Carl Sagan
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195310726
- eISBN:
- 9780199785179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195310726.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Carl Sagan is a public intellectual and the best-selling author of Cosmos, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human ...
More
Carl Sagan is a public intellectual and the best-selling author of Cosmos, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, and many other books. His science fiction novel, Contact, was made into a popular, major motion picture in 1997. Sagan is well known for his interests in extra-terrestrial life and is closely linked to the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). As a scientist, Sagan educated the public about “Nuclear Winter”, the idea that a nuclear war could precipitate an unprecedented ice age that might render the Earth largely uninhabitable. Sagan became notorious in certain circles for his forays into religion, which he viewed with skepticism.Less
Carl Sagan is a public intellectual and the best-selling author of Cosmos, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, and many other books. His science fiction novel, Contact, was made into a popular, major motion picture in 1997. Sagan is well known for his interests in extra-terrestrial life and is closely linked to the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). As a scientist, Sagan educated the public about “Nuclear Winter”, the idea that a nuclear war could precipitate an unprecedented ice age that might render the Earth largely uninhabitable. Sagan became notorious in certain circles for his forays into religion, which he viewed with skepticism.
Gyula Klima
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195176223
- eISBN:
- 9780199871957
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176223.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter provides a brief survey of Buridan’s reliabilist epistemology, contrasting it with skeptical challenges of his time, and comparing it with modern responses to similar skeptical ...
More
This chapter provides a brief survey of Buridan’s reliabilist epistemology, contrasting it with skeptical challenges of his time, and comparing it with modern responses to similar skeptical challenges in modern philosophy, arguably stemming from the controversies of Buridan’s time. In particular, the chapter argues that the sort of “Demon-skepticism” modern readers are familiar with from Descartes was made conceptually possible precisely by the emergence of late-medieval nominalist semantics, and that the modern strategies responding to the skeptical challenge, exemplified by the works of Thomas Reid and most recently John Greco, originate in the epistemic principles of Buridan.Less
This chapter provides a brief survey of Buridan’s reliabilist epistemology, contrasting it with skeptical challenges of his time, and comparing it with modern responses to similar skeptical challenges in modern philosophy, arguably stemming from the controversies of Buridan’s time. In particular, the chapter argues that the sort of “Demon-skepticism” modern readers are familiar with from Descartes was made conceptually possible precisely by the emergence of late-medieval nominalist semantics, and that the modern strategies responding to the skeptical challenge, exemplified by the works of Thomas Reid and most recently John Greco, originate in the epistemic principles of Buridan.
Gyula Klima
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195176223
- eISBN:
- 9780199871957
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176223.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter compares the modern reliabilist strategies, including Buridan’s antiskepticism, considered in the previous chapter with a premodern form of antiskepticism, exemplified by Aquinas’s ...
More
This chapter compares the modern reliabilist strategies, including Buridan’s antiskepticism, considered in the previous chapter with a premodern form of antiskepticism, exemplified by Aquinas’s doctrine of “the formal unity of the knower and the known”, which, as the chapter argues, simply does not allow the emergence of “Demon-skepticism.” In fact, the chapter further argues that the emergence of “Demon-skepticism“ in its most extreme form, allowing an impossibility to appear as a possibility, indicates a serious flaw in the nominalist conception of mental representation. Nevertheless, the chapter further argues that this flaw is easily masked by the apparent success of Buridan’s reliabilist strategy, not requiring the elimination of Demon-skepticism, but rather presenting reasonable ways for us to learn to live with it.Less
This chapter compares the modern reliabilist strategies, including Buridan’s antiskepticism, considered in the previous chapter with a premodern form of antiskepticism, exemplified by Aquinas’s doctrine of “the formal unity of the knower and the known”, which, as the chapter argues, simply does not allow the emergence of “Demon-skepticism.” In fact, the chapter further argues that the emergence of “Demon-skepticism“ in its most extreme form, allowing an impossibility to appear as a possibility, indicates a serious flaw in the nominalist conception of mental representation. Nevertheless, the chapter further argues that this flaw is easily masked by the apparent success of Buridan’s reliabilist strategy, not requiring the elimination of Demon-skepticism, but rather presenting reasonable ways for us to learn to live with it.
