24/1971 RESEARCH SC HOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES...1970/12/29 · I - ' /_./.o 24/1971 The Australian...
Transcript of 24/1971 RESEARCH SC HOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES...1970/12/29 · I - ' /_./.o 24/1971 The Australian...
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24/1971
The Australian National University
RESEARCH SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Department of Philosophy
ANNUAL REPORT 1970
Professor and Head of the Department:
J.A. Passmore, M.A. (Syd.)
Professor of Social Philosophy:
P.H. Partridge, M.A. (Syd.)
Senior Fellows:
S.I. Benn, B.Sc.Econ. (Lond.)
R.R. Brown, B.A. (New Mexico) , Ph.D. (Lond.)
Fellow:
E.M. Curley, A.B. (Lafayette Coll.), Ph.D. (Duke)
Research Fellows :
J.B. Maund, M.Sc. (W. A.), B.A. (Hons.) (W.A.),
Ph.D. (Cantab)
G.W. Mortimore, B.A., B.Phil. (Oxon)
P.J. Sheehan, B.A. (Melb.), D.Phil. (Oxon)
Visiting Fellow:
J.C.B. Gosling , B.Phil., M.A. (Oxon)
Research Assistant n :
Elizabeth Y. Short (till March): B.A., M.A. (Edin.)
D.A. Kipp ( . rom May); B.A., M.A. (Penn. State)
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The work of the department during 1970 can be
grouped into five or six mutually supporting and overlapping
divisions.
In the history of philosophy, Dr. Curley continues
to specialize in seventeenth century studies. Though con
cerned now primarily with Leibniz, he has continued his work
on Spinoza, as well as extending his interests to include
Hobbes, Locke, and other philosophers of the period. Mr.
Benn has made a study of Hobbes's account of 'power'.
Professor Passmore, on study leave during most of the year,
gave a series of seminar papers on the 18th century philosopher,
David Hume, during the Michaelmas Term in Oxford.
Professor Passmore's major study of the history
of the idea of the perfectibility of man was completed and
published towards the end of the year. It links the historical
interests of the department with its interest in moraZ phiZoaophy
and moraZ psyahoZogy. One student working in this area is
preparing a thesis on the relation between ethical theories
and concepts of human nature. Another is working on the
question of objectivity in ethics. Among staff members Mr.
Mortimore has edited and written an introduction to an anthology,
Weakness of WiZZ, and has worked on a group of related problems
about the notion of a reason for action. He is currently
writing a book entitled Virtue and MoraZ Eduaation and a
study of basic principles of fairness and justice. Mr. Benn
is engaged on an an~lytical study of 'freedom' and 'autonomy',
with the object of clarifying a number of problematic issues
in moral, social and political thinking, related, for instance,
to privacy, persuasion, authority, socialization, and education.
Two students are working in related fields - one on the ethics
of belief, another on philosophic issues connected with the
toleration of dissident beliefs. The work of another student,
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on Plato's dialogue The Protagoras, represents a different
facet of the department's interest in moral philosophy -
a facet further developed in 1970 by a series of seminar
papers on Plato's moral philosophy given by a Visiting Fellow,
Mr. J.C.B. Gosling, of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. Mr. Gosling's
contributions to other seminars in the department and to its
informal philosophical discussions were enormously valuable.
The department continues to work in an area of
practical philosophy closely related to moral philosophy - the
philosophy of education. Professor Partridge has interested
himself in aspects of educational policy and organization in
Australia, and delivered a series of three lectures, under the
auspices of the N.S.W. Department of Education, to be published
in book form in 1971, with the title Towards an Australian
Philosophy of Education. Dr. J.P. Powell was awarded a Ph.D.
degree for a thesis entitled "The Philosophy of Higher Education",
and another student has submitted a thesis on ideas about the
purposes of universities. Professor Passmore delivered a
series of papers on the philosophy of education in the
Institute of Education, University of London.
Allied to these interests in moral and social philosophy
is the department's interest in the philosophy of the social
sciences. During 1970, Dr. Brown completed the first draft of
a book on some methodological problems in sociology, proceeding
by way of the detailed scrutiny of empirical work by sociologists.
Professor Partridge completed the preparation of his book, Consent
and Consensus, to be published in 1971 in Macmillan's series
Key Concepts in Political Science. Mr. Benn has been working
on a book on Power for the same series. At a somewhat higher
level of abstraction, Dr. Maund has been working on the theory
of meaning, with reference to scientific theories. He is partic
ularly concerned with the special problems arising in the social
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sciences from the fact that they involve theories expressed in
intensional language, i.e. that they involve accounts of agents'
beliefs and actions. One student has been working in this field,
on the problems of general explanations in the social scien~es,
with a particular reference to explanations in criminology.
Dr. Maund's interests have not been confined, however,
to the social sciences, but extend to problems related to theories
of meaning in relation to scientific theories generally. Another
piece of work emerging from the department's more general interest
in the philosophy of science was Dr. A. Barker's successful Ph.D.
thesis entitled 11Evolution and Explanation".
