Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia

Description

James Franklin learned about Aristotle via St. Thomas from Fr. G.-L. student Fr. Austin Woodbury's evening lectures on metaphysics in 1973.

ZIP (HTML) & EPUB are index.

Corrupting the Youth is a grand survey of the history of philosophy in Australia, written to be completely accessible to the general reader. James Franklin shows how the hard and basic questions of philosophy - including the meaning of life, the nature of the brain, the rights of minorities, the credibility of science, the existence of God - have been debated in Australia since the nineteenth century.

The array of topics include Sixties hedonism, feminist and environmentalist philosophy, postmodernism, the Sydney Push, the Oz trial, animal liberation, and the rights of Aborigines and the disabled. The cast of characters includes university philosophers, judges, communists, hedonists, moralists., atheists, priests, Freemasons, activists, journalists, publishers, teachers, doctors and students.

PREFACE

I. THE MID-CENTURY

• 1. Anderson and the State****
  [John Anderson's 'No' to everything -- conflicts with the NSW State Parliament -- farce on the floor as philosophy debated -- Anderson's conflicts with Communists and Trotskyists -- his later conservatism -- his ASIO file]
• 2. Anderson and the Youth
  [Anderson's impact on the youth; accounts of Donald Horne, Peter Coleman, John Kerr, Gough Whitlam -- mood of constant criticism in Andersonian circle -- Anderson's repudiation of 'moralism' -- his appointment of his mistress as lecturer --Bertrand Russell, Andersonian]
• 3. Gross Moral Turpitude: The Orr Case
  [The central events of the Orr case: largely based on Pybus' Gross Moral Turpitude with some comments on Orr's philosophical articles]
• 4. The Catholic Scholastics****
  [The Catholic Church: official philosophy for objective morality -- Dr Ryan, anti-Communist crusader and founder of the 'Movement' in Sydney -- James McAuley]
• 5. The Gough-Kinsella Affair****
  [The public controversy of 1961 on whether philosophy was corrupting the youth, driven by Andersonian-scholastic enmity -- Archbishop resigns with egg on face]
• 6. Idealism and Empire
  [Turn-of-the-century Idealist philosophy and the distribution of moral uplift to the Universe, King and Country -- its logical errors, and opposition by "Australian realism"]
• 7.*The Melbourne Spectrum*
  [The school of -Wittgenstein -- the Left hegemony -- philosophy and public affairs]

II. THE WIDER SPHERE OF PHILOSOPHY

• 8. The Push and Critical Drinkers**
  [The Sydney Push as descendants of Anderson -- how Germaine Greer and Robert Hughes learned to think -- Socrates appears at the London trial of Oz]
• 9. Substance and Accident: Mind, Matter and Medicine Gone Mad
  [Is the mind more than the brain? -- "Australian materialism" in philosophy -- materialist views and drug, surgical and deep sleep therapies in psychiatry -- raw feels and phenomenology -- the meaning of Freud]
• 10. The Inspiration of Youth and the Pursuit of Virtue
  [Worldviews to inspire the youth (other than religion and politics): secular education -- Virgil and rural virtue -- the classical hero -- Anzac legend -- playing the game -- literary models of virtue -- Robert Menzies' 'Ode to Wordsworth' -- the Masons]

III. SPECIAL INTERESTS

• 11. The Sydney Disturbances****
  [The 1965 "Knopfelmacher affair" -- left-right fight results in selection process being overturned -- 1972-3 fights and strike over Marxism and feminism leading to split into two departments]
• 12. Science, Antiscience and Australian Realism****
  [Attacks on rationality of science answered by Australian philosophers of science -- reality of space, forces and other scientific entities defended -- quantum mechanics and evolution -- Armstrong on universals -- heresies in logic and their role in artificial intelligence]
• 13. I Love a Sunburnt Environment****
  ["Deep" versus "shallow" in environmental philosophy -- Aboriginal views of land -- Environment replaces Empire as religion substitute in schools -- account of crocodile attack on ecofeminist]
• 14. This space intentionally left bank: Francofeminism****
  [Succeeding on men's terms or gender apartheid -- debate over whether there is a feminist logic -- attack on turgid psycho-franco-feminism]
• 15. The return of the repressed
  [Idealist errors resuscitated as post-modernism -- worst prose in Australia found -- natural law philosophy and Mabo]
• 16.****Last Rights: Applied Ethics****
  [Peter Singer on animal liberation, baby-killing and euthanasia -- German attacks on him by disabled cause cancellation of conference -- Kuhse-Uniacke plagiarism affair -- attacks on Singer by defenders of objective ethics: Gaita, Teichman, Finnis]
• Epilogue: Stove on 'Why Have Philosophers?'
• What Is Not Here [Very briefly on political and social philosophy, history of philosophy]
• Recommendations for Further Reading
• Index