Penelope Maddy
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199273669
- eISBN:
- 9780191706264
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199273669.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics
Unlike Descartes, contemporary philosophers tend to regard the possibility that I might be dreaming as a serious threat to the reasonableness of my ordinary beliefs about the world. Here the Second ...
More
Unlike Descartes, contemporary philosophers tend to regard the possibility that I might be dreaming as a serious threat to the reasonableness of my ordinary beliefs about the world. Here the Second Philosopher's point of view is illustrated by her reaction to this challenge, especially as it is posed by Stroud. In the end, she sees the sceptic as asking her to defend her usual ways of finding out about the world without using any of those methods in the process. This strikes her as a coherent and even understandable request, and one she has no idea how to satisfy. What she denies is the contention that it arises simply from careful scrutiny of her ordinary methods and that it must be satisfied in order for her ordinary beliefs to be reasonable.Less
Unlike Descartes, contemporary philosophers tend to regard the possibility that I might be dreaming as a serious threat to the reasonableness of my ordinary beliefs about the world. Here the Second Philosopher's point of view is illustrated by her reaction to this challenge, especially as it is posed by Stroud. In the end, she sees the sceptic as asking her to defend her usual ways of finding out about the world without using any of those methods in the process. This strikes her as a coherent and even understandable request, and one she has no idea how to satisfy. What she denies is the contention that it arises simply from careful scrutiny of her ordinary methods and that it must be satisfied in order for her ordinary beliefs to be reasonable.
Neil Corcoran
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198186908
- eISBN:
- 9780191719011
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186908.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter offers a reading of Bowen's collection of Second World War short stories, The Demon Lover and Other Stories, proposing it as a book of unhappy returns. Studies of dislocation, the ...
More
This chapter offers a reading of Bowen's collection of Second World War short stories, The Demon Lover and Other Stories, proposing it as a book of unhappy returns. Studies of dislocation, the stories have their Anglo-Irish element, even though they are set mainly in the London of the Blitz. The chapter also considers matters of literary allusion and reference, as well as issues of gender together with sexual and social disruption. The chapter concludes with a lengthy reading of the figure of the apparently supernatural ghost in one of Bowen's greatest short stories, The Demon Lover, suggesting an influence from T. S. Eliot, an affinity with William Golding, and an alliance with Freud's conception of the ‘uncanny’. Thus, in various ways the story is the representation of crisis.Less
This chapter offers a reading of Bowen's collection of Second World War short stories, The Demon Lover and Other Stories, proposing it as a book of unhappy returns. Studies of dislocation, the stories have their Anglo-Irish element, even though they are set mainly in the London of the Blitz. The chapter also considers matters of literary allusion and reference, as well as issues of gender together with sexual and social disruption. The chapter concludes with a lengthy reading of the figure of the apparently supernatural ghost in one of Bowen's greatest short stories, The Demon Lover, suggesting an influence from T. S. Eliot, an affinity with William Golding, and an alliance with Freud's conception of the ‘uncanny’. Thus, in various ways the story is the representation of crisis.
Ronald Rubin
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804758161
- eISBN:
- 9780804779661
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804758161.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This book attempts to explain The Meditations (1641), a classic of Western philosophy in which Descartes tries to reach a predetermined end (“perfect certainty”) by means of a definite method (“the ...
More
This book attempts to explain The Meditations (1641), a classic of Western philosophy in which Descartes tries to reach a predetermined end (“perfect certainty”) by means of a definite method (“the method of doubt”). The author argues that many problems of interpretation—including notorious problems of circularity—arise from a failure to recognize that Descartes' strategy for attaining certainty is not to add support for his beliefs, but to subtract grounds for doubt. To explain this strategy, he views Descartes as playing the role of a fictional character—The Demon's Advocate—whose beliefs are, in some respects, mirror images of Descartes' own. The purpose of The Meditations, the author contends, is to silence The Demon's Advocate.Less
This book attempts to explain The Meditations (1641), a classic of Western philosophy in which Descartes tries to reach a predetermined end (“perfect certainty”) by means of a definite method (“the method of doubt”). The author argues that many problems of interpretation—including notorious problems of circularity—arise from a failure to recognize that Descartes' strategy for attaining certainty is not to add support for his beliefs, but to subtract grounds for doubt. To explain this strategy, he views Descartes as playing the role of a fictional character—The Demon's Advocate—whose beliefs are, in some respects, mirror images of Descartes' own. The purpose of The Meditations, the author contends, is to silence The Demon's Advocate.
