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Adorno discerned a modern quality in the classical tradition, and by incorporating this tradition into his writings he implied that there is still contemporary relevance in the classical works of the past. Classical philosophy and literature not only provided source material for his theories, but it will be shown that there is more to learn about the multiple functions of Adorno's writings and his process of writing them. This study seeks to examine and interpret some of Adorno's major writings that incorporated classical ideas and figures in order to locate how this ancient tradition contributed to his formulation of critical social and political theory. There are interesting and relevant implications for politics and political philosophy to be drawn from the entwinement of Adorno's work with classical thought, and it is the goal of this study to illuminate some of these implications. By looking at how classical thought influenced Adorno's deliberative writing process, the purpose of his writings becomes clearer. Ultimately, this study finds that his frequent use of classical literature and philosophy forms a political gesture against the standardization and domination of thought in modernity. / Master of Arts

This thesis is a study of the theories of pleasure as proposed in Plato’s Philebus, Aristotle’s EN VII.11-14 and EN X.1-5, with particular emphasis on the value of pleasure. Focusing on the Philebus in Chapters 1 and 2, I argue that the account of pleasure as restorative process of a harmonious state in the soul is in tension with Plato’s claim that some pleasures are good in their own right. I show that there are in fact two ways in which pleasure (and other processes of the soul) can have value in the Philebus. The tension in Plato’s position arises because he focuses exclusively on only one way in which pleasure can have value. Chapter 3 deals with Aristotle’s response to Plato in EN VII.11-14. According to the standard interpretation only complete activities (such as thinking and seeing) can be pleasures in their own right, but not incomplete activities (such as eating and drinking). Since this interpretation attributes to Aristotle both an implausible view and a bad response to Plato, I offer a novel interpretation of EN VII.12 according to which the central contrast is not between complete and incomplete activities, but between states and their use. This interpretation is more faithful to Aristotle’s text and gives him a better response to Plato. In Chapter 4 I turn to the central claim of EN X.4-5 that pleasure perfects an activity. I argue that we cannot understand how pleasure functions unless we take into account the state whose activation is perfected by pleasure. In particular, the agent’s disposition of being a lover of a certain activity (an attitude which belongs to the activated state) is crucial for explaining why the agent takes pleasure in it. The focus on the agent’s attitude highlights that the value of pleasure does not depend solely on the value of the activity (as many interpreters assume). I suggest instead that pleasure is valuable when and because it is an appropriate response to a given situation.

Among the figures of the Scientific Revolution, Galileo was the most influential in moving science away from Aristotle’s concept of scientific explanation to what became Modern science. My primary goal in this thesis is to explicate Galileo’s concept of scientific explanation, as well as the metaphysical and methodological underpinnings relied upon by Galileo, and to investigate where these depart from Aristotle as well as the Aristotelians of Galileo’s time. Galileo’s most revolutionary scientific achievement was to advance a new, more practical aim for scientific inquiry: he changed the focus of scientific investigations to the measuring, modeling, and predicting of phenomena. In order to increase the reliability of his hypotheses Galileo rejected those aspects of Aristotle’s account of scientific explanation that could not be rigorously empirically justified. The result was that empirical science no longer searched for the essential attributes of bodies or for Aristotle’s causes such as the “final” cause. The identified contributions and innovations promulgated by Galileo are significant because they dictated changes that became formative to contemporary models of scientific explanation. I argue that analyses such as the one given in this dissertation can provide a framework for better understanding twentieth-century criticisms that argue that Aristotle’s concept of scientific explanation contained elements that are indispensable to genuine scientific explanations but that are missing from standard contemporary accounts such as Hempel’s covering law models. Finally, I conclude that my analysis of Galileo’s contributions to scientific explanation suggests that contemporary claims that covering law models should be more receptive to Aristotle’s ideas of causation and essence are misguided. / text

