Does any child ever first acquire virtue in an Aristotelian manner? A subtle interpersonal play i... more Does any child ever first acquire virtue in an Aristotelian manner? A subtle interpersonal play is the more typical locus of initial ethical formation. Moreover, many modern experiments, such as a picture of a pair of eyes being glued to an “honesty box” (Bateson et al. 2006), reveal how even a lifeless representation that evokes a sense of “second-person relatedness” (SPR) subtly encourages virtuous actions by adults. Classical virtue ethics does not easily accommodate these phenomena, but I have argued previously (Pinsent 2012) that the “infused” dispositions described by St Thomas Aquinas can be understood in terms of SPR. In this chapter, I propose that these insights, with some corroboration from contemporary social neuroscience, highlight the need for a “Copernican Revolution” of virtue ethics. I also review briefly some implications and propose ways in which the role of infused or second-person dispositions might be tested.
ABSTRACT Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF. This th... more ABSTRACT Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF. This thesis presents an experimental test of the ratio of charged lepton to hadron production in Z ^circ boson decays against the theoretical prediction of the Glashow-Salam-Weinberg Standard Model, and also details a test of lepton universality at an energy scale of s ~ 8300(GeV) ^2. The data sample is taken from the DELPHI experiment which operates at the newly commissioned LEP collider, running at centre of mass collision energies that scan across the resonance peak for Z^ circ production at around 91GeV. The value of the hadron/charged lepton partial width ratio (Gamma_{had} /Gamma_{ll}) is calculated to be 20.85 in the GSW theory with an error of 1% due to the uncertainty of the value of the strong interaction coupling constant alpha_ {s} at LEP energies. This ratio is shown to be nearly independent of two of the principal unknown parameters of the Standard Model, the top quark mass and Higgs boson mass, making its value a highly constrained prediction. A brief overview of the DELPHI experiment is given, with special attention being paid to the detector components crucial to the leptonic analysis. The analysis procedure is then described in detail, with the data samples from 1989 and 1990 treated separately due to systematic changes in detector performance between the two running periods. The final experimental values for Gamma _{had}/Gamma_ {ll} are found to be Gamma _{had}/Gamma_ {ee} = 21.73 +/- 0.59(stat.) +/- 0.49(syst.) for electrons, and Gamma_{had}/ Gamma_{mumu} = 20.94 +/- 0.61(stat.) +/- 0.37(syst.) for muons. The average of these values is found to be Gamma_ {had}/Gamma_{ll } = 21.33 +/- 0.43(stat.) +/- 0.35(syst.) and this agrees well with an improved theoretical computation of Gamma _{had}/Gamma_ {ll} = 20.69 +/- 0.10, which uses a measurement of alpha_ {s}(M_{Z}^2 ) = 0.106 +/- 0.006(stat.) +/- 0.007(syst.) obtained from DELPHI hadronic data studies. A direct comparison of the electron and muon samples gives a relative production rate Gamma_ {ee}/Gamma_{ mumu} = 0.964 +/- 0.038(stat.) +/- 0.022(syst.), and a comparison with a sample of tau events yields Gamma_{tautau}/ Gamma_{mumu} = 1.00 +/- 0.06(stat.). Within the precision of these measurements lepton universality is therefore confirmed at this energy scale. All the experimental values obtained are therefore in agreement with the predictions of the Standard Model.
1. The Mystery of Aquinas's Virtue Ethics 2. The Gifts as Second-Personal Dispositions 3. Vir... more 1. The Mystery of Aquinas's Virtue Ethics 2. The Gifts as Second-Personal Dispositions 3. Virtues and the Second-Person Perspective 4. The Fruition of the Virtues and Gifts 5. Conclusions and Implications
Humility is a practically orphaned virtue in contemporary virtue ethics, and its theological asso... more Humility is a practically orphaned virtue in contemporary virtue ethics, and its theological associations in classical and medieval texts do not, at first glance, commend humility in a secular world. In response, I examine in this chapter the place accorded to humility in Aquinas's relational virtue ethics. I begin by showing how the four species of pride he identifies inhibit flourishing from both a first-and second-person perspective, and how Aquinas's defends both humility as a guardian of relationships and a concomitant virtue of greatness. I conclude by observing how Aquinas's account of humility also transposes into a more secular framework, given the need for a disposition to protect the many interpersonal relationships and their fruitfulness that are associated with human flourishing.