Heine Steven
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195386202
- eISBN:
- 9780199918362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386202.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
How important are the vast number of religious sites in Tokyo? Why and to what extent do they endure and even thrive in the context of modern society that responds to the push of ancient traditions ...
More
How important are the vast number of religious sites in Tokyo? Why and to what extent do they endure and even thrive in the context of modern society that responds to the push of ancient traditions and the pulls of contemporary secularization? This chapter gives an overview of how a carefully selected number of holy sites will be used to consider the various ways that traditional notions of sacred space are appropriated and continue to function in Tokyo, as well as in urbanized Japanese society more generally. It provides a preview of case studies of temples and shrines drawn from two representative yet contrasting neighborhoods: Akasaka in the affluent and influential central district of Yamanote or the High City; and Inarichō in the downbeat yet perpetually creative peripheral district of Shitamachi or the Low City.Less
How important are the vast number of religious sites in Tokyo? Why and to what extent do they endure and even thrive in the context of modern society that responds to the push of ancient traditions and the pulls of contemporary secularization? This chapter gives an overview of how a carefully selected number of holy sites will be used to consider the various ways that traditional notions of sacred space are appropriated and continue to function in Tokyo, as well as in urbanized Japanese society more generally. It provides a preview of case studies of temples and shrines drawn from two representative yet contrasting neighborhoods: Akasaka in the affluent and influential central district of Yamanote or the High City; and Inarichō in the downbeat yet perpetually creative peripheral district of Shitamachi or the Low City.
Giorgio Agamben
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262037594
- eISBN:
- 9780262345231
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262037594.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
This book charts a journey that ranges from poems of chivalry to philosophy, from Yvain to Hegel, from Beatrice to Heidegger. An ancient legend identifies Demon, Chance, Love, and Necessity as the ...
More
This book charts a journey that ranges from poems of chivalry to philosophy, from Yvain to Hegel, from Beatrice to Heidegger. An ancient legend identifies Demon, Chance, Love, and Necessity as the four gods who preside over the birth of every human being. We must all pay tribute to these deities and should not try to elude or dupe them. To accept them, the book suggests, is to live one's life as an adventure—not in the trivial sense of the term, with lightness and disenchantment, but with the understanding that adventure, as a specific way of being, is the most profound experience in our human existence. The four gods of legend are joined at the end by a goddess, the most elusive and mysterious of all: Elpis, Hope. In Greek mythology, Hope remains in Pandora's box, not because it postpones its fulfillment to an invisible beyond but because somehow it has always been already satisfied. Here, the book presents Hope as the ultimate gift of the human adventure on Earth.Less
This book charts a journey that ranges from poems of chivalry to philosophy, from Yvain to Hegel, from Beatrice to Heidegger. An ancient legend identifies Demon, Chance, Love, and Necessity as the four gods who preside over the birth of every human being. We must all pay tribute to these deities and should not try to elude or dupe them. To accept them, the book suggests, is to live one's life as an adventure—not in the trivial sense of the term, with lightness and disenchantment, but with the understanding that adventure, as a specific way of being, is the most profound experience in our human existence. The four gods of legend are joined at the end by a goddess, the most elusive and mysterious of all: Elpis, Hope. In Greek mythology, Hope remains in Pandora's box, not because it postpones its fulfillment to an invisible beyond but because somehow it has always been already satisfied. Here, the book presents Hope as the ultimate gift of the human adventure on Earth.
Wallace Matson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199812691
- eISBN:
- 9780199919420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812691.003.0018
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Cartesian skepticism, unlike Pyrrhonism, was total, calling into question low beliefs as well as high. Descartes himself was not a skeptic but set out the argument in its favor for the purpose of ...
