Marie McGinn
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199244447
- eISBN:
- 9780191714146
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244447.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Discussions of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus are currently dominated by two opposing interpretations of the work: a metaphysical or realist reading and the ‘resolute’ reading of Cora Diamond and James ...
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Discussions of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus are currently dominated by two opposing interpretations of the work: a metaphysical or realist reading and the ‘resolute’ reading of Cora Diamond and James Conant. This book aims to develop an alternative interpretative line, which rejects the idea central to the metaphysical reading that Wittgenstein sets out to ground the logic of our language in features of an independently constituted reality, but which allows that he aims to provide positive philosophical insights into how language functions. It takes as a guiding principle the idea that we should see Wittgenstein’s early work as an attempt to eschew philosophical theory and to allow language itself to reveal how it functions. By this account, the aim of the work is to elucidate what language itself makes clear, namely, what is essential to its capacity to express thoughts that are true or false. The anti-metaphysical interpretation presented includes a novel reading of the problematic opening sections of the Tractatus, in which the apparently metaphysical status of Wittgenstein’s remarks is shown to be an illusion. The book includes a discussion of the philosophical background to the Tractatus, a comprehensive interpretation of Wittgenstein’s early views of logic and language, and an interpretation of the remarks on solipsism. The final chapter is a discussion of the relation between the early and the later philosophy that articulates the fundamental shift in Wittgenstein’s approach to the task of understanding how language functions and reveal the still more fundamental continuity in his conception of his philosophical task.Less
Discussions of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus are currently dominated by two opposing interpretations of the work: a metaphysical or realist reading and the ‘resolute’ reading of Cora Diamond and James Conant. This book aims to develop an alternative interpretative line, which rejects the idea central to the metaphysical reading that Wittgenstein sets out to ground the logic of our language in features of an independently constituted reality, but which allows that he aims to provide positive philosophical insights into how language functions. It takes as a guiding principle the idea that we should see Wittgenstein’s early work as an attempt to eschew philosophical theory and to allow language itself to reveal how it functions. By this account, the aim of the work is to elucidate what language itself makes clear, namely, what is essential to its capacity to express thoughts that are true or false. The anti-metaphysical interpretation presented includes a novel reading of the problematic opening sections of the Tractatus, in which the apparently metaphysical status of Wittgenstein’s remarks is shown to be an illusion. The book includes a discussion of the philosophical background to the Tractatus, a comprehensive interpretation of Wittgenstein’s early views of logic and language, and an interpretation of the remarks on solipsism. The final chapter is a discussion of the relation between the early and the later philosophy that articulates the fundamental shift in Wittgenstein’s approach to the task of understanding how language functions and reveal the still more fundamental continuity in his conception of his philosophical task.
Quentin Smith (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199264933
- eISBN:
- 9780191718472
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199264933.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This book offers a view of the current state of play in epistemology in the form of twelve chapters by some of the philosophers who have most influenced the course of debates in recent years. Topics ...
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This book offers a view of the current state of play in epistemology in the form of twelve chapters by some of the philosophers who have most influenced the course of debates in recent years. Topics include epistemic justification, solipsism, scepticism, and modal, moral, naturalistic, and probabilistic epistemology. Such approaches as reliabilism, evidentialism, infinitism, and virtue epistemology are here developed further by the philosophers who pioneered them.Less
This book offers a view of the current state of play in epistemology in the form of twelve chapters by some of the philosophers who have most influenced the course of debates in recent years. Topics include epistemic justification, solipsism, scepticism, and modal, moral, naturalistic, and probabilistic epistemology. Such approaches as reliabilism, evidentialism, infinitism, and virtue epistemology are here developed further by the philosophers who pioneered them.
David Constantine
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198157885
- eISBN:
- 9780191673238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198157885.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, Poetry
Friedrich Hölderlin's biography, his figurative life, may be better known than his poems. He is syntactically difficult sometimes too, and moves in his poetic thinking through unapparent connections. ...
