Recently in Philosophy Category
Against much of the hype of our age, historian Robert Darnton provides some much needed perspective on the continuities of our information heritage in "The Library in the New Age" in the New York Review of Books (which the library subscribes to).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You might want to have a look at this, it's a philosophy blog by Brian Leiter. On the current page there's a post about someone at Brown U. throwing a pie in Thomas Friedman's face and getting expelled for it. In my book, Friedman shares the distinction with the New York Times David Brooks of using the most words to say absolutely nothing, so maybe this blog is pretty good. Leiter writes about Nietzsche and moral and legal philosophy. (BTW, Routledge, which advertises on his blog, seems all over philosophy blogs and podcasts.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following survey articles come from Blackwell Compass, which describes itself as "a suite of state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed survey articles across entire disciplines. Disciplines currently covered are Geography, History, Literature, Philosophy, and Religion." Good place to go to catch up on recent advances in the literature of a topic.
Women's Experiences of Hindu Traditions: A State of the Field Review
Static models of Hindu women as marginalized and muted subjects have in recent years been enlivened by a body of work that investigates the ways in which women both subtly and overtly resist, contest, and re-imagine these roles.
Psychological Similarities Between Men and Women Across Cultures
In this paper, I review a body of cross-cultural evidence showing that it is precisely in these Western countries that women and men differ the most in terms of personality, self-construal, values, or emotions. Much less-pronounced gender differences are observed, if at all, in Asian and African countries.
Contemporary British-Jewish Writing: From Apology to Attitude
This article surveys contemporary British-Jewish writing. It looks at a variety of texts to argue that British-Jewish writing is gaining a new visibility, momentum and confidence.
Teaching and Learning Guide for: Racial Residential Segregation in Urban America
We present an overview of research about racial residential segregation. The first part of the article reviews major debates and findings drawn primarily from the sociological literature. The second part of the article identifies new areas of research that in some cases cross into other disciplines such as geography and urban studies.
Personality in Non-Human Animals
The wave of new studies is shedding fresh light on traditional issues in personality research (How do early experiences affect adult personality?), raising novel questions (What are the evolutionary origins of personality traits?) and addressing practical problems (Which dogs are best suited to detecting explosives?).
Causal Theories of Mental Content
Causal theories of mental content (CTs) ground certain aspects of a concept's meaning in the causal relations a concept bears to what it represents.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Found a listing of philosophy and philosophy-related podcasts in a recent issue of The Philosopher's Magazine, a popular philosophy magazine that I subscribe to. Haven't had time to review them but I thought I'd provide links so you can check them out if interested.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Selling Captain Riley, 1816-1859: How did his 'Narrative' become so well known? (James Riley)
PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY 171: 177-+ Part 1 APR 2007
James Riley's extraordinary tale of shipwreck, enslavement, and liberation captivated many American readers in the nineteenth century...Popular awareness of Riley and his account of African geography and portrayal of Islamic and Jewish life was fueled by extensive press coverage and eventual anthologizing in children's literature.
Divining "divine action" in theology-and-science: A review essay
ZYGON 43 (1): 191-200 MAR 2008
The topic of divine action has been central to the theology-and-science discussion over the last twenty years...I review three recent books that have responded in some way to the ongoing discussion.
The Filipino Catholic nun as transnational feminist
WOMENS HISTORY REVIEW 17 (1): 57-78 FEB 2008
Filipino Catholic nuns became formidable activists in the women's movement as women's studies teachers, and as leaders and members of transnational organizations. This article argues that the nuns' unique location in the interstices-as transnational feminists who moved constantly from the local to the international-was what made them effective activists.
The healing serpent and the origin of Ophite Gnosticism
REVUE DE L HISTOIRE DES RELIGIONS 224 (4): 395-434 OCT-DEC 2007
This group is, together with the Naassenes, the only one that actually adores the serpent, which is considered as the epiphany of the Logos. This equivalence Logos = serpent is taken from the exegetical interpretation of Num. 21, 8-10 (the bronze serpent).
