Spring/Summer 2005 - University of Toronto Press Publishing

PHILOSOPHYMinerva’s AviaryPhilosophy at Toronto, 1843–2003John G. SlaterPhilosophy has been taught at the University ofToronto and its predecessor King’s College since1843. While much has changed in that time, theuniversity’s Department of Philosophy remainsone of Canada’s preeminent institutions for philosophicalinstruction. In Minerva’s Aviary, John G.Slater documents the history of Toronto’s philosophydepartment from its founding to contemporarytimes.In the early years, the teaching of philosophy atthe university was an appendage to courses in religion.As time passed however, the discipline grewinto the independent, largely secular subject it istoday. The story of how this happened is told interms of the people who taught in the department.Slater also recounts the histories and sometimes difficultintegration of the philosophy departmentsthat came with the smaller institutions that federatedwith the university around the turn of the twentiethcentury: Victoria University, St. Michael’sCollege, and Trinity College.Comprehensive and lovingly written, Minerva’sAviary is the result of decades of research by one ofthe department’s most esteemed recent scholars.Slater’s intense investigations have uncovered a complexand evolving past that shatters some establishedmyths but also roughly mirrors what was happeningin universities throughout the English-speakingworld. It thus adds greatly to our understanding ofthe intellectual history of the last two centuries.John G. Slater is a professor emeritus in theDepartment of Philosophy at the University ofToronto.Eye of the HeartKnowing the Human Good in the Euthanasia DebateWilliam F. SullivanLONERGAN STUDIESWhat is the role of feelings in the euthanasiadebate? This is the central question in William F.Sullivan’s unique philosophical and ethical explorationof the issue, Eye of the Heart. Employing theprinciples and techniques of the great Canadiantheologian and thinker Bernard Lonergan, Sullivanoffers a concrete examination of the role of feelingsin grasping moral values and the key role that feelingsplay in ethical decision-making. The heart hasits reasons, he argues convincingly, and it is a typeof reason that bioethicists, philosophers, and legalscholars all need to know.Sullivan draws on his experiences as a practicingphysician to analyse the distinguishing elementsof human knowing, illustrating them through commonexamples of decision-making in health care.He highlights the occurrence of various types ofinsight, particularly ‘deliberative insights’ that occurin the process of making value judgments. Thesedeliberative insights are affective, and throughthem, a person apprehends moral values.Eye of the Heart proposes that feelings are relevantto knowing moral values and orient us towardsmoral self-transcendence. The implications of thisstance in ethics are drawn out for the euthanasiadebate.William F. Sullivan, MD, is a general practitioner atSt. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, the foundingdirector of the Canadian Catholic BioethicsInstitute, and an assistant professor in theDepartment of Family and Community Medicineat the University of TorontoApprox. 550 pp / 6 x 9 / April 200540 halftonesCloth ISBN 0-8020-3870-0 £48.00 $75.00 EApprox. 430 pp / 6 1 /8 x 9 1 /4 / February 20056 figures; 2 tablesCloth ISBN 0-8020-3923-5 £60.00 $95.00 E43