More
Cartesian skepticism, unlike Pyrrhonism, was total, calling into question low beliefs as well as high. Descartes himself was not a skeptic but set out the argument in its favor for the purpose of refuting it and thereby strengthening theology. His argument was only possible against a specifically medieval background, his Evil Demon being the Omnipotent Creator-Legislator (OCL) in disguise. But as the skepticism was more convincing than the refutation, this concept is still around in our day, responsible for ‘modern’ philosophy's obsession with finding ‘foundations’ for knowledge. The pattern of the Ontological Argument for the existence of God, which moves from subjective conceivability to objective existence, can still be discerned in David Chalmers's advocacy of mind-body dualism: the subjective ‘logical possibility’ of zombies purporting to show the objective reality of the schism.Less
Cartesian skepticism, unlike Pyrrhonism, was total, calling into question low beliefs as well as high. Descartes himself was not a skeptic but set out the argument in its favor for the purpose of refuting it and thereby strengthening theology. His argument was only possible against a specifically medieval background, his Evil Demon being the Omnipotent Creator-Legislator (OCL) in disguise. But as the skepticism was more convincing than the refutation, this concept is still around in our day, responsible for ‘modern’ philosophy's obsession with finding ‘foundations’ for knowledge. The pattern of the Ontological Argument for the existence of God, which moves from subjective conceivability to objective existence, can still be discerned in David Chalmers's advocacy of mind-body dualism: the subjective ‘logical possibility’ of zombies purporting to show the objective reality of the schism.
Roger Pearson
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159179
- eISBN:
- 9780191673535
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159179.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, Poetry
‘Le Démon de l'analogie’ is commonly assumed to date from 1864 but there is no clear evidence that any version existed before Mallarmé sent one to Villiers de l'Isle-Adam in 1867. This text has ...
More
‘Le Démon de l'analogie’ is commonly assumed to date from 1864 but there is no clear evidence that any version existed before Mallarmé sent one to Villiers de l'Isle-Adam in 1867. This text has rightly attracted much critical attention as a prefiguration of Mallarmé's allegedly ‘later’ aesthetic, but it may by now be evident that its focus on the autonomous power of language is not an isolated or atypical feature of Mallarmé's writing from this period. Nevertheless, borrowing from Poe's ‘The Imp of the Perverse’ the central idea of a pedestrian pursued by words, it gives a particularly clear account of the way in which Mallarmé now saw language as generating a world of its own. Language is the event, and ‘Le Démon de l'analogie’ offers an allegorical account of how a poet finds his poetic voice in the face of language's autonomy.Less
‘Le Démon de l'analogie’ is commonly assumed to date from 1864 but there is no clear evidence that any version existed before Mallarmé sent one to Villiers de l'Isle-Adam in 1867. This text has rightly attracted much critical attention as a prefiguration of Mallarmé's allegedly ‘later’ aesthetic, but it may by now be evident that its focus on the autonomous power of language is not an isolated or atypical feature of Mallarmé's writing from this period. Nevertheless, borrowing from Poe's ‘The Imp of the Perverse’ the central idea of a pedestrian pursued by words, it gives a particularly clear account of the way in which Mallarmé now saw language as generating a world of its own. Language is the event, and ‘Le Démon de l'analogie’ offers an allegorical account of how a poet finds his poetic voice in the face of language's autonomy.
Christine Cornea
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624652
- eISBN:
- 9780748671106
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624652.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This study offers a broad historical and theoretical reassessment of the science fiction film genre. The book explores the development of science fiction in cinema from its beginnings in early film ...
