Essentialism

Recension de "Le ciment des choses" de Claudine Tiercelin

by Raphaël Millière

publié dans REPHA n°5, printemps 2012

Augustine on Predestination and Divine Simplicity: The Problem of Compatibility

by Narve Strand

Studia Patristica, 38, 2001: 290-305

Do scientific theories affect men's evaluations of sex crimes?

by Ilan Dar-Nimrod

Dar-Nimrod, I., Heine, S. J., Cheung, B. Y., & Schaller, M. (2011). Do scientific theories affect men's evaluations of sex crimes? Aggressive Behavior, 37(5), 440-449.

Some thoughts on essence placeholders, interactionism, and heritability

by Ilan Dar-Nimrod

Dar-Nimrod, I., & Heine, S. J. (2011). Some thoughts on essence placeholders, interactionism, and heritability: Reply to Haslam (2011) and Turkheimer (2011). Psychological Bulletin, 137(5), 829-833.

What is Wittgenstein’s view of the Idea that Someone understands a General Term because they know what Essence it picks out? Does his account raise any problems?

by Daniel. J. Woolley

This is an essay that I wrote during my final year as an undergraduate.

This essay comes in two parts. The first part will be to explicate the essentialist account of how we can understand a... more This essay comes in two parts. The first part will be to explicate the essentialist account of how we can understand a general term, particularly when picking out an individual object/entity/concept that falls into a category of kinds. This will be followed by Wittgenstein’s attack on the essentialist position with the account of family resemblances. The second part will consist of two objections that can be raised to the notion of family resemblances. The first objection is that the boundaries of a general term are either unknown or presupposed by the subject and so a general term would not be able to be used to pick out individuals at all or if they can this is due to a presupposition that leads Wittgenstein into trouble. The second objection is that which is put forward by Michael Hodges. The objection is that the notion of family resemblances refutes essentialism at a certain level. Yet we can ask how we pick out the properties that resemble and so on into an infinite regress. I shall conclude that Wittgenstein’s refutation of essentialism initially seems like the better alternative in understanding how a general term can pick out individuals. However, once we delve into Wittgenstein’s positive account, family resemblances, we encounter problems that leave us in limbo as neither position seems to be a credible position.

Tabula Rasa and Human Nature

by Robbie Duschinsky

draft - forthcoming in Philosophy

It is widely believed that the philosophical concept of ‘tabula rasa’ originates with Locke’s Essay Concerning Human... more It is widely believed that the philosophical concept of ‘tabula rasa’ originates with Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding and refers to a state in which a child is as formless as a blank slate. Given that both these beliefs are entirely false, this article will examine why they have endured from the eighteenth century to the present. Attending to the history of philosophy, psychology, psychiatry and feminist scholarship it will be shown how the image of the tabula rasa has been used to signify an originary state of formlessness, against which discourses on the true nature of the human being can differentiate their position. The tabula rasa has operated less as a substantive position than as a whipping post. However, it will be noted that innovations in psychological theory over the past decade have begun to undermine such narratives by rendering unintelligible the idea of an ‘originary’ state of human nature.

Arvanitis, A. (2012). When in Greece. Project Syndicate.

by Alexios Arvanitis

Article about essentialist remarks. Online commentary at Project Syndicate.

Bioetická argumentácia na základe princípu potenciality

by Pavol Labuda

in: Argumentácia v bioetike / Ján Hrkút (ed.). Ružomberok: Filozofická fakulta Katolíckej univerzity, 2009, s. 9-38. ISBN 978-80-8084-261-1

Cieľom textu je logická a konceptuálna analýza argumentácie založenej na princípe potenciality (PP) a stanovenie... more Cieľom textu je logická a konceptuálna analýza argumentácie založenej na princípe potenciality (PP) a stanovenie podmienok pre platnosť a spoľahlivosť argumentu na základe PP v prospech práva na život ľudských embryí. V (1) kapitole bude všeobecne predstavená základná terminológia a štruktúra argumentu a spôsoby určovania platnosti a spoľahlivosti argumentu. (2) kapitola predstaví samotný PP a univerzálnu formu bioetického argumentu na základe PP. (3) kapitola sa bude venovať konceptuálnej analýze základných pojmov argumentu s akcentom najmä na centrálny pojem potenciality. (4) kapitola predstaví najčastejšie námietky voči argumentu na základe PP a pokúsi sa ich vyvrátiť. (5) piata záverečná kapitola navrhne podmienky pre platnosť a spoľahlivosť bioetického argumentu v prospech práva na život ľudských embryí prostredníctvom jasného vymedzenia typu potenciality a prostredníctvom vysvetlenia povahy druhovo špecifických vlastností ako dispozícií.

