Books and Book Chapters by russell winslow
Lexington Press, 2024
Necessity and Philosophy in Plato’s Republic offers an interpretation of the concept of
necessity... more Necessity and Philosophy in Plato’s Republic offers an interpretation of the concept of
necessity in what is perhaps Plato’s most read dialogue. The word “necessity” (anagkē)
appears hundreds of times in the text in many grammatical forms, about as often as the
frequently studied term “good.” Yet, there exists little commentary on the ontological
status of necessity. According to the author, when the reader analyzes the Republic
through the lens of necessity, a novel interpretation emerges. On the one hand, the
concept of necessity articulated in the Republic is original, insofar as it includes
phenomena not commonly attributed to necessity. Namely, necessity governs not only
those motions which do not vary and cannot be otherwise, but also those that wander
randomly by erotic desire and by chance. Necessity in the Republic, thus, occasions a
rethinking of what this crucial concept might mean for us. On the other hand, interpreting
the Republic through the lens of necessity allows a reading of Plato to develop that
emphasizes the structures of finitude in human life and the limits of reason. The book
argues, therefore, that philosophy remains subtended and limited by necessity in
unavoidable ways.
Lexington Press (October 2017)
Bloomsbury , 2007
In this lively and original book, Russell Winslow pursues a new interpretation of logos in Aristo... more In this lively and original book, Russell Winslow pursues a new interpretation of logos in Aristotle. Rather than a reading of rationality that cleaves human beings from nature, this new interpretation suggests that, for Aristotle, consistent and dependable rational arguments reveal a deep dependency upon nature. To this end, the author shows that a rational account of a being is in fact subject to the very same principle that governs the physical motion and generation of a being under inquiry. Among the many consequences of this argument is a rejection of both of the prevailing oppositional claims that Aristotle's methodological procedure of discovery is one resting on either empirical or conceptual grounds: discovery reveals a more complex structure than can be grasped by either of these modern modes. Further, Winslow argues that this interpretation of rational discovery also contributes to the ethical debates surrounding Aristotle's work, insofar as an ethical claim is achieved through reason, but is not thereby conceived as objective. Again, the demand for agreement in ethical/political decision will be disclosed as superseding in its complexity both those accounts of ethical decision as subjective (for example, "emotivist" accounts) and those as objective ("realist" accounts).
Papers and Book Reviews by russell winslow
Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 2021
Difference in Plato's Timaeus "The only authentic intellectual act is invention" (2014, 41) Miche... more Difference in Plato's Timaeus "The only authentic intellectual act is invention" (2014, 41) Michel Serres, Thumbalina.
Toward the beginning of his Timaeus, Plato has Socrates recall the city or social polity (politeia) that he and his interlocutors had constructed in speech on the previous day. After listing the characteristics that everyone had agreed belong to the best possible regime, he asks if anything has been left out. Timaeus emphatically ensures Socrates that "these were the very things that were said" (Plato 2001, 19b). The construction in speech of the best city, therefore, would seem to be complete. However, Socrates conducts the conversation toward a new
Epoche , 2020
During the Enlightenment period the concept of the infinitesimal was developed as a means to solv... more During the Enlightenment period the concept of the infinitesimal was developed as a means to solve the mathematical problem of the incommensurability between human reason and the movements of physical beings. In this essay, the author analyzes the metaphysical prejudices subtending Enlightenment Humanism through the lens of the infinitesimal calculus. One of the consequences of this analysis is the perception of a twofold possibility occasioned by the infinitesimal. On the one hand, it occasions an extreme form of humanism, "transhumanism, " which exhibits limitless confidence in the possibility of human science. On the other hand, the concept of the infinitesimal also contains within itself a source for a critical "posthumanism, " that is to say, a source which initiates the dissolution of the presuppositions of humanism while simultaneously announcing a different ontological organization. In War and Peace, Tostoy's novel takes up the problem of the relation between reason and motion and makes the twofold possibility visible by presenting a contrast between its theoretical presentations and the lived experiences of the characters in the novel. Thus, War and Peace is the setting in which the author has chosen to conduct this analysis.
The early results of the Human Microbiome Project, released in June 2012, add to the overwhelming... more The early results of the Human Microbiome Project, released in June 2012, add to the overwhelming data that show that there are literally trillions of microbes that live in and on each human individual. This research raises profound questions about what it even means to be an individual organism, human or otherwise. In this paper, we ask two broad questions: 1) How might we conceive of an individual organism, given these results? and 2) In light of this emerging conception of the individual organism, what are the implications for how humans might conceive of their own self-sufficiency and their subsequent attitudes and behaviors toward other members of the living world? We attempt to highlight the ontological and political presuppositions animating this research and offer suggestions for how to understand the individual living organism as an emerging whole. For guidance, we return to Aristotle as offering insights in how to conceive of a diverse community of interdependent living parts that function together as one. In turn, we explore the implications of how thinking of individuals as functioning communities might prompt new attitudes and behaviors toward the microbial living world.
"Microbiome. Modern Selves. Self-Sufficiency.
Co-Authored with Dr. Gregory Schneider. "
A review of David Roochnik's Retrieving Aristotle in an Age of Crisis.
Foucault. Liberal Arts. Biology.
