Guy Vanheeswijck emeritus occasional assignment

Research Guy Vanheeswijck

Research team

Expertise

Evaluation articles and publications for publishers.

The Emotion of Pride and the Ethics of Recognition: A Philosophical Analysis. 01/10/2019 - 30/09/2021

Abstract

We can feel pride about something we achieved or about an ability we have, whether that be about a good result on an exam, the way we handled a tricky situation, or a silly way in which we can move our ears. We can also feel pride of other people's achievements, like those of our children or of our friends. We can be proud of the country we belong to, a soccer team we cheer for, a religion we believe in, or not believing in any religion at all. Sometimes, these feelings of pride give us reasons to act in a certain way. We might want to dress up in the colours of our favourite soccer team on the night that they are playing against a dreaded competitor, or we might want to tell our friends about the great results our kids are getting in school. Our pride can drive us to do good actions. It may encourage us to donate to charity or to pursue ambitions that we cherish. But pride can have morally bad consequences as well. Those become apparent in contemporary issues like religious extremism or nationalist feelings that lead to discrimination. In order to understand the emotion of pride and how it affects our actions both in a positive and negative way, it is interesting and not without importance to come to a philosophical exploration of pride. This project investigates into what it means to be proud of something, and how that feeling relates to the notion of dignity and identity. Moreover, it investigates what role the recognition by others, in relation to pride, plays in our moral lives.

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  • Research Project

Pride as a political emotion. Taking pride and the politics of recognition beyond the confines of identity politics. 01/10/2018 - 30/09/2022

Abstract

The aim of this project is to examine the political significance of pride. In recent years, political philosophy has shown increasing interest in the role of emotions in politics. Whereas strong emotions like anger, fear, resentment, indignation, love and compassion have all received a great deal of attention in recent debates, comparatively little work has been done on investigating pride as a political emotion. The current project seeks to make up for this lack of attention. It will describe the distinctive political potential of the emotion of pride and argue why it is important to take pride seriously in politics.

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  • Research Project

Ethics With or Without Ontology: The Taylor-Putnam Debate. 01/10/2017 - 30/09/2020

Abstract

Is the attribution of value compatible with the physical, biological, and psychological explanations of the empirical sciences? The philosophical reflection on this question is often divided into two approaches: "naturalistic" doctrines that take empirical science as our best guide to understanding reality and "hermeneutical" views, which argue that the empirical sciences do not provide human beings with their primary and most significant access to the world. This project explores a novel form of ethics in between hermeneutical and naturalistic approaches by confronting Charles Taylor's moral philosophy with the pragmatist ethics of Hilary Putnam. On the one hand, their shared concern is that crucial features of human life – especially moral ones – precisely disappear by adopting a scientific stance. On the other hand, Taylor and Putnam are of different minds on the question of how to defend the autonomy of morality with regard to empirical science. The Taylor-Putnam debate starts from the observation that most people are reluctant to embrace naturalism fully and yet remain highly skeptical of all things that do not fit the naturalist model. Reflecting on this debate, this project develops a position that does not assume that the autonomy of morality must be defended from within a naturalistic framework. Instead, it seeks to show that the most fundamental problems of ethics and ontology arise in the border regions between hermeneutical and naturalistic approaches.

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  • Research Project

The Emotion of Pride and the Ethics of Recognition: A Philosophical Analysis 01/10/2017 - 30/09/2019

Abstract

We can feel pride about something we achieved or about an ability we have, whether that be about a good result on an exam, the way we handled a tricky situation, or a silly way in which we can move our ears. We can also feel pride of other people's achievements, like those of our children or of our friends. We can be proud of the country we belong to, a soccer team we cheer for, a religion we believe in, or not believing in any religion at all. Sometimes, these feelings of pride give us reasons to act in a certain way. We might want to dress up in the colours of our favourite soccer team on the night that they are playing against a dreaded competitor, or we might want to tell our friends about the great results our kids are getting in school. Our pride can drive us to do good actions. It may encourage us to donate to charity or to pursue ambitions that we cherish. But pride can have morally bad consequences as well. Those become apparent in contemporary issues like religious extremism or nationalist feelings that lead to discrimination. In order to understand the emotion of pride and how it affects our actions both in a positive and negative way, it is interesting and not without importance to come to a philosophical exploration of pride. This project investigates into what it means to be proud of something, and how that feeling relates to the notion of dignity and identity. Moreover, it investigates what role the recognition by others, in relation to pride, plays in our moral lives.

Researcher(s)

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

  • Research Project

Bildung revisited: the development of a new conceptual framework of Bildung starting from Charles Taylor's philosophical anthropology. 01/01/2017 - 31/12/2020

Abstract

The last decades our higher educational system has known some notable tendencies: growing specialization, functional reduction and dominance of instrumental reason. These evolutions risk to neglect an important aspect in its pedagogical mission which is traditionally linked to Bildung, the development of pupils and students as integral persons. Yet several stakeholders in education feel the need of rearticulating this important dimension. Bildung has been playing an significant -albeit contested- role. It has been developed in a specific context (1770-1830) and can be regarded as an educational answer to socio-political, religious and cultural questions about identity and citizenship. Raising the question about the future of Bildung is tantamount to asking what educational response would be appropriate in our time. Therefore, we need to examine the strains and tensions that our contemporary society and the modern self are facing. We will do this with Charles Taylor as our main guide. His work offers a critical analysis of our time in which he articulates both the failings and the achievements of our modern culture and the difficulties people experience in their quest for autonomy, authenticity and identity. First we will define the main reasons why Bildung has become a controversial concept. Second our aim is to develop a new conception of Bildung starting from Taylor's analysis of the self in modern society. From there we enter into discussion with other authors.