Sokratovská definícia zbožnosti - analýza dialógu Euthyfrón

by Pavol Labuda

published in Sokratika II. Sokratovská tradícia myslenia od antiky po súčasnosť (ed. Vladislav Suvák).
ACTA FACULTATIS PHILOSOPHICAE UNIVERSITATIS PREŠOVIENSIS
Filozofický zborník 31 (AFPh UP 200/282), 2007, p. 78-107.

The paper deals with the issue of Socratic definition of piety in Plato’s early dialog Euthyphro. Firstly I briefly... more The paper deals with the issue of Socratic definition of piety in Plato’s early dialog Euthyphro. Firstly I briefly analyze whole dialog and then I am making detailed analysis of main argument related to the definition of piety (10a-11b). In details the paper offers reconstruction of main argument with decision about its validity and then is deciding what are necessary and sufficient conditions of Socratic definition and what is the principle we need for justifying premises of the argument. Whereas my approach is not a historical one, in general commentary I
try to present the dialog via pointing out some issues to which Socrates’inquiries are leading and which can be signify as current ones, e.g. a possibility and conditions of real definition; argumentum ad hominem; fact/value judgments distinction, etc

„Wer sind wir? Und wer sind dann die Anderen?“ Eine Konturierung des Kulturbegriffs bei Seyla Benhabib

by Anne-Sophie Reichert

Der Begriff der Kultur wird in der politischen Theorie sowie in der Politik selten präzise definiert, spielt jedoch in... more Der Begriff der Kultur wird in der politischen Theorie sowie in der Politik selten präzise definiert, spielt jedoch in zunehmendem Maße eine Rolle bei der Erklärung von
aktuellen globalen politischen Ereignissen und Prozessen. Während Kultur vor der
Aufklärung zu großen Teilen als  Legitimation und Erhaltung politischer
Machtstrukturen diente,  wurde  die  Kultur  in der  Moderne  durch die
„Wertausdifferenzierung“,  wie Max Weber die Dezentralisierung metaphysischer
Annahmen und die Emanzipation der Naturwissenschaften, der Jurisprudenz, der Moral
und der Ästhetik von allumfassender religiöser Weltanschauung nennt, zur Arena der
Oppositon (Benhabib 1999: 401).
Wie kann man versuchen den Kulturbegriff mit inhaltlichen Ausführungen in
bestimmter Art und Weise zu definieren, ohne dabei ausser Acht zu lassen, dass Kultur
und somit  auch kulturelle Identitäten im Sinne poststrukturalistischer  und
dekonstruktivistischer Ansätze fluide, variable und konstruierte Kategorien sind?
Eine positive Präzisierung erscheint gerade im Hinblick auf die zunehmende politische
Instrumentalisierung des Kulturbegriffs im internationalen politischen Geschehen von
hoher Wichtigkeit.

Judging and Constructing Self-Identity

by Robbie Duschinsky

Draft only; currently under review

In Purity and Danger, Douglas theorises purity and impurity in terms of the instantiation and disruption of a shared... more In Purity and Danger, Douglas theorises purity and impurity in terms of the instantiation and disruption of a shared symbolic order. Purity/impurity discourses act, according to Purity and Danger, as a homeostatic system which ensures the preservation of this social whole, generally encoding that which threatens social equilibrium as impurity. There have been calls for new social theory on this ‘under theorised’ topic. Presenting such further reflections, I argue that Douglas’ account is less a full explanation than a regularity. Representations of purity are only secondarily symbols of the social order. Rather, purity/impurity discourses are only associated with ‘matter out of place’ when phenomena are assessed for their relative deviation from an imputed state of ‘self-identity’: qualitative homogeneity and correspondence with their essence. Purity and impurity do more than judge self-identity however. They can play a fundamental role in its performative construction; they are well adapted for smuggling assumptions into our discourses regarding the essence of particular phenomena and forms of subjectivity, simplifying a complex world into a stark contrast between the dangerous and the innocent, the valuable and the valueless, the necessary and the contingent, the originary and the prosthetic, the real and the apparent, and the unitary and the fragmented.

Ideal and unsullied: Purity, subjectivity and social power

by Robbie Duschinsky

Draft only; Published in Subjectivity

There has been a good deal of empirical social scientific research which has addressed the theme of purity and has... more There has been a good deal of empirical social scientific research which has addressed the theme of purity and has indicated its social importance. However, few theoretical resources are available to scholars which explicitly attempt to analyse purity, besides Mary Douglas’s structural-functionalist model. This model has many insights, but is not well-adapted to considering issues of subjectivity or social power in contemporary Western societies. This article will attempt to take some steps towards filling this gap. It will be claimed that, through the way they appeal to an imputed essence and origin, purity discourses are often complicit in the consecration and occlusion of relations of power and processes of subjectivation. The argument will focus in particular on the operation of purity discourses in the discursive construction and practical negotiation of female adolescence.