Orientador: Lucas Angioni / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-20T11:18:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ferreira_MateusRicardoFernandes_D.pdf: 823119 bytes, checksum: 7ba656176385de662b9d8593f14aa89d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Nesta tese discuto aspectos da logica de Aristóteles que sao ressaltados por abordagens contemporâneas dos Primeiros Analíticos e que mostram uma teoria mais rica e sutil do que tradicionalmente se entende como sendo a lógica aristotelica. Em especial, abordo teses sobre como devem ser compreendidas as proposições categóricas, o que sao precisamente silogismos, o que sao silogismos perfeitos e quais problemas enfrenta a parte da lógica de Aristoteles que lida com proposicoes modais. Nessa direcao, abordo evidencias textuais para duas concepcoes de proposicao categorica e as dificuldades para coaduna-las com as proposicoes singulares. Alem disso, argumento que silogismos devem ser compreendidos como cadeias de predicacoes e que Aristoteles concebe um sistema logico quando procura justificar quais arranjos entre termos formam de fato tais cadeias. Argumento, tambem, que os silogismos perfeitos sao evidentes nesse sistema nao porque considerados indemonstraveis, mas porque podem ser deduzidos a partir de definicoes das proposicoes categoricas e de certas regras gerais, isto e, de regras aplicaveis nao apenas a um tipo de proposicao categorica. Por fim, apresento as caracteristicas gerais e as dificuldades de uma parte da logica de Aristoteles muito pouco associada a logica aristotelica como tradicionalmente entendida: a silogistica modal / Abstract: The present dissertation discusses aspects of Aristotle's Logic which are enhanced by contemporary approaches to Prior Analytics and display a logical theory richer and subtler than what traditionally is comprehended as being the Aristotelian Logic. My main claims concern how categorical propositions must be understood, what is the exact nature of syllogisms, what is a perfect syllogism, as well as some questions in the part of Aristotelian Logic which deals with modal propositions. From an examination of texts that support two different conceptions of categorical proposition, I discuss the difficulties in adjusting each of them to singular propositions. I also argue that syllogisms must be comprehended as chains of predications and that Aristotle conceives a logical system when he proceeds to justify which terms arrangement does produce chains of the required kind. I also argue that in this system perfect syllogisms must be understood as evident not because they are unproved, but because they are deduced from definitions for categorical propositions and from general rules, i.e. rules not applied just to some categorical propositions. Finally, I discuss general features and problems concerning a part of Aristotle's Logic rarely attached to the Aristotelian Logic as traditionally comprehended: the modal syllogistic / Doutorado / Filosofia / Doutor em Filosofia

In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Books VIII and IX provide A philosophic examination of friendship. While these Books initially appear to be non sequiturs in the inquiry, a closer examination of the questions raised by the preceding Books and consideration of the discussion of friendship's position between two accounts of pleasure in Books VII and X indicate friendship's central role in the Ethics. In friendship, Aristotle finds a uniquely human capacity that helps readers understand the good is distinct from pleasure by leading them to think seriously about what they can hold in common with their friends throughout their lives without changing who they are. What emerges from Aristotle's account of friendship is a nuanced portrait of human nature that recognizes the authoritative place of the intellect in human beings and how its ability to think about an end and hold its thinking in relation to that end depends upon whether it orders or is ordered by pleasures and pains. Aristotle lays the groundwork for this conclusion throughout the Ethics by gradually disclosing pleasures and pains are not caused solely by things we feel through the senses, but by reasoned arguments and ideas as well. Through this insight, we can begin to understand how Aristotle's Ethics is a work of political philosophy; to fully appreciate the significance of his approach, however, we must contrast his work with that of Thomas Hobbes, his harshest Modern critic. Unlike Aristotle, Hobbes is nearly silent on friendship in his political philosophy, and examining his political works especially Leviathan reveals the absence of friendship is part of his deliberate attempt to advance a politics founded on the moral teaching that pleasure is the good. Aristotle's political philosophy, by way of contrast, aims to preserve the good, and through friendship, he not only disentangles the good from pleasure, but shows a level of human community more suitable for preserving the good than political regimes because these communities have more natural bonds than any regime can hope to create between its citizens.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Ethical considerations of the human embryo have involved heated dispute and seem always to result in the same interminable debate. A history of this debate, however, shows a shift in the language used to distinguish between degrees of moral status – while the debate once focused on the presence or absence of “human life,” now it is more likely to hear whether the qualifications for “personhood” have been met. In other words, any member of the human species may deserve some level of respect, but only the “persons” deserve full moral respect. This leaves open the possibility for a human being who is not actually a person – a “nonperson human being.” As an answer to the question of exactly what kind of respect to give the human embryo, Aristotelian moral philosophy offers a unique perspective, one which is distinctive from the familiar debate. Aristotle’s concept of ergon, or function, is a key to understanding what is essential in any human being, because it reveals the importance of potentiality to our nature as rational beings. A philosophical view of function, combined with the data of modern embryology, makes the case that our proper function is the vital part of who we are as human beings, and that a disruption of human function constitutes a true harm. This thesis contrasts Aristotelian proper human function with the modern understanding of a “nonperson human being,” especially as articulated within the ethical theory of Peter Singer. This understanding of function, revealing the essence of human potential and linked with human development, offers a sort of “common-sense morality” response to modern views on personhood.

