Louis CaruanaCorresponding author

Universal Claims

Article
16/1 - Spring 2011, pages 157-169
Date of online publication: 24 mars 2011
Date of publication: 24 mars 2011

Abstract

Claims are universal when they are not dependent on when and where they are made. Mathematics and the natural sciences are the typical disciplines that allow such claims to be made. Is the striving for universal claims in other disciplines justified. Those who attempt to answer this question in the affirmative often argue that it is justified when mathematics and the natural sciences are taken as the model for other disciplines. In this paper I challenge this position and analyze the issue by looking at it from a new angle, a perspective that involves two key concepts: violence and loyalty. The result of this analysis throws light on the broader question concerning what the search for truth might mean in a pluralistic world.

Keywords

Cite this article

Caruana, Louis. “Universal Claims.” Forum Philosophicum 16, no. 1 (2011): 157–69. doi:10.35765/forphil.2011.1601.10.

Bibliography

Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France. London: Dent, 1967.

Fletcher, George P. Loyalty: An Essay on the Morality of Relationships. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Gandhi, Mahatma. The Writings of Gandhi. Edited by Ronald Duncan. Oxford: Fontana, Collins, 1971.

Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Translated by Geoffrey Bennington, and Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.

MacIntyre, Alasdair C. Is Patriotism a Virtue? Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1984.

Newman, John Henry. An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. London: Penguin, 1974.

Nussbaum, Martha. “Non-relative virtues: an Aristotelian approach.” In The Quality of Life, edited by Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen, 242–269. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

O'Hear, Anthony. “Tradition and traditionalism.” In: Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward Craig, 455–457. London: Routledge, 1998. Accessed 9 july 2007. https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/tradition-and-traditionalism/v-1/.

Padberg, John W., Martin D. O'Keefe, and John L. McCarthy, eds. For Matters of Greater Moment: The First Thirty Jesuit General Congregations. Saint Louis, MO: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1994.

Pettit, Philip. “The Paradox of Loyalty.” American Philosophical Quarterly 25, no. 2 (1988): 163–171.

Plato. The Theaetetus of Plato. Edited by. Oxford: University Press, 1861.

Royce, Josiah. The Philosophy of Loyalty. New York: MacMillan, 1908, reprinted 1920.

Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London: W. Strahan, 1776.

Copyright

© Forum Philosophicum
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License