...THE ABSURDITY OF LIFE Steven Luper, Trinity University In "The Absurd"[i] Nagel claims that self-conscious human beings are necessarily absurd, so that to escape absurdity while remaining human we would have to cease being self-conscious. Fifteen years later, in The View From Nowhere,[ii] he defends the same thesis, supplementing some of his old arguments with a battery of new ones. I want to suggest that Nagel has misdiagnosed, and exaggerated the inescapability of, our absurdity. He does so partly because the grounds on which he bases his conclusion are spurious, and partly because he does not acknowledge the extent to which we can eliminate absurdity by suitably redesigning our plans and modes of justification. Nonetheless, I do not mean to imply that we can easily eliminate absurdity from our lives. Life is not necessarily absurd, but unfortunately, in a world like ours, there are limits to what we can and should do to reduce the absurd elements of our affairs. The View of the Nowhere Man "In ordinary life a situation is absurd," Nagel says, "when it includes a conspicuous discrepancy between pretension or aspiration and reality: someone gives a complicated speech in support of a motion that has already been passed. . . ; as you are being knighted, your pants fall down."[iii] In this passage from "The Absurd" Nagel claims that absurdity is a particularly striking sort of incongruity, and the conception of absurdity he discusses in his book is the same. What...
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...sexuality in order to clarify the fundamental notions of sexual desire and sexual activity. Conceptual analysis is also carried out in attempting to arrive at satisfactory definitions of adultery, prostitution, rape, pornography, and so forth. Conceptual analysis (for example: what are the distinctive features of a desire that make it sexual desire instead of something else? In what ways does seduction differ from nonviolent rape?) is often difficult and seemingly picky, but proves rewarding in unanticipated and surprising ways. Normative philosophy of sexuality inquires about the value of sexual activity and sexual pleasure and of the various forms they take. Thus the philosophy of sexuality is concerned with the perennial questions of sexual morality and constitutes a large branch of applied ethics. Normative...
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...POLITICS, THEOLOGY AND HISTORY RAYMOND PLANT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Politics, Theology and History is a major new book by a prominent academic and an active politician. It ranges widely across the disciplines of theology, political theory and philosophy and poses acute questions about the basic moral foundations of liberal societies. Lord Plant focuses on the role that religious belief can and ought to play in argument about public policy in a pluralistic society. He examines the potential political implications of Christian belief and the ways in which it may be deployed in political debate. The book is a contribution to the modern debate about the moral pluralism of western liberal societies, discussing the place of religious belief in the formation of policy and asking what sorts of issues in modern society might be the legitimate objects of a Christian social and political concern. Raymond Plant has written an important study of the relationship between religion and politics which will be of value to students, academics, politicians, church professionals, policy makers and all concerned with the moral fabric of contemporary life. r ay m on d pl an t is Professor of European Political Thought at the University of Southampton and a Member of the House of Lords. He was a Home affairs spokesperson for the Labour Party from 1992 to 1996, and Master of St Catherine's College, Oxford, from 1994 to 2000. Lord Plant's main publications are Social and Moral Theory in Casework...
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...mTELECOURSE STUDY GUIDE FOR The Examined Life FOURTH EDITION author J. P. White Chair, Department of Philosophy Santa Barbara City College contributing author Manuel Velasquez Professor of Philosophy Santa Clara University This Telecourse Study Guide for The Examined Life is part of a collegelevel introduction to philosophy telecourse developed in conjunction with the video series The Examined Life, and the text Philosophy: A Text with Readings, tenth edition, by Manuel Velasquez, The Charles Dirksen Professor, Santa Clara University. The television series The Examined Life was designed and produced by INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, Netherlands Educational Broadcasting Corporation (TELEAC/NOT), and Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR) Copyright © 2007, 2005, 2002, 1999 by INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, 150 E. Colorado Blvd., Suite 300, Pasadena, California 91105-1937. ISBN: 0-495-10302-0 Contents Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Lesson One — What is Philosophy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
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...'Vhat'Ve Can't A Guide J. Budzisze wski WHAT WE CAN’T NOT KNOW J. BUDZISZEWSKI WHAT WE CAN’T NOT KNOW A Guide Revised and Expanded Edition IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO First edition published by Spence Publishing Company, Dallas, Texas ©2003 by J. Budziszewski All rights reserved Cover illustration: Comstock/Fotosearch.com Cover design by Sam Torode ©2004 Spence Publishing Company Used by permission Published in 2011 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco ©2003, 2011 J. Budziszewski All rights reserved ISBN 978-1-58617-481-1 Library of Congress Control Number 2010927673 Printed in the United States of America To my grandparents Julian and Janina Budziszewski, long departed, not forgotten The mind of man is the product of live Law; it thinks by law, it dwells in the midst of law, it gathers from law its growth; with law, therefore, can it alone work to any result. —George MacDonald CONTENTS PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION A New Phase of an Old Tradition ix PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION Whom This Book Is For xix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxiii INTRODUCTION The Moral Common Ground 3 I THE LOST WORLD Things We Can’t Not Know 1 2 What It Is That We Can’t Not Know 3 Could We Get By Knowing Less? II EXPLAINING THE LOST WORLD 4 The First and Second Witnesses 5 The Third and Fourth Witnesses 6 Some Objections vii 19 29 54 83 93 116 viii WHAT WE CAN’T NOT KNOW III HOW THE LOST WORLD WAS LOST 7...
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