Ritornare a Spinoza. Note per una controstoria dell'ontologia

by Andrea Sangiacomo

La filosofia di Emanuele Severino si propone come il più compiuto tentativo di articolare un pensiero dell’infinito... more La filosofia di Emanuele Severino si propone come il più compiuto tentativo di articolare un pensiero dell’infinito che sia allo stesso tempo non contraddittorio. Tuttavia, l’assunzione fondamentale di questo pensiero, secondo cui ogni ente è la negazione della totalità concreta di tutti gli altri, implica una contraddizione che ne mina l’intero disegno. In questo contributo ci proponiamo di risolvere tale aporia tramite uno sfruttamento teoretico dell’ontologia della pura affermazione sviluppata da Baruch Spinoza.

R. Chiaradonna, "Connaissance des intelligibles et degrés de la substance: Plotin et Aristote", Études Platoniciennes, 3 (2006), pp. 57-85

by Riccardo Chiaradonna

Essentialism

by Bruce Mannheim

Co-authored with Susan A. Gelman

International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences

Theorising Trans: (Trans)forming Praxis

by Nyah Harwood

Managing the Tensions of Essentialism - draft (with Sue Lampitt)

by Robbie Duschinsky

Draft only; forthcoming in Sociology

This article will propose a new interpretation of Pierre Bourdieu, as a theorist of purity and impurity. Bourdieu’s... more This article will propose a new interpretation of Pierre Bourdieu, as a theorist of purity and impurity. Bourdieu’s writings indicate that through the adjudication of things or people as relatively impure or pure an image is constructed of their essential truth. Building from Bourdieu, we will show how themes of purity and impurity can be used to manage the tensions associated with attempts to impute an essence to human nature or to reality, ensuring that moral and epistemological significance of complexity is masked. This is the reason why themes of purity and impurity so often attend polarised worldviews, and why they are frequently mobilised for justifying and operating biopolitical processes of social stratification and regulation.

For a non-violent, non-essentialist Cambodia: a reply to Ryerson Christie

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2011. For a non-violent, non-essentialist Cambodia: a reply to Ryerson Christie. South East Asia Research 19, 635-641.

A rejoinder to a review of my book 'Cambodia’s Neoliberal Order: Violence, Authoritarianism, and the Contestation of... more A rejoinder to a review of my book 'Cambodia’s Neoliberal Order: Violence, Authoritarianism, and the Contestation of Public Space' (Routledge, 2010).

Sexual orientation beliefs: Their relationship to anti-gay attitudes and biological determinist arguments.

by Peter Hegarty

Co-authored with Felicia Pratto

Previous studies which have measured beliefs about sexual orientation with either a single item, or a one-dimensional... more Previous studies which have measured beliefs about sexual orientation with either a single item, or a one-dimensional scale are discussed. In the present study 116 students (aged 17–22 yrs) completed a scale designed to assess their attitudes toward lesbians and gay men and a demographic questionnaire. They then read a false news report on birth order and sexual orientation and rated their agreement with ten evaluative questions about the research. Student beliefs were observed to vary along two dimensions: the "immutability" of sexual orientation and the "fundamentality" of a categorization of persons as heterosexuals and homosexuals. While conceptually related, these two dimensions were empirically distinct on several counts. They were negatively correlated with each other. Condemning attitudes toward lesbians and gay men were correlated positively with fundamentality but negatively with immutability. Immutability, but not fundamentality, affected the assimilation of a biological determinist argument. The relationship between sexual orientation beliefs and anti-gay prejudice is discussed and suggestions for empirical studies of sexual orientation beliefs are presented.

Attributional Beliefs About the Controllability of Stigmatized Traits: Antecedents or Justifications of Prejudice? 1

by Peter Hegarty

Correlational studies show that prejudiced people attribute stigmatized traits to controllable causes, and blame... more Correlational studies show that prejudiced people attribute stigmatized traits to controllable causes, and blame stigmatized groups for their own fate. Attribution theory argues that causal attributions cause prejudice, and that changes in attributional beliefs produce changes in attitudes. In contrast, the justification-suppression model describes attributions to controllable causes as justifications of pre-existing prejudices. Study participants reported their attitudes toward 1 of 4 stigmatized groups, read information that manipulated their attributional beliefs, listed their thoughts, and reported their attitudes again. Supporting the suppression-justification model, initially prejudiced participants spontaneously produced more thoughts about the controllability of stigmatized identities. Refuting attribution theory, manipulating attributional beliefs had no effect on attitudes. Implications for applications of attribution theory to reduce prejudice are discussed.