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In recent years, New Materialism has emerged as one of the most important trends in the humanities. The nomenclature is an umbrella term denoting a range of philosophical movements that [...]

In most contemporary accounts of Indian philosophical systems, Carvaka emerges as the odd one out. As for its historical origins, it was one of the only nastika schools that proudly [...]

This article charts the confluence and eventual overlap between two different fields: that of world/global history and that of material culture. At a basic level, world and global historians' interest in 'things' is the result of the fact that material artefacts--whether commodities, luxuries, scientific tools, ethnographic specimens or unique art objects--have been seen as mobile as than people. Yet, the so-called 'material turn' in world/global history also raises a series of methodological and theoretical questions. I start with a historiographic overview to map the major currents and areas of global history affected by a 'material turn.' Moving from a historiographical to a conceptual plane, the main body of this article is dedicated to showing how material culture might come to the assistance of world/global history. It provides a series of methodological and theoretical tools for historians to play with established narratives and to revise the conceptualization of connectivity--a key concept in global history. I conclude with some reflections on how a material approach might relate to recent forays into what is now called global microhistory, addressing issues of agency and the relationship between academic and public history. Keywords: early modern, material culture, global exchange, arts, consumption, connections., WHEN one talks about 'turns' there is a risk of overemphasizing change. This is why the 'cultural turn' and the 'linguistic turn' in history have been cut back to size, [...]

The emergence of the so-called 'material turn' (e.g., speculative realism, new materialism, object-oriented ontology, and actor-network theory) has been one of the most influential trends in the humanities and social [...]

New-materialistic studies of early Greek poetry have focused on the Homeric epics and on their intersections with the concepts of 'entanglement' or the 'assemblage,' both of which acknowledge the interwovenness of humans and objects. This paper focuses on martial elegy, especially the compositions of Tyrtaeus and Archilochus, and shows that while some passages coincide with new-materialistic descriptions of assemblages, such poems place greater emphasis on the sorts of concepts explored by object-oriented ontologists: the agency of objects, their independence from human control, and human ignorance of object-object interactions., The concepts introduced by scholars of new materialisms offer us important insights into the world around us. Jane Bennett (2010), for instance, studies ways in which nonhuman objects can take [...]

The highest good is like that of water. The goodness of water is that it benefits the ten thousand creatures; yet itself does not scramble, but is content with the [...]

I A lean hylomorphism stands as a metaphysical holy grail. It would provide an ontology of the composition of material substances that would look materialistic--and so friendly to naturalist interests--but [...]

Scholarship on embodied reading has conventionally assumed a one-way relationship between the fictional world and the body. Bodies respond to representation--affectively, emotionally, and/or sexually--and are not typically considered to have [...]

For me, memories of game play are often memories of tactile experiences: the ridges on the edges of each checker under my index finger, the weight and substance of the [...]

Abstract: This article seeks a definition of money by bringing the approaches of Spengler, Plato, Aristotle, and Keynes into dialogue. All four promote alternative views of the ontology of money [...]

This article explores and puts together eight important factors influencing materialism in children aged 8-12 years using a large sample from Spain. An analysis of the relationship of this set [...]

This is the darkest hour of the dark ages. Disease, famine, and warfare are raging like the fierce north wind. The Buddha's teaching has waned in strength.... The jewel-like teaching [...]

