David Mcpherson
Biographic Data
| ID | 965952 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Mcpherson |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Mcpherson |
| SIGNATURE | MCPHERSON D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Creighton University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4077-441X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1968 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Epiphanies, life-affirmation, and virtue
Love
Is a new understanding of love really possible? And could it be a convincing one that has somehow been overlooked by previous theories of love? Like its predecessor Love: A History (Yale University Press, 2011), Simon May's Love: A New Understanding of an Ancient Emotion is a bold and ambitious book, as suggested by its subtitle. There are a number of interesting and provocative claims advanced throughout the book, some of which one might disagre…
Deep desires
This article seeks to get clear on an important feature of a theistic way of life: namely, the appeal to ‘deep desires’ as part of an ethical and spiritual life-orientation. My main thesis is that such appeals should primarily be seen as pertaining to our acquired second nature and the space of meaning it makes possible, rather than first nature or innateness. To appeal to the ‘depth’ of a desire, on this account, is to say something about its no…
Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity
In many respects, Alasdair MacIntyre's latest book can be read as an updated version of his most influential work, After Virtue, which was published 35 years earlier. It thus provides an opportunity to take stock of what has remained constant in his philosophical project since then and also of where his thought has developed. In After Virtue, MacIntyre argued that the ‘Enlightenment project’ of seeking to provide a justification for morality apar…
Spirituality and the Good Life
Traditional Morality and Sacred Values
This essay gives an account of how traditional morality is best understood and also why it is worth defending (even if some reform is needed) and how this might be done. Traditional morality is first contrasted with supposedly more enlightened forms of morality, such as utilitarianism and liberal Kantianism (i.e., autonomy-centered ethics). The focus here is on certain sacred values that are central to traditional morality and which highlight thi…
Nietzsche, Cosmodicy, and the Saintly Ideal
In this essay I examine Nietzsche's shifting understanding of the saintly ideal with an aim to bringing out its philosophical importance, particularly with respect to what I call the problem of ‘cosmodicy’, i.e., the problem of justifying life in the world as worthwhile in light of the prevalent reality of suffering. In his early account Nietzsche understood the saint as embodying the supreme achievement of a self-transcending ‘feeling of oneness…
The Language Animal
At 85 years of age, Charles Taylor has (remarkably) published yet another remarkable book. Last year he also published a book on epistemology with Hubert Dreyfus entitled Retrieving Realism. Taylor is of course best known for two tomes, Sources of the Self (1989) and A Secular Age (2007), which seek to comprehend our modern predicament and offer a way forward. In The Language Animal, we find Taylor coming back to his fundamental concern with phil…
Homo religiosus
In this article I seek to show the importance of spirituality for a neo-Aristotelian account of ‘the good life’. First, I lay out my account of spirituality. Second, I discuss why the issue of the place of spirituality in the good life has often either been ignored or explicitly excluded from consideration by neo-Aristotelians. I suggest that a lot turns on how one understands the ‘ethical naturalism’ to which neo-Aristotelians are committed. Fin…
Shakespeare, Jonson, and the Myth of Venice
This work outlines the bright and dark sides of the Myth of Venice, dwelling on four aspects: Venice the Rich, Venice the Wise, Venice the Just, and Venezia-citta-galante. After describing the channels through which Shakespeare and Jonson could have become aware of this myth, this work uses it to generate new understandings of the Merchant of Venice, Othello, and Volpone
New Zealand Mining Update for Schools, 1 and 2
Tourism as a Cultural Process
Climate Change-What the Rocks Tell Us
Tourism as a Cultural Process
Beyond Australia
"Beyond the "Mish-Mash
The Fury of Men's Gullets
Bruce Thomas Boehrer. The Fury of Men's Gullets: Ben Jonson and the Digestive Canal. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997. x + 238 pp. bibl. index. $38.50. ISBN: 0-8122-3408-1. - Volume 52 Issue 3
Ben Jonson and the Art of Secrecy
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Ben Jonson
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Lewkenor's Venice and Its Sources
Despite the extensive work by recent historians on the “Myth of Venice,“ there has never been a thorough study of Lewis Lewkenor's The Commonwealth and Government of Venice (1599), one of the central documents through which the myth was transmitted to England—and England, after all, was the country in northern Europe in which the myth had its most profound effects. Lewkenor's book is interesting not only because of its importance in the history o…
Roman Comedy in Renaissance Education
A Possible Origin for Mopsa in Sidney's Arcadia
Mopsa, a stupid country wench in Sidney's Arcadia, is such a delightful comic creation that one is curious to know more about her origin and function. William Ringler suggests that the name is ‘probably from Mopsus, a shepherd in Virgil's Eclogues.’ In the Fifth Eclogue one of the two shepherds in the singing contest is named Mopsus. In the Eighth Eclogue the embittered shepherd Damon laments the loss of Nysa, mentioning that she has married Mops…
Traditional Morality and Sacred Values