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Friedrich Hölderlin's biography, his figurative life, may be better known than his poems. He is syntactically difficult sometimes too, and moves in his poetic thinking through unapparent connections. Then the sheer length of many of his best poems is off-putting, which is why the Diotima poems written in Frankfurt and Homburg are a good place to begin. The purity of his poetry and the urgency of his demands, if they do not wholly engage one, may actually be wearisome or repellent. His critique of wrong living is exact and ungainsayable. His political hopes and disappointment look more and more representative. He was a deeply religious poet, whose fundamental tenet is nevertheless absence and the threat of meaninglessness. He had a Romantic hope that the mind and the poetic imagination might make meaning; and the Romantic dread of solipsism. His poetics are a theory of perpetual onward movement, and his poems realize it.Less
Friedrich Hölderlin's biography, his figurative life, may be better known than his poems. He is syntactically difficult sometimes too, and moves in his poetic thinking through unapparent connections. Then the sheer length of many of his best poems is off-putting, which is why the Diotima poems written in Frankfurt and Homburg are a good place to begin. The purity of his poetry and the urgency of his demands, if they do not wholly engage one, may actually be wearisome or repellent. His critique of wrong living is exact and ungainsayable. His political hopes and disappointment look more and more representative. He was a deeply religious poet, whose fundamental tenet is nevertheless absence and the threat of meaninglessness. He had a Romantic hope that the mind and the poetic imagination might make meaning; and the Romantic dread of solipsism. His poetics are a theory of perpetual onward movement, and his poems realize it.
David Pears
- Published in print:
- 1987
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198247708
- eISBN:
- 9780191598203
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198247702.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This is the first of David Pears's acclaimed two‐volume work on the development of Wittgenstein's philosophy, covering the pre‐1929 writings. Part I of the first volume consists in a brief but ...
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This is the first of David Pears's acclaimed two‐volume work on the development of Wittgenstein's philosophy, covering the pre‐1929 writings. Part I of the first volume consists in a brief but eloquent overview of Wittgenstein's philosophy as a whole; Part II critically examines the earlier system, delineating and evaluating the central ideas (logical atomism, picture theory of meaning, and solipsism) with intellectual rigour and clarity. Pears succeeds in both offering an original realist interpretation of Wittgenstein's earlier thought, one that has found many followers, and in demarcating a structural framework that makes the internal organization of Wittgenstein's philosophy as a whole more accessible.Less
This is the first of David Pears's acclaimed two‐volume work on the development of Wittgenstein's philosophy, covering the pre‐1929 writings. Part I of the first volume consists in a brief but eloquent overview of Wittgenstein's philosophy as a whole; Part II critically examines the earlier system, delineating and evaluating the central ideas (logical atomism, picture theory of meaning, and solipsism) with intellectual rigour and clarity. Pears succeeds in both offering an original realist interpretation of Wittgenstein's earlier thought, one that has found many followers, and in demarcating a structural framework that makes the internal organization of Wittgenstein's philosophy as a whole more accessible.
Denis McManus
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199288021
- eISBN:
- 9780191713446
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288021.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter examines the Tractatus’ discussion of thought and subjectivity, particularly its remarks concerning the ‘internal relatedness’ of thoughts and their constituents, thoughts and facts, and ...
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This chapter examines the Tractatus’ discussion of thought and subjectivity, particularly its remarks concerning the ‘internal relatedness’ of thoughts and their constituents, thoughts and facts, and subject and world. By reflecting on the notion of first language learning, a sense is identified in which subject and world might be said to be ‘internally related’: we can make no sense of the notion of the subject ‘coming to’ or indeed already being ‘in contact with’ its world. On this basis, a reading is presented of Wittgenstein’s puzzling and apparently sympathetic remarks about solipsism. In discussing and criticising alternative interpretations of the ‘internal relation’ between subject and world, further light is shed on the notion that Wittgenstein is casting doubt on whether we have a clear idea of what it is for thought to be ‘intelligible’ and for language to be ‘meaningful’ to ‘work’.Less
This chapter examines the Tractatus’ discussion of thought and subjectivity, particularly its remarks concerning the ‘internal relatedness’ of thoughts and their constituents, thoughts and facts, and subject and world. By reflecting on the notion of first language learning, a sense is identified in which subject and world might be said to be ‘internally related’: we can make no sense of the notion of the subject ‘coming to’ or indeed already being ‘in contact with’ its world. On this basis, a reading is presented of Wittgenstein’s puzzling and apparently sympathetic remarks about solipsism. In discussing and criticising alternative interpretations of the ‘internal relation’ between subject and world, further light is shed on the notion that Wittgenstein is casting doubt on whether we have a clear idea of what it is for thought to be ‘intelligible’ and for language to be ‘meaningful’ to ‘work’.