This article aims to develop a historical materialist analysis to analyse Turkish Foreign Policy (TFP) as part of what I refer to as critical foreign policy studies. The paper utilises a critical political economy approach to TFP based on the Gramscian concept of hegemony and extends it to analyse different foreign policy strategies as hegemonic projects developed by ruling capital classes to sustain their rule. The paper also presents the concept of hegemonic depth to resolve the antinomies involved in understanding foreign policy projects as the outcome of a dialectical interplay between structures and agencies. The concept of hegemonic depth is then used to understand the dynamics of TFP in terms of the state-capital nexus. Hegemonic depth implies the extent of the embeddedness of capital fractions in controlling the state apparatus and the functioning of the state. The article also argues for the replacement of the geopolitical concept of strategic depth with the sociological concept of hegemonic depth to describe this process of deepening of the neoliberal principles of globalization, the concomitant development of hegemonic projects and their reflection on TFP. The final section argues that there are always limits to hegemonic depth and that the current Justice and Development Party government may have difficulties in extending the penetration of its hegemony. Keywords: Historical materialism, Turkish Foreign Policy, Class and State, Hegemony, Hegemonic Projects, Accumulation Strategy. Bu makale, elestirel dis politika calismalari adini verdigim bir yaklasim cercevesinde Turk Dis Politikasi'nin tarihsel materyalist analizini yapmaya yonelik bir cerceve cizmektedir. Bu dogrultuda elestirel bir politik iktisat yaklasimi benimseyerek Gramsci'nin hegemonya kavramini temel almakta ve bu kavrami genisleterek dis politika stratejilerini hakim siniflarin egemenliklerini surdurmek icin gelistirdikleri hegemonya projelerinin bir uzantisi olarak degerlendirmektedir. Makale dis politikanin degerlendirilmesinde yapilar ve failler arasindaki diyalektik iliskinin nasil anlasilmasi gerektigine yonelik olarak hegemonik derinlik kavramini onermekte ve devlet-sermaye iliskisinin incelenmesinde bu kavrami kullanmaktadir. Hegemonik derinlik sermaye siniflarinin devlet kurumlari ile bu kurumlarin isleyisindeki etkilerinin derinligini ifade etmektedir. Makale bu sureci ifade etmek uzere jeopolitik bir kavram olan stratejik derinlik kavrami yerine, neoliberal kuresellesme ilkeleri ile bunlari yansitan dis politika projelerini ifade etmek uzere sosyolojik bir kavram olan hegemonik derinlik kavraminin kullanilmasini onermektedir. Makale hegemonik derinligin sinirlari oldugunu ve mevcut AKP hukumetinin bu sinirlara erismis olabilecegini ifade etmektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Tarihsel Materyalizm, Turk Dis Politikasi, Devlet ve Sinif, Hegemonya, Hegemonya Projeleri, Hegemonik Derinlik, Introduction * This paper attempts to develop a historical materialist analysis of Turkish Foreign Policy (TFP) based on a based on a critical political economy approach employing a neo-Gramscian theoretical [...]

United States patent law's view on the need for a physical embodiment of the invention, and the continued production and use of an embodiment, has varied over the last two [...]

Brym's article in the current issue of this journal is an interesting and well-written discussion of an important topic and it presents a substantial body of evidence, addressing a theoretically [...]

VIRTUAL IMMORTALITY IS THE THEORY THAT THE fullness of our mental selves can be uploaded with first-person perfection to non-biological media, so that when our mortal bodies die our mental [...]

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is internationally known as one of the most influential dramatists, directors, and theater theorists of the twentieth century and also, within German culture, as one of its [...]

Material culture methodologies have predominantly focused on the novel, with scholars either tracking the use and historical significance of objects that populate a narrative or examining the book itself as [...]

In India, the concept of materialism has shifted from (the Indian philosophical concepts) Lokayata/Carvaka, from supernaturalism to naturalism, following the development of science and modernism. People, who were predominantly religious and believed in philosophical idealism, as opposed to materialism, have started following philosophical materialism to express their worldview and progress. E.g., living in a big city and owning a car is perceived as an orientation toward material goods and materialism, which may not be true. This study makes an attempt to develop a measure for materialistic orientation, which takes into account the cultural and behavioural distinctions of Indian urban youth. Existing measures of materialism are reviewed to develop a measure that is more attuned to trace the contextual materialism in Indian urban youth. Findings of the study suggest that, in order to measure the level of materialism, three dimensions need to be considered, i.e. significance, individuality and satisfaction. Keywords: materialism, idealism, material satisfaction, material significance, material individuality. U Indiji, koncept materijalizma razvija se od (indijskih filozofskih koncepcija) idealizma Lokayata/Carvaka, prema materijalistickoj orijentaciji, prateci razvoj znanosti i modernizma. Ljudi, koji su prethodno bili prvenstveno vjerski i, u filozofskom smislu, idealisticki orijentirani, poceli su izrazavati, filozofski shvaceno, materijalisticku orijentaciju, kako bi iskazali svoj pogled na svijet i napredak. Primjerice, zivot u velikom gradu i posjedovanje automobila bi se moglo percipirati kao orijentaciju prema materijalnim dobrima i materijalizmu, a sto ne mora biti tocno. Stoga se u ovom radu pokusava razviti mjera materijalisticke orijentacije, koja uzima u obzir kulturalne i ponasajne specificnosti indijske urbane mladezi. Prikazuju se postojece mjere materijalisticke orijentacije, kako bi se razvio mjerni pristup, primjeren kontekstualnim odrednicama materijalizma kod indijske urbane mladezi. Rezultati rada ukazuju da se mjerenje materijalisticke orijentacije moze prikazati pomocu tri dimenzije: znacaja, individualnosti i zadovoljstva., UDC 140(540) 1. INTRODUCTION The all-encompassing globalization has enhanced the significance of material possessions in one's life. The impression of growing influence of materialism in life reflects from the pride [...]

