by Joel Marks “So good to see you again. How long has it been?” “Well, Uncle Barry, we haven’t been back to the States since 2001, and we always visit you when we’re here; so it’s been 12 years!” “That is sinful. That is impossible to believe.” “I think we can offer you the living …
Stephen Clark examines how far Aristotle’s concept of friendship might apply to animals, among themselves and between us and them. One of the stories told about Pythagoras is that he rebuked a man who was beating a dog, with the words “That’s a friend of mine – I knew him by his voice.” The story …
“I knew him by his voice”: Can Animals Be Our Friends? Read More »
Tim Madigan hears Pierre Bayle’s 17th century plea for religious toleration. “Comets, importing change of times and states,Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,And with them scourge the bad revolting starsThat have consented unto Henry’s death!King Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long!England ne’er lost a king of so much worth.” – Shakespeare, Henry …
Scott Remer thinks we arendt happy without a community and considers the complete reconstruction of the modern world to be well worth weil. In her 1951 book The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, German-Jewish émigré and political theorist extraordinaire, chillingly wrote: “Totalitarian solutions may well survive the fall of totalitarian regimes in the form of …
A Radical Cure: Hannah Arendt & Simone Weil on the Need for Roots Read More »
Major Todd A. Burkhardt considers under what circumstances it would be morally right to bioengineer super-soldiers. In 1940, as the United States prepares for war, Steve Rogers, a frail young man unable to enlist in the military due to physical limitations, volunteers for a secret experiment. Operation Rebirth transforms him into the ultimate physical specimen: …
Operation Rebirth: Captain America and the Ethics of Enhancement Read More »
Sally Scholz traces the major currents of Simone de Beauvoir’s main work. Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) was one of the twentieth century’s leading intellectuals, and certainly its most famous feminist. Her book The Second Sex radically challenged political and existential theory, but its most enduring impact is on how women understand themselves, their relationships, their …
Benedict O’Connell argues we must recognise our limitations about knowing God. As philosophers, we often like to think about what can be known. It is also important, however, to consider the reverse: what cannot be known – whether there may be certain truths that are simply beyond our understanding as human beings. I’m talking about …
What does make a musical performance authentic? What do we mean by authenticity anyway? Michael Graubart looks for some answers. Bach fugues on the clavichord or the piano? Handel arias with added ornaments or plain? Mozart concertos on a fortepiano, gut-strung violins and valveless horns or on a Steinway grand piano and modern orchestral instruments? …
Musical Hermeneutics: The ‘Authentic’ Performance of Early Music Read More »
Bharatwaj Iyer examines substance with the help of Hume & Vedantic philosophy. In his 1738 classic A Treatise of Human Nature, the Scottish philosopher David Hume criticised a conception of substance held by many philosophers throughout the long history of Western thought. He rhetorically asks these philosophers how they know of the existence and nature …
Peter Keeble says philosophy, like love, is a many-splendoured thing. Philosophy is normally not shy in dealing with highly emotive issues: Philosophers often tell us what we should not do and that certain cherished beliefs are nonsense. However, not many modern philosophers have written about individual emotions, such as the feeling of romantic love. Yet …