Study of being on the continent
Australian philosophy
refers to the
philosophical
tradition of the people of
Australia
and of its citizens abroad. Academic philosophy has been mostly pursued in universities (and sometimes seminaries). It has been broadly in the tradition of Anglo-American
analytic philosophy
, but has also had representatives of a diverse range of other schools, such as
idealism
,
Catholic neo-scholasticism
,
Marxism
, and
continental
,
feminist
and
Asian philosophy
.
Indigenous perspectives
[
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]
Australian indigenous traditions attribute moral authority outside the individual to
The Dreaming
, which is bound up with the relation of human society to land.
[1]
Idealism
[
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]
The earliest academic philosophers in Australia were appointed in the late nineteenth century.
[2]
Then and in the early twentieth century, most were like their European contemporaries
idealists
.
[3]
[4]
[5]
They included
Sir Francis Anderson
, professor of philosophy at
Sydney University
from 1890 to 1921,
W. R. Boyce Gibson
in Melbourne, and (to a degree)
Sir William Mitchell
in Adelaide.
[6]
[7]
Francis Anderson established the
Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy
in 1923. From 1947 it bifurcated and the philosophy part has been published as the
Australasian Journal of Philosophy
.
[8]
John Anderson
[
edit
]
John Anderson, 1926
Sydney philosophy was dominated in the mid-twentieth century by the Scottish immigrant
John Anderson
,
Challis Professor
of Philosophy at Sydney University from 1927 to 1958. He developed a complete
realist
philosophy that contrasted with the
linguistic philosophy
then developing in other parts of the English-speaking world.
[3]
: ch1-2
[9]
[10]
His controversial atheism and his view that there was no such thing as
moral obligation
attracted condemnation, and through his students had an influence on the
Sydney Push
and other
libertarian
currents of the 1960s.
[3]
: ch8
Melbourne philosophy
[
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]
Philosophy at
Melbourne University
was more diverse than in Sydney but in the mid-twentieth century heavily influenced by
Wittgenstein
.
[3]
: ch7
[11]
Prominent Melbourne Wittgensteinians included George Paul and Douglas Gasking.
[12]
Australian realism
[
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]
Australian philosophers have typically taken a
realist
view of entities mentioned in science, such as
forces
,
causes
,
minds
and
properties
or
universals
(as opposed to considering them mere mental entities or ways of speaking or
social constructions
). Partly through the influence of John Anderson, realism has been stronger in Australia than in comparable countries such as the US and UK.
[13]
[3]
: 323?9
D. M. Armstrong
's 1978
Universals and Scientific Realism
defended realism about universals, arguing that, for example, the property of being blue must be a reality common to all blue things.
[14]
Graham Nerlich
argued in
The Shape of Space
(1976) that space is not merely relational properties of distance but a real entity in itself.
In the
philosophy of mathematics
, Australian realisms include the
Platonism
of
Mark Colyvan
and the
Aristotelian realism
of the "Sydney School".
Philosophy of mind and Australian materialism
[
edit
]
Australian materialism, or
the identity theory of mind
was developed by
U.T. Place
and
J.J.C. Smart
in Adelaide in the 1950s. In contrast to
dualist
theories holding that the mind is a separate substance, and to the then popular
behaviorism
that held that there was nothing to the mental beyond observable behaviours, materialism regarded the mind as just brain processes. The classic statement of the view came in
D.M. Armstrong
's 1968 book,
A Materialist Theory of the Mind
.
[15]
[3]
: 180?3
David Chalmers
Australians have also been prominent among critics of materialism.
Frank Jackson
's influential thought experiment
"What Mary knew"
imagines a scientist who, restricted to seeing black and white, studies colour vision; she later comes to see blue, giving her experience of colour beyond knowing physical facts about it. Therefore, Jackson concluded, there was more to the mental than just the physical (but he later rejected the argument).
[16]
David Chalmers
argues that materialism has failed to make progress on the
hard problem of consciousness
: how to give an account of
qualia
or felt experience in purely physical terms.
