On Rc 102-43-14, 2011 Carnegie Mellon University
Why Mathematical Concepts Are Special (According To Husserl), 2011 Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne
Why Mathematical Concepts Are Special (According To Husserl), Bernd Buldt
Bernd Buldt
No abstract provided.
Rudolf Carnap, 2011 Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne
Rethinking Mechanistic Explanation, 2011 Butler University
Rethinking Mechanistic Explanation, Stuart Glennan
Stuart Glennan
Philosophers of science typically associate the causal-mechanical view of scientific explanation with the work of Railton and Salmon. In this paper I shall argue that the defects of this view arise from an inadequate analysis of the concept of mechanism. I contrast Salmon's account of mechanisms in terms of the causal nexus with my own account of mechanisms, in which mechanisms are viewed as complex systems. After describing these two concepts of mechanism, I show how the complex-systems approach avoids certain objections to Salmon's account of causal-mechanical explanation. I conclude by discussing how mechanistic explanations can provide understanding by unification.
Mechanisms, Causes, And The Layered Model Of The World, 2011 Butler University
Mechanisms, Causes, And The Layered Model Of The World, Stuart Glennan
Stuart Glennan
Most philosophical accounts of causation take causal relations to obtain between individuals and events in virtue of nomological relations between properties of these individuals and events. Such views fail to take into account the consequences of the fact that in general the properties of individuals and events will depend upon mechanisms that realize those properties. In this paper I attempt to rectify this failure, and in so doing to provide an account of the causal relevance of higher-level properties. I do this by critiquing one prominent model of higher-level properties – Kim’s functional model of reduction – and contrasting it …
Ephemeral Mechanisms And Historical Explanation, 2011 Butler University
Ephemeral Mechanisms And Historical Explanation, Stuart Glennan
Stuart Glennan
While much of the recent literature on mechanisms has emphasized the superiority of mechanisms and mechanistic explanation over laws and nomological explanation, paradigmatic mechanisms—e.g., clocks or synapses – actually exhibit a great deal of stability in their behavior. And while mechanisms of this kind are certainly of great importance, there are many events that do not occur as a consequence of the operation of stable mechanisms. Events of natural and human history are often the consequence of causal processes that are ephemeral and capricious. In this paper I shall argue that, notwithstanding their ephemeral nature, these processes deserve to be …
Mechanisms And The Nature Of Causation, 2011 Butler University
Mechanisms And The Nature Of Causation, Stuart Glennan
Stuart Glennan
In this paper I offer an analysis of causation based upon a theory of mechanisms – complex systems whose "internal" parts interact to produce a system's "external" behavior. I argue that all but the fundamental laws of physics can be explained by reference to mechanisms. Mechanisms provide an epistemologically unproblematic way to explain the necessity which is often taken to distinguish laws from other generalizations. This account of necessity leads to a theory of causation according to which events are causally related when there is a mechanism that connects them. I present reasons why the lack of an account of …
Singular And General Causal Relations: A Mechanist Perspective, 2011 Butler University
Singular And General Causal Relations: A Mechanist Perspective, Stuart Glennan
Stuart Glennan
My aim in this paper is to make a case for the singularist view from the perspective of a mechanical theory of causation (Glennan 1996, 1997, 2010, forthcoming), and to explain what, from this perspective, causal generalizations mean, and what role they play within the mechanical theory.
