Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Moorean Absurdity And Expressing Belief, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

No abstract provided.

Wittgenstein, Moorean Absurdity And Its Disappearance From Speech, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

G. E. Moore famously observed that to say, I went to the pictures last Tuesday but I don't believe that I did would be absurd. Why should it be absurd of me to say something about myself that might be true of me? Moore suggested an answer to this, but as I will show, one that fails. Wittgenstein was greatly impressed by Moore's discovery of a class of absurd but possibly true assertions because he saw that it illuminates the logic of assertion. Wittgenstein suggests a promising relation of assertion to belief in terms of the idea that one expresses …

Dialogic Cosmopolitanism And Global Justice, Eduard Christiaan Jordaan

John N. WILLIAMS

Although the term “cosmopolitan-communitarian debate” never really caught on, a national-global fault line remains prominent in debates about global justice. “Dialogic cosmopolitanism” holds the promise of bridging this alleged fault line by accepting many of the communitarian criticisms against cosmopolitanism and following what can be described as a communitarian path to cosmopolitanism. This article identifies and describes four key elements that distinguish dialogic cosmopolitanism: a respect for difference; a commitment to genuine dialogue; an open, hesitant and self-problematising attitude on the part of the moral subject; and an undertaking to expand the boundaries of moral concern to the point of …

Inconsistency And Contradiction, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

Inconsistency and contradiction are important concepts. Unfortunately, they are easily confused. A proposition or belief which is inconsistent is one which is self- contradictory and vice-versa. Moreover two propositions or beliefs which are contradictories are inconsistent with each other. Nonetheless it is a mistake to suppose that inconsistency is the same as contradiction.

Superman, Wittgenstein And The Disappearance Of Moorean Absurdity, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

'You have known me for years, Lois' explains Superman, as I lay aside my copy of Crimmins’s example (1992). 'But there is something you have not yet discovered. You also know me under a disguise. You have not yet realized that this person is I in disguise. On that way of thinking about me, you have different opinions of me. In fact you think me an idiot.' I've just informed Superman that I accept his testimony on the strength of his intelligence. But I confess I don’t quite know how to acknowledge my acceptance of his final remark.

Moorean Absurdities And The Nature Of Assertion, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

I argue that Moore's propositions, for example, 'I went to the pictures last Tuesday but I don't believe that I did' cannot be rationally believed. Their assertors either cannot be rationally believed or cannot be believed to be rational. This analysis is extended to Moorean propositions such as God knows that I am an atheist and I believe that this proposition is false. I then defend the following definition of assertion: anyone asserts that p iff that person expresses a belief that p with the intention of causing relevant epistemic change in the cognition of an actual or potential audience.

The Ethics Of Placebo-Controlled Trials In Developing Countries To Prevent Mother-To-Child Transmission Of Hiv, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

Placebo-trials on HIV-infected pregnant women in developing countries like Thailand and Uganda have provoked recent controversy. Such experiments aim to find a treatment that will cut the rate of vertical transmission more efficiently than existing treatments like zidovudine. This scenario is first stated as generally as possible, before three ethical principles found in the Belmont Report, itself a sharpening of the Helsinki Declaration, are stated. These three principles are the Principle of Utility, the Principle of Autonomy and the Principle of Justice. These are taken as voices of moral imperative. But although each has intuitive appeal, it can be shown …

Orwell And Huxley: Making Dissent Unthinkable, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

In this paper I compare the fictional world depicted by Orwell’s 1984 with that of Huxley’s Brave New World from the point of view of an analytic philosopher. Neither novel should be read as predictions, the accuracy of which can be used to judge them. Rather, both attempt to portray what humanity could conceivably become. The authenticity of this conceivability is a necessary condition of the power of both works to raise central philosophical questions about the human condition. What is ethically wrong with control? How far can Man go in recreating himself? In what sense are these worlds anti-utopian? …

Ontological Disproof Of God's Existence, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

An initial reading of Hume's Principle is that no necessary truth can be denied without contradiction, whereas all existential propositions can. Therefore it is self-contradictory to say,that any existential claim is necessarily true, since it follows that this claim both can and cannot be denied without self-contradiction. Thus any claim of the form 'X necessarily exists' is a self-contradiction, even if X is God.

Moore's Paradox: One Or Two?, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

Discussions of what is sometimes called 'Moore's paradox' are often vitiated by a failure to notice that there are two paradoxes; not merely one in two sets of linguistic clothing. The two paradoxes are absurd, but in different ways, and accordingly require different explanations.

Moore’S Paradox, Defective Interpretation, Justified Belief And Conscious Belief: A Reply To Vahid, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

No abstract provided.

