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COSMOPOLITAN IMAGINATION: A METHODOLOGICAL QUEST FOR QIAOPI ARCHIVAL RESEARCH
Get PDFFor migrants, a family letter may define an absence: of home, of family, of love. It is written to an absence. It may also serve as a way of transporting a migrant home, imaginarily. Each time a migrant writes a letter home, they are making a journey to their family: scenarios with family are developed in their imagination, and thus relationships are crafted, and home is constituted. The practice of letter-writing creates a space that is neither at home nor away sojourning, but somewhere in-between, a space for a migrant to be at home in the world.
\u27There is No Authority But Yourself\u27: What it Means to Think and Act in Dundee’s DIY Punk Scene
Get PDFA Semantic Solution to the Problem of Induction
No full textIn this paper, I give a semantic solution to what is usually called the "problem of induction". This solution is directly inspired by the non-related literature on epistemic contextualism, the view that \u27know\u27 is context-sensitive. I first present the problem of induction and Popper\u27s response. I then argue that \u27x is justified in believing p\u27 is indexical, which provides a solution to the problem of induction. I then consider two counterarguments to my thesis: that my solution is not a real solution; and, more importantly, that x is never justified in believing that the future will resemble the past. I show these two counterarguments to be inconclusive and I conclude that my semantic solution is a genuine answer to the problem of induction
On the Rationality of Fearing Death
No full textIf death by definition erases you, why should you fear it? For where you are, death will never be, and where death is, you will never be; it can never touch you. This intuition underlies Lucretius\u27 famous argument that there is no reason to fear death. Taken seriously, it implies that you should be indifferent at the prospect of unexpectedly dying in your sleep tonight. To fear it would be to expect some experience that you will never undergo.In his paper The Makropulos case Bernard Williams develops the notion of "categorical desires" to refute this argument. In this paper, I will (I) explain Williams\u27 argument that, contra Lucretius, we have reason to fear death; (II) raise, and subsequently amend, the objection that Williams\u27 argument begs the question; and (III) argue that there is a response on Williams\u27 behalf that blunts the force of the objection
A Parsimonious Agent Causation
Get PDF Free will and moral responsibility share an intricate relationship. Whether we deem an agent morally praiseworthy or morally blameworthy depends, in part, on whether or not the act was “performed freely”. However, numerous difficulties emerge when one tries to articulate what “performed freely” entails: one must not only provide an account of free will with reference to its nature, he or she must also take into consideration its compatibility, or lack thereof, with existing and/or potential features of the world. Ultimately, this paper attempts to do just that, to provide an account of free will that is both coherent and naturalistic. Consequently, I argue that such an account be contrived under the umbrella of agent-causal libertarianism using the mechanics of quiescence.
Presentism, Temporal Distributional Properties, and Fundamentality
Get PDFAccording to presentism, everything that exists is present. According to the truthmaker principle, for every true proposition there is a truthmaker – an entity that suffices for the truth of that proposition. According to realism about the past, there are true propositions about the past. Together these claims necessitate presently existing truthmakers for truths about the past (presentist truthmakers). Cameron (2010) argues that temporal distributional properties (TDPs) can play the role of presentist truthmakers. Corkum (2014) argues that they cannot. I argue against Corkum’s objections. In §2, I introduce, and outline the motivation for, TDPs. In §3, I show that unless TDPs are stipulated to be fundamental, as Cameron does, they can be reduced to temporal non–distributional properties, which are unable to play the role of presentist truthmakers. In §4, I argue against Corkum’s two objections to Cameron’s stipulation. Corkum’s first objection is that Cameron has no grounds on which to stipulate that TDPs are fundamental, and that the reducibility of TDPs to temporal non–distributional properties (as discussed in §3) shows that they are not. I argue that the burden of proof is not on Cameron to argue that TDPs are fundamental, but on Corkum to argue that they are not, and that to argue from the reducibility of TDPs to their non–fundamentality is to beg the question against Cameron: the reduction is only possible once their non–fundamentality is assumed. Corkum’s second objection is that if Cameron is allowed to stipulate that TDPs are fundamental in order to escape objections, then a superior alternative account is allowed to make the same move, rendering Cameron’s account redundant. I argue that the cases are asymmetric: the alternative account faces a legitimate objection whilst Cameron’s account does not
On the Question: How Fast Does Time Pass?