Racializing historiography: anti-Jewish scholarship in the Third Reich
PATTERNS OF PREJUDICE 42 (1): 27-59 FEB 2008
He raises and attempts to answer crucial and far-reaching questions about Judenforschung and its role in the Third Reich. Why was historical scholarship important for the perpetrators of the Holocaust? What was the specific function of historical arguments in a racist setting? What was the specific contribution of the humanities to racist arguments and racist politics?
Religious place and its interaction with urbanization in the Roman era
JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ARCHAEOLOGY 8 (1): 37-62 FEB 2008
This article examines the issue of urbanization in Roman Britain and its interaction with places of the late pre-Roman Iron Age...The modern western conception of place differs vastly from the past when places were important ways of conceptualizing experiencing and understanding the world and they were constructed through human action, memory and experience and interaction.
Aegean prehistory as world archaeology: Recent trends in the archaeology of Bronze age Greece
JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH 16 (2): 83-161 JUN 2008
This article surveys archaeological work of the last decade on the Greek Bronze Age, part of the broader discipline known as Aegean prehistory. Naturally, the literature is vast, so I focus on a set of topics that may be of general interest to non-Aegeanists: chronology, regional studies, the emergence and organization of archaic states, ritual and religion, and archaeological science.
Is there a moral justification for redressing historical injustices?
VANDERBILT LAW REVIEW 61 (1): 127-+ JAN 2008
This Article examines whether there is a moral justification for repairing historical injustices. My theme is the difficulty of devising a compelling moral argument for redressing such injustices, notwithstanding the moral arguments often invoked by the proponents of redress.
Writing as thinking
REVIEW OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 12 (1): 9-27 MAR 2008
We explore four methods to see how expert writers externalize thoughts and interact with them: laboratory comparisons of novices and experts, interviews with accomplished writers (mostly of prose fiction), biographical analysis of Jane Austen's development as a writer, and consideration of Gustave Flaubert's notes and drafts.
Animal consciousness
JOURNAL OF CONSCIOUSNESS STUDIES 15 (3): 5-33 MAR 2008
There are several types of behavioural evidence in favour of the notion that many animal species experience at least some simple levels of consciousness. Other than behavioural evidence, there are a number of anatomical and physiological criteria that help resolve the problem of animal consciousness, particularly when addressing the problem in lower vertebrates and invertebrates.
Constructing the guru: Ritual authority and architectural space in medieval India
ART BULLETIN 90 (1): 7 MAR 2008
At the central Indian site of Chandrehe stands a rare example of a monumental stone monastery, built in 973 by a sect of Shiva-worshiping ascetics known as the Mattamayuras. Its complex architectural program Suggests that it was carefully designed to evoke the soteriological and ritual world of medieval Hindu monasteries, about which very little other evidence exists.
The work of the present: Constructing messianic temporality in the wake of failed prophecy among Chabad Hasidim
AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST 35 (1): 64-80 FEB 2008
Temporal issues have remained relatively unelaborated in the rich body of research that applies cognitive dissonance theory to millenarian movements following a failed prophecy. We engage these issues by exploring how the meshichistim (messianists) among the Jewish ultraorthodox Chabad (Lubavitch) Hasidim employ temporal categories to deal with the crisis entailed in the death of their leader, the expected Messiah.
Two philosophy professors at Stanford, Ken Taylor and John Perry, have been hosting a radio show on philosophy since 2004 called Philosophy Talk. They claim to "[question] everything...except your intelligence". They address traditional philosophical topics like truth, beauty, Hegel, and skepticism, as well as broader topics like dreaming, separation of powers, and war crimes. Their aim is to offer philosophy that the educated layperson can understand and enjoy.
The Philosophy Talk Web site includes a listing of the radio stations that air the program, links to previous shows that you can listen to online for free, as well as a blog and information on upcoming shows. To download the shows in MP3 format you've got to pay (no one ever said philosophy came cheap) however.
So give it a shot, philosophize!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are the Top Downloads of philosophy papers on the Philosophy Research Network.
Here are the Top Downloads for Classics (though the definition of Classics is very broad) on the Classics Research Network.