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  • Research Project

Cross pressures. Charles Taylor on strong evaluation, morality, and Nietzsche. 01/10/2014 - 30/09/2016

Abstract

This project aims to come to grips with the rich philosophy of Charles Taylor by focusing on his concept of 'strong evaluation'. I argue that a close examination of this term brings out more clearly the continuing concerns of his writings as a whole. I trace back the origin of strong evaluation in Taylor's earliest writings, and continue by laying out the different philosophical themes that revolve around it. I further distinguish the separate arguments in which strong evaluation is central, uncovering several methodological conflicts in Taylor's strategies. Arguing against most of his commentators, I suggest that a distinction should be drawn between the philosophical anthropological, moral, and ontological implications of strong evaluation.

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  • Research Project

Cross pressures. Charles Taylor on strong evaluation, morality, and Nietzsche. 01/10/2012 - 30/09/2014

Abstract

The topic of moral pluralism has become an important issue within secular, post-modern societies. However, in the struggle to deal with conflicting values, the philosophical reflection has come up with strategies that undervalue, avoid or simply neglect the tensions within contemporary moral culture. Against this background, this project intends to develop a philosophical understanding of morality which does recognize the felt 'cross pressures,' the permanent tensions between competing values within Western culture. First, by reconstructing Charles Taylor's view on contemporary moral culture through a close examination of the concept of 'strong evaluation'. Second, by exploring the potential of Nietzsche's diagnosis of nihilism for Taylor's analysis.

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  • Research Project

The cross pressures of morality. Friedrich Nietzsche and Charles Taylor on meaning, morals and post-modernity. 01/10/2011 - 30/09/2012

Abstract

This project provides, for the first time, a confrontation between Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), the herald of nihilism who claimed that all previous foundations of morality have been undermined, and Charles Taylor (*1931), the advocate of strong evaluation and the inevitability of meaning. The basic thought, however, is not the clash between Nietzsche and Taylor, but rather the idea that, despite several differences, there is an important level of agreement between both thinkers as well. Central to this discussion is the morally pluralistic context of post-modern Western society. How do Nietzsche and Taylor understand and evaluate the post-modern moral context, and in what respects does the dialogue between them allow for a normative account on how to move among the cross pressures of morality? Can Nietzsche's and Taylor's positive moral views be viewed as adopting a 'third' position between fundamentalism and moral relativism? This question is explored by focussing on one of the most important moral ideals of post-modernity: authenticity.

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  • Research Project

Criticism of metaphysics and secularization in the work of Gianni Vattimo. 01/09/2009 - 31/08/2011

Abstract

Gianni Vattimo became known worldwide with two publications: Il pensiero debole (1983) that triggered the philosophical hype of post-metaphysical 'weak thought' and Credere di credere (1996) where he defends a nihilist Christianity without religion or metaphysics. The first publication develops a nihilist version of Heidegger's An-denken. This weak thought is compared with Derrida's development of Heidegger's thoughts on difference, as 'rival' paths that lead 'beyond' metaphysics. The second publication matches the decline of metaphysics with secularisation. This strongly kenotic interpretation of Christianity and indeed of the history of the world's religions is compared with Girard's anthropological reading of secularisation. To conclude, the aforementioned matching of philosophical and religious actuality by Vattimo is evaluated.

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  • Research Project

The end of secularization? Charles Taylorr and Marcel Gauchet on the significance of the religious in a secularized world. 01/01/2009 - 31/12/2012

Abstract

The confrontation between Gauchet and Taylor starts from the following research question : what is the cultural and social relevance and significance of the religious in the secular world? The aim of this question is to make explicit the tension which currently occurs between the religious experience which is circumscribed in terms of the sacred, the godlike and the transcendent on the one hand and the advancing process of secularisation on the other

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  • Research Project

Edition of the manuscript: R.G.Collingwood, Realism and Idealism. Central Problems in Metaphysics. 01/01/2008 - 31/12/2009

Abstract

OUP asked me, together with the Canadian philosopher Mathieu Marion to publish the seventh part in the new edition of R.G.Collingwood's oeuvre (autumn 2009). OUP's specific request is to publish the manuscript Realism and Idealism (120 pages) together with three small manuscripts on metaphysics. Both Marion and I will edit these four manuscripts and provide a detailed introduction of more than hundred pages.