From a theological perspective, there are at least two kinds of benevolent, end-directed divine a... more From a theological perspective, there are at least two kinds of benevolent, end-directed divine action: providence and predestination. Given that the goal of predestination is salvation, purportedly the ultimate goal of human life and divine direction in regard to that life, predestination and providence ought to share much in common from a theological perspective. But predestination has been and remains one of the most contentious issues in theology and has often been reduced to a divine and unilateral selection of human beings to heaven or hell, a kind of religious determinism or predeterminism. In this chapter, I argue that new research and images of the life of grace drawn from scriptural narratives imply the need for a broader and richer understanding of predestination that takes proper account of human responsiveness and providence, including the possibility of incomplete predestination and degrees of blessedness
European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Dec 22, 2015
Insights play a role in every field that can be called knowledge, but are of particular interest ... more Insights play a role in every field that can be called knowledge, but are of particular interest to the philosophy of religion and special divine action. Although these acts of understanding cannot be generated at will, a second person can vastly accelerate understanding by a first person. In this paper, I argue that this catalysis of insight is best attained in a situation of 'secondperson relatedness' , involving epistemic humility and shared awareness of shared focus. I also argue that this approach provides an appropriate interpretation of Aquinas's account of God's gift of understanding. On this basis, it is specifically the context of second-person relatedness to God, as 'I' to 'you' , that is expected to have the most far-reaching impact on understanding of the world. I illustrate the conclusions by means of the story of The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Andersen, drawing also some practical implications for insights in daily life. I. THE PUZZLE OF INSIGHT What awaited her there was serious to the degree of sorrow and beyond. There was no form nor sound. The mould under the bushes, the moss on the path, and the little brick border, were not visibly changed. But they were changed. A boundary had been crossed. She had come into a world, or into a Person, or into the presence of a Person. Something expectant, patient, inexorable, met her with no veil or protection between. 1 Research into the questions surrounding special divine action has tended to focus on miracles, but the kind of experience described above is probably more common and arguably more efficacious by the measure of changed minds and lives. Like a light switch being thrown, a door into daylight 2 Pioneering work on the 'aha! moment' , as an 'inner illumination' , was carried out by
Does any child ever first acquire virtue in an Aristotelian manner? A subtle interpersonal play i... more Does any child ever first acquire virtue in an Aristotelian manner? A subtle interpersonal play is the more typical locus of initial ethical formation. Moreover, many modern experiments, such as a picture of a pair of eyes being glued to an “honesty box” (Bateson et al. 2006), reveal how even a lifeless representation that evokes a sense of “second-person relatedness” (SPR) subtly encourages virtuous actions by adults. Classical virtue ethics does not easily accommodate these phenomena, but I have argued previously (Pinsent 2012) that the “infused” dispositions described by St Thomas Aquinas can be understood in terms of SPR. In this chapter, I propose that these insights, with some corroboration from contemporary social neuroscience, highlight the need for a “Copernican Revolution” of virtue ethics. I also review briefly some implications and propose ways in which the role of infused or second-person dispositions might be tested.
ABSTRACT Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF. This th... more ABSTRACT Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF. This thesis presents an experimental test of the ratio of charged lepton to hadron production in Z ^circ boson decays against the theoretical prediction of the Glashow-Salam-Weinberg Standard Model, and also details a test of lepton universality at an energy scale of s ~ 8300(GeV) ^2. The data sample is taken from the DELPHI experiment which operates at the newly commissioned LEP collider, running at centre of mass collision energies that scan across the resonance peak for Z^ circ production at around 91GeV. The value of the hadron/charged lepton partial width ratio (Gamma_{had} /Gamma_{ll}) is calculated to be 20.85 in the GSW theory with an error of 1% due to the uncertainty of the value of the strong interaction coupling constant alpha_ {s} at LEP energies. This ratio is shown to be nearly independent of two of the principal unknown parameters of the Standard Model, the top quark mass and Higgs boson mass, making its value a highly constrained prediction. A brief overview of the DELPHI experiment is given, with special attention being paid to the detector components crucial to the leptonic analysis. The analysis procedure is then described in detail, with the data samples from 1989 and 1990 treated separately due to systematic changes in detector performance between the two running periods. The final experimental values for Gamma _{had}/Gamma_ {ll} are found to be Gamma _{had}/Gamma_ {ee} = 21.73 +/- 0.59(stat.) +/- 0.49(syst.) for electrons, and Gamma_{had}/ Gamma_{mumu} = 20.94 +/- 0.61(stat.) +/- 0.37(syst.) for muons. The average of these values is found to be Gamma_ {had}/Gamma_{ll } = 21.33 +/- 0.43(stat.) +/- 0.35(syst.) and this agrees well with an improved theoretical computation of Gamma _{had}/Gamma_ {ll} = 20.69 +/- 0.10, which uses a measurement of alpha_ {s}(M_{Z}^2 ) = 0.106 +/- 0.006(stat.) +/- 0.007(syst.) obtained from DELPHI hadronic data studies. A direct comparison of the electron and muon samples gives a relative production rate Gamma_ {ee}/Gamma_{ mumu} = 0.964 +/- 0.038(stat.) +/- 0.022(syst.), and a comparison with a sample of tau events yields Gamma_{tautau}/ Gamma_{mumu} = 1.00 +/- 0.06(stat.). Within the precision of these measurements lepton universality is therefore confirmed at this energy scale. All the experimental values obtained are therefore in agreement with the predictions of the Standard Model.