Dr. Maund's interests run over into the last of the
divisions of the department's interests - philosophical logic.
Dr. Sheehan has worked in this area, on general questions con
cerning the analysis of "the meaning of a word" or "the meaning
of a sentence", on 'entailment' J and on a cluster of problems
including some connected with reference, intentionality, and
identity. A student has been working in this field on trans
cendental arguments. Two candidates were awarded Ph.D. degrees
for theses in this broad area of philosophical study: Dr. I.A.
Bunting, on "Imagination and Perception'', and Dr. G. Kerrison
"Meaning and Necessity in the work of C.I. Lewis".
The department's work in philosophical logic will be
greatly strengthened by the appointment of Mr. Richard Routley
to a Senior Fellowship from mid-January 1971. This will bring
the department's staffing to the full establishment envisaged
for the current triennium. The number of students in the
department has varied between six and seven during the year,
finishing at six. Of these six, one is from New Zealand, one
from Western Australia, one from the United Kingdom, one from
Queensland, two from South Australia. Of those leaving the
department, two have returned to the United Kjngdom, one re~ains
in Canberra.
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PUBLICATIONS
BATT, K.J.
'The universities and co-operation in higher education.'
The Australian University, VII, ii, 92-109, 1969.
'The idea of a multi-institutional campus.' The Aus-
tralian Journal of Higher Education, III, iii, 269-275,
1969.
BATT, K.J. & BATT, B.A. + 'The university as a home of the visual arts.' Australian
Soaiety for Education Through Art Bulletin, IV, iii,
4-7.
BROWN, R.R. (ed.)
Between Hume and Mill, an anthology of British Philosophy,
1749-1843.
495.
Modern Library Edition, Random House,
BROWN, R.R.
'The burden of proof.'
VII, i, 74-82.
American Philosophical Quarterly,
'Comment on J.O. Wisdom's 11 Situational Individualism and
The Emergent Group-Properties''.' In Explanation in
the Behavioural Sciences (eds. R. Borger and F. Cioffi),
297-305, Cambridge Univ. Press, London.
MORTIMORE, G.W. (ed.)
Weakness of Will. Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 255.
MORTIMORE, G.W.
'Introduction.' In Weakness of Will (ed, Q.W. Mortimore),
11-26, Macmillan & Co. Ltd.
PARTRIDGE, P.H.
'Mr. Stretton on the social sciences.' The Australian
and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, VI, ii, 157-161.
'The concept of liberty.' In Freedom: Its History,
Nature and Varieties (eds. R.E. Dewey & J.A. Gould)
Macmillan, New York. [Reprint].
+Not a member of this University
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'The direction and goals of Australian society.' In
Sociology of Education (eds. F.M. Katz and R.K.
Browne), 68-82, Macmillan, Melbourne.
'Politics, Philosophy and Ideology.' In Ideology, Politics
and Political Theory, 114-133, Wadsworth Publishing
Co., California. [Reprint].
'Contemporary Revolutionary Ideas.' In A World in
Revolution? The University Lectures l970 (ed. E.
Kamenka), 91-100, The Australian National University.
'The Capitalist State', Politics,~, ii, 235-239. [Review
article].
PASSMORE, J.A.
Philosophical Reasoning. 2nd. ed., Rev., Duckworth,
London; Basic Books, New York, i-ix, 150.
The Perfectibility of Man. Duckworth, London;
Scribner's, New York, 396.
'Paradise now: The logic of the new mysticism.'
Encounter, XXXV, v, 3-21.
SHEEHAN, P.J.
'Aquinas on intentionality,' In Aquinas (ed. A.J.
Kenny) , 207- 324, Doubleday Anchor Books, New York.
WATT, A.J.
Review: 'The Possibility of Altruism' by Thomas Nagel,
Clarendon Press. In The Australasian Journal of
Philosophy, XLVIII , iii, 405-409.
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'The direction and goals of Australian society.' In
Sociology of Education (eds. F.M. Katz and R.K.
Browne) , 68-82, Macmillan, Melbourne.
'Politics, Philosophy and Ideology.' In Ideology, Politics
and Political Theory, 114-133, Wadsworth Publishing
Co., California. [Reprint].
'Contemporary Revolutionary Ideas.' In A World in
Revolution? The University Lectures l970 (ed. E.
Kamenka), 91-100, The Australian National University.
'The Capitalist State', Politics, y_, ii, 235-239. [Review
article].
PASSMORE, J.A.
Philosophical Reasoning. 2nd. ed., Rev., Duckworth,
London; Basic Books, New York, i-ix, 150.
The Perfectibility of Man. Duckworth, London;
Scribner's, New York, 396.
'Paradise now: The logic of the new mysticism.'
Encounter, XXXV, v, 3-21.
SHEEHAN, P.J.
'Aquinas on intentionality,' In Aquinas (ed. A.J.
Kenny), 207-324, Doubleday Anchor Books, New York.
WATT, A.J.
Review: 'The Possibility of Altruism' by Thomas Nagel,
Clarendon Press. In The Australasian Journal of
Philosophy, XLVIII , iii, 405-409.