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  • Research Project

Rewriting Whitehead's "Science and the Modern World". Turning the history of science into a diagnostics of modern civilization. 01/01/2007 - 31/12/2010

Abstract

The aim of this project is to rewrite SMW, and 'to rewrite' means: to interpret to evaluate and to make topical, not only in the light of the complete works of Whitehead plus the associated secondary literature, but also and especially, in the light of the evolution of Western civilization since 1926. Of course, the central factor in the complex product of civilization best known to Whitehead, and providing the thread for Whitehead when writing SMW, was natural science. The evolution of this cultural factor will also be our guide when rewriting SMW. But no matter how central natural science may be in this project our study of the historical development of mathematical physics is no aim in itself. Its ultimate goal is to reveal the cultural significance of SMW. Together with Whitehead, we want to turn the history of natural science into a diagnostics of modern civilization: that's the purpose of this project in a nutshell. Or to put it differentiy: we would like to reintroduce Whitehead as a cultural critic, looking at the history of modem civilization in the light of the history of natural science. Whitehead can be compared with cultural critics of the New Age brand, such as Lewis Mumford, Theodore Roszalç Robert Pirsig and Morris Berman. Whitehead certainly is as relevant a cultural critic as they are to contemporary readers, but he outstrips all of them when philosophical profundity is the criterion. In the gallery of philosophical jewels, SMW deserves a place next to Die Krisis der europaTschen Wissenschaften und die tranzendentale Phanomenologie, next to Die Zeit des Weltbildes, or next to Sources of the Self, for Whitehead matches cultural philosophers Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and Charles Taylor.

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  • Research Project

Postmodernity and Christian faith. The revaluation of religion, specifically Christian faith in postmodern philosophy . 06/11/2006 - 31/01/2007

Abstract

The "postmodern turn" in philosophy was initially characterized by fierce critique of religion, and more specifically the tradition of Christian faith. However, over the last three decades innovative reinterpretations and revaluations of the meaning of religion and Christian faith in a (post)modern cultural context emerged in the work of a number of prominent philosophical authors, Theft work wifi be analysed, compared and evaluated.

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  • Research Project

Religious passions and emotions. Study of the specificity of the passional attachment in religion and of the crucial role of the accompanying emotions. 01/01/2002 - 31/12/2005

Abstract

This project is situated at the intersection of philosophical anthropology and the study of spirituality. It aims at the investigation of the role of passions and emotions in religious attachment(s) and identification(s). The working hypothesis is that the recent developments in the philosophical theory of the emotions, in particular moral phychology, can be assimilated and integrated in the hermeneutics of the following aspects of religion and spirituality: (i) the role of passions and emotions in religious symbolism and incarnation; (ii) the purification and/or cultivation of passions and emotions in spiritual experience; (iii) the passional attachment to the absolute and the development of an attitude of religious trust.

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  • Research Project

The end of metaphysics and post-metaphysical thought. The concept of metaphysics in post-Hegelian philosophy 01/01/2001 - 31/12/2004

Abstract

The proposed research project studies two motifs which play a very important role in contemporary philosophy and are inextricably bound up with one another. The first motif is 'the end of metaphysics' in post-Hegelian philosophies of the history of philosophy and philosophies of history in general. The second motif is the self-perception and self-definition of several important post-Hegelian philosophers or philosophical tendencies as post-metaphysical. The first motif contains the idea that metaphysics, as a way of thinking, is not the product of a permanent 'metaphysical need', but that it is a definite phase in the development of humanity, andt that this phase has come to an end, or has to come to an end. The second motif complements and modifies the first one. It contains the idea that metaphysical thinking, as the 'hard core' of Western philosophical tradition up to and including Hegel, is inextricably bound up with the use of several fundamental strategies of thought. These strategies have become irreversibly problematic, and therefore must be at any cost avoided by means of new forms of thought that replace metaphysics.

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  • Research Project

An analysis of the arguments used in parliamentary debates with respect to legislation of ethical topics; two case studies on abortion an euthanasia 01/01/1999 - 31/12/2000

Abstract

An analysis of the arguments used in parliamentary debates with respect to legislation of ethical topics; two case studies on abortion an euthanasia

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    • Research Project

    Rationality and religious trust 01/07/1997 - 30/06/1999

    Abstract

    Recent philosophy of religion can be described as marked by a tension. An ethically oriented trend reduces religion to a moral outlook or attitude. A metaphysically oriented trend runs the risk of confusing 'that God exists' with a belief 'in' God. This project tries to find a middle road between these extremes by elaborating a religuious epistemology. 'Religious knowledge' refers to knowledge of God but also to the knowledge that enables a religious modulation of life. Knowledge of God cannot be separated from a knowing-how to give God a place in one's life. Precisely this relatedness must provide the middle road mentioned.

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      • Research Project

      Rationality and religious trust 01/01/1997 - 31/12/2000

      Abstract

      Recent philosophy of religion can be described as marked by a tension. An ethically oriented trend reduces religion to a moral outlook or attitude. A metaphysically oriented trend runs the risk of confusing 'that God exists' with a belief 'in' God. The project tries to steer a middle course between these extremes by elaborating a religious epistemology. An analysis of 'religious knowledge' could teach us that knowledge of God cannot be separated from knowing how to give God a place in one's life.

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        • Research Project