John Hacker-Wright, University of Guelph Introduction In this paper I intend to argue for the moral gravity of blasphemy from the perspective of virtue ethics. I do not intend to provide any argument for virtue ethics itself. ‘Blasphemy’, as I understand it, applies to actions and derivatively to the utterances, writings, visual depictions, and other […]

(I would like to thank the University of Central Florida Department of Philosophy, Office of Student Conduct and Student Rights and Responsibilities, and The Quality Enhancement Plan for Information Fluency for hosting the conference “Heresy, Blasphemy, and Freedom of Expression,” which provided the impetus for this paper; and the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer […]

Michael Strawser, University of Central Florida Introduction Can a religion be imagined in which heresy and blasphemy are impossible? Would such a religion need to be beyond discourse on a transcendent God and instead based on freedom and the love of the other? An affirmative answer to these questions will be suggested in the following […]

Nancy Nicol, York University This paper will expand upon my research in creating the documentary Politics of the Heart, which explores the social movement in Quebec that led to the recognition of same sex relationships, same sex marriage, and recognition and rights for same sex parents. There has been a sea change in the status […]

Benjamin Tucker, University of Central Florida Introduction This paper is a theoretical work in the field of practical philosophy. I will discuss theoretical issues regarding the Muhammad cartoon and suggest practical ways of living, intellectually and ethically, in the visual culture of the west after the publication of the Muhammad cartoon. I will tie the […]

Shelley M. Park, University of Central Florida Nancy Nicol’s film, Politics of the Heart: Recognition of Homoparental Families is an important documentary of the events leading to the 2002 decision of the Quebec National Assembly to extend equal parenting rights and recognition to same sex parents. Nicol’s film depicts the broadbased social movement that eventuated […]

Harry Coverston, University of Central Florida I’d like to begin my comments by thanking Nancy Nicol for such a fine and moving documentary. The documentary raises a number of considerations that as a member of the Florida Bar and former practicing attorney I would like to examine. I will begin with comments from the documentary […]

Jonathan D. Glover, University of Florida My point is not that everything is bad but that everything is dangerous, which is not exactly the same as bad. If everything is dangerous, then we always have something to do. So my position leads not to apathy but to a hyper- and pessimistic activism. Michel Foucault, “On […]

Ronnie Z. Hawkins, University of Central Florida We humans are social animals through and through, and yet we often avoid acknowledging it. In fact, we seem to have a tendency to flee, whenever possible, from “seeing ourselves” clearly along quite a few dimensions of our being. Heresies, by definition, are likewise entities that are essentially […]

Why Is So Much Philosophy So Tedious? Presidential Address of the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Florida Philosophical Association, 2007 David McNaughton, The Florida State University Deciding on a topic for the Presidential Address is no easy task. There seem to be a number of models. First, the light philosophical pastiche—the philosophical equivalent of a […]