[3]
: 184?8
In more recent work,
Peter Godfrey-Smith
in his 2016 book
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
inquires into the extent and origins of consciousness in species very unlike humans.
Ethics
[
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]
In his 1977 book
Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong
John Anderson's student
John Mackie
defended an "error theory" of morality, holding that the idea of moral obligation was a mistake.
Peter Singer
's 1975 book
Animal Liberation
was influential in moves against eating and experimenting on animals. His views on bioethics, including the permissibility of killing even non-disabled babies, have attracted controversy and protests.
[3]
: 413?24
Many Australian philosophers defended more traditional and
objectivist
theories of morality, including Catholic
scholastic philosophers
,
[3]
: ch4
Raimond Gaita
,
John Finnis
and
Jenny Teichman
.
[3]
: 402?8
Philosophy of religion
[
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]
Traditional
Thomism
dominated Catholic seminary education up to the 1960s and was also taught to the laity by such teachers as
Austin Woodbury
[3]
: ch4
John Anderson's promotion of atheism was continued by
John Mackie
in his 1981 book,
The Miracle of Theism
. More recently,
Graham Oppy
has defended atheism in a series of books such as
Atheism: The Basics
(2018).
Some Australian philosophers have developed non-standard views of God, such as
Samuel Alexander
in
Space, Time and Deity
(1920) and
Peter Forrest
in
Developmental Theism
(2007).
[17]
The philosophy of religion journal
Sophia
, founded by
Max Charlesworth
in Melbourne in 1962, has published widely on Eastern as well as Western approaches to religion.
Environmental philosophy
[
edit
]
John Passmore
's 1974 book,
Man's Responsibility for Nature
argued for a "shallow" view of environmental responsibility, involving no radical changes to a traditional scientific viewpoint and ethical frameworks. On the other hand,
Richard Sylvan
and
Val Plumwood
were early leaders in moves towards
deep ecology
, which attributed an
intrinsic value
to nature, independent of human concerns.
[3]
: ch13
[18]
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
Charlesworth, Max
(2010).
"Australian aboriginal philosophy"
. In Oppy, G.; Trakakis, N.N. (eds.).
Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand
(1st ed.). Melbourne: Monash University Publishing.
ISBN
978-0-9806512-0-1
. Archived from
the original
on 2011-08-12
. Retrieved
30 June
2021
.
- ^
Morris Miller, E.
(1929).
"The beginnings of philosophy in Australia and the work of Henry Laurie"
.
Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy
.
7
(4): 241?251.
doi
:
10.1080/00048402908541291
. Retrieved
30 June
2021
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
Franklin, James
(2003). "ch6".
Corrupting the Youth: A history of philosophy in Australia
. Sydney: Macleay Press.
ISBN
1876492082
.
- ^
Davies, Martin; Helgeby, Stein (2010).
"Idealism"
. In Oppy, G.; Trakakis, N.N. (eds.).
Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand
(1st ed.). Melbourne: Monash University Publishing.
ISBN
978-0-9806512-0-1
. Archived from
the original
on 2012-03-08
. Retrieved
30 June
2021
.
- ^
Davies, Martin; Helgeby, Stein (2014), Oppy, Graham; Trakakis, N.N. (eds.),
"Idealist Origins: 1920s and Before"
,
History of Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand
, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 15?54,
doi
:
10.1007/978-94-007-6958-8_2
,
ISBN
978-94-007-6958-8
, retrieved
2022-05-30
- ^
Davies, W. Martin.
"William Mitchell (1861-1962)"
.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
. Retrieved
30 June
2021
.
- ^
Davies, W. Martin (1999-09-01).
"Sir William Mitchell and the 'new mysterianism'
"
.
Australasian Journal of Philosophy
.
77
(3): 253?273.
doi
:
10.1080/00048409912349031
.
ISSN
0004-8402
.
- ^
Candlish, Stewart (2021).
"The first hundred years of
(The) Australasian Journal of Philosophy
"
.