More
This study offers a broad historical and theoretical reassessment of the science fiction film genre. The book explores the development of science fiction in cinema from its beginnings in early film through to recent examples of the genre. Each chapter sets analyses of chosen films within a wider historical/cultural context, while concentrating on a specific thematic issue. The book therefore presents unique perspectives in its approach to the genre, which include discussion of the relevance of psychedelic imagery, the ‘new woman of science’, generic performance and the prevalence of ‘techno-orientalism’ in recent films. While American films is one of the principle areas covered, the book also engages with a range of pertinent examples from other nations, as well as discussing the centrality of science fiction as a transnational film genre. Films discussed include The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Body Snatchers, Forbidden Planet, The Quatermass Experiment, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Demon Seed, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Wars, Altered States, Alien, Blade Runner, The Brother from Another Planet, Back to the Future, The Terminator, Predator, The One, Dark City, The Matrix, Fifth Element and eXistenZ.Less
This study offers a broad historical and theoretical reassessment of the science fiction film genre. The book explores the development of science fiction in cinema from its beginnings in early film through to recent examples of the genre. Each chapter sets analyses of chosen films within a wider historical/cultural context, while concentrating on a specific thematic issue. The book therefore presents unique perspectives in its approach to the genre, which include discussion of the relevance of psychedelic imagery, the ‘new woman of science’, generic performance and the prevalence of ‘techno-orientalism’ in recent films. While American films is one of the principle areas covered, the book also engages with a range of pertinent examples from other nations, as well as discussing the centrality of science fiction as a transnational film genre. Films discussed include The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Body Snatchers, Forbidden Planet, The Quatermass Experiment, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Demon Seed, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Wars, Altered States, Alien, Blade Runner, The Brother from Another Planet, Back to the Future, The Terminator, Predator, The One, Dark City, The Matrix, Fifth Element and eXistenZ.
Jeff Mielke
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520265783
- eISBN:
- 9780520947665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520265783.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the early development of Japanese anthropology and its influence on colonial literature. Western scholars introduced the science of anthropology to Japan in the 1870s and ...
More
This chapter examines the early development of Japanese anthropology and its influence on colonial literature. Western scholars introduced the science of anthropology to Japan in the 1870s and conducted the first scientific investigations into the origins of Japanese people. Within a decade, Japanese scholars “nationalized” this foreign science and brought it to bear on the aboriginal population of Taiwan, which quickly became the first overseas field in which Japanese anthropologists could work. In the next few decades, colonial ethnographers expanded their fieldwork to embrace all of the new territories that fell under Japan's dominion. As a genre of writing about aboriginal societies, ethnography provided a model for the writer Satō Haruo, who traveled to Taiwan in 1920 and became acquainted with the ethnographer Mori Ushinosuke. A few years after he returned to Japan, Satō wrote Machō (Demon Bird), a short story based on a passage in Mori's ethnography. The ethnographer-narrator of “Demon Bird” writes about an episode of persecution in an unnamed barbarian village. At the same time, the story he tells is an allegory about Japanese persecution of Koreans during the Great Kanto Earthquake. “Demon Bird” is a story that uncovers unexpected links between colony and metropolis. The work appeared at a time when criticism of Japan's colonial policies by liberal and reformist intellectuals was at its peak.Less
This chapter examines the early development of Japanese anthropology and its influence on colonial literature. Western scholars introduced the science of anthropology to Japan in the 1870s and conducted the first scientific investigations into the origins of Japanese people. Within a decade, Japanese scholars “nationalized” this foreign science and brought it to bear on the aboriginal population of Taiwan, which quickly became the first overseas field in which Japanese anthropologists could work. In the next few decades, colonial ethnographers expanded their fieldwork to embrace all of the new territories that fell under Japan's dominion. As a genre of writing about aboriginal societies, ethnography provided a model for the writer Satō Haruo, who traveled to Taiwan in 1920 and became acquainted with the ethnographer Mori Ushinosuke. A few years after he returned to Japan, Satō wrote Machō (Demon Bird), a short story based on a passage in Mori's ethnography. The ethnographer-narrator of “Demon Bird” writes about an episode of persecution in an unnamed barbarian village. At the same time, the story he tells is an allegory about Japanese persecution of Koreans during the Great Kanto Earthquake. “Demon Bird” is a story that uncovers unexpected links between colony and metropolis. The work appeared at a time when criticism of Japan's colonial policies by liberal and reformist intellectuals was at its peak.
Errol Lord
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- July 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198815099
- eISBN:
- 9780191852916
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198815099.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
The Importance of Being Rational systematically defends a novel reasons-based account of rationality. The book’s central thesis is that what it is for one to be rational is to correctly respond to ...