Eric T. Olson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195176421
- eISBN:
- 9780199872008
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176421.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter examines the view that we do not exist because there are no human thinkers: nihilism. Nihilism is defended against the charge that it is an absurd denial of the obvious, or that it is ...
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This chapter examines the view that we do not exist because there are no human thinkers: nihilism. Nihilism is defended against the charge that it is an absurd denial of the obvious, or that it is self‐refuting. Attempts by Kant and others, such as Russell, Unger, and Wittgenstein, to defeat nihilism by showing that thought requires a thinker are examined and found wanting. Attention then turns to attempts to paraphrase statements apparently about people into terms compatible with nihilism. Although this is difficult because nihilists will want to deny the existence of any composite objects, no conclusive objections to the project are found. It is then argued that nihilism, like solipsism, is depressing, and that someone who accepted it consistently would appear to deprive herself of any reasons for action.Less
This chapter examines the view that we do not exist because there are no human thinkers: nihilism. Nihilism is defended against the charge that it is an absurd denial of the obvious, or that it is self‐refuting. Attempts by Kant and others, such as Russell, Unger, and Wittgenstein, to defeat nihilism by showing that thought requires a thinker are examined and found wanting. Attention then turns to attempts to paraphrase statements apparently about people into terms compatible with nihilism. Although this is difficult because nihilists will want to deny the existence of any composite objects, no conclusive objections to the project are found. It is then argued that nihilism, like solipsism, is depressing, and that someone who accepted it consistently would appear to deprive herself of any reasons for action.
Peter Brooks
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151588
- eISBN:
- 9781400839698
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151588.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter focuses on masturbation, the sex that one has with oneself. If masturbation becomes a “problem”—rather than simply a fact of life, dating from infancy and openly discovered at ...
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This chapter focuses on masturbation, the sex that one has with oneself. If masturbation becomes a “problem”—rather than simply a fact of life, dating from infancy and openly discovered at puberty—with the advent of modernity, this must have some bearing on the problem of individual identity, especially the sense of the individual as solitary, a system complete in itself, a body responsive to itself. The “problem” of masturbation may derive from a sense that the world outside the self has become unnecessary: that the self has become entirely solipsistic and self-satisfying. This is dangerously unproductive in an age of nascent capitalism, where the imperative to productive work includes the channeling of sexuality to disciplined reproduction. But even more disturbing is the suspicion that autoeroticism may suggest a discovery that self-love—narcissism—is the primary and original form of the erotic, which makes the socialization of the individual as crucial as it is difficult and possibly doomed.Less
This chapter focuses on masturbation, the sex that one has with oneself. If masturbation becomes a “problem”—rather than simply a fact of life, dating from infancy and openly discovered at puberty—with the advent of modernity, this must have some bearing on the problem of individual identity, especially the sense of the individual as solitary, a system complete in itself, a body responsive to itself. The “problem” of masturbation may derive from a sense that the world outside the self has become unnecessary: that the self has become entirely solipsistic and self-satisfying. This is dangerously unproductive in an age of nascent capitalism, where the imperative to productive work includes the channeling of sexuality to disciplined reproduction. But even more disturbing is the suspicion that autoeroticism may suggest a discovery that self-love—narcissism—is the primary and original form of the erotic, which makes the socialization of the individual as crucial as it is difficult and possibly doomed.
Michael Potter
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199215836
- eISBN:
- 9780191721243
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215836.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics
Wittgenstein took the symbolic turn when he used it as a criterion for the simplicity of an object in the world that the object should be symbolized by a simple name. This chapter explores what the ...
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Wittgenstein took the symbolic turn when he used it as a criterion for the simplicity of an object in the world that the object should be symbolized by a simple name. This chapter explores what the idea of simplicity that is at work here amounts to by comparing Wittgenstein's account with Frege's. Both authors offered explanations of how names contribute to the meaning of sentences in which they occur, but where Frege distinguished three distinct items — the referent of the name, its sense, and the idea I associate with it — Wittgenstein had only one, the object which is the name's referent.Less
Wittgenstein took the symbolic turn when he used it as a criterion for the simplicity of an object in the world that the object should be symbolized by a simple name. This chapter explores what the idea of simplicity that is at work here amounts to by comparing Wittgenstein's account with Frege's. Both authors offered explanations of how names contribute to the meaning of sentences in which they occur, but where Frege distinguished three distinct items — the referent of the name, its sense, and the idea I associate with it — Wittgenstein had only one, the object which is the name's referent.
