Scott Campbell - The science, politics, and ontology of life-philosophy

Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy

Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy presents cutting-edge scholarship in all the major areas of research and study. The wholly original arguments, perspectives and research findings in titles in this series make it an important and stimulating resource for students and academics from a range of disciplines across the humanities and social sciences.

Available in the series:

Aesthetic and Artistic Autonomy, edited by Owen Hulatt

Art, Language and Figure in Merleau-Ponty, Rajiv Kaushik

Art, Myth and Society in Hegels Aesthetics, David James

The Challenge of Relativism, Patrick J. J. Phillips

The Cognitive Value of Philosophical Fiction, Jukka Mikkonen

The Demands of Taste in Kants Aesthetics, Brent Kalar

Descartes and the Metaphysics of Human Nature, edited by Justin Skirry

Dialectic of Romanticism, Peter Murphy and David Roberts

The Dialectics of Aesthetic Agency, Ayon Maharaj

Kant: The Art of Judgment in Aesthetic Education, Pradeep Dhillon

Kants Aesthetic Theory, David Berger

Kants Concept of Genius, Paul W. Bruno

Kants Transcendental Arguments, Scott Stapleford

Kierkegaard, Metaphysics and Political Theory, Alison Assiter

Metaphysics and the End of Philosophy, H. O. Mounce

The Philosophy of Art: The Question of Definition, Tiziana Andina

Poppers Theory of Science, Carlos Garcia

Virtue Epistemology, Stephen Napier

The Science, Politics, and Ontology of Life-Philosophy

Edited by

Scott M. Campbell and

Paul W. Bruno

Bloomsbury Academic

An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

50 Bedford Square London WC1B 3DPUK

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www.bloomsbury.com

First published 2013

Scott M. Campbell, Paul W. Bruno, and Contributors, 2013

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No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-4411-2733-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The science, politics, and ontology of life-philosophy / edited by Scott M. Campbell and Paul W. Bruno.

pages cm. (Bloomsbury studies in philosophy)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4411-2353-4 ISBN 978-1-4411-2733-4 (epub) ISBN 978-1-4411-1298-9 (pdf) 1. Life. I. Campbell, Scott M. (Scott McElroy) editor of compilation.

BD431.S2883 2013

113.8dc23

2012049946

Contents

CharlesBonner earned his PhD in Philosophy from Boston University. He has worked at various research institutes and private universities in Europe for more than a decade. His background is in the natural sciences, and he has taught courses in a wide range of topics, including environmental philosophy and contemporary continental philosophy. Current research interests and publications focus on the study of the information age. He teaches at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island.

Paul W.Bruno is an Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Psychology & Philosophy at Framingham State University in Massachusetts. He is the author of Kants Concept of Genius: Its Origin and Function in theThirdCritique (Continuum, 2010). His recent work has concentrated on ethics and life.

FlorenceCaeymaex is an Associate Researcher at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS) and is the director of the Political Philosophy and Critical Philosophy of Norms Research Unit at the University of Liege in Belgium. She is the author of Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Bergson: The Existentialist Phenomenologies and Their Bergsonian Heritage (Olms, 2005) and of many articles dedicated to Bergson. Her recent work has concentrated on the political issues relating to contemporary biopower.

Scott M.Campbell is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY. His major research interest is in the nature of the human being and the exploration of that nature through a philosophical analysis of the concept of life. In particular, he is interested in the problem of language and the role that language plays in human life. He has written on issues in education and communication, especially as these relate to the notion of the practical in the early work of Martin Heidegger. He has published The Early Heideggers Philosophy of Life (Fordham University Press, 2012) and a translation of Heideggers Basic Problems of Phenomenology from the Winter Semester of 1919/20 (Bloomsbury, 2013).

Stephen R. L.Clark, formerly a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (196875), Lecturer in Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow (197483), and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool (19842009), is now retired from paid employment. He continues to manage an international e-list for philosophers, and to serve as Associate Editor of the British Journal for the History of Philosophy. His books include Aristotles Man (1975), The Moral Status of Animals (1977), From Athens to Jerusalem (1984), The Mysteries of Religion (1986), Civil Peace and Sacred Order (1989), How to Live Forever (1995), Biology and Christian Ethics (2000), G.K.Chesterton: Thinking Backwards, Looking Forwards (2006), Understanding Faith (2009), Philosophical Futures (2011) and Ancient Mediterranean Philosophy (2012). He is married to Professor Gillian Clark of Bristol University, with three adult children and one grandson. His chief current interests are in the philosophy of Plotinus, the understanding and treatment of nonhuman animals, and in science fiction.

Jean-PierreDupuy is Professor Emeritus of Social and Political Philosophy, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris and Professor of Political Science, Stanford University. He is a member of the French Academy of Technology and of the Conseil Gnral des Mines, the French High Magistracy that oversees and regulates industry, energy and the environment. He chairs the Ethics Committee of the French High Authority on Nuclear Safety and Security. He is the Director of the Research Program of Imitatio, a new foundation devoted to the dissemination and discussion of Ren Girards mimetic theory. His most recent work has dealt with the topic of catastrophe, and is being translated and collected in a volume to be published by Stanford University Press. Among his most recent publications: The Mechanization of the Mind (Princeton University Press, 2000); Pour un catastrophisme clair (Paris, Seuil, 2002); Avions-nous oubli le mal? Penser la politique aprs le 11 septembre