Get PDF In this paper, I take up the question of "how fast does time flow?" This question is usually asked as a rejoinder to the view that time is irreducibly tensed, which is motivated by the fact that we experience the passage of time. I consider what the meaning of this question could be and provide a defence of the view that the passage of time is meaningless (due to its rate of passage being dimensionless), undercutting the motivation for a tensed view of time
An Exploration of Impact: Hunger, Cartoons & Philosophy
Get PDFIn the first issue of Syria Studies to be published in 2017, we are pleased to share three studies that provide important insights on subjects that have gained significant importance in recent times in so far as how they relate to the Syrian context: siege warfare, political cartoons, and gender politics.In Isolating Dissent, Punishing the Masses: Siege Warfare as Counter-Insurgency, Will Todman analyses the intricate relationship between the nature of the Syrian regime and the military tactics it opted to use to suppress those opposed to it, both during the insurgency phase, and the subsequent civil war. Sieges were effective because they allowed the regime to make optimal use of its military advantage. Once you have a segment of the population in a restricted area, you not only control food and medical supplies, but you can also unleash an indiscriminate bombardment campaign, as the regime indeed did. Todman provides a historic context to the use of these tactics by the Syrian regime (i.e. Hama), and addresses the important question of whether or not siege warfare helped the regime survive.In Whose Problem Is It Anyway? The Depiction of Syrian Refugee Influx in Political Cartoons, Özlem Özdemir and Emrah Özdemir explore the way in which the crisis of Syrian refugees was depicted by cartoons that appeared in Western media. In focusing on twelve randomly selected political cartoons, the authors tell a story of suffering that begins with why the refugee is fleeing and ends with how the refugee is being received by both border countries and beyond. The use of political science and communication theory to analyse these cartoons is not common in the current literature and constitutes an important contribution.In Interrogating the Construction of Gendered Identity in the Syrian Nationalist Narrative: Al-Husari, Aflaq and al-Arsuzi, Rahaf Aldoughli sheds an important light on how early Bathist theoreticians planted the intellectual foundation for the way in which gender roles were to be understood and, subsequently, taught and applied in Baathist Syria. Using extensive quotes from original sources, Aldoughli documents the systematic masculinisation of conceptions of nationhood by Baathist theoreticians. Perhaps most significant was the “normalisation of militarism in the national narrative” which, resulted in perpetuating “a hierarchy that obstructs the elimination of the gender gap in the Syrian constitution and legislation.”The important common denominator between the above noted studies is ‘impact’; more specifically, the extent to which a specific method or idea achieved its desired impact. Todman explores the impact of siege warfare and concludes that despite the fact that the war economy allowed for besieged populations to receive a level of relief, sieges were overall successful in that they allowed for the regime to make use of its military advantage and survive a dire challenge to its very existence. While Özdemir and Özdemir showed that political cartoons can indeed be used to better understand a specific phenomenon, they equally demonstrated that political cartoons are ultimately expressive of a specific mindset that the majority of a population has at any given moment in time, rather than instruments by which public perceptions can be significantly changed. Indeed, the plight of Syrian refugees was not impacted in any significant way by the cartoons examined here. Finally, Aldoughli explores the impact of Baathist ideology on the way in which gender conceptions and roles were manifested in Baathist Syria. Here, impact is easily discerned. The works of early Baathist theoreticians, systematically and deliberately, became the ideological underpinnings of a society that is dominated by the idea of a militarized nation in which men lead both the state and the family