The paper evaluates a letter from W.V.O. Quine to Christopher Hookway that discusses Hookway's 1988 book on Quine. In the letter, Quine objects that Hookway makes him seem more radical than that he truly is. However, in the letter Quine does not challenge Hookway's interpretation. Rather, he denies, on different grounds, that this interpretation applies to him. Not only is this disingenious, but it suggests that it was not so much Hookway that Quine was trying to convince, but himself. Keywords: Christopher Hookway, W.V.O. Quine, Eliminativism, Physicalism, Realism., On July 3, 2014, Chris Hookway sent me a message that read: 'I don't know if you are familiar with the letter I had from Quine when I sent him [...]

Abstract: Atheists are not the only people who donate their bodies, yet the practice is strikingly prevalent in a variety of atheist circles. We concentrate here on the Indian case, [...]

This paper attempts to clarify how the internal relation and the concrete universal are both crucial canons of interpretation at play in Marx's mature method of dialectical explanation, which moves from the abstract to the concrete-in-thought. The paper argues that just as Marx's notion of the commodity is the master conceptual knot for Marx's elaboration of Capital via a movement from the abstract to the concrete-in-thought, so praxis is the master conceptual knot for integrating the humanism of the early Marx with the theory of historical materialism, and with Marx's later work, via a movement from the abstract to the concrete-in-thought. Keywords Abstract universal, canons of interpretation, commodity, concrete universal, external relation, historical materialism, internal relation, Marx's dialectical method of explanation, praxis, Introduction When is a Marxist a Marxist? And when is a Marxist not a Marxist? Clearly even Marx himself had concerns about what 'Marxism' is construed to be, as is [...]

Relations are 'internal' where the 'essence' of the individual is the outcome of its relations. Marx's historical materialism treats social relations as internal in this sense. The human essence is the potential to develop the capabilities required for the actualisation of 'freedom' as activity objectifying universal intellectual, aesthetic and ethical values. Its full realisation requires the ideal social relations of 'communism'. Such relations are the end product of human history conceived as a dialectical process of internally related stages in which the development of individual capabilities is brought about by 'estrangement' within the internal production relations that define each stage. Keywords Marx, internal relations, materialist conception of history, species-being, dialectic of negativity, estrangement, Introduction The relations of individuals are 'internal', where the characteristics that define the individual --the individual's 'essence'--are the product of these relations. In Marx, the human essence is the product [...]

Certain enterprises at the fringes of science, such as intelligent design creationism, claim to identify phenomena that go beyond not just our present physics but any possible physical explanation. Asking what it would take for such a claim to succeed, we introduce a version of physicalism that formulates the proposition that all available data sets are best explained by combinations of 'chance and necessity'--algorithmic rules and randomness. Physicalism would then be violated by the existence of oracles that produce certain kinds of noncomputable functions. Examining how a candidate for such an oracle would be evaluated leads to questions that do not admit an easy resolution. Since we lack any plausible candidate for any such oracle, however, chance-and-necessity physicalism appears very likely to be correct. Keywords Physicalism * Chance and necessity * Computability * Supernaturalism * Intelligent design * Hypercomputation * Randomness, 1 The Limits of Physics The natural sciences, particularly mature sciences such as physics, have enjoyed great success in explaining the phenomena of our world. And this success has motivated [...]

In a digital era of representation, where screen content is abstracted from material objects/apparatuses, how do we still associate 'text' and 'book' with materiality? This essay analyzes Jonathan Safran Foer's [...]

Physicalism Requires Functionalism: A New Formulation and Defense of the Via Negativa, JUSTIN TIEHEN How should 'the physical' be defined for the purpose of formulating physicalism? In this paper the [...]

