Philosophy and Religion (R0)

This book relates the unique experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ+) people in Australian Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian churches. Grounded in the theoretical contributions of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Lewis Coser, and others, the book exposes the discursive ‘battleground’ over the ‘truth’ of sex which underlies the participants’ stories. These rich and complex narratives reveal the stakes of this conflict, manifested in ‘the line’ – a barrier restricting out LGBTQ+ people from full participation in ministry and service. Although some participants related stories of supportive—if typically conservative—congregations where they felt able to live out an authentic, integrated faith, others found they could only leave their formerly close and supportive communities behind, ‘counter-rejecting’ the churches and often the faith that they felt had rejected them.

This book uses Karl Barth’s Der Römerbrief (1922) as a prism through which to explore the role of religion and its interactions with cultural and political thought in the turbulent interwar period in Europe. One of the most influential books in twentieth-century protestant theology, Der Römerbrief found Barth arguing that the crisis of the time was grounded in an even more profound crisis that pertained to the human condition as such. While much research has been conducted on Der Römerbrief, most of it has focused on the book’s explicit theology. The aim of the present volume is to mark the centenary of this seminal book with a broader investigation into the movements of thought within Der Römerbrief and its reception and impact within its cultural and intellectual context. This broader approach by a range of Northern European researchers brings attention to interconnections between cultural and theological movements intimes of crisis.

This book about receptions of Simon Magus uncovers further facets of one who was held to be the evil archetype of heretics. Ephraim Nissan and Alberto Ferreiro explore how Simon Magus has been represented in text, visual art, and music. Special attention is devoted to the late medieval Catalan painter Lluís Borrassà and the Italian librettist and musician Arrigo Boito. The tradition of Simon Magus’ demonic flight, ending in his crashing down, first appears in the patristic literature. The book situates that flight typologically across cultures. Fascinating observations emerge, as the discussion spans flight of the wicked in rabbinic texts, flight and death of King Lear’s father and a Soviet-era Buryat Buddhist monk, flight and doom of the fool in an early modern German broadsheet, and more. The book explains and moves beyond extant scholarly wisdom on how the polemic against Mani (the founder of Manichaeism) was tinged with hues of Simon Magus. The novelty of this book is that it shows that Simon Magus’ receptions teach us a great deal about the contexts in which this archetype was deployed. 

This book takes its motive force from our contemporary climate crisis. It seeks to reorient human (and especially Christian) understanding, towards a more ecologically-focused, indigenously-informed way-of-living. James W. Perkinson argues that our current eco-climatic and socio-political emergency is the culmination of a 5,000-year history of supremacist “settlement,” in which city-states first emergent in Mesopotamia and Egypt not only begin coercively organizing labor into surplus production and ecosystems into inordinate and destructive yields of “goods,” but in the process, also simultaneously “deform” the Spirit-World “haloing” of natural phenomenon into outsized service of imperial reach. Perkinson recognizes globalized humanity as an emerging monstrosity destroying both human culture and the world. How we re-envision and revalue, at our critical juncture, our inescapable interdependence with the more-than-human world as peer and teacher and even “elder,” is the central theme that throbs below the surface of the very disparate topics commanding attention in each chapter.

This book addresses the phenomenon of rumors about the occult in contemporary Ghanaian politics. Drawing on data from fieldwork interviews and analysis of case studies, it examines: why political rumors in Ghana often focus on the occult; what political-occult rumors accomplish and for whom; the ways in which Ghanaian politicians use rumors about the occult to gain political advantage; and some of the popular attitudes of the electorate to the rumors. The book demonstrates that political-occult rumors have become important tools in the hands of Ghanaian politicians to gain political advantage over opponents, and the electorate as means to critique the actions and behavior of political actors and the political process, generally. In a nutshell, this book highlights the important role of occult rumors in modern Ghanaian politics, with a particular focus on the period between the late 1970s and present. The main thrust of the argument in this book is that the flourishing of political-occult rumors and the strength of Pentecostalism are related, and that far from being a phenomenon existing on the margins of modern Ghanaian society, the occult is powerful, public and mainstream.

This book contains eighteen original essays engaging with Keith Lehrer’s contributions to philosophy. The first nine chapters focus on Lehrer’s work in epistemology and philosophy of mind. These chapters examine the role of meta-justification in Lehrer’s (and Thomas Reid’s) epistemology, explore the epistemological significance of self-trust and how to restore self-trust to victims of epistemic injustice, challenge Lehrer’s solution to the hard problem of consciousness, question Lehrer’s account of the basing relation, and discuss the important role that experience and exemplarization play in Lehrer’s coherence theory of justification and in philosophy of science more broadly.

The second nine chapters focus on Lehrer’s work on freedom and determinism. These chapters explore the nuances of Lehrer’s theory of ultimate freedom, discuss the role of power preferences in his account of free choice, explore whether free choices must be explained by power preferences, discuss Lehrer’s views on scientific explanation, explore his claim that freedom of choice is consistent with determinism, challenge his response to the consequence argument, explore whether choices explained by adaptive preferences are free, and investigate whether plural subjects can choose freely.

The book concludes with Lehrer’s masterful responses to each of the essays. Those interested in epistemology, philosophy of mind, freedom and moral responsibility, and the intersection of these fields should find the book of great interest.

