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Articles 91 - 120 of 148
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Trusting In The 'Efficacy Of Beauty': A Kalocentric Approach To Moral Philosophy, Brian G. Henning
Trusting In The 'Efficacy Of Beauty': A Kalocentric Approach To Moral Philosophy, Brian G. Henning
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
Although debates over carbon taxes and trading schemes, over carbon offsets and compact fluorescents are important, our efforts to address the environmental challenges that we face will fall short unless and until we also set about the difficult work of reconceiving who we are and how we are related to our processive cosmos. What is needed, I argue, are new ways of thinking and acting grounded in new ways of understanding ourselves and our relationship to the world, ways of understanding that recognize our fundamental interdependence and interconnection with everyone and everything in the cosmos, ways of understanding that recognize …
Demonstrative Induction And The Skeleton Of Inference, P.D. Magnus
Demonstrative Induction And The Skeleton Of Inference, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
It has been common wisdom for centuries that scientific inference cannot be deductive; if it is inference at all, it must be a distinctive kind of inductive inference. According to demonstrative theories of induction, however, important scientific inferences are not inductive in the sense of requiring ampliative inference rules at all. Rather, they are deductive inferences with sufficiently strong premises. General considerations about inferences suffice to show that there is no difference in justification between an inference construed demonstratively or ampliatively. The inductive risk may be shouldered by premises or rules, but it cannot be shirked. Demonstrative theories of induction …
Early Response To False Claims In Wikipedia, P.D. Magnus
Early Response To False Claims In Wikipedia, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
A number of studies have assessed the reliability of entries in Wikipedia at specific times. One important difference between Wikipedia and traditional media, however, is the dynamic nature of its entries. An entry assessed today might be substantially extended or reworked tomorrow. This study paper assesses the frequency with which small, inaccurate changes are quickly corrected.
Reid's Defense Of Common Sense, P.D. Magnus
Reid's Defense Of Common Sense, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
Thomas Reid is often misread as defending common sense, if at all, only by relying on illicit premises about God or our natural faculties. On these theological or reliabilist misreadings, Reid makes common sense assertions where he cannot give arguments. This paper attempts to untangle Reid's defense of common sense by distinguishing four arguments: (a) the argument from madness, (b) the argument from natural faculties, (c) the argument from impotence, and (d) the argument from practical commitment. Of these, (a) and (c) do rely on problematic premises that are no more secure than claims of common sense itself. Yet (b) …
Fibs In The Wikipedia (Supplemental Data), P.D. Magnus
Fibs In The Wikipedia (Supplemental Data), P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
These are details of research conducted in November and December 2007. The file is meant as a supplement to publication, and I have not attempted here to provide any analysis of the results
Alfred North Whitehead And Yi Yulgok: Toward A Process-Confucian Spirituality In Korea, Brian G. Henning
Alfred North Whitehead And Yi Yulgok: Toward A Process-Confucian Spirituality In Korea, Brian G. Henning
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Distributed Cognition And The Task Of Science, P.D. Magnus
Distributed Cognition And The Task Of Science, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
This paper gives a characterization of distributed cognition (d-cog) and explores ways that the framework might be applied in studies of science. I argue that a system can only be given a d-cog description if it is thought of as performing a task. Turning our attention to science, we can try to give a global d-cog account of science or local d-cog accounts of particular scientific projects. Several accounts of science can be seen as global d-cog accounts: Robert Merton's sociology of scientific norms, Philip Kitcher's 20th-century account of cognitive labor, and Kitcher's 21st-century notion of well-ordered science. Problems that …
Moral Status, Moral Value, And Human Embryos: Implications For Stem Cell Research, Bonnie Steinbock
Moral Status, Moral Value, And Human Embryos: Implications For Stem Cell Research, Bonnie Steinbock
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
Human embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are of scientific and medical interest because of their ability to develop into different tissue types and because of their ability to be propagated for many generations in laboratory culture. Grown in a laboratory, they might one day be used in the treatment of degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. They could provide bone cells for the treatment of osteoporosis, eye cells for macular degeneration, blood cells for cancer, insulinproducing cells for diabetes, heart muscle cells for heart disease, nerve cells for spinal cord injury. The potential for benefit to so many people …
Trading Quality For Quantity, Christopher Morgan-Knapp
Trading Quality For Quantity, Christopher Morgan-Knapp
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
This paper deals with problems that vagueness raises for choices involving evaluative tradeoffs. I focus on a species of such choices, which I call ‘qualitative barrier cases.’ These are cases in which a qualitatively significant tradeoff in one evaluative dimension for a given improvement in another dimension could not make an option better all things considered, but a merely quantitative tradeoff for the given improvement might. Trouble arises, however, when one of the options constitutes a borderline case of an evaluative kind. I argue that in such cases we can neither affirm nor deny that trading off losses in one …
Epistemology And The Wikipedia, P.D. Magnus
Epistemology And The Wikipedia, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia that is written and edited entirely by visitors to its website. I argue that we are misled when we think of it in the same epistemic category with traditional general encyclopedias. An empirical assessment of its reliability reveals that it varies widely from topic to topic. So any particular claim found in it cannot be relied on based on its source. I survey some methods that we use in assessing specific claims and argue that the structure of the Wikipedia frustrates them
Designer Babies: Choosing Our Children's Genes, Bonnie Steinbock
Designer Babies: Choosing Our Children's Genes, Bonnie Steinbock
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
The phrase “designer babies” refers to genetic interventions into pre-implantation embryos in the attempt to influence the traits the resulting children will have. At present, this is not possible, but many people are horrified by the mere thought that parents might want to choose their children’s genes, especially for non-disease traits. I want to argue that the objections are usually not well articulated, and that even when they are, it’s far from obvious that such interventions would be wrong.