1. The Mystery of Aquinas's Virtue Ethics 2. The Gifts as Second-Personal Dispositions 3. Vir... more 1. The Mystery of Aquinas's Virtue Ethics 2. The Gifts as Second-Personal Dispositions 3. Virtues and the Second-Person Perspective 4. The Fruition of the Virtues and Gifts 5. Conclusions and Implications
Humility is a practically orphaned virtue in contemporary virtue ethics, and its theological asso... more Humility is a practically orphaned virtue in contemporary virtue ethics, and its theological associations in classical and medieval texts do not, at first glance, commend humility in a secular world. In response, I examine in this chapter the place accorded to humility in Aquinas's relational virtue ethics. I begin by showing how the four species of pride he identifies inhibit flourishing from both a first-and second-person perspective, and how Aquinas's defends both humility as a guardian of relationships and a concomitant virtue of greatness. I conclude by observing how Aquinas's account of humility also transposes into a more secular framework, given the need for a disposition to protect the many interpersonal relationships and their fruitfulness that are associated with human flourishing.
From a theological perspective, there are at least two kinds of benevolent, end-directed divine a... more From a theological perspective, there are at least two kinds of benevolent, end-directed divine action: providence and predestination. Given that the goal of predestination is salvation, purportedly the ultimate goal of human life and divine direction in regard to that life, predestination and providence ought to share much in common from a theological perspective. But predestination has been and remains one of the most contentious issues in theology and has often been reduced to a divine and unilateral selection of human beings to heaven or hell, a kind of religious determinism or predeterminism. In this chapter, I argue that new research and images of the life of grace drawn from scriptural narratives imply the need for a broader and richer understanding of predestination that takes proper account of human responsiveness and providence, including the possibility of incomplete predestination and degrees of blessedness
European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Dec 22, 2015
Insights play a role in every field that can be called knowledge, but are of particular interest ... more Insights play a role in every field that can be called knowledge, but are of particular interest to the philosophy of religion and special divine action. Although these acts of understanding cannot be generated at will, a second person can vastly accelerate understanding by a first person. In this paper, I argue that this catalysis of insight is best attained in a situation of 'secondperson relatedness' , involving epistemic humility and shared awareness of shared focus. I also argue that this approach provides an appropriate interpretation of Aquinas's account of God's gift of understanding. On this basis, it is specifically the context of second-person relatedness to God, as 'I' to 'you' , that is expected to have the most far-reaching impact on understanding of the world. I illustrate the conclusions by means of the story of The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Andersen, drawing also some practical implications for insights in daily life. I. THE PUZZLE OF INSIGHT What awaited her there was serious to the degree of sorrow and beyond. There was no form nor sound. The mould under the bushes, the moss on the path, and the little brick border, were not visibly changed. But they were changed. A boundary had been crossed. She had come into a world, or into a Person, or into the presence of a Person. Something expectant, patient, inexorable, met her with no veil or protection between. 1 Research into the questions surrounding special divine action has tended to focus on miracles, but the kind of experience described above is probably more common and arguably more efficacious by the measure of changed minds and lives. Like a light switch being thrown, a door into daylight 2 Pioneering work on the 'aha! moment' , as an 'inner illumination' , was carried out by
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