When the mouth dies, who misses you? --John Berryman, Homage to Mistress Bradstreet In a review of Tennyson's 1842 Poems, Leigh Hunt reacted strongly against the editorial ticks on display [...]

This article argues for a modified constructivist approach to archaeological object authenticity which takes the object's materiality seriously. This is accomplished by defining authenticity not in relation to the age of an object but to its age-value, i.e., the quality or condition of being (of the) past--its pastness. Pastness is the result of a particular perception or experience. It derives from, among others, material clues indicating wear and tear, decay, and disintegration. These material clues, and thus the presence of pastness, can be created entirely in the present. [Keywords: Authenticity, materiality, constructivism, pastness, patina, ruins, retrochic], ********** Introduction: Archaeological Authenticity and Materiality Authentic objects intrigue academic and non-academic audiences alike, perhaps more so today than ever before. As I am writing, there are 287 million Google [...]

THE EXTENSIVE INFLUENCE OF SCOTT'S FICTION on art in the nineteenth century has long been a subject of commentary, while a parallel, if less developed, line of enquiry has examined [...]

Claudio Rodriguez is one of the best-known poets of the Generation 50. His poems have contributed to developing a significant interpretation of a sacred materialism related to spirituality. The things or objects viewed by human beings represent essentially an epiphany which enables us not only to recognize metaphysical transcendence but also to attain good communication with otherness. In his poetic creations, things characterized by enlightenment and shift provide the observer with forms through which to seek the truth of phenomena. Therefore, the poet attempts to reveal the blessing of being able to see various realities by means of corporality. His lyrical expression is marked by modesty, spontaneity and generosity. Moreoever, Rodriguez is considered a flaneur, a poet who shares Charles Baudelaire's strategy of walking the city or the countryside in order to tell history. This can be deemed an epistemological adventure in which the poet refers to the relationship between the people and the land. Finally, through his hymns of devastation and evanescence, Rodriguez expresses gratitude for death. As death symbolizes another beginning and resurrection, it can be celebrated with dance, drunkenness and hope and, at the same time, viewed with resignation. KEYWORDS: Claudio Rodriguez, materialism, spirituality, epiphany, phenomenology, thing, death, Introduccion La poesia espanola de posguerra podria ser considerada como un punto de inflexion, que influye acertadamente en el terreno de la poesia espanola contemporanea. Es este punto de inflexion [...]

In this paper, I investigate how different views about the vertical and horizontal structure of reality affect the debate between reductive and nonreductive physicalism. This debate is commonly assumed to [...]

Transhumanism, the belief that technology can transcend the limitations of the human body and brain, is part of the family of Enlightenment philosophies. As such, transhumanism has also inherited the internal tensions and contradictions of the broad Enlightenment tradition. First, the project of Reason is self-erosive and requires irrational validation. Second, although most transhumanists are atheist, their belief in the transcendent power of intelligence generates new theologies. Third, although most transhumanists are liberal democrats, their belief in human perfectibility and governance by reason can validate technocratic authoritarianism. Fourth, transhumanists are divided on the balance between democracy and the market. Fifth, teleological expectations of unstoppable progress are in tension with awareness of the indeterminacy of the future. Sixth, transhumanists are divided between advocates of ethical universalism and ethical relativism. Seventh, the rational materialist denial of discrete persistent selves calls into question the transhumanist project of individual longevity and enhancement. Keywords: democracy, Enlightenment, ethics, reason, transhumanism doi: 10.1093/jmp/jhq049

Few address the extent to which William James regards the neo-Lamarckian account of 'direct adaptation' as a biological extension of British empiricism. Consequently few recognize the instrumental role that the Darwinian idea of 'indirect adaptation' plays in his lifelong efforts to undermine the empiricist view that sense experience molds the mind. This article examines how James uses Darwinian thinking, first, to argue that mental content can arise independently of sense experience; and, second, to show that empiricists advance a hopelessly skeptical position when they insist that beliefs are legitimate only insofar as they directly correspond to the observable world. Using his attacks on materialism and his defense of spiritualism as examples, I particularly consider how Darwinian thinking enables him to keep his empiricist commitments while simultaneously developing a pragmatic alternative to empiricistic skepticism. I conclude by comparing his theory of beliefs to the remarkably similar theory of 'memes' that Richard Dawkins uses to attack spiritualistic belief--an attack that James anticipates and counters with his pragmatic alternative. Keywords: Darwinism, Lamarckism, Dawkins, Empiricism, Faith, Materialism, Science., Introduction William James is remembered for challenging empiricistic skepticism by expounding a more encompassing 'radical empiricism.' Strangely, he is not much noted for applying the same strategy to Darwinism, yet [...]