The Morality Of Killing Human Embryos, Bonnie Steinbock
The Morality Of Killing Human Embryos, Bonnie Steinbock
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
Embryonic stem cell research is morally and politically controversial because the process of deriving the embryonic stem (ES) cells kills embryos. If embryos are, as some would claim, human beings like you and me, then ES cell research is clearly impermissible. If, on the other hand, the blastocysts from which embryonic stem cells are derived are not yet human beings, but rather microscopic balls of undifferentiated cells, as others maintain, then ES cell research is probably morally permissible. Whether the research can be justified depends on such issues as its cost, chance of success, and numbers likely to benefit. But …
Hume On Promises And The Peculiar Act Of The Mind, Rachel Cohon
Hume On Promises And The Peculiar Act Of The Mind, Rachel Cohon
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
What’S New About The New Induction?, P.D. Magnus
What’S New About The New Induction?, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
The problem of underdetermination is thought to hold important lessons for philosophy of science. Yet, as Kyle Stanford has recently argued, typical treatments of the offer only restatements of familiar philosophical problems. Following suggestions in Duhem and Sklar, Stanford calls for a New Induction from the history of science. It will provide proof, he thinks, of “the kind of underdetermination that the history of science reveals to be a distinctive and genuine threat to even our best scientific theories” [Sta01, p. S12]. This paper examines Stanford’s New Induction and argues that it— like the other forms of underdetermination that he …
Background Theories And Total Science, P.D. Magnus
Background Theories And Total Science, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
Background theories in science are used both to prove and to disprove that theory choice is underdetermined by data. The alleged proof appeals to the fact that experiments to decide between theories typically require auxiliary assumptions from other theories. If this generates a kind of underdetermination, it shows that standards of scientific inference are fallible and must be appropriately contextualized. The alleged disproof appeals to the possibility of suitable background theories to show that no theory choice can be timelessly or noncontextually underdetermined: Foreground theories might be distinguished against different backgrounds. Philosophers have often replied to such a disproof by …
Reciprocity, Justice, And Disability, Lawrence C. Becker
Reciprocity, Justice, And Disability, Lawrence C. Becker
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Hormone Research As An Exemplar Of Underdetermination, P.D. Magnus
Hormone Research As An Exemplar Of Underdetermination, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
Debates about the underdetermination of theory by data often turn on specific examples. Many cases are invoked often enough that they become familiar, even well-worn. Here I consider one such commonplace: the connection between prenatal hormone levels and gender-linked childhood behavior. Since Helen Longino's original discussion of this case a decade-and-a-half ago, it has become become one of the stock examples of underdetermination. However, the case is not genuinely underdetermined. We can easily imagine a possible experiment to decide the question. The fact that we would not perform this experiment is a moral, rather than epistemic, point. Further, I argue …
Reckoning The Shape Of Everything: Underdetermination And Cosmotopology, P.D. Magnus
Reckoning The Shape Of Everything: Underdetermination And Cosmotopology, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
This paper offers a general characterization of underdetermination and gives a prima facie case for the underdetermination of the topology of the universe. A survey of several philosophical approaches to the problem fails to resolve the issue: the case involves the possibility of massive reduplication, but Strawson on massive reduplication provides no help here; it is not obvious that any of the rival theories are to be preferred on grounds of simplicity; and the usual talk of empirically equivalent theories misses the point entirely. (If the choice is underdetermined, then the theories are not empirically equivalent!) Yet the thought experiment …
Radical Axiology: A First Philosophy Of Value, Brian G. Henning
Radical Axiology: A First Philosophy Of Value, Brian G. Henning
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Peirce: Underdetermination, Agnosticism, And Related Mistakes, P.D. Magnus
Peirce: Underdetermination, Agnosticism, And Related Mistakes, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
There are two ways that we might respond to the underdetermination of theory by data. One response, which we can call the agnostic response, is to suspend judgment: “Where scientific standards cannot guide us, we should believe nothing”. Another response, which we can call the fideist response, is to believe whatever we would like to believe: “If science cannot speak to the question, then we may believe anything without science ever contradicting us”. C.S. Peirce recognized these options and suggested evading the dilemma. It is a Logical Maxim, he suggests, that there could be no genuine underdetermination. This is no …
Did The Ancient Greeks Have A Concept Of Human Rights?, Anthony Preus
Did The Ancient Greeks Have A Concept Of Human Rights?, Anthony Preus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
"Although there is no single word in the classical Greek that captures the sense that modern political thinkers give to the word "rights" as it is used in the phrase "human rights," classical Greek and Roman texts have a good deal to contribute to 21st-century discussions of human rights."