Garry L. Hagberg
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199234226
- eISBN:
- 9780191715440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199234226.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Language
This chapter covers the early influence on Wittgenstein's thought concerning selfhood of Schopenhauer. It details the picture of philosophical solipsism and the grammar of the ‘I’, what Wittgenstein ...
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This chapter covers the early influence on Wittgenstein's thought concerning selfhood of Schopenhauer. It details the picture of philosophical solipsism and the grammar of the ‘I’, what Wittgenstein called ‘the inner picture’ and its metaphysical presuppositions concerning privacy, and the value of turning to cases to see how the concept of privacy actually functions. Cases from Rousseau, Frederick Douglass, Jane Addams, Ellen Glasgow, Siegfried Sassoon, and others, as adapted from philosophically helpful discussions by Jill Kerr Conway are given. Genuine versus philosophically-misled wonder concerning what is going on behind a facial expression is discussed.Less
This chapter covers the early influence on Wittgenstein's thought concerning selfhood of Schopenhauer. It details the picture of philosophical solipsism and the grammar of the ‘I’, what Wittgenstein called ‘the inner picture’ and its metaphysical presuppositions concerning privacy, and the value of turning to cases to see how the concept of privacy actually functions. Cases from Rousseau, Frederick Douglass, Jane Addams, Ellen Glasgow, Siegfried Sassoon, and others, as adapted from philosophically helpful discussions by Jill Kerr Conway are given. Genuine versus philosophically-misled wonder concerning what is going on behind a facial expression is discussed.
A. Raghuramaraju
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198070122
- eISBN:
- 9780199080014
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198070122.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
In India, philosophers have not attempted to overcome the existing limitation between social theory and social philosophy. Surprisingly, many of them are not even aware of this as a philosophical ...
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In India, philosophers have not attempted to overcome the existing limitation between social theory and social philosophy. Surprisingly, many of them are not even aware of this as a philosophical issue. This explains why there is a social variance between India and the West. Like the West, Indian society is becoming modern, but modernity in India has to coexist with the pre-modern. This introduction examines the uniqueness of Rene Descartes's method and presents a different perspective on modernity. It considers the intermediate attempts to overcome solipsism into three major movements, each constituting a distinct stage in the movement of ideas. It also considers the views of Alasdair MacIntyre on modernity and tradition in the West.Less
In India, philosophers have not attempted to overcome the existing limitation between social theory and social philosophy. Surprisingly, many of them are not even aware of this as a philosophical issue. This explains why there is a social variance between India and the West. Like the West, Indian society is becoming modern, but modernity in India has to coexist with the pre-modern. This introduction examines the uniqueness of Rene Descartes's method and presents a different perspective on modernity. It considers the intermediate attempts to overcome solipsism into three major movements, each constituting a distinct stage in the movement of ideas. It also considers the views of Alasdair MacIntyre on modernity and tradition in the West.
Anil Gupta
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199289769
- eISBN:
- 9780191711046
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199289769.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter provides outlines of arguments, developed more fully in the author's Empiricism and Experience, for the following theses. (1) If one holds the given in experience (i.e. the rational ...
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This chapter provides outlines of arguments, developed more fully in the author's Empiricism and Experience, for the following theses. (1) If one holds the given in experience (i.e. the rational contribution of experience) to be propositional, then one is forced into accepting a Cartesian conception of experience. (2) The given in experience is hypothetical: experience establishes rational links between views and perceptual judgments; it does not, by itself, entitle one to perceptual judgments. (3) The hypothetical given is not only compatible with the categorical demands of empirical rationality; it makes available a defensible empiricism.Less
This chapter provides outlines of arguments, developed more fully in the author's Empiricism and Experience, for the following theses. (1) If one holds the given in experience (i.e. the rational contribution of experience) to be propositional, then one is forced into accepting a Cartesian conception of experience. (2) The given in experience is hypothetical: experience establishes rational links between views and perceptual judgments; it does not, by itself, entitle one to perceptual judgments. (3) The hypothetical given is not only compatible with the categorical demands of empirical rationality; it makes available a defensible empiricism.
Rae Langton
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199247066
- eISBN:
- 9780191594823
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199247066.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
This book collects together fifteen chapters on pornography and objectification. Arguments from uncontroversial liberal premises are shown to yield controversial feminist conclusions that pornography ...