In the following article, the author offers an interpretation of George Canguilhem’s thinly artic... more In the following article, the author offers an interpretation of George Canguilhem’s thinly articulated concept “biological meaning.” As a way into the problem, the article begins with the question: how does “biological meaning” differ from other forms of meaning? That is to ask, if we are to hold that the mere physical/chemical mode of being of a stone differs from the biological mode of being of an organism, how do they differ in their meaning? In an effort to supply an answer to this question, our author postulates that, when we consider the lived circumstances of the organism, the existential situation of living beings, their biological facticity, then we intuit a fundamental difference in the mode of being of the motions of billiard balls and those of organisms. Moreover, through the investigation into, on the one hand, the motions that take place in a living milieu and, on the other hand, the form of potentiality inherent in what we might call the motions of adaptation, the author offers a preliminary description of a meaning that might be uniquely biological.
In this essay the author offers a reading of mimetic style (lexis) as it is presented in Book thr... more In this essay the author offers a reading of mimetic style (lexis) as it is presented in Book three of Plato’s Republic with the aim of disclosing the importance of style in the acquisition and employment of knowledge—whether scientific or ethical. In fact, the author argues that a careful reading of Socrates’ words in the text occasions the idea that reflection on the way that we imitate our inherited content—the ethos, the comportment, in which we exhibit that content—makes visible a potential to appropriate received content and imitated knowledge in original and wakeful ways. In consequence, the author argues that it might be style, not content, that harbors the capacity for us to take a genuine, critical responsibility for our inherited concepts.
Research in Phenomenology, Jan 1, 2009
Epoché, Jan 1, 2009
In “On the Life of thinking in Aristotle’s De Anima”, the author offers an interpretation of the ... more In “On the Life of thinking in Aristotle’s De Anima”, the author offers an interpretation of the tripartite structure of the unified soul in Aristotle’s text. The principle activity that unities the nutritive, sensuously perceptive and noetically perceptive parts of the soul into a single, continuous entity is shown by our author to be genesis (or the sexual begetting of offspring). After establishing this observation, the paper provides the textual grounds to understand how both sensuous and noetic perception can be understood as a kind of embodied genesis. A further consequence of this argument will be an interpretation of “thinking,” of noetic perception, as a kind of open and passive reception of the primary forms of other beings. As such, Aristotle’s conception of thinking, qua nous, is a refreshing, if strange, contrast to the more common modern vision of “thinking” as the activity of an agent mentally seizing hold of beings in the service of the mastery of nature.
Revue Philosophie Antique, 2006
Philosophy today, Jan 1, 2004
Uploads
Books and Book Chapters by russell winslow
necessity in what is perhaps Plato’s most read dialogue. The word “necessity” (anagkē)
appears hundreds of times in the text in many grammatical forms, about as often as the
frequently studied term “good.” Yet, there exists little commentary on the ontological
status of necessity. According to the author, when the reader analyzes the Republic
through the lens of necessity, a novel interpretation emerges. On the one hand, the
concept of necessity articulated in the Republic is original, insofar as it includes
phenomena not commonly attributed to necessity. Namely, necessity governs not only
those motions which do not vary and cannot be otherwise, but also those that wander
randomly by erotic desire and by chance. Necessity in the Republic, thus, occasions a
rethinking of what this crucial concept might mean for us. On the other hand, interpreting
the Republic through the lens of necessity allows a reading of Plato to develop that
emphasizes the structures of finitude in human life and the limits of reason. The book
argues, therefore, that philosophy remains subtended and limited by necessity in
unavoidable ways.
Papers and Book Reviews by russell winslow
Toward the beginning of his Timaeus, Plato has Socrates recall the city or social polity (politeia) that he and his interlocutors had constructed in speech on the previous day. After listing the characteristics that everyone had agreed belong to the best possible regime, he asks if anything has been left out. Timaeus emphatically ensures Socrates that "these were the very things that were said" (Plato 2001, 19b). The construction in speech of the best city, therefore, would seem to be complete. However, Socrates conducts the conversation toward a new
"Microbiome. Modern Selves. Self-Sufficiency.
Co-Authored with Dr. Gregory Schneider. "
necessity in what is perhaps Plato’s most read dialogue. The word “necessity” (anagkē)
appears hundreds of times in the text in many grammatical forms, about as often as the
frequently studied term “good.” Yet, there exists little commentary on the ontological
status of necessity. According to the author, when the reader analyzes the Republic
through the lens of necessity, a novel interpretation emerges. On the one hand, the
concept of necessity articulated in the Republic is original, insofar as it includes
phenomena not commonly attributed to necessity. Namely, necessity governs not only
those motions which do not vary and cannot be otherwise, but also those that wander
randomly by erotic desire and by chance. Necessity in the Republic, thus, occasions a
rethinking of what this crucial concept might mean for us. On the other hand, interpreting
the Republic through the lens of necessity allows a reading of Plato to develop that
emphasizes the structures of finitude in human life and the limits of reason. The book
argues, therefore, that philosophy remains subtended and limited by necessity in
unavoidable ways.
Toward the beginning of his Timaeus, Plato has Socrates recall the city or social polity (politeia) that he and his interlocutors had constructed in speech on the previous day. After listing the characteristics that everyone had agreed belong to the best possible regime, he asks if anything has been left out. Timaeus emphatically ensures Socrates that "these were the very things that were said" (Plato 2001, 19b). The construction in speech of the best city, therefore, would seem to be complete. However, Socrates conducts the conversation toward a new
"Microbiome. Modern Selves. Self-Sufficiency.
Co-Authored with Dr. Gregory Schneider. "