Payment For Egg Donation And Surrogacy, Bonnie Steinbock
Payment For Egg Donation And Surrogacy, Bonnie Steinbock
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
This article examines the ethics of egg donation. It begins by looking at objections to noncommercial gamete donation, and then takes up criticism of commercial egg donation. After discussing arguments based on concern for offspring, inequality, commodification, exploitation of donors, and threats to the family, I conclude that some payment to donors is ethically acceptable. Donors should not be paid for their eggs, but rather they should be compensated for the burdens of egg retrieval. Making the distinction between compensation for burdens and payment for a product has the advantages of limiting payment, not distinguishing between donors on the basis …
Realist Ennui And The Base Rate Fallacy, P.D. Magnus, Craig Callender
Realist Ennui And The Base Rate Fallacy, P.D. Magnus, Craig Callender
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
The no‐miracles argument and the pessimistic induction are arguably the main considerations for and against scientific realism. Recently these arguments have been accused of embodying a familiar, seductive fallacy. In each case, we are tricked by a base rate fallacy, one much‐discussed in the psychological literature. In this paper we consider this accusation and use it as an explanation for why the two most prominent ‘wholesale’ arguments in the literature seem irresolvable. Framed probabilistically, we can see very clearly why realists and anti‐realists have been talking past one another. We then formulate a dilemma for advocates of either argument, answer …
The Price Of Insisting That Quantum Mechanics Is Complete, P.D. Magnus
The Price Of Insisting That Quantum Mechanics Is Complete, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
The Bare Theory was offered by David Albert as a way of standing by the completeness of quantum mechanics in the face of the measurement problem. This paper surveys objections to the Bare Theory that recur in the literature: what will here be called the oddity objection, the coherence objection, and the context-of-the-universe objection. Critics usually take the Bare Theory to have unacceptably bizarre consequences, but to be free from internal contradiction. Bizarre consequences need not be decisive against the Bare Theory, but a further objection—dubbed here the calibration objection—has been underestimated. This paper argues that the Bare Theory is …
Reid’S Dilemma And The Uses Of Pragmatism, P.D. Magnus
Reid’S Dilemma And The Uses Of Pragmatism, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
Peter Baumann offers the tantalizing suggestion that Thomas Reid is almost, but not quite, a pragmatist. He motivates this claim by posing a dilemma for common sense philosophy: Will it be dogmatism or scepticism? Baumann claims that Reid points to but does not embrace a pragmatist third way between these unsavory options. If we understand ‘pragmatism’ differently than Baumann does, however, we need not be so equivocal in attributing it to Reid. Reid makes what we could call an argument from practical commitment, and this is plausibly an instance of what William James calls the pragmatic method.
Stoic Emotion, Lawrence C. Becker
Stoic Emotion, Lawrence C. Becker
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Underdetermination And The Problem Of Identical Rivals, P.D. Magnus
Underdetermination And The Problem Of Identical Rivals, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
If two theory formulations are merely different expressions of the same theory, then any problem of choosing between them cannot be due to the underdetermination of theories by data. So one might suspect that we need to be able to tell distinct theories from mere alternate formulations before we can say anything substantive about underdetermination, that we need to solve the problem of identical rivals before addressing the problem of underdetermination. Here I consider two possible solutions: Quine proposes that we call two theories identical if they are equivalent under a reconstrual of predicates, but this would mishandle important cases. …
Williamson On Knowledge And Psychological Explanation, P.D. Magnus, Jonathan Cohen
Williamson On Knowledge And Psychological Explanation, P.D. Magnus, Jonathan Cohen
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
According to many philosophers, psychological explanation canlegitimately be given in terms of belief and desire, but not in termsof knowledge. To explain why someone does what they do (so the common wisdom holds) you can appeal to what they think or what they want, but not what they know. Timothy Williamson has recently argued against this view. Knowledge, Williamson insists, plays an essential role in ordinary psychological explanation.Williamson's argument works on two fronts.First, he argues against the claim that, unlike knowledge, belief is``composite'' (representable as a conjunction of a narrow and a broadcondition). Belief's failure to be composite, Williamson thinks, …
Making Morality: Pragmatist Reconstruction In Ethical Theory, Brian G. Henning
Making Morality: Pragmatist Reconstruction In Ethical Theory, Brian G. Henning
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Success, Truth, And The Galilean Strategy, P.D. Magnus
Success, Truth, And The Galilean Strategy, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
Philip Kitcher develops the Galilean Strategy to defend realism against its many opponents. I explore the structure of the Galilean Strategy and consider it specifically as an instrument against constructive empiricism. Kitcher claims that the Galilean Strategy underwrites an inference from success to truth. We should resist that conclusion, I argue, but the Galilean Strategy should lead us by other routes to believe in many things about which the empiricist would rather remain agnostic.