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This book collects together fifteen chapters on pornography and objectification. Arguments from uncontroversial liberal premises are shown to yield controversial feminist conclusions that pornography of a certain kind subordinates and silences women, and that women have rights against it. The arguments draw on speech act theory and pragmatics to show how such pornography may be speech that subordinates and silences. It subordinates if it is an illocution that ranks women, deprives women of powers, and legitimates violence and discrimination. It silences if it creates illocutionary disablement, preventing women's words having the intended illocutionary force. The chapters explore the idea that there is something solipsistic about pornography, in the way women are treated as things, and things are treated as women. They develop an understanding of the wider concept of objectification, which is itself shown to be solipsistic. Objectification is traditionally viewed in Kantian guise as the idea of treating someone as a thing, a mere instrument, and denying their autonomy. But it has unnoticed epistemological aspects. On a feminist conception of objectification, moral and epistemological features interact: for it is, partly, through a kind of self-fulfilling projection of beliefs and perceptions of women as subordinate that women are made subordinate and treated as things. Pornography can have an epistemological role here, shaping desires that guide wishful, oppressive belief, providing evidence confirming oppressive belief, suppressing counter-evidence, by silencing. Kant's moral philosophy threads through a number of chapters: his pessimism about some pathologies of sexual love; his optimism about love and friendship, which offer an escape route from solipsism.Less
This book collects together fifteen chapters on pornography and objectification. Arguments from uncontroversial liberal premises are shown to yield controversial feminist conclusions that pornography of a certain kind subordinates and silences women, and that women have rights against it. The arguments draw on speech act theory and pragmatics to show how such pornography may be speech that subordinates and silences. It subordinates if it is an illocution that ranks women, deprives women of powers, and legitimates violence and discrimination. It silences if it creates illocutionary disablement, preventing women's words having the intended illocutionary force. The chapters explore the idea that there is something solipsistic about pornography, in the way women are treated as things, and things are treated as women. They develop an understanding of the wider concept of objectification, which is itself shown to be solipsistic. Objectification is traditionally viewed in Kantian guise as the idea of treating someone as a thing, a mere instrument, and denying their autonomy. But it has unnoticed epistemological aspects. On a feminist conception of objectification, moral and epistemological features interact: for it is, partly, through a kind of self-fulfilling projection of beliefs and perceptions of women as subordinate that women are made subordinate and treated as things. Pornography can have an epistemological role here, shaping desires that guide wishful, oppressive belief, providing evidence confirming oppressive belief, suppressing counter-evidence, by silencing. Kant's moral philosophy threads through a number of chapters: his pessimism about some pathologies of sexual love; his optimism about love and friendship, which offer an escape route from solipsism.
Robert Ellrodt
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198117384
- eISBN:
- 9780191670923
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198117384.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
A combined survey of Edward Herbert's prose works and his rather slender corpus of poetry sheds some light on the emergence of his mode of self-reflexivity. Herbert found it absurd to assume that ...
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A combined survey of Edward Herbert's prose works and his rather slender corpus of poetry sheds some light on the emergence of his mode of self-reflexivity. Herbert found it absurd to assume that there are only five modes of apprehension because we have five sense-organs. Because of his exclusive attention to the ‘inner sense’, Herbert multiplied the modes of apprehension; his discovery of subjectivity made him keenly aware of the particularity of each representation. With Thomas Traherne we move from egocentricity to a kind of solipsistic illusion, at least in his record of the alleged intuitions of his infancy. Traherne's evocation of his dreams in childhood is in accordance with the conclusions reached by Jean Piaget. The spontaneous solipsism of the infant, acknowledged by modern psychology, is linked to the poet's moments of solipsistic meditation. Had Traherne been capable of self-criticism, he might not have indulged in an exaltation of self-love. This self-centredness is characteristic of his conception of love as originating in self-love both in man and in God.Less
A combined survey of Edward Herbert's prose works and his rather slender corpus of poetry sheds some light on the emergence of his mode of self-reflexivity. Herbert found it absurd to assume that there are only five modes of apprehension because we have five sense-organs. Because of his exclusive attention to the ‘inner sense’, Herbert multiplied the modes of apprehension; his discovery of subjectivity made him keenly aware of the particularity of each representation. With Thomas Traherne we move from egocentricity to a kind of solipsistic illusion, at least in his record of the alleged intuitions of his infancy. Traherne's evocation of his dreams in childhood is in accordance with the conclusions reached by Jean Piaget. The spontaneous solipsism of the infant, acknowledged by modern psychology, is linked to the poet's moments of solipsistic meditation. Had Traherne been capable of self-criticism, he might not have indulged in an exaltation of self-love. This self-centredness is characteristic of his conception of love as originating in self-love both in man and in God.
