEN SMITH This paper offers an interpretation of Plato's Cratylus 427d1-431c3 that supports a reading of the dialogue as a whole as concluding in favour of a ...
Ratio: Vol. 20, No. 4, December 2007.(PHILOSOPHICAL ABSTRACTS)
Jun 01, 2008 ... Wittgensetin's Critique of Frazer, JACQUES BOUVERESSE This paper provides a systematic exposition of what Wittgenstein took to be the fundamental error committed by James George Frazer, author of the classic anthropological work The Golden Bough, in his account of ritual ...
The Philosophical Quarterly: Vol. 58, No. 231, April 2008.(PHILOSOPHICAL ABSTRACTS)
Jun 01, 2008 ... Two Arguments Against Realism, TIMOTHY BAYS Bays presents two generalizations of Putnam's model-theoretic argument against realism. The first replaces Putnam's model theory with some new, and substantially simpler, model theory, while the second replaces Putnam's model theory ...