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Research Interests: Philosophy and Absurdism
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This thesis shows the ways in which the concepts of freedom and responsibility are related, and how indeed they illuminate each other. In Part One, it is shown that both are based on a concept of action, and it is thus with an analysis of... more
This thesis shows the ways in which the concepts of freedom and responsibility are related, and how indeed they illuminate each other. In Part One, it is shown that both are based on a concept of action, and it is thus with an analysis of action that a theory of freedom and responsibility must begin. Actions are first differentiated from events, so that conditions which must obtain from an event to be an action are specified. The concept of responsibility may then be used to illuminate action by showing how excuses indicate ways in which actions can fail. From this analysis, an analysis of action in the full sense emerges, namely, that an action in the full or unqualified sense is that to which no excuses are applicable. Action in the full sense is thus linked to responsibility in the full sense. The analysis of action shows that the breakdown of an action is the loss of control over its effects, and action in the full sense thus obtains where no breakdown occurs. Conscious control over an action is the control of an action's effects, which is the realization of intentions, and the control of intentions, which is what may be analyzed as rationality. Conscious control over an action, or agency, constitutes freedom on the plane of individual action. Thus, from the concept of responsibility emerges a concept of action and of agency which indicates what freedom is. Yet, it is the actual structure of action upon which the action of responsibility rests. The theory of freedom is defined in Part Two against the incompatibilist position that if determinism is true, neither freedom nor responsibility exist. It is shown that causal determinism does not rule out actions being free in the sense required for an individual to be responsible; for them as a theory of action shows that it is not an action's being caused but the nature of its causes which makes it free or unfree. If the action is caused so that it is in the conscious control of the agent, it is free. The rest of Part Two examines moral practices such as praise a [...]
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Sartre begins the first chapter of his monograph, Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions with a critique of William James' “peripheric theory” of the emotions. According to Sartre, James claims that emotions are “nothing but the... more
Sartre begins the first chapter of his monograph, Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions with a critique of William James' “peripheric theory” of the emotions. According to Sartre, James claims that emotions are “nothing but the consciousness of physiological manifestations” (p. 33), the reflection in consciousness of changes occuring in the body. Sartre attacks this theory as being unable to account for the meaningful and purposive nature of emotions. Sartre's own view is that emotions are the substitution of a magical or symbolic way of relating to the world for problem-solving behaviour, and occur when problem-solving behaviour is perceived to be “impossible” for one reason or another.
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Introduction. French Hegel and the Unhappy Consciousness Chapter 1. The anthropological turn Chapter 2. Pantragicism Chapter 3. The existential protest: Wahl and Fondane Chapter 4. The uses of negativity: Breton and Lefebvre Chapter 5.... more
Introduction. French Hegel and the Unhappy Consciousness Chapter 1. The anthropological turn Chapter 2. Pantragicism Chapter 3. The existential protest: Wahl and Fondane Chapter 4. The uses of negativity: Breton and Lefebvre Chapter 5. Bataille: negativity unemployed Chapter 6. The unhappy consciousness in Sartre's philosophy Chapter 7. The persistence of the unhappy consciousness: Derrida Chapter 8. Beyond Hegel? Deleuze, Foucault and the new empiricism Conclusion. The career of the unhappy consciousness in France Notes Select Bibliography Index
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Can there be an aesthetics of rock music? My question is not: Can traditional ways of interpreting and evaluating music be applied to rock music, for clearly they can, with very mixed results. My question is rather: Does rock music have... more
Can there be an aesthetics of rock music? My question is not: Can traditional ways of interpreting and evaluating music be applied to rock music, for clearly they can, with very mixed results. My question is rather: Does rock music have standards of its own, which ...
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Using philosophy and social theory, this essay examines walking as a privileged means of revealing the physical and social environment of a small city. My regular walk from downtown Kamloops, British Columbia, to Thompson Rivers... more
Using philosophy and social theory, this essay examines walking as a privileged means of revealing the physical and social environment of a small city. My regular walk from downtown Kamloops, British Columbia, to Thompson Rivers University frames an exploration of the social, historical, and bodily construction of "space" and "place." We all have some idea of what it means to have a "sense of place": it is an idea of what and who "belongs" to a certain place, of some noteworthy features of the place, or the location of that place relative to its surroundings or relative to other places. In the same way, we have a rough idea of what "space" is, if only because we live and move in space, and our very bodies are spatial, having not only size and dimension, but also an orientation (left, right, up, down, forward, back). In this essay, I explore my experiences of walking through a particular small city--Kamloops, in British Columbia, Cana...
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Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l'Université de Montréal, l'Université Laval et l'Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche.... more
Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l'Université de Montréal, l'Université Laval et l'Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. Érudit offre des services d'édition numérique de ...
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Left-Wing Elitism: Adorno on Popular Culture. B BAUGH Philosophy and literature(Print) 14:11, 65-78, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. Culture; Culture; Populaire; Popular; Adorno, TW; Adorno, TW.
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In Bergsonism, Deleuze refers to Bergson's concept of an ‘open society’, which would be a ‘society of creators’ who gain access to the ‘open creative totality’ through acting and creating. Deleuze and Guattari's political... more
In Bergsonism, Deleuze refers to Bergson's concept of an ‘open society’, which would be a ‘society of creators’ who gain access to the ‘open creative totality’ through acting and creating. Deleuze and Guattari's political philosophy is oriented toward the goal of such an open society. This would be a democracy, but not in the sense of the rule of the actually existing people, but the rule of ‘the people to come,’ for in the actually existing situation, such a people is ‘lacking’. When the people becomes a society of creators, the result is a society open to the future, creativity and the new. Their openness and creative freedom is the polar opposite of the conformism and ‘herd mentality’ condemned by Deleuze and Nietzsche, a mentality which is the basis of all narrow nationalisms (of ethnicity, race, religion and creed). It is the freedom of creating and commanding, not the Kantian freedom to obey Reason and the State. This paper uses Bergson's The Two Sources of Moralit...
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Can there be an aesthetics of rock music? My question is not: Can traditional ways of interpreting and evaluating music be applied to rock music, for clearly they can, with very mixed results. My question is rather: Does rock music have... more
Can there be an aesthetics of rock music? My question is not: Can traditional ways of interpreting and evaluating music be applied to rock music, for clearly they can, with very mixed results. My question is rather: Does rock music have standards of its own, which ...
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RÉSUMÉ La théorie de l'authenticité dans…
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... The empiricism of Gilles Deleuze is not a dogma about the essence of mind, nature or reality, or "the ... only if the sensible is not understood as a discrete given; but as the virtual multiplicity revealed in Deleuzian... more
... The empiricism of Gilles Deleuze is not a dogma about the essence of mind, nature or reality, or "the ... only if the sensible is not understood as a discrete given; but as the virtual multiplicity revealed in Deleuzian "intuition." The source for this aspect of Deleuze's empiricism is ...