In recent decades, a number of philosophers have sought to explain the nature of human action using Aristotle’s theory of material constitution. According to these neo-Aristotelian accounts, material objects serve as the paradigm cases for analysing the concept of action. As composites of matter and form, material objects—and, in particular, biological organisms—possess a kind of constitutive unity: they are “hylomorphic wholes”. The same kind of unity purportedly exists with regard to actions, which are constituted likewise. My task in this paper will be to give a precise articulation of this thesis and what it entails. If the neo-Aristotelian claim is right, then material objects really do serve as the paradigm cases for understanding the constitution of action. In Chapter III, I will simply presume the truth of this general claim, in order to focus my attention on the relative merits and weaknesses of specific arguments given in support of it. Before considering these arguments, however, we will need to first clarify Aristotle’s thesis concerning material objects. This will be my aim in Chapter II. In general, I will accept the conventional Aristotelian position that a material thing, qua concrete substance, is constituted by substantial form in matter, a unified whole. I will presume as correct the Thomistic conception of such composites, which employs the distinction between act and potency: matter is pure potentiality for the reception of form, and form is “a determinate actualisation of this potentiality”. / text

This thesis presents an environmental ethic based on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Chapter One uses Heidegger's conception of 'dwelling' as the basis for a satisfying account of the 'otherness' or alterity of nature. Chapter Two draws upon Heidegger's writings on 'the dif-ference', Madhyamaka Buddhist philosophy and the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead to develop a 'dialectical' conception of holism which can accommodate both the account of alterity presented in Chapter One and an account of the intrinsic value of individual beings. Chapter Three frames this conception of environmental holism in terms of ethics. It is argued that Heidegger's ideal of 'releasement' can be thought of as an essential 'function' of humans, the exercise of which promotes human flourishing. Extending this Aristotelian line of reasoning, it is shown how one can draw upon Heidegger's philosophy to articulate a form of environmental virtue ethic. Chapter Four investigates the charge that Heidegger's later thought is quietistic, a general allegation which is analysed into four interrelated specific charges: 1) the accusation that Heidegger is advocating a passive withdrawal from the world; 2) Adorno's charge in Negative Dialectics that Heidegger's philosophy is inimical to critical thought; 3) the objection that Heidegger is unable to deal adequately with either interhuman relations or the relations between humans and nonhuman animals; and 4) the charge that Heidegger's later writings cannot be brought to bear upon practical environmental issues. In answer to this last objection, case studies are presented of two environmental issues: 1) the environmental impact of tourism; and 2) the practice of environmental restoration.

This thesis reports the findings of research conducted with Irish primary teachers who had recently completed probation. The study employed semi-structured interviews to examine the teachers’ perceptions of beneficial influences on the development of their teaching identity. The principals of the two schools involved were also interviewed. The interviews were designed to allow me to explore influences that had been identified in the literature as important in the formation of teacher identity. In the interviews, themes that have been identified in the literature on teacher identity were explored with participants. The teachers identified incidents and persons whom they perceived as having inspired them to become teachers. Their perceptions of how their interactions with pupils and parents had influenced their identities were examined, as were their experiences of school cultures and of working in collaboration with colleagues. Finally, their awareness of theoretical literature as a tool to help their further development was examined. The findings of the study confirm that teachers’ identities are formed by a combination of factors and add a more detailed understanding of those factors in the Irish context. Beginning teachers are influenced strongly by their own biographies, and by their experiences as students prior to and during their pre-service teacher education. They are sensitive to the perceptions of them by parents and pupils. Their willingness to engage collaboratively with other colleagues, including their principals and mentors, features strongly in their own perceptions of how their identities have been formed. The importance of the school culture in helping to shape the teacher’s identity is highlighted as a phenomenon which both shapes and is reshaped in turn by teachers and their colleagues. Literature is generally not considered relevant by the Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) in this study, although the principals’ responses indicate their familiarity with themes common in the literature concerning teacher induction, and with concepts of teachers as reflective practitioners who need to continuously examine their practice and experience in order to promote the ongoing shaping of their identity as teachers. The thesis argues for a conception of teacher professionalism which respects the identity of teachers and the agency of teachers as individuals in a world of individuals who are engaged in the constructionist creation of knowledge. This understanding prioritises practical wisdom, phronesis, over the technical knowledge, techne, and knowledge of subject, episteme, which teachers also require. This is at odds with widespread competency-based conceptions of teacher professionalism. The findings of the research indicate that the development of teacher identity is complex and is affected by a broader range of influences than the imperative to develop competencies. It calls for an alternative approach to teacher induction which acknowledges the importance of these factors.