More
The Importance of Being Rational systematically defends a novel reasons-based account of rationality. The book’s central thesis is that what it is for one to be rational is to correctly respond to the normative reasons one possesses. The book defends novel views about what it is to possess reasons and what it is to correctly respond to reasons. It is shown that these views not only help to support the book’s main thesis, they also help to resolve several important problems that are independent of rationality. The account of possession provides novel contributions to debates about what determines what we ought to do, and the account of correctly responding to reasons provides novel contributions to debates about causal theories of reacting for reasons. After defending views about possession and correctly responding, it is shown that the account of rationality can solve two difficult problems about rationality. The first is the New Evil Demon problem. The book argues that the account has the resources to show that internal duplicates necessarily have the same rational status. The second problem concerns the ‘normativity’ of rationality. Recently it has been doubted that we ought to be rational. The ultimate conclusion of the book is that the requirements of rationality are the requirements that we ultimately ought to comply with. If this is right, then rationality is of fundamental importance to our deliberative lives.Less
The Importance of Being Rational systematically defends a novel reasons-based account of rationality. The book’s central thesis is that what it is for one to be rational is to correctly respond to the normative reasons one possesses. The book defends novel views about what it is to possess reasons and what it is to correctly respond to reasons. It is shown that these views not only help to support the book’s main thesis, they also help to resolve several important problems that are independent of rationality. The account of possession provides novel contributions to debates about what determines what we ought to do, and the account of correctly responding to reasons provides novel contributions to debates about causal theories of reacting for reasons. After defending views about possession and correctly responding, it is shown that the account of rationality can solve two difficult problems about rationality. The first is the New Evil Demon problem. The book argues that the account has the resources to show that internal duplicates necessarily have the same rational status. The second problem concerns the ‘normativity’ of rationality. Recently it has been doubted that we ought to be rational. The ultimate conclusion of the book is that the requirements of rationality are the requirements that we ultimately ought to comply with. If this is right, then rationality is of fundamental importance to our deliberative lives.
Jem Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748625338
- eISBN:
- 9780748671038
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748625338.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter describes the ‘inter-medial’ pop concert, where live performance is combined with virtual representations of some kind, and it looks at how these can impact on what actually constitutes ...
More
This chapter describes the ‘inter-medial’ pop concert, where live performance is combined with virtual representations of some kind, and it looks at how these can impact on what actually constitutes a live performance. It defines examples of past music/sound-driven performances by the Velvet Underground and Madonna, and analyses new techniques and intermedialities employed by the animated pop group Gorillaz. Co-presence of performer and spectator is an enduring generic convention in pop performance, proposing a shared experience, a sense of ‘being there’ in the moment. Gorillaz contribute to the demise of the modernist meta-narrative of authorial presence in pop performance. While the Warhol-influenced Velvet Underground used film projection experimentally, Madonna continues to exploit telematic and video playback technologies as a memory device, or memoria technica. In performance, the shadows, ghostings, repetitions and inter-medial interventions that develop a complex and engaging scopic experience make Gorillaz' Demon Days innovative.Less
This chapter describes the ‘inter-medial’ pop concert, where live performance is combined with virtual representations of some kind, and it looks at how these can impact on what actually constitutes a live performance. It defines examples of past music/sound-driven performances by the Velvet Underground and Madonna, and analyses new techniques and intermedialities employed by the animated pop group Gorillaz. Co-presence of performer and spectator is an enduring generic convention in pop performance, proposing a shared experience, a sense of ‘being there’ in the moment. Gorillaz contribute to the demise of the modernist meta-narrative of authorial presence in pop performance. While the Warhol-influenced Velvet Underground used film projection experimentally, Madonna continues to exploit telematic and video playback technologies as a memory device, or memoria technica. In performance, the shadows, ghostings, repetitions and inter-medial interventions that develop a complex and engaging scopic experience make Gorillaz' Demon Days innovative.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804748636
- eISBN:
- 9780804779395
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804748636.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
A quoted passage in Lord Teika's Kindai shūka (Superior Poems of Our Time) holds the clue to the question of whether he actually intended the “pre-Kampyō” period to cover both the age of “the six ...