Patrick Coleman
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199589340
- eISBN:
- 9780191723322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589340.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter examines the relationship between righteous anger and envious resentment in Diderot's satire Le Neveu de Rameau. The issue is explored in terms of whether one's personal dignity and ...
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This chapter examines the relationship between righteous anger and envious resentment in Diderot's satire Le Neveu de Rameau. The issue is explored in terms of whether one's personal dignity and independence can be credibly asserted, or whether there is no escape from humiliating dependence. The chapter then argues that this is an issue not only for Rameau but for the philosopher as well, who is reluctant to acknowledge his dependence on others for the material of his thought. Should the moralist therefore be grateful to those who furnish him a stimulus to reflection, thereby allowing him to avert the danger of solipsism, just as the rich man should be not be angry at the fool who amuses and fleeces him, but grateful for the lessons he learns? Diderot's countermove is to highlight the sublimity of the mind's ability to contemplate the most intellectually disturbing or morally threatening features of his world, so that external dependence is outweighed by the genius's inner independence. Like the artistic genius, the philosopher transcends both anger and gratitude through aesthetic apprehension.Less
This chapter examines the relationship between righteous anger and envious resentment in Diderot's satire Le Neveu de Rameau. The issue is explored in terms of whether one's personal dignity and independence can be credibly asserted, or whether there is no escape from humiliating dependence. The chapter then argues that this is an issue not only for Rameau but for the philosopher as well, who is reluctant to acknowledge his dependence on others for the material of his thought. Should the moralist therefore be grateful to those who furnish him a stimulus to reflection, thereby allowing him to avert the danger of solipsism, just as the rich man should be not be angry at the fool who amuses and fleeces him, but grateful for the lessons he learns? Diderot's countermove is to highlight the sublimity of the mind's ability to contemplate the most intellectually disturbing or morally threatening features of his world, so that external dependence is outweighed by the genius's inner independence. Like the artistic genius, the philosopher transcends both anger and gratitude through aesthetic apprehension.
Rae Langton
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199247066
- eISBN:
- 9780191594823
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199247066.003.0015
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
If solipsism is false but believed, the agent treats people as things (objectification). If solipsism is true but not believed, the agent treats things as people (projective animation). These two ...
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If solipsism is false but believed, the agent treats people as things (objectification). If solipsism is true but not believed, the agent treats things as people (projective animation). These two global solipsisms have two local, sexual counterparts. In pornography ‘the human becomes thing’ (MacKinnon's ambiguous phrase): women are treated as things, and things are treated as women. This chapter discusses objectification, objective attitudes, and sadism (Kant, Herman, Strawson, Scruton, Sartre); then asks how the two solipsisms connect. Is it chance that in pornography, things are treated as women, and women as things? Is there a causal connection? Or a constitutive one (Vadas)?Less
If solipsism is false but believed, the agent treats people as things (objectification). If solipsism is true but not believed, the agent treats things as people (projective animation). These two global solipsisms have two local, sexual counterparts. In pornography ‘the human becomes thing’ (MacKinnon's ambiguous phrase): women are treated as things, and things are treated as women. This chapter discusses objectification, objective attitudes, and sadism (Kant, Herman, Strawson, Scruton, Sartre); then asks how the two solipsisms connect. Is it chance that in pornography, things are treated as women, and women as things? Is there a causal connection? Or a constitutive one (Vadas)?
W. A. Sessions
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198186250
- eISBN:
- 9780191674457
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186250.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
In an unexpected turn to his life, the poet Earl of Surrey had a happy marriage at the court of Henry VIII. The aristocratic child he had first met at thirteen and married before he left for France ...