This essay gives an account of how traditional morality is best understood and also why it is worth defending (even if some reform is needed) and how this might be done. Traditional morality is first contrasted with supposedly more enlightened forms of morality, such as utilitarianism and liberal Kantianism (i.e., autonomy-centered ethics). The focus here is on certain sacred values that are central to traditional morality and which highlight thi…
"Beyond the "Mish-Mash
A Possible Origin for Mopsa in Sidney's Arcadia
Mopsa, a stupid country wench in Sidney's Arcadia, is such a delightful comic creation that one is curious to know more about her origin and function. William Ringler suggests that the name is ‘probably from Mopsus, a shepherd in Virgil's Eclogues.’ In the Fifth Eclogue one of the two shepherds in the singing contest is named Mopsus. In the Eighth Eclogue the embittered shepherd Damon laments the loss of Nysa, mentioning that she has married Mops…
Roman Comedy in Renaissance Education
Lewkenor's Venice and Its Sources
Despite the extensive work by recent historians on the “Myth of Venice,“ there has never been a thorough study of Lewis Lewkenor's The Commonwealth and Government of Venice (1599), one of the central documents through which the myth was transmitted to England—and England, after all, was the country in northern Europe in which the myth had its most profound effects. Lewkenor's book is interesting not only because of its importance in the history o…
Ben Jonson and the Art of Secrecy
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Ben Jonson
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Fury of Men's Gullets
Bruce Thomas Boehrer. The Fury of Men's Gullets: Ben Jonson and the Digestive Canal. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997. x + 238 pp. bibl. index. $38.50. ISBN: 0-8122-3408-1. - Volume 52 Issue 3
New Zealand Mining Update for Schools, 1 and 2
Tourism as a Cultural Process
Climate Change-What the Rocks Tell Us
Tourism as a Cultural Process
Beyond Australia
"Beyond the "Mish-Mash
Shakespeare, Jonson, and the Myth of Venice
This work outlines the bright and dark sides of the Myth of Venice, dwelling on four aspects: Venice the Rich, Venice the Wise, Venice the Just, and Venezia-citta-galante. After describing the channels through which Shakespeare and Jonson could have become aware of this myth, this work uses it to generate new understandings of the Merchant of Venice, Othello, and Volpone
Homo religiosus
In this article I seek to show the importance of spirituality for a neo-Aristotelian account of ‘the good life’. First, I lay out my account of spirituality. Second, I discuss why the issue of the place of spirituality in the good life has often either been ignored or explicitly excluded from consideration by neo-Aristotelians. I suggest that a lot turns on how one understands the ‘ethical naturalism’ to which neo-Aristotelians are committed. Fin…
Nietzsche, Cosmodicy, and the Saintly Ideal
In this essay I examine Nietzsche's shifting understanding of the saintly ideal with an aim to bringing out its philosophical importance, particularly with respect to what I call the problem of ‘cosmodicy’, i.e., the problem of justifying life in the world as worthwhile in light of the prevalent reality of suffering. In his early account Nietzsche understood the saint as embodying the supreme achievement of a self-transcending ‘feeling of oneness…
The Language Animal
At 85 years of age, Charles Taylor has (remarkably) published yet another remarkable book. Last year he also published a book on epistemology with Hubert Dreyfus entitled Retrieving Realism. Taylor is of course best known for two tomes, Sources of the Self (1989) and A Secular Age (2007), which seek to comprehend our modern predicament and offer a way forward. In The Language Animal, we find Taylor coming back to his fundamental concern with phil…
Spirituality and the Good Life
Traditional Morality and Sacred Values
This essay gives an account of how traditional morality is best understood and also why it is worth defending (even if some reform is needed) and how this might be done. Traditional morality is first contrasted with supposedly more enlightened forms of morality, such as utilitarianism and liberal Kantianism (i.e., autonomy-centered ethics). The focus here is on certain sacred values that are central to traditional morality and which highlight thi…
Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity
In many respects, Alasdair MacIntyre's latest book can be read as an updated version of his most influential work, After Virtue, which was published 35 years earlier. It thus provides an opportunity to take stock of what has remained constant in his philosophical project since then and also of where his thought has developed. In After Virtue, MacIntyre argued that the ‘Enlightenment project’ of seeking to provide a justification for morality apar…
Deep desires
This article seeks to get clear on an important feature of a theistic way of life: namely, the appeal to ‘deep desires’ as part of an ethical and spiritual life-orientation. My main thesis is that such appeals should primarily be seen as pertaining to our acquired second nature and the space of meaning it makes possible, rather than first nature or innateness. To appeal to the ‘depth’ of a desire, on this account, is to say something about its no…
Love
Is a new understanding of love really possible? And could it be a convincing one that has somehow been overlooked by previous theories of love? Like its predecessor Love: A History (Yale University Press, 2011), Simon May's Love: A New Understanding of an Ancient Emotion is a bold and ambitious book, as suggested by its subtitle. There are a number of interesting and provocative claims advanced throughout the book, some of which one might disagre…
Epiphanies, life-affirmation, and virtue
Sociology (12 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Art (8 works) · History (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Library science (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Art history (5 works) · Citation (5 works)