From Hiroshima To Baghdad: Military Hegemony Versus Just Military Preparedness, 2011 Butler University
From Hiroshima To Baghdad: Military Hegemony Versus Just Military Preparedness, Harry Van Der Linden
Harry van der Linden
In this paper I question the morality of U.S. military supremacy or hegemony in terms of what constitute the legitimate use of military force and the proper preparation for using such force. I first discuss in a somewhat synoptic fashion how American hegemonic military force (from its very beginning with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima) has been justified in dishonest ways and wrongly executed. Next, I show that Just War Theory (JWT) needs to be revised in order to come to a convincing assessment of U.S. military hegemony and its use of military force. This leads me …
Tinkering With Tenure, 2011 Utah Valley University
Tinkering With Tenure, 2011 Utah Valley University
Mechanisms And The Nature Of Causation, 2011 Butler University
Mechanisms And The Nature Of Causation, Stuart Glennan
Stuart Glennan
In this paper I offer an analysis of causation based upon a theory of mechanisms – complex systems whose "internal" parts interact to produce a system's "external" behavior. I argue that all but the fundamental laws of physics can be explained by reference to mechanisms. Mechanisms provide an epistemologically unproblematic way to explain the necessity which is often taken to distinguish laws from other generalizations. This account of necessity leads to a theory of causation according to which events are causally related when there is a mechanism that connects them. I present reasons why the lack of an account of …
Is Global Poverty A Moral Problem For Citizens Of Affluent Societies?, 2011 Butler University
Is Global Poverty A Moral Problem For Citizens Of Affluent Societies?, Harry Van Der Linden
Harry van der Linden
The gap between the affluent and the global poor has increased during the past few decades, whether it is measured in terms of private consumption, income, or wealth. One would expect that severe poverty in a world of abundance would constitute a moral challenge to the affluent, but in fact it hardly seems a serious ethical concern. Affluent citizens seem so little morally concerned with global poverty. However, the most promising approach seems to be to explore and divulge factually and conceptually the numerous ways in which the affluent are implicated in a wholly unjust world of growing inequality. Changing …
From Combat Boots To Civilian Shoes: Reflections On The Chickenhawk Syndrome, 2011 Butler University
From Combat Boots To Civilian Shoes: Reflections On The Chickenhawk Syndrome, Harry Van Der Linden
Harry van der Linden
This essay is part of a symposium on Cheyney Ryan’s The Chickenhawk Syndrome: War, Sacrifice, and Personal Responsibility (2009). Ryan’s reply to his critics can be found on pp. 181-89 in Radical Philosophy Review, Volume 13, Issue 2, 2010.
Pyrrhonian And Naturalistic Themes In The Final Writings Of Wittgenstein, 2011 University of Massachusetts Amherst
Pyrrhonian And Naturalistic Themes In The Final Writings Of Wittgenstein, Indrani Bhattacharjee
Open Access Dissertations
The following inquiry pursues two interlinked aims. The first is to understand Wittgenstein's idea of non-foundational certainty in the context of a reading of On Certainty that emphasizes its Pyrrhonian elements. The second is to read Wittgenstein's remarks on idealism/radical skepticism in On Certainty in parallel with the discussion of rule-following in Philosophical Investigations in order to demonstrate an underlying similarity of philosophical concerns and methods. I argue that for the later Wittgenstein, what is held certain in a given context of inquiry or action is a locally transcendental condition of the inquiry or action in question. In On Certainty, …
Reimagining Democratic Theory For Social Individuals, 2011 Wayne State University Law School
Reimagining Democratic Theory For Social Individuals, Steven L. Winter Walter S. Gibbs Distinguished Professor Of Constitutional Law
Law Faculty Research Publications
The Western conception of the individual as a rational, self-directing agent is a mythology that organizes and distorts religion, science, economics, and politics. It produces an abstracted and atomized form of engagement that is fatal to collective self-governance. And it turns democracy into the enemy of equality. Considering the meaning of democracy and autonomy from a perspective that takes the subject as truly social would refocus our attention on the constitutive contexts and practices necessary for the production of citizens who are capable of meaningful self-governance. Under modern conditions, it is in the development of sexual autonomy that we learn …
Just-If-Ication, 2011 SelectedWorks
Meriting Concern And Meriting Respect, 2011 University of Tennessee - Knoxville
Meriting Concern And Meriting Respect, Jon Garthoff
Jon Garthoff
Recently there has been a somewhat surprising interest among Kantian theorists in the moral standing of animals, coupled with a no less surprising optimism among these theorists about the prospect of incorporating animal moral standing into Kantian theory without contorting its other attractive features. These theorists contend in particular that animal standing can be incorporated into Kantian moral theory without abandoning its logocentrism: the claim that everything that is valuable depends for its value on its relation to rationality. In this essay I raise doubts about the prospects for accommodating animal moral standing within a logocentric Kantianism. I argue instead …
The Pragmatic Picturesque: The Philosophy Of Central Park, 2011 University of Richmond
The Pragmatic Picturesque: The Philosophy Of Central Park, Gary Shapiro
Philosophy Faculty Publications
New York's Central Park is one of the world's iconic works of landscape architecture. The park has achieved global recognition through its representations in film and photography, it is visited by millions every year and every sunny day sees a procession of engaged or newly married couples having their official photographs taken against the background of its picturesque scenery and monumental structures.
In the twenty-first century it may sound slightly odd to consider Central Park as a form of gardening, but the eighteenth-century founders of modern aesthetics and the philosophy of art would have called it a garden or park. …
Coerced Confessional, Miracle Exoneration: The Case Of Ex-Monster Jerry Hobbs, 2011 Columbia College Chicago
Coerced Confessional, Miracle Exoneration: The Case Of Ex-Monster Jerry Hobbs, Stephen Asma
Stephen T Asma
No abstract provided.