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In an unexpected turn to his life, the poet Earl of Surrey had a happy marriage at the court of Henry VIII. The aristocratic child he had first met at thirteen and married before he left for France turned out to be the woman who not only bore him five children but also helped to engender his texts, as specific poems reveal. In fact, there is no more alive a portrayal or image of Frances de Vere Howard, the countess, than in Earl of Surrey's texts that describe a faithful relationship between a young woman and a young man. His inherent solipsism, for once, was transformed in texts of love to the countess. This deep affinity of a young woman and man performs, as the poems reveal, Surrey's ultimate solution to the Petrarchan dilemma of Laura and alienation.Less
In an unexpected turn to his life, the poet Earl of Surrey had a happy marriage at the court of Henry VIII. The aristocratic child he had first met at thirteen and married before he left for France turned out to be the woman who not only bore him five children but also helped to engender his texts, as specific poems reveal. In fact, there is no more alive a portrayal or image of Frances de Vere Howard, the countess, than in Earl of Surrey's texts that describe a faithful relationship between a young woman and a young man. His inherent solipsism, for once, was transformed in texts of love to the countess. This deep affinity of a young woman and man performs, as the poems reveal, Surrey's ultimate solution to the Petrarchan dilemma of Laura and alienation.
Rae Langton
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199247066
- eISBN:
- 9780191594823
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199247066.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
Solipsism involves going on as if you are the only person. Traditionally viewed as a morally neutral problem in epistemology (Descartes), it can also emerge as the morally loaded problem of ...
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Solipsism involves going on as if you are the only person. Traditionally viewed as a morally neutral problem in epistemology (Descartes), it can also emerge as the morally loaded problem of objectification, or treating other people as things (Kant, Nussbaum, de Beauvoir, MacKinnon). Objectification is usually viewed as a moral concept: treating someone as an instrument, denying their autonomy. But there is an epistemological concept of objectification which involves projection. Are these unrelated? No. The chapters in this book develop an understanding of objectification which connects moral and epistemological dimensions, with respect to pornography, and further afield.Less
Solipsism involves going on as if you are the only person. Traditionally viewed as a morally neutral problem in epistemology (Descartes), it can also emerge as the morally loaded problem of objectification, or treating other people as things (Kant, Nussbaum, de Beauvoir, MacKinnon). Objectification is usually viewed as a moral concept: treating someone as an instrument, denying their autonomy. But there is an epistemological concept of objectification which involves projection. Are these unrelated? No. The chapters in this book develop an understanding of objectification which connects moral and epistemological dimensions, with respect to pornography, and further afield.
Grant Gillett
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198239932
- eISBN:
- 9780191680045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198239932.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter discusses the different problems that surround identity statements and singular thoughts. Several methodological solipsism accounts of cognitive significance are criticized, while a view ...
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This chapter discusses the different problems that surround identity statements and singular thoughts. Several methodological solipsism accounts of cognitive significance are criticized, while a view that draws on human practices is also highlighted.Less
This chapter discusses the different problems that surround identity statements and singular thoughts. Several methodological solipsism accounts of cognitive significance are criticized, while a view that draws on human practices is also highlighted.
Grant Gillett
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198239932
- eISBN:
- 9780191680045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198239932.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter discusses the concept of singular thought, which involves the use of demonstratives and the recognition of particulars. These singular thoughts also provide difficulties for ...
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This chapter discusses the concept of singular thought, which involves the use of demonstratives and the recognition of particulars. These singular thoughts also provide difficulties for methodological solipsism, but singular-thought theorists are often caught attempting to explain the relation Russell called ‘acquaintance’.Less
This chapter discusses the concept of singular thought, which involves the use of demonstratives and the recognition of particulars. These singular thoughts also provide difficulties for methodological solipsism, but singular-thought theorists are often caught attempting to explain the relation Russell called ‘acquaintance’.
Richard English
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202899
- eISBN:
- 9780191675577
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202899.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Political History
This chapter examines the prevalence of schism and republican solipsism in the Free Irish State during the period 1943–1937. It suggests that the Republican Congress' schism and republican solipsism ...
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This chapter examines the prevalence of schism and republican solipsism in the Free Irish State during the period 1943–1937. It suggests that the Republican Congress' schism and republican solipsism were inherited from the Irish Republican Army. During the meeting of September 29 and 30, 1934, Congress suffered a balanced split resulting from the two proposed resolutions aimed at defining the aims, means, and political character of Congress. This chapter also analyses the Irish Free State's relations with Spain during this period.Less
This chapter examines the prevalence of schism and republican solipsism in the Free Irish State during the period 1943–1937. It suggests that the Republican Congress' schism and republican solipsism were inherited from the Irish Republican Army. During the meeting of September 29 and 30, 1934, Congress suffered a balanced split resulting from the two proposed resolutions aimed at defining the aims, means, and political character of Congress. This chapter also analyses the Irish Free State's relations with Spain during this period.