More
A quoted passage in Lord Teika's Kindai shūka (Superior Poems of Our Time) holds the clue to the question of whether he actually intended the “pre-Kampyō” period to cover both the age of “the six poet-immortals” (rokkasen) and the more ancient Man'yōshū poetry. In the context of Sasamegoto, Shinkei's interpretation was driven by a desire to promote the study of that ancient classic as against the commonly held view of its difficulty. He refers to the Man'yōshū, which he included in the renga poet's classical education, in Part II of Sasamegoto in the context of a central passage that defines poetic beauty as primarily a quality of mind (kokoro) rather than diction (kotoba) and configuration (sugata). With respect to the case of the study of poetic styles, Shinkei agrees with Teika's argument that the style of simplicity and grace should be mastered once an individual starts training, and that the Demon-Quelling Style can be achieved only at the end of the training.Less
A quoted passage in Lord Teika's Kindai shūka (Superior Poems of Our Time) holds the clue to the question of whether he actually intended the “pre-Kampyō” period to cover both the age of “the six poet-immortals” (rokkasen) and the more ancient Man'yōshū poetry. In the context of Sasamegoto, Shinkei's interpretation was driven by a desire to promote the study of that ancient classic as against the commonly held view of its difficulty. He refers to the Man'yōshū, which he included in the renga poet's classical education, in Part II of Sasamegoto in the context of a central passage that defines poetic beauty as primarily a quality of mind (kokoro) rather than diction (kotoba) and configuration (sugata). With respect to the case of the study of poetic styles, Shinkei agrees with Teika's argument that the style of simplicity and grace should be mastered once an individual starts training, and that the Demon-Quelling Style can be achieved only at the end of the training.
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804753708
- eISBN:
- 9780804768030
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804753708.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter examines how Mikhail Lermontov's long and often-revised narrative poem The Demon attenuates the Romantic vision of ethics while drawing on Romantic ideas and images of spiritual ...
More
This chapter examines how Mikhail Lermontov's long and often-revised narrative poem The Demon attenuates the Romantic vision of ethics while drawing on Romantic ideas and images of spiritual transcendence and demonic rebellion. It analyzes four examples of Romantic poetry and prose centering on demonic figures that influenced Lermontov's imagination: Alfred de Vigny's Eloa, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Lord Byron's Cain, and Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer. The chapter argues that The Demon is not a failed effort at a Romantic tale of evil but a successful artistic achievement expressing a view of life to which the exalted Romantic visions of good and evil no longer pertain.Less
This chapter examines how Mikhail Lermontov's long and often-revised narrative poem The Demon attenuates the Romantic vision of ethics while drawing on Romantic ideas and images of spiritual transcendence and demonic rebellion. It analyzes four examples of Romantic poetry and prose centering on demonic figures that influenced Lermontov's imagination: Alfred de Vigny's Eloa, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Lord Byron's Cain, and Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer. The chapter argues that The Demon is not a failed effort at a Romantic tale of evil but a successful artistic achievement expressing a view of life to which the exalted Romantic visions of good and evil no longer pertain.
David E. James
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199387595
- eISBN:
- 9780199387632
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199387595.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Combining the cultural signs of black and white, male and female, United Kingdom and United States, Mick Jagger had a charismatic intensity that he exploited in various forms of traffic with ...
More
Combining the cultural signs of black and white, male and female, United Kingdom and United States, Mick Jagger had a charismatic intensity that he exploited in various forms of traffic with Satanism. Two crucial films mobilized his demonic otherness: Kenneth Anger’s Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) and Performance (Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, 1970). The latter dramatized Jagger’s delinquency in the context of the London criminal underworld, but conversely narrated his recovery of his musical prowess in the song, “Memo From Turner.” His role in these films embellished his previous self-presentations, furnishing him with the persona that he would henceforth manipulate.Less
Combining the cultural signs of black and white, male and female, United Kingdom and United States, Mick Jagger had a charismatic intensity that he exploited in various forms of traffic with Satanism. Two crucial films mobilized his demonic otherness: Kenneth Anger’s Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) and Performance (Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, 1970). The latter dramatized Jagger’s delinquency in the context of the London criminal underworld, but conversely narrated his recovery of his musical prowess in the song, “Memo From Turner.” His role in these films embellished his previous self-presentations, furnishing him with the persona that he would henceforth manipulate.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804758161
- eISBN:
- 9780804779661
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804758161.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter, which focuses on Rene Descartes' method of analysis for belief and certainty in his Meditations, suggests that his primary rule of method is to accept a proposition into his system of ...