The Social Sciences Research Network is increasingly moving into supporting the humanities and will be opening up many new areas in the near future.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History Compass Podcasts has an interesting interview with the Paul Turnbull, author of the survey article British Anatomists, Phrenologists, and the Construction of the Aboriginal Race, c.1790-1830. He discusses how Australian colonizers frequently sent severed heads and body parts of Aborigines killed back to Britain for study. The author began this study when he learned how vast the collection of Aboriginal body parts had been.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some recent survey articles from Blackwell Compass, which give broad overviews of current scholarship on topics of interest. Good place to start research or catch up after a time away. Blackwell Compass is composed of eight different individual Compass journals: History, Geography, Literature, Language and Linguisitics, Philosophy, Religion, Sociology, and Social and Personality Psychology.
Kabbalah: A Medieval Tradition and Its Modern Appeal
"Although scholarship on kabbalah has flourished in the twentieth century, kabbalah has become a variant of New-Age religions, accessible to all, regardless of ethnic identity or spiritual readiness."
Indian Buddhist Preachers Inside and Outside the Sutras
"This article explores a few portraits of preachers painted in the Buddhist sūtra corpus, and attempts to draw provisional conclusions regarding the impact of such portraits on Buddhist preachers’ own conceptions of doctrinal authority."
The Neglected Social Psychology of Institutional Racism
"These issues can be illuminated by critically reviewing how theories of institutional racism and institutionalized discrimination handle issues of social psychology. Issues of social psychology are often treated only minimally or implicitly, and often dismissively."
Understanding Contemporary Millenarian Violence
"...focusing on the key recurring characteristics and dynamics that have been highlighted by commentators as playing a significant role in both predisposing millenarian groups to volatility/violence..."
Views of Jihad Throughout History
"The essay traces the transformations in the meanings of jihad – and the related concepts of martyr and martyrdom – from the earliest period of Islam through the late medieval period and down to our present time."
How to Use Modern Critical Editions of Medieval Latin Texts
"To use these editions effectively, we must be aware of the theories, assumptions, and conventions that underlie them."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two very nice new philosophy reference works are available in CREDO Reference, one of our many fine reference databases.
Dictionary of Existentialism (Greenwood Press)
Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy (Greenwood Press)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some recent survey articles from Blackwell Compass, which give broad overviews of current scholarship on topics of interest. Good place to start research or catch up after a time away. Blackwell Compass is composed of eight different individual Compass journals: History, Geography, Literature, Language and Linguisitics, Philosophy, Religion, Sociology, and Social and Personality Psychology.
The Case of the Etymologies in Plato's Cratylus
"The Cratylus contains Plato's most extensive study of the relation of language to reality and to the pursuit of wisdom."
Race, Colorblindness, and Continental Philosophy
"...I will argue that race has a social reality that makes the practice of colorblindness, at least for the time being, politically untenable, and it may remain suspect even as a long-term goal."
Major Topics of the Hadith
"Despite the significance of this literature, its contents remain largely inaccessible to non-Arabic readers, in part due to many Western scholars’ preoccupation with the question of its authenticity rather than the function of hadith in Islamic thought."
Russian and the Origins of Twentieth-century Antisemistism
"The role played by the Tsarist Empire – darkest, backward Russia – has frequently been overlooked or underplayed. Until the past decade or so, antisemitism in the dying days of Tsarism was often characterised as little different from its medieval predecessor."
Social Ethic of Religiously Unaffiliated Spirituality
"Claims that non-institutional, non-dogmatic forms of religiosity promote narcissism and social alienation are scattered throughout the social scientific literature."
Outlines of a Critical Sociology of Consumption: Beyond Moralism and Celebration
"The ‘new’ sociology of consumption that emerged in the 1980s acknowledged that consumption is a significant cultural and social practice and not just a mere signifier of the pathological elements of contemporary societies."
‘Have You Seen Any Good Films Lately?’ Geopolitics, International Relations and Film
"...thereafter, it considers the interrelationship between Hollywood, the Bush administration and the post-9/11 era in an attempt to better understand some of the contours of the military-industrial-media-entertainment complex.
Using Conversation Analysis in Feminist and Critical Research
"Conversation analysis – the study of talk-in-interaction – is proving a valuable tool for politically engaged inquiry and social critique."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Put together a short bibliography on Causation that you might find interesting. Includes an article from Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, two literature reviews, an article by Donald Davidson, and six books. Have a look.
