It’s time for society to consider a new definition of materialism and re-think what constitutes ‘the good life,’ according to a philosophy professor who has written a new book on the subject.
In its standard interpretation, materialism says the only things that truly exist are matter and energy and that our reality is defined by them. Ethically, the term has come to be negatively associated with material greed and a fascination with amassing wealth and commodities.
What can contemporary scientific psychology, barely 150 years old, teach us about the emotions that literary and philosophical inquiry cannot? A symposium on the UWindsor campus April 20 and 21 will bring scholars from around the world to explore that question.
Psychology, Emotion, and the Human Sciences is sponsored by the Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation, and Rhetoric and English professor Stephen Pender, research leadership chair in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
After almost three years in the naval reserves, Kelvin Beaudoin says the experience is worth more than the money. An able seaman, the first-year philosophy and sociology student works as a resource management support clerk at the HMCS Hunter.
“For my trade, many of the skills I’m learning now are transferable to civilian jobs,” Beaudoin says. “I’ve learned communication, organization and team working skills.”
He is paid for his work, but also received $2,000 toward his university tuition.
In 1588, Tycho Brahe and Nicolaus Raimarus Ursus each published works which advanced alternatives to both the geostatic and geocentric world systems of Aristotle and Ptolemy and to the geokinetic and heliocentric system of Copernicus. A controversy ensued over the authenticity of their systems, since they were remarkably similar.
A young mathematician-astronomer, Johannes Kepler, tried to resolve the conflict with his 1601 Apologia pro Tycho contra Ursum.
For feminists like Catherine Hundleby, every day is women’s day. However, having a special day to help others recognize how much progress still needs to be made to create a truly equitable society for women is critical, the professor in philosophy and women’s studies says.
In 1575, the Spanish physician Juan Huarte recorded an encounter with a “rude countrie fellow who made very eloquent discourse” after becoming frantic. According to Huarte, this oratory sprang directly from the man’s fevered state.
In a free public lecture Wednesday, English professor Stephen Pender takes seriously Huarte’s assertion — eloquence is a matter of heat rather than cognition, imagination or memory — and explores an ensemble of neglected ideas in early modern medicine and rhetoric.
The Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric presents distinguished research fellow Douglas Walton delivering his free public lecture “An Argumentation Model of Defeasible Scientific Knowledge” at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, February 8, in the seminar room, Parker House.
In his discussion, Dr. Walton presents a model of the procedure whereby argumentation is used to justify the claim that a given proposition should have the status of scientific knowledge.
Even asking the question “What is Nature?” seems to presume a distinction between the natural and the non-natural, says philosophy professor Philip Rose.
He will explore that notion in a lecture today — Wednesday, February 1 — at 3:30 p.m. in room 52-1, Chrysler Hall South. Dr. Rose will provide an overview of the idea of nature in classical thought and discuss the contrast drawn between the natural and the divine.
His lecture, part of the Philosophy Dry Run Series, is free and open to the public.
For the last 45 years, Tony Blair has been making the world a better place, one argument at a time.
A professor emeritus in the university’s Philosophy department, Blair is one of the original founders of a school of thought known as informal logic. Simply put, it’s a manner of ordinary reasoning that helps people become more skilled critical thinkers, better able to assess the validity of arguments they’re faced with every day.
Seven UWindsor authors – Tony Blair, Leo Groarke, Ralph Johnson, Kate Parr, Robert Pinto, Christopher Tindale, Douglas Walton – account among them for at least five textbooks on reasoning and argument evaluation.
Now, several members of that group are working to identify an approach to informal logic common to this University.
Blair, Johnson and Tindale have drafted the Windsor Method, which outlines a broad school of thought on identifying, analyzing and judging reasoning and arguments.