The Preface Paradox Dissolved, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

The preface paradox strikes us as puzzling because we feel that if a person holds a set of inconsistent beliefs, i.e. beliefs such that at least one of them must be correct, then he should give at least one of them up. Equally, if a person's belief is rational, then he has a right to hold it. Yet the preface example is prima facie a case in which a person holds an inconsistent set of beliefs each of which is rational, and thus a case in which that person has a duty to relinquish what he has a right to …

Moorean Absurdity, Knowledge And Iterated Belief, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

No abstract provided.

The Completeness Of The Pragmatic Solution To Moore’ Paradox: A Reply To Chan, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

No abstract provided.

Justified Belief And The Infinite Regress Argument, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

The background to this paper is the question of how rational belief is possible in the light of the commonly presented infinite regress in reasons. The paper investigates the neglected question of whether this regress is vicious. I argue that given the genuine requirements of rational belief, the regress would require the rational believer to hold an infinity of beliefs, which is impossible. The regress would not entail the rational believer holding an infinitely complex belief, which, admittedly, would be logically impossible.

Believing The Self-Contradictory, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

Clearly, if a man holds a self-contradictory belief, then his belief cannot be rational, for there can be no set of evidence sufficient to justify it. This is most apparent when the self contradictory belief is a belief in a conjunction, (e.g., a belief that p & ~p), rather than when it is a non-conjunctive self-contradictory belief, e.g. a belief that red is not a color.

A Simple Solution To The Surprise Exam Paradoxes, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

No abstract provided.

The Need For An Augustinian Left, Scott Paeth

Scott R. Paeth

No abstract provided.

Obituary; 2010-12-28; Gibson, Jr., Elven, Hopewell Baptist Church

Hopewell Baptist Church

No abstract provided.

Ceaselessly Testing The Good Of Death, Danielle A. Layne

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The hope Socrates invokes during his defence becomes a statement to be tested and corroborated, and thus a catalyst for discovery rather than a valueless rejection of all arguments, beliefs or in Socratic terms “hopes.” In his prison cell Socrates tests the propositions in the Apology that death may be a good and in the Phaedo these arguments affirm Socrates’ hope, making it the more valuable belief. Thus since no man willing chooses evil, a valueless not knowing, over the good, the value-laden hope regardless of not-knowing, Socrates commits himself to the “great perhaps” of the immortality of the soul. …

A Religious Revolution? How Socrates' Theology Undermined The Practice Of Sacrifice, Anna Lannstrom

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Mark McPherran and Gregory Vlastos argue that Socrates’ theology threatened Athenian sacrificial practices because it rejected the do ut des principle (aka the principle of reciprocity). I argue that their arguments are flawed because they assume that the Athenians understood sacrifice as something like a commercial transaction. Drawing upon scholarship in anthropology and religious studies, I argue that we need to revise that understanding of sacrifice and that, once we do, McPherran’s and Vlastos’ arguments no longer show that Socrates would have been a significant threat to the practice of sacrifice. Finally, I argue that McPherran’s Socrates does undermine sacrifice, …

Charles E. Beamon, Jr

African American Funeral Programs, Willow Hill Heritage & Renaissance Center, Bulloch County, Georgia

No abstract provided.

Deacon Herbert Franklin Rich

African American Funeral Programs, Willow Hill Heritage & Renaissance Center, Bulloch County, Georgia

No abstract provided.

The Shema: Message And Method Of Discipling That Could Change The Church, Kathleen Beagles

Memory, Meaning & Faith

No abstract provided.

Church Bulletin, December 24, 2010

Church Bulletin

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Ottawa, Canada

Church Bulletin Finding Aid

Tsen Brider: A Jewish Requiem, Joshua R. Jacobson

Joshua R. Jacobson

In 1939 a Jewish choral conductor imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp organized a clandestine choir. The choir and its conductor managed to rehearse and perform secretly for three years. Sensing that the end was near, in 1942 the ensemble was rehearsing its own "Jewish Requiem" when the deportation order arrived. Neither the conductor nor any of his singers survived, but the "Jewish Requiem" did survive. This article chronicles the origins and fate of this unique composition.

What Is Jewish Liturgical Music?, Joshua Jacobson

Joshua R. Jacobson

No abstract provided.

Jewish Women In Music, Joshua Jacobson

Joshua R. Jacobson

No abstract provided.

Arnold Schoenberg And Ahad Ha‘Am, Joshua R. Jacobson

Joshua R. Jacobson

No abstract provided.

Jewish Music Versus Jewish Worship, Joshua Jacobson

Joshua R. Jacobson

No abstract provided.