Husband, father of 3, author of 24 books developing systematic philosophy without foundations, teaching philosophy at the University of Georgia since 1982, ran for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate in 2018 and 2020 on a Federal Job Guarantee social rights agenda, for which I argue in my 2020 book, DEMOCRACY UNCHAINED. Phone: 706-542-2811 Address: Professor Richard Dien Winfield Department of Philosophy University of Georgia 103 Peabody Hall Athens, GA 30602-1627
This chapter examines how the conceptions of space and time provide the natural, but non-material... more This chapter examines how the conceptions of space and time provide the natural, but non-material resources for determining matter. On this basis, the chapter critically examines how Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel account for matter.
If philosophy were to begin with any determinate method or subject matter, philosophical investig... more If philosophy were to begin with any determinate method or subject matter, philosophical investigation would condemn itself to a hypothetical wager of opinion relative to its initial assumption of some form or content. The procedure and topic of philosophy, however, are themselves philosophical issues that must be decided within and by philosophy itself. Philosophy therefore finds itself in the radical predicament of having to begin instead without making any specific assertions about its knowing or its object. Surmounting relativity by calling into question all assumptions about what philosophical investigation should address and how it should proceed, philosophy is necessarily an empty word at the outset of its labors. All that can be anticipated is that philosophy must exhibit a complete self-responsibility, liberating its investigation from all external dictates and operating with sovereign autonomy. Philosophy must be what it exclusively determines itself to be, and what that is cannot be duly manifest until the conclusion of its self-constituting activity. This is not to say that philosophical investigation is limited to thinking itself. Rather, to the degree that philosophy conceives everything disclosed through the autonomous workings of reason, whatever it reveals about whichever objects fall under philosophical purview must be determined prior to philosophy’s arrival at its own self-conception.
Since Aristotle, syllogism has cast a fateful shadow upon the power of reason. Recognized to be t... more Since Aristotle, syllogism has cast a fateful shadow upon the power of reason. Recognized to be the great conveyor of rationality, syllogism has equally been acknowledged to be beset by limits.
This chapter examines how the conceptions of space and time provide the natural, but non-material... more This chapter examines how the conceptions of space and time provide the natural, but non-material resources for determining matter. On this basis, the chapter critically examines how Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel account for matter.
If philosophy were to begin with any determinate method or subject matter, philosophical investig... more If philosophy were to begin with any determinate method or subject matter, philosophical investigation would condemn itself to a hypothetical wager of opinion relative to its initial assumption of some form or content. The procedure and topic of philosophy, however, are themselves philosophical issues that must be decided within and by philosophy itself. Philosophy therefore finds itself in the radical predicament of having to begin instead without making any specific assertions about its knowing or its object. Surmounting relativity by calling into question all assumptions about what philosophical investigation should address and how it should proceed, philosophy is necessarily an empty word at the outset of its labors. All that can be anticipated is that philosophy must exhibit a complete self-responsibility, liberating its investigation from all external dictates and operating with sovereign autonomy. Philosophy must be what it exclusively determines itself to be, and what that is cannot be duly manifest until the conclusion of its self-constituting activity. This is not to say that philosophical investigation is limited to thinking itself. Rather, to the degree that philosophy conceives everything disclosed through the autonomous workings of reason, whatever it reveals about whichever objects fall under philosophical purview must be determined prior to philosophy’s arrival at its own self-conception.
Since Aristotle, syllogism has cast a fateful shadow upon the power of reason. Recognized to be t... more Since Aristotle, syllogism has cast a fateful shadow upon the power of reason. Recognized to be the great conveyor of rationality, syllogism has equally been acknowledged to be beset by limits.
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