More
This chapter, which focuses on Rene Descartes' method of analysis for belief and certainty in his Meditations, suggests that his primary rule of method is to accept a proposition into his system of belief if and only if he can convince the Demon's Advocate of its truth. It considers Descartes' analogy about dumping the apples out of a barrel and discusses Harry Frankfurt's interpretation that, to empty the barrel, one need not cease to hold one's beliefs.Less
This chapter, which focuses on Rene Descartes' method of analysis for belief and certainty in his Meditations, suggests that his primary rule of method is to accept a proposition into his system of belief if and only if he can convince the Demon's Advocate of its truth. It considers Descartes' analogy about dumping the apples out of a barrel and discusses Harry Frankfurt's interpretation that, to empty the barrel, one need not cease to hold one's beliefs.
Errol Lord
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- July 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198815099
- eISBN:
- 9780191852916
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198815099.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter is about the New Evil Demon problem for externalist accounts of rationality. The New Evil Demon problem plagues views that hold that what is rational is not solely determined by internal ...
More
This chapter is about the New Evil Demon problem for externalist accounts of rationality. The New Evil Demon problem plagues views that hold that what is rational is not solely determined by internal states of the agent. To solve the New Evil Demon problem one has to show that internal state duplicates—agents who share all (and only) the same internal states—always share the same rational status. This chapter argues that Reasons Responsiveness can solve the New Evil Demon problem. It is argued that even though not all internal state duplicates share the same reasons, they do always share the same rational status. The chapter also argues that Reasons Responsiveness solves several problems related to the New Evil Demon problem. These include problems about getting knowledge from falsehoods, non-veridical perceptual justification, and a problem about reacting to reasons I call the New New Evil Demon problem.Less
This chapter is about the New Evil Demon problem for externalist accounts of rationality. The New Evil Demon problem plagues views that hold that what is rational is not solely determined by internal states of the agent. To solve the New Evil Demon problem one has to show that internal state duplicates—agents who share all (and only) the same internal states—always share the same rational status. This chapter argues that Reasons Responsiveness can solve the New Evil Demon problem. It is argued that even though not all internal state duplicates share the same reasons, they do always share the same rational status. The chapter also argues that Reasons Responsiveness solves several problems related to the New Evil Demon problem. These include problems about getting knowledge from falsehoods, non-veridical perceptual justification, and a problem about reacting to reasons I call the New New Evil Demon problem.
Gyula Klima
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823262748
- eISBN:
- 9780823266586
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823262748.003.0015
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
Gyula Klima provides a systematic survey of the main issues concerning scholastic theories of mental representation covered in the volume. The chapter argues that basically two major approaches ...
More
Gyula Klima provides a systematic survey of the main issues concerning scholastic theories of mental representation covered in the volume. The chapter argues that basically two major approaches developed, determining two fundamentally different constructions of logical semantics and related theories in cognitive psychology and epistemology: the realist via antiqua and the nominalist via moderna. What fundamentally separates these schools of thought is their different constructions of logical semantics: an “intensionalist” construction on the part of realists and an “extensionalist” one on the part of the nominalists. This difference is based on the two parties’ different understanding of what concepts are. The chapter concludes that the new conceptions of concepts emerging with the via moderna open up the late medieval possibility of “Demon skepticism,” paving the way to the epistemological predicaments of early modern philosophy, still affecting many contemporary approaches in the field.Less
Gyula Klima provides a systematic survey of the main issues concerning scholastic theories of mental representation covered in the volume. The chapter argues that basically two major approaches developed, determining two fundamentally different constructions of logical semantics and related theories in cognitive psychology and epistemology: the realist via antiqua and the nominalist via moderna. What fundamentally separates these schools of thought is their different constructions of logical semantics: an “intensionalist” construction on the part of realists and an “extensionalist” one on the part of the nominalists. This difference is based on the two parties’ different understanding of what concepts are. The chapter concludes that the new conceptions of concepts emerging with the via moderna open up the late medieval possibility of “Demon skepticism,” paving the way to the epistemological predicaments of early modern philosophy, still affecting many contemporary approaches in the field.
