Both literature and philosophy, as genres of writing, can enable us to address important ontological, epistemological and ethical questions. One author who makes it possible for readers to bridge these two genres is Albert Camus. Nowhere is this more evident than in Camus' short novel, "The Fall". "The Fall", through the character and words of…

Ong and Derrida are concerned with presence--for Ong the presence of the other; for Derrida the presence of the signified. These seemingly disparate epistemological meanings of "presence" actually share some striking similarities, but differ about how reason should be figured, that is, what metaphors should be used to conceptualize reason. This…

If you do not wish to construe philosophical discourse as simply a discourse of cognition, a theoretical discourse; if you think it is also a practical, ethical discourse: how should you write? How should you frame the ethos, the authority of your discourse? This article represents an extended preface I wrote and rewrote obsessively over a period…

In this paper, the author describes recent developments in the assessment of research activity and publication in Australia. Of particular interest to readers will be the move to rank academic journals. "EPAT" received the highest possible ranking, however the process is far from complete. Some implications for the field, for this journal and…

Most scholarly fields, at least in the humanities, have been asking the same questions about the politics of encounter for hundreds of years: Should we try to find a way to encounter an other without appropriating it, without imposing ourselves on it? Is encountering-without-appropriating even possible? These questions are profuse and taken up…

One can extrapolate from the art of language instruction to discover methods applicable across the disciplines in higher education. The paradigm presented by language instruction is applicable throughout the arts and sciences. If cultivated--and there are institutional pressures working against it--such an art can impact the languages and codes of…

It is not uncommon to hear parents say in discussions they have with their children "Look at it this way". And called upon for their advice, counsellors too say something to adults with the significance of "Try to see it like this". The change of someone's perspective in the context of child rearing is the focus of this paper. Our interest in this…

Differential academic language proficiency is an issue of major educational concern, bearing on problems varying from pupil performance, to social prospects, and citizenship. In this paper we develop a conception of the language-acquiring subject, and we discuss the consequences for understanding differential language proficiency in schools.…

This essay reflects upon certain aspects of Wittgenstein's own practices as a teacher. "Doing" philosophy always took priority for Wittgenstein, whether this was in oral or written form: it was important to show the deep puzzles in our language (and our culture and thinking) as a step toward dissolving them. In this respect, one can teach only as…

Some philosophers of education think that there is a pedagogically informative concept of training that can be gleaned from Wittgenstein's later writings: training as initiation into a form of life. Stickney, in "Training and Mastery of Techniques in Wittgenstein's Later Philosophy: A response to Michael Luntley" takes me to task for ignoring this…

Responding to Michael Luntley's article, "Learning, Empowerment and Judgement," the author shows he cannot successfully make the following three moves: (1) dissolve the analytic distinction between learning by training and learning by reasoning, while advocating the latter; (2) diminish the role of training in Wittgenstein's philosophy, nor…

This paper argues that Wittgenstein considered himself an exile and indeed was a self-imposed exile from his native Vienna; that this condition of exile is important for understanding Wittgenstein the man and his philosophy; and that exile as a condition has become both a central characteristic condition of late modernity (as much as alienation…

Freud saw the dream as occupying a very important position in his theoretical model. If there were to be problems with his theoretical account of the dream then this would impinge upon proposed therapy and, of course, education as the right balance between the instincts and the institution of culture. Wittgenstein, whilst stating that Freud was…

Taking Wittgenstein's love of music as my impetus, I approach aporetic problems of epistemic relativity through a round of three overlapping (canonical) inquiries delivered in contrapuntal (higher and lower) registers. I first take up the question of scepticism surrounding "groundless knowledge" and contending paradigms in "On Certainty" (physics…

It is now widely accepted that qualitative and quantitative research traditions, rather than being seen as opposed to or in competition with each other (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1995; Furlong, 2004 ) should be used, where appropriate, in some kind of combination (Bryman & Cramer, 1999; Moore et al., 2003 ). How this combining is to be understood…