Australasian Journal of Philosophy
.
99
: 3?24.
doi
:
10.1080/00048402.2020.1871385
.
S2CID
234036787
. Retrieved
22 July
2021
.
- ^
Cole, Creagh M. (2017).
"John Anderson"
.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
. Retrieved
30 June
2021
.
- ^
Baker, A.J.
(1986).
Australian Realism: The Systematic Philosophy of John Anderson
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
0521320518
.
- ^
Coady, C.A.J. (2010).
"Melbourne, University of"
. In Oppy, G.; Trakakis, N.N. (eds.).
Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand
(1st ed.). Melbourne: Monash University Publishing.
ISBN
978-0-9806512-0-1
. Archived from
the original
on 2011-07-20
. Retrieved
30 June
2021
.
- ^
David Malet Armstrong
,
"Black Swans: The formative influences in Australian philosophy"
, in B. Brogaard and B. Smith, eds.,
Rationality and Irrationality: Proceedings of the 23rd International Wittgenstein Symposium
, Vienna, 2000.
- ^
Khlentzos, Drew (2010).
"Melbourne, University of"
. In Oppy, G.; Trakakis, N.N. (eds.).
Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand
(1st ed.). Melbourne: Monash University Publishing.
ISBN
978-0-9806512-0-1
. Archived from
the original
on 2011-07-20
. Retrieved
30 June
2021
.
- ^
Keller, Philipp (2010).
"Universals"
. In Oppy, G.; Trakakis, N.N. (eds.).
Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand
(1st ed.). Melbourne: Monash University Publishing.
ISBN
978-0-9806512-0-1
. Archived from
the original
on 2011-08-12.
- ^
Smart, J.J.C.
(2007).
"The mind/brain identity theory"
.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
. Retrieved
30 June
2021
.
- ^
Jackson, Frank (1982).
"Epiphenomenal qualia"
(PDF)
.
Philosophical Quarterly
.
32
(127): 127?136.
doi
:
10.2307/2960077
.
JSTOR
2960077
. Retrieved
30 June
2021
.
- ^
Trakakis, N.N.
(2010).
"Philosophy of religion"
. In Oppy, G.; Trakakis, N.N. (eds.).
Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand
(1st ed.). Melbourne: Monash University Publishing.
ISBN
978-0-9806512-0-1
. Archived from
the original
on 2011-08-12
. Retrieved
30 June
2021
.
- ^
Hyde, Dominic; Casati, Filippo; Weber, Zach (2019).
"Richard Sylvan (Routley)"
.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
. Retrieved
30 June
2021
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Brown, Robert; Rollins, C.D., eds. (1969).
Contemporary Philosophy in Australia
. London: Allen & Unwin.
ISBN
0041000196
.
- Grave, Selwyn A. (1984).
A History of Philosophy in Australia
. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press.
ISBN
0702216976
.
- Srzednicki, Jan T.J; Wood, David, eds. (1992).
Essays on Philosophy in Australia
. Nijhoff International Philosophy Series. Vol. 46. Dordrecht: Springer.
doi
:
10.1007/978-94-015-8006-9
.
ISBN
978-0-7923-1695-4
.
- Dowe, Phil; Nicholls, Moira; Shotton, Leila, eds. (1996).
Australian Philosophers
. Hobart: Pyrrho Press.
ISBN
0859016803
.
- Franklin, James
(2003).
Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia
. Sydney: Macleay Press.
ISBN
1876492082
.
- Oppy, G.
;
Trakakis, N.N.
, eds. (2011).
The Antipodean Philosopher: Public Lectures on Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand
. Lanham Md: Lexington Books.
ISBN
9780739167939
.
- Oppy, G.; Trakakis, N.N. (2014).
A Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand
(2nd ed.). Melbourne: Monash University Publishing.
ISBN
9781921867712
.
- Oppy, G.; Trakakis, N.N., eds. (2014).
History of Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand
. New York: Springer.
ISBN
9789400769571
.
External links
[
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]