TheHinton st.Mary and frampton mosaics: Problematic identifications of Christian-pagan hybrid imagery.Shelby Colling -2018 -Constellations 9 (2).detailsDespite the frequent interpretation of any Early-Christian-era art that contains both Christian and pagan imagery as being solely Christian in meaning, this paper argues that the identification of these images as being Christian in nature, with the pagan imagery only present as borrowed ideas to support a Christian message, is problematic. By assessing some of the existing scholarship surrounding this topic, I attempt to problematize the assumptions made that lead to these widely-accepted interpretations.
Plato and His Predecessors: The Dramatisation of Reason.Mary Margaret McCabe -2000 - New York: Cambridge University Press.detailsHow does Plato view his philosophical antecedents? Plato and his Predecessors considers how Plato represents his philosophical predecessors in a late quartet of dialogues: the Theaetetus, the Sophist, the Politicus and the Philebus. Why is it that the sophist Protagoras, or the monist Parmenides, or the advocate of flux, Heraclitus, are so important in these dialogues? And why are they represented as such shadowy figures, barely present at their own refutations? The explanation, the author argues, is a complex one involving (...) both the reflective relation between Plato's dramatic technique and his philosophical purposes, and the very nature of his late philosophical views. For in these encounters with his predecessors we see Plato develop a new account of the principles of reason, against those who would deny them, and forge a fresh view of the best life - the life of the philosopher. (shrink)
Non-essentialist methods in pre-Darwinian taxonomy.Mary P. Winsor -2003 -Biology and Philosophy 18 (3):387-400.detailsThe current widespread belief that taxonomic methods used before Darwin were essentialist is ill-founded. The essentialist method developed by followers of Plato and Aristotle required definitions to state properties that are always present. Polythetic groups do not obey that requirement, whatever may have been the ontological beliefs of the taxonomist recognizing such groups. Two distinct methods of forming higher taxa, by chaining and by examplar, were widely used in the period between Linnaeus and Darwin, and both generated polythetic groups. Philosopher (...) William Whewell congratulated pre-Darwinian taxonomists for not adhering to the rigid ideal of definition used in the mathematical sciences. What he called the method of types is here called the method of exemplars because typology has been equated with essentialism, whereas the use of a type species as the reference point or prototype for a higher category was a practice inconsistent with essentialism. The story that the essentialism of philosophers dominated the development of systematics may prove to be a myth. (shrink)
First Chop Your Logos … : Socrates and the Sophists on Language, Logic and Development.Mary Margaret McCabe -2019 -Australasian Philosophical Review 3 (2):131-150.detailsABSTRACT At the centre of Plato’s Euthydemus lie a series of arguments in which Socrates’ interlocutors, the sophists Euthydemus and Dionysodorus propose a radical account of truth (‘chopped logos’) according to which there is no such thing as falsehood, and no such thing as disagreement (here ‘counter-saying’). This account of truth is not directly refutable; but in response Socrates offers a revised account of ‘saying’ focussed on the different aspects of the verb (perfect and imperfect) to give a rich account (...) of saying, of truth and of knowledge. I argue that Socrates’ response has much to offer, notably in its amplification of the process of saying and cognition, and the development of virtue. (shrink)
No categories
Mathematics in Narratives of Geodetic Expeditions.Mary Terrall -2006 -Isis 97 (4):683-699.detailsIn eighteenth‐century France, geodesy became an arena where mathematics and narrative intersected productively. Mathematics played a crucial role not only in the measurements and analysis necessary to geodesy but also in the narrative accounts that presented the results of elaborate and expensive expeditions to the reading public. When they returned to France to write these accounts after their travels, mathematician‐observers developed a variety of ways to display numbers and mathematical arguments and techniques. The numbers, equations, and diagrams they produced could (...) not be separated from the story of their acquisition. Reading these accounts for the interplay of these two aspects—the mathematical and the narrative—shows how travelers articulated the intellectual and physical difficulties of their work to enhance the value of their results for specialist and lay readers alike. (shrink)
Technology and the possibility of global environmental science.Mary Tiles -2009 -Synthese 168 (3):433 - 452.detailsGlobal environmental science, in its current configuration as predominantly interdisciplinary earth systems analysis, owes its existence to technological development in three respects. (1) Environmental impacts of globalization of corporate and military industrial development linked to widespread use of new technologies prompted investigation of ways to understand and anticipate the global nature of such impacts. (2) Extension of the reach of technology itself demands extension of attempts to anticipate and control the environment in which the technology is to function. Thus as (...) the reach becomes global, the environment in question is also global. (3) Such global studies cannot get far without the development of command, control and information technologies (computers, satellites, automated remote sensing devices) which are crucial for data gathering, storage, and analysis and for the simulation modeling, crucial to theory testing and prediction. This network of dependence on technological development gives the global environmental sciences a rather distinctive epistemological profile, one in which some distinctions that we had thought were clear, on the basis of models of classic laboratory sciences (such as those between experiment and deduction or representation and instrument), turn out to be far from clear. In consequence there needs to be a careful evaluation of the extent to which, or the ways in which, these sciences can provide bases for policy decisions. (shrink)
