•

I -'

/_./.o

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)

- 2 . 24/1971

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,

- 24/1971 3.

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

- 24/1971 4 .

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.

- 5 . 24/1971

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

- 6 . 24/1971

'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.

- 6. 24/1971

'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.