Philosophica

Freedom, Nature, and World is a collection of essays by Peter Loptson which examine issues posed by a broadly naturalistic view of the world, which Loptson defends while also exploring some of the challenges it confronts. Papers on freedom, Kant, Christianity, Homer, the history of analytic philosophy, the place of humanity in nature, and other topics, are brought together within a synoptically naturalistic purview. All the essays rest on, and in some cases extend, that synoptic perspective, which seeks to encompass both a scientific understanding of humankind in the natural world and the complexities of free rational agency within our cultural and historical settings.

Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) is one of the previous century's most important thinkers. Often regarded as the "Father of phenomenology," this collection of essays reveals that he is indeed much more than that. The breadth of Husserl's thought is considerable and much remains unexplored. An underlying theme of this volume is that Husserl is constantly returning to origins, revising his thought in the light of new knowledge offered by the sciences.

Does hockey provide a better understanding of the differences between Canadian and Québécois nationalisms? Is there a fundamental relationship between the hockey arena and the political arena? What have we lost as a society in abolishing the tie game? Are salaries in the NHL really that outrageous? Is hockey more art than sport? Should hockey players be banned from using performance-enhancing drugs at all costs? Do goalies suffer from angst? Does our national sport have its own mythology and metaphysics? Do hockey brawls reflect our true human nature more than we would care to admit? And what would it be like if the great philosophers were to face off on the ice? A team of philosophy and hockey buffs go deep with these fascinating questions and many others in this examination of a worshipped sport elevated to something akin to a cult. Accessibly written and peppered with humour, the essays in this book will charm specialists, sports fans, and everyone in between. Whether you're a fan of Richard, Gretzky, Crosby, Plato, Kant, or Kierkegaard, you're invited to be a spectator at this very special meeting of minds!

Philosophical Apprenticeships gathers fresh and innovative essays written by the next generation of Canada's philosophers on the work of prominent Canadian philosophers currently researching topics in continental philosophy. The authors-doctoral students studying at Canadian universities-have studied with, worked with, or been deeply influenced by these philosophers. Their essays present, discuss, and develop the work of their mentors, addressing issues such as time, art, politics, hermeneutics, and phenomenology. The result is a volume that introduces the reader to the work of current Canadian philosophers and to that of their successors, who will soon be making their own contributions to Canadian continental philosophy. Includes articles by Gabriel Malenfant on Bettina Bergo, Saulius Geniusas on Gary Madison, John Marshall on Samuel Mallin, François Doyon on Claude Piché, Stephanie Zubcic on Jennifer Bates, Alexandra Morrison on Graeme Nicholson, Scott Marratto on John Russon, and Jill Gilbert on John Burbridge.

A philosophical examination of technology's growing influence. This pioneering collection explores the relationship between technology and free will. Rejecting the notion of technology as a neutral addition to our lives, the contributors examine the type and degree of our society's technological dependence. Technology is revealed as something from which we have, and will continue to have, difficulty separating ourselves, both as individuals and as a society. Without articulating a purely deterministic perspective, this collection illuminates the powerful influence technology has on our world and our perception of it.

In Kierkegaard's Romantic Legacy, Anoop Gupta develops an original theory of the self-based on Kierkegaard's writings. Gupta proceeds by historical exegesis and considers several important ways of thinking about self-outside of the natural sciences. His study moves theories of the self from theology toward sociology, from a God-relationship to a social one, and illustrates how a loss in theological underpinnings partly contributes to the rise in the popularity of cultural relativism. By drawing on Kierkegaard's writings, Gupta develops a metaphysical account of the self that provides an alternative to the idea that there is no such thing as human nature.

Multicultural Dynamics and the Ends of History provides a strikingly original reading of key texts in the philosophy of history by Kant, Hegel, and Marx, as well as strong arguments for why these texts are still relevant to understanding history today. Réal Fillion offers a critical exposition of the theses of these three authors on the dynamics and the ends of history, in order to provide an answer to the question: "Where are we headed?" Grounding his answer in the twin observations that the world is becoming increasingly multicultural and increasingly unified, Fillion reasserts the task of the speculative philosophy of history as it had been understood by German philosophy: the articulation and understanding the historical process as a developmental whole. Fillion's interpretation engages many recent strands of social and political thought in order to provide a new understanding of current events, and possible futures, grounded in the understanding of the dynamics of the past and the present provided by Kant, Hegel, and Marx. The result is a rich and timely answer to the question of where our world is headed today.

In Reality: Fundamental Topics in Metaphysics, Peter Loptson argues for a conception of metaphysics as the most general or comprehensive method of inquiry. Working from a broadly analytic and naturalist perspective, he confronts positions that claim metaphysics to be impossible, as advanced in ancient, Kantian, post-Kantian, and contemporary philosophy, showing them to be unsuccessful. He draws the topics of his selective investigation of metaphysics partly from the work of Kant, whom he conceives as a primary guide to what metaphysical enquiry seeks to know. Loptson provides accounts of basic categories of what is real and outlines major historical metaphysical systems. He then goes on to explore aspects of existence, essence, substance, universals, space, time, causality, mind, freedom, and other topics. This important contribution to metaphysics offers both sustained arguments on all aspects of the subject and important insights into the major metaphysical systems from the history of philosophy. The first edition of Reality appeared in 2001 to great acclaim. For this new edition the author has augmented the work's original arguments and extensively enlarged its scope and engagement with current stances and debates.

This book discusses the relevance of philosophy courses within the undergraduate curriculum as integral to the self-formation that is at the heart of a liberal education. The objective is to provide a historically layered view of what it can still mean to study for its own sake. The elective university classroom is important because the course of study is chosen out of personal interest and enthusiasm, as opposed to being primarily governed by predetermined disciplinary objectives. It engages the student's mind directly and freely, and counters the overly specialized minds favored by the contemporary university as well as the commodification of its degrees. The discussion builds on the distinction put forward by Raymond Williams between a dominant culture (in this case, university study as contributing to research and/or marketable degrees) and alternative and/or oppositional cultures that have both residual and emergent dimensions. The elective stream of university study is treated as alternative and oppositional to the dominant culture. The elective university classroom is examined as a combination of a classroom, students, texts, and professors. Each element is explored in terms of its alternative/residual significance as illustrated through the history of philosophy: the classroom and students through the life and death of Socrates; texts through the origins of the university in medieval scholasticism; the professor in the Humboldtian reform of the university at the beginning of the nineteenth century in Berlin.