Feminismos no Nordeste brasileiro. Histórias, memórias e práticas políticas.Mary Ferreira -2011 -Polis 28.detailsO feminismo no Brasil é remanescente do movimento sufragista que eclode no século XIX, tem suas primeiras “vitórias” no início do século XX e mudanças substanciais no final desse século. Tais mudanças, entretanto, não se deram de forma natural, uma vez que mudanças sociais são resultantes de processos de luta, reivindicações, mediações e ação permanentes. Ao refletir sobre as memórias do feminismo no Brasil buscamos abrir olhos e mentes que permitam refletir os passos largos que possibilitaram construir agendas consideradas avançadas (...) no contexto brasileiro, ou passos lentos que em determinadas situações parecemos recuar ou os momentos em que não demos passos nenhum, ficamos paradas, apenas refletindo sobre ações articuladas para pensar, planejar e transcender o lugar comum na busca de um presente que permitam as mulheres se constituir como sujeito. (shrink)
Understanding John Duns Scotus: of realty the rarest-veined unraveller.Mary Beth Ingham -2017 - St. Bonaventure, New York: Franciscan Institute Publications.detailsFranciscan commitments -- Creation: a metaphysics of the particular -- Cognition, language, and reality -- Divine existence and perfections -- What is theology? -- Freedom and the will -- Moral goodness and beauty -- Practical wisdom and discernment -- Creation, incarnation, and divine desire.
Considering Religious Traditions in Bioethics: Christian and Jewish Voices.Mary Jo Iozzio -2001 - University of Scranton Press.detailsThis book represents a collaborative effort among the Christians and Jewish religious thinkers. They all focus on a bioethical moment at the beginning or the end of life. As members of a distinct tradition that has addressed the subject in a formal way, each one attempts an explanation of that tradition's position on the subject and suggests further developments. Healthcare issues are complex to begin with and these analyses and discussions make it a bit more likely they will be dealt (...) with on sound moral grounds. (shrink)
Self-determination and the moral act: a study of the contributions of Odon Lottin, O.S.B.Mary Jo Iozzio -1995 - Leuven: Peeters.detailsOdon Lottin, O.S.B. was an historian and a moral theologian. As an historian, he studied the scholastic attention to human psychology and morality. As a theologian, he studied the roles that thought and action play in the development of the moral agent. His influence in historical and moral theology has been significant. Nonetheless, moralists and medievalists independently have appropriated his insights. No one has yet studied the relationship between his historical investigations and his moral theology. This work accomplishes that study. (...) ;This dissertation considers Lottin's contributions to both historical and moral theology. Lottin studies the medieval history and understanding of free choice, moral action, the acquired virtues and conscience. He traces this history to uncover specific ideas, expose the development of thought, recognize the emergence of consensus, and find whether satisfying resolutions were achieved. Many of his contemporaries in the manual tradition misinterpreted this history. This misinterpretation was due to their inaccurate or undeveloped historical method. And, just as there was deficiency in their method, there were significant shortcomings in the scope of their theological investigations. Thus, by looking back to history, Lottin presents a moral theology more substantive than the manuals. Each of the first four chapters of this dissertation presents Lottin's historical studies of the major debates, examines his incorporation of that material into his own contribution to the debates' resolutions, and concludes with how his work has been appropriated and where it may yet lead. The final chapter considers Lottin's contribution to the discipline of moral theology. ;Moral theology can neither be ahistorical nor impersonal. Lottin's work demonstrates the necessity of accurate history for interpretation and of critical reflection on the cause of human action. His return to medieval moral theology is a return to human agency. His agent-centered moral theology retrieves prudence and the moral virtues as dynamic means for rightly forming consciences and determining action. Historical and agent-centered moral theology is concerned with theory and practice. The theory of the moral life looks at human intentionality, the practice is its free expression; together they comprise the meaning of self-determination. (shrink)
Introducing contemporary feminist thought.Mary Evans -1997 - Malden, MA, USA: In association with Blackwell Publishers.detailsThis book offers a clear and coherent guide to contemporary feminism for students of women's studies, gender studies, sociology, social theory and literary ...