Angus Brook

CLEARLY, SUBSTANCE (OUSIA) IS THE PRIMARY SENSE of being in the Metaphysics. Aristotle is unequivocal at various points in the Metaphysics in positing the primacy of ousia in relation to the question of being qua being. However, Aristotle's arguments in the Metaphysics are not completely clear on what he means by ousia or the way in which the investigation of ousia enables a proper understanding of the meaning of being qua being. There has been much academic debate as to whether it is the composite substance, individual form, or essence that can be said to be the primary sense of ousia. The question remains as a matter of academic and scholarly concern: what then is the primary sense of ousia? In this article I attempt to explore Aristotle's arguments about ousia, and on the basis of this exploration, I argue that Aristotle can really only make sense of ousia, in relation to its basic intelligibility, through the concepts of telos (end) and entelechy (fulfilment). Thus, in s...

The concept and activity of play has been a recurring theme in ethics and moral philosophy, particularly in the normative theories of natural law and virtue ethics. This paper explores the moral dimensions of consumerist play–forms of play in which objects or means of play are designed to be purchased and consumed–from the perspective of virtue ethics. The paper will test out a hypothesis that consumerist play leads to bad habits of playing and thus hampers or is detrimental to human well-being. As a whole, the chapter intends to provide justification to support the argument that we have genuine grounds for concern that a person whose play is predominately an engagement in consumerist play is likely to fail to grasp the meaning and nature of play and thus fail to appropriately fulfil its function in their attempts at playing. Like a person in the grip of greed, who takes wealth as an end rather than a means, a person in the vice-like grip of consumerist play is likely to take the point of play as a means or object to be consumed rather than to engage in a free exploration of identity, re-creation, and renewal within the context of human well-being.

This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities that have arisen out of developing graduate capability standards rubrics for the LOGOS Programme; a liberal education core curriculum programme in philosophy, ethics, and theology that all students at the University of Notre Dame Australia are required to undertake. The paper will focus upon the specific challenges which face liberal education Catholic universities in promoting, fostering and forming graduate attributes amongst their students. In doing so, we will attempt to demonstrate the usefulness of developing standards rubrics as a basis for careful and systematic review of our pedagogical approach, curriculum and assessment design oriented towards assuring graduate attributes and capabilities.

In recent publications, there has been something of an emerging debate about the relationship between powers ontology and current accounts of time. It seems that if powers ontology is to have bearing on contemporary metaphysical accounts of time, some work needs to be done to show how powers ontology might overcome the apparent contradictions that have arisen in this emerging debate. One avenue to pursue is to test out the possibility of wresting a powers temporal ontology out of a re-reading of Aristotle’s account of time with a specific focus on his account of motion and potency. This article will make an effort to make some headway here.

In 2011 members of the School of Philosophy and Theology at The University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA) Sydney campus, designed two standards rubrics as part of a project aimed at undertaking research within the area of assuring graduate attributes and capabilities in Australian universities. The standards rubrics designed were oriented towards developing particular graduate attributes intrinsic to the Core Curriculum programme in philosophy, ethics, and theology; all students at UNDA are required to undertake this programme, which reflects a ‘liberal arts’ or ‘liberal education’ approach to university education.
In this paper, we engage in an institutional case study of this project, discussing the advantages and challenges of developing and using these standards rubrics with a specific focus on: how they have already been used, how we plan to use them in the continuing development of our Core Curriculum programme, and the particular challenges we face in developing standards rubrics within a ‘liberal arts’ or ‘liberal education’ environment. In doing so, we will attempt to demonstrate the usefulness of developing standards rubrics as a basis for careful and systematic review of our pedagogical approach, and curriculum and assessment design so as to assure the achievement of graduate attributes and capabilities.

Given our focus on developing these standards rubrics within a Catholic liberal education environment, the paper will begin with a discussion of the tradition of liberal education. This tradition provides the immediate context for the graduate attributes and capabilities toward which our rubrics are oriented and helps explain the specific nature of the Core Curriculum programme. The article will then consider key theoretical problems that arise in attempting to assure graduate attributes and capabilities within a liberal education environment, including problems related to educating towards objectives or attributes that are difficult to assess or measure due to their generality. In the final part of the paper, we demonstrate the usefulness of developing standards rubrics as a means of reviewing our pedagogical approach and curriculum design for the purposes of fostering graduate attributes and designing assessments that enable students to demonstrate the degree to which they have attained graduate attributes.

Publikationsansicht. 47809688. Martin Heidegger's Path to an Aesthetic εθοσ (2005). Brook, Angus. Abstract. Martin Heidegger is infamous for his rejection of the validity of Ethics as a philosophical endeavour and moreover, for his aesthetic formulation of εθοσ. ...

If the 'studies in religion' are to be reinvented, we should ask: what foundation for this reinvention? or What foundation is appropriate for this particular historical horizon? This paper will take one stance towards this issue of foundation – in relation to the question of the ...

Martin Heidegger is infamous for his rejection of the validity of Ethics as a philosophical endeavour ('Letter on Humanism') and moreover, for his aesthetic formulation of ethos (Holderlin's Hymn 'The Ister'). This short work will trace the path of Heidegger's thought in his early academic ...

This book explores the possibility of a phenomenology of religion that is ontological; founded on Martin Heidegger's philosophical thought. The book attempts to utilise Heidegger's formulation of phenomenology as ontology while also engaging in a critical relation with his path of ...