This paper examines one of the central complaints regarding Locke's Essay, namely, its supposed incoherence. The question is whether Locke can successfully maintain a materialistic conception of matter, while advancing a theory of knowledge that will constrain the possibilities for a cognitive access to matter from the start. In approaching this question I concentrate on Locke's account of unity. While material unity can be described in relation to Locke's account of substance, real essence, and nominal essence, a separate discussion will be called for altogether in the case of organic unity. In closing, I turn to Kant as a model for locating Locke's purported incoherence, suggesting that his 'skeptical idealism' yields the same epistemic advantages as those won by Kant's 'empirical realism.'

In this paper I try to understand why Angus Kerr-Lawson and John Lachs, two of the most relevant readers of George/Jorge Santayana, disagree about his ontological concerns. The main topic deals with the meaning Santayana gave to 'matter' and 'substance.' As a new Hermes, I invoke Lucretius and Aristotle to iluminate this discussion. Keywords: Materialism, Idealism, Matter, Essence, Substance, Epiphenomalism., One of the most powerful, and often overlooked, contributions of Santayana's philosophy deals with how to read philosophy. As my topic in this paper concerns the labyrinth of statements that [...]

This article celebrates contributions Angus Kerr-Lawson has made to scholarship involving the thought of George Santayana. Specifically, I examine Kerr-Lawson's development of Santayana's critique of 'scientistic materialism.' The first part identifies Daniel Dennett and J. J. C. Smart as exemplary instances of philosophers that Kerr-Lawson, following Santayana, has in mind in his criticisms of scientistic materialism. Dennett and Smart, I argue, insist upon scientistic 'constraints' that Kerr-Lawson identifies to be hindrances to a robust naturalism. I follow this with a consideration of Kerr-Lawson's attempts to find contemporary materialists akin to Santayana, critically assess them, and conclude by suggesting a 'way through': a way towards endorsing the materialist view without reducing it to science. Keywords: Santayana, Materialism, Angus Kerr-Lawson, Naturalism, Daniel Dennett, Paul Churchland, J. J. C. Smart, Daniel M. Wegner, Antonio Damasio., While many contemporary philosophers accept some form of materialism, this acceptance, when compared to pre-Darwinian forms of materialism, privileges conclusions of the physical sciences to such a degree as to [...]

What we might call the material turn in history--richly displayed at this year's NAVSA Conference, in several important recent publications, and in forthcoming journal issues--is not new. It is, indeed, [...]

Prevailing idealist and materialist theories of rhetoric fail to account for the continual circulation and recirculation of 'racism' as a scientific discourse. An alternative theory of modal materialism addresses this problem by suggesting that the properties of all being are constituted through three distinguishable forms of matter that include the 'physical,' the 'biological,' and the 'symbolic.' A sufficiently lush and nimble conceptualization of human action requires consideration of the interaction of all three modes in theory and in practice. The theory of modal materialism is illustrated through a consideration of the discourse of race and genetics as it was recirculated and modified in 2005 and 2006 by publications in the journal Science, and which were amplified for a larger reading public through circulation in the New York Times. Keywords: Genetics; Materialism; Race; Science; Truth

When explaining risk taking, intertemporal allocation, and distributing behavior, economists rely on risk, time, and other-regarding preferences but offer no guidance on how these three crucial aspects are interrelated. We report on an experiment exploring such interrelation. For this sake, we compare evaluations of several prospects, each of which allocates certain or risky and immediate or delayed payoffs to the actor and to another participant. We find that individuals are self-oriented as to social allocation of risk and delay and other-regarding with respect to expected payoffs. (JEL C91, D63, D81), I. INTRODUCTION There is ample empirical evidence that people do not behave rationally when rationality implies maximization of one's own material rewards. To gain flexibility, economists have taken into account [...]