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The Owl of Minerva

Volume 40, Issue 1, Fall/Winter 2008/2009

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Displaying: 1-8 of 8 documents


1. The Owl of Minerva: Volume > 40 > Issue: 1
Wendell Kisner A Species-Based Environmental Ethic in Hegel’s Logic of Life
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In this paper I will argue that Hegel’s account of the category of life in the Science of Logic provides ontological grounds for the recognition of living species along with their various ecosystems as the proper objects of ethical regard for environmental ethics. I will begin by enumerating some of the salient problems that have arisen in the more well known theoretical attempts to articulate human duties to nonhuman beings. Then after a brief discussion of Hegel’s methodology and the justification for turning to his ontological account, I will explicate Hegel’s ontology of life with a view toward these problems and issues, presenting my argument as to why that account is relevant to environmental ethics and deriving from it a normative framework that implies a duty to preserve species, habitats, and biological diversity. Finally, I will suggest how the Hegelian account presented here might circumvent the shortcomings of the previously discussed theories while accommodating some of their concerns and provide solutions for some of the problems to which they call attention.
2. The Owl of Minerva: Volume > 40 > Issue: 1
Alison Stone On Alienation from Life: A Response to Wendell Kisner’s “A Species-Based Environmental Ethic in Hegel’s Logic of Life”
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In this article I respond to Wendell Kisner’s Hegelian environmental ethic. Kisner argues that because life is ontologically irreducible to mechanism it is rational to treat life not merely as a means to human purposes but as an end in itself. I argue that had Hegel consistently adhered to this position, he would have had to argue that the modern social world objectively alienates human beings from their rational selves. But Hegel in fact sees this social world as a home for rational humanity. This is because Hegel believes life is ontologically higher than mechanism but ontologically lower than human mind. For Hegel therefore, minded beings may use life for their own self-objectification and self-realisation.
3. The Owl of Minerva: Volume > 40 > Issue: 1
Chong-Fuk Lau The Aristotelian-Kantian and Hegelian Approaches to Categories
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This paper analyzes and compares the doctrines of categories of Aristotle, Kant and Hegel, each of which is first discussed separately. The paper explains the essential double perspective of the problem, showing how a logico-linguistic analysis of the form of rational discourse serves for them as an important clue to ontological problems. Although Aristotle and Kant’s doctrines differ significantly, they both endorse a kind of isomorphism between language/thought and reality. By contrast, Hegel, who takes a critical attitude toward the capability of human language and discursive thinking, rejects the possibility of deriving the structure of reality from the forms of predication or judgment. Nevertheless, the forms of judgment do play an equally crucial role in Hegel’s doctrine, though in a very different way from his predecessors. It is the structural “deficiency” of the judgmental form that turns out to be the driving force for the dialectical movement of the Concept. By shifting the primary concern from the categories themselves to the transitions between them, Hegel opens up the possibility of a dynamic system of categories.
4. The Owl of Minerva: Volume > 40 > Issue: 1
John Burbidge Contingent Categories: A Response to Prof. Lau
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By comparing the argument in the first edition of Hegel’s Science of Logic with that of the second we find that he not only introduces significant changes but indicates why he found the changes necessary. As over time he rethought his method in the course of his annual lectures he realised that pure thought should not anticipate results but follow from the inherent sense of each term. The details of his logical method suggest how the novelties that emerge in history can require the introduction of new modified categories.
5. The Owl of Minerva: Volume > 40 > Issue: 1
Call for Papers
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6. The Owl of Minerva: Volume > 40 > Issue: 1
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7. The Owl of Minerva: Volume > 40 > Issue: 1
Recent Dissertations
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8. The Owl of Minerva: Volume > 40 > Issue: 1
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