This book journeys into the dark territory of solitary confinement. It examines its practice in prisons, jails, immigration detention facilities, and even schools. It looks at international ethics codes such as that of the World Medical Association, the World Health Organization, and the Declaration of Tokyo, all of which describe the prolonged use of solitary confinement as akin to torture. The author shows how the philosophical theories of Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls, and others provide an ethical framework for examining solitary confinement. With the aid of contemporary ethicists like Tom Beauchamp, Michael Boylan, Michel Foucault, Claudia Card and Nel Noddings, it also shows how we have the tools for dismantling a practice long overdue for reform. Students, faculty, and the general public will find Solitary Confinement: Philosophical Perspectives a call for change of an urgent human rights issue. Given that thousands of people have been subjected to such extreme isolation and sensory deprivation, this quest warrants our utmost consideration.

This contributed volume presents eco-imagination as a new tool for knowledge and cultural, artistic, as well as scientific expression.  Herein eco-phenomenology becomes capable of opening a viable path towards a future of environmental and human sustainability. The contemporary urgency of sustainable configurations of the world and of life has made clear the inadequacy of the traditional phenomenological conception of imagination, understood in the mere relationship with perception. These chapters verify the ecological potential of the imagination, thanks to which the latent virtualities in the processes of self-individualization that constitute evolving life become visible. The book collectively argues that only if we use the eco-imagination can one introduce new forms of design thinking needed, since they are intrinsic to the ontopoietic progression of the logos of life.  This volume appeals to students and researchers in phenomenology and related fields.

This book provides a detailed overview of philosophical ramifications of the emerging area of plant behavior. It is also a response to some of the main criticisms of this heterogeneous discipline.  This volume is both a practical guide for those new to the subject, providing a historical reconstruction of the development of the topics, while at the same time an opportunity to allow for discussion at a more advanced level.  It is not a demonstrative text, but rich in insights to guide future theoretical and practical research.  This monograph appeals to interdisciplinary researchers and students working within the spectrum of life sciences to academic philosophy.

This book sets out and examines the comprehensive theory of value advanced by G.W. Leibniz over the mature period of his career. Well-known as a mathematician, a physical scientist, a metaphysician, a theologian, and even as an engineer and inventor, he is less known as a moral theorist, or even as championing a theory of value at all. And yet he does. Unfortunately, like much of Leibniz’s philosophical thought, his ideas on the nature, scope, and practice of morality are scattered throughout precious few books, various but numerous essays, aphoristic lists, abandoned (and so partial) projects, and volumes of correspondence. While no one text represents his considered view, a focused study of his output provides ample evidence that his favored moral theory, one that he tends to develop in subtle ways consistent with his systematic metaphysics, is a version of what we today think of as scholastic eudaimonism, i.e., the view that the ultimate goal of human life is happiness or flourishing in accord with human nature, happiness or flourishing that is achieved primarily by virtuous character and virtuous activity. This is the first text to offer a (fairly) exhaustive overview of Leibniz’s moral theory in several decades. The book also aims to integrate to some extent Leibniz’s positions on moral psychology, metaphysics, ethics, and even Christian theology, demonstrating the ways in which they come together (or, as the case may be, exist in tension).

This book explores the impact of ethical reasoning in forensic science and demonstrates that it is in fact a foundational skill required by those engaged in the field. Forensic science is viewed as a mechanism to aid the criminal justice system in finding truth, but failures within the field contribute to the growing injustice facing society. The author recognizes these failings and brings a new perspective by establishing bioethical principles as a foundation for improving ethical reasoning skills. These skills are a critical component of forensic science education for upcoming professionals. While other books focus on egregious cases of ethical misconduct, this text highlights the daily decisions and issues that occur during the forensic investigation and analysis processes. It is written for future forensic professionals and forensic science educators, as well as those individuals already working in the forensic science field.

This book examines the latest manifestations of resource competition. The energy transition and the digitalization of the global economy are both accelerating even as geopolitics driven by Sino-American hyper-competition become increasingly contentious. The volume brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, policy makers, institutional stakeholders, and industry experts to analyze not only the transition itself, but also the implications that the need for uninterrupted access to unprecedented levels of raw materials generates. By framing the challenges ahead for global society, governance, industry, international power politics, and the environment, the book asks hard questions about the choices that need to be made to reach net zero by mid-century. Moreover, it sheds light on different facets of the growing risks to what have been global interdependent supply chains in a way that is nuanced, balanced, and practical, thus pushing back on some of the most sensational headlines that breed confusion and may lead policymakers to make more narrow and less effective decisions. The volume is an outcome of “Rich Rocks, the Climate Crisis and the Tech-imperium” a Summer Institute at Caltech and the Huntington that took place in July 2021.

This book reports on cutting-edge research concerning social practices. Merging perspectives from various disciplines, including philosophy, biology, psychology and cognitive science, and economy, it discusses theoretical aspects of social behavior along with models to investigate them, and presenting key case studies as well. Further, it describes concepts related to habits, routines, and rituals and examines important features of human action, such as intentionality and choice, exploring the influence of specific social practices in different situations. Based on a workshop held on April 2022 at the World Congress on Universal Logic (UNILOG 22), in Crete, and including additional invited chapters, the book offers fresh insights into the fields of social practice and the cognitive, computational, and philosophical tools to understand them.