If you want to follow up on this, try these databases:
Philosopher's Index
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Poiesis
Gale Virtual Reference Library
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just heard some very good things about the play Wittenberg at the Arden Theatre playing through March 16.
It features Dr. Faustus, Martin Luther, and Hamlet in October 1517, sort of a romp through the Protestant Reformation, evidently.
"Finally – a decent Protestant Reformation comedy! [David] Davalos' wordplay, plus his riffs on religion vs. philosophy, made me hanker for a script. The dialogue sometimes flies by, given director J. R. Sullivan's effective lickety-split pacing in several scenes, and it's obvious that Wittenberg would be as much fun to read as this production is to see." –Philadelphia Inquirer [Read review]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Pre-Modern Studies Colloquium at Temple just released its new web site:
http://www.temple.edu/humanities/premodern/.
"We hope that this website can serve as a useful addition to the growing interest and resources in Premodern studies at Temple University. Like the appearance of the grail to the fellowship of King Arthur's Round Table (pictured to the left), a website can serve to instruct, guide, direct, and, most importantly, inspire, the study of premodernity from an interdisciplinary perspective."
Participating departments include Art History, Classics, Philosophy, and Religion. Check it out.
Also have a look at this, The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, included in Oxford Reference Online.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You might find some of these recent literature reviews interesting. I get them through an RSS Feed. Let me know if you'd like me to help you set one up.
Reflections on the field: Primatology, popular science and the politics of personhood
Full Names: Rees, Amanda
SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE 37 (6): 881-907 DEC 2007
The gospel of science and American evangelism in late Ottoman Beirut
Elshakry, Marwa
PAST & PRESENT (196): 173-214 AUG 2007
Meta-scientific eliminativism: A reconsideration of Chomsky's review of Skinner's verbal behavior
Collins, John
BRITISH JOURNAL FOR THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 58 (4): 625-658 DEC 2007
Rock on art: petroglyph sites in the United Arab Emirates
Ziolkowski, Michele C.
ARABIAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND EPIGRAPHY 18 (2): 208-238 NOV 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EBSCO, one of our largest database vendors, has given us free access to its Religion & Philosophy Collection, a subset of the large multidisciplinary database Academic Search Premier.
This is how EBSCO describes the Religion & Philosophy Collection:
"The Religion & Philosophy Collection is a comprehensive database covering such topics as world religions, major denominations, biblical studies, religious history, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of language, moral philosophy and the history of philosophy. This database offers more than 300 full text journals, including more than 250 peer-reviewed titles, making it an essential tool for researchers and students of theology and philosophical studies. In addition to the full text, indexing and abstracts are provided for all journals in the database."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The library now has a trial for Oxford Scholarship Online, a platform for searching, browsing, reading, and printing chapters from Oxford scholarly books. Each book has abstracts at the title and the chapter level and you can search across books and collections. Faculty can link to individual chapters making it ideal for classroom use. Essentially, Oxford has turned these books into an article database.
The trial lasts until February 22, 2008. Give it a try. Let me know what you think. Fred
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oxford University Press is trying to move its books online using a very user-friendly interface called Oxford Scholarship Online. I'm trying to get a trial for classics, philosophy, and religion, but for now you can search this very rich database and view author-written abstracts at both the book and chapter level. Oxford has more or less turned 1800 books in thirteen broad areas into an article (i.e. book chapter) database, an idea that I think will eventually prove very popular.
Search results show up listed on the book/chapter level. For each entry, you can easily view the abstract of the book and the individual chapter, very useful for reviewing and selecting books for courses and research.
Check it out and let me know what you think. Fred
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Holy weddings, unholy marriages: Christian spouses and domestic discords in early colonial Lesotho, 1870-1900
Phoofolo, Pule
JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY 31 (4): 363-386 DEC 2007
Faith, ethics, and communication: Some recent writing in philosophical theology
May, John D'Arcy
JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY 31 (4): 451-462 DEC 2007
New approaches to sacred space (Stephen Murray)
Crosby, Vanessa
Source: JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY 31 (4): 463-472 DEC 2007
Quantitative somatic phenomenology - Toward an epistemology of subjective experience
Hartelius, Glenn
Source: JOURNAL OF CONSCIOUSNESS STUDIES 14 (12): 24-56 DEC 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
