Philosophy Commons^™

Rescher On The Justification Of Rationality, Harvey Siegel

Philosophy Articles and Papers

In his recent book Rationality, Nicholas Rescher offers a provocative attempt to justify rationality. In this paper I critically assess that attempt. After clarifying the philosophical problem at issue, I examine Rescher's effort to solve it. I argue that Rescher's justification succeeds, but that he mistakenly characterizes it as pragmatic. It succeeds only if it is understood non-pragmatically. Consequently, Rescher must give up either his justificatory argument, or his commitment to a pragmatic justification.

How To Account For Externalist And Internalist Intuitions, Denise Yehnert '91

Honors Projects

In his book The Structure of Empirical Knowledge, Laurence Bonjour criticizes advocates of externalist versions of foundationalism. According to Bonjour, "externalism reflects an inadequate appreciation of the problem at which it is aimed."l With this in mind, Bonjour sets out to argue that externalism is not an acceptable theory for the foundationalist to appeal to in his attempt to solve the regress problem. In order to avoid a complete stalemate over doctrine, Bonjour's attempt to argue that externalism is unacceptable proceeds as an appeal to intuition. As such he allows that"although this intuition may not constitute a conclusive objection to …

On Having Reasons For Perceptual Beliefs: A Sellarsian Perspective, Dan D. Crawford

Department of Philosophy: Faculty Publications

I interpret and defend Sellars’ internalist view of perceptual justification which argues that perceivers have evidence for their perceptual beliefs that includes a higher-order belief about the circumstances in which those beliefs arise, and an epistemic belief about the reliability of beliefs that are formed in those circumstances. The pattern of inference that occurs in ordinary cases of perception is elicited.

I then defend this account of perceptual evidence against (1) Alston’s objection that ordinary perceivers are not as critical and reflective as this view requires them to be, and (2) the charge that internalism leads to various forms of …

What Has Mathematics Got To Do With Values?, Stephen Lerman

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.

Scientific Method, Anti-Foundationalism, And Public Decision-Making, Kristin Shrader-Frechette

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

An examination of the legitimacy of attacks on lay assessments of environmental or other technological Risk. The case is made that rational policy requires an epistemology in which what we believe about Risk is bootstrapped onto how we should act concerning Risk.

Lonergan On The Catholic University, Richard Liddy

Department of Religion Publications

No abstract provided.

Can Belief In God Be Confirmed?, Mark S. Mcleod-Harrison

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

A basic thrust behind Alvin Plantinga's position that belief in God is properly basic is an analogy between certain non-religious (and presumably justified) beliefs such as ' I see a tree' and theistic beliefs such as 'God made this flower'.1 Each kind of belief is justified for a believer, argues Plantinga, when she finds herself in a certain set of conditions. Richard Grigg challenges this claim by arguing that while the non-religious beliefs are confirmed, beliefs about God are not. I wish to explore this challenge, clarify it and suggest that on one understanding it is irrelevant and on another …

Review: The End Of Man, W. David Beck

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Did Jesus Really Claim To Be God?, Wayne Brindle

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Review: Exodus, Donald L. Fowler

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Advice From The Apostle Paul, Paul R. Fink

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Review: Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Ii, Donald L. Fowler

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Review: The Word Becoming Flesh, Donald L. Fowler

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Review: Recent Homiletical Thought: An Annotated Bibliography, V 2 (1966-1979), Paul R. Fink

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Review: The Minister's Library, V 2 (1972-1980), Paul R. Fink

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

04. Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery, Matthew Lipman, Ann Margaret Sharp, Frederick S. Oscanyan

Middle School Curriculum

This instructional manual includes hundreds of short, accessible explanations of the philosophical ideas and issues written into HARRY the novel, and as such is a valuable introduction to philosophy. Adults with no experience in academic philosophy will have no trouble using this manual to engage young people in philosophical dialogue. The manual provides discussion plans and exercises to help the students think for themselves about the philosophical ideas most relevant to their experience. The manual is also a primer in critical thinking and formal and informal logic, which are treated as helpful tools for inquiry. Students will find the logic …

Aesthetic Experience As An Epistemological Concept, Patricia Avellano

Masters Theses

The purpose of this descriptive study was to give definition to aesthetic experience as an epistemological concept. The need for the study was based on the lack of continuity and focus of definition and description for aesthetic experience which has been highly diverse in the literature of aesthetics which began foremost with Baumgarten in 1750. The scope of the study focuses on: four intelligences defined as an intelligence faculty of (1) general intelligence, (2) imaginative-intelligence, (3) creative-intelligence, and (4) poetic-intelligence; two perceptual ordering capacities defined as (1) an innate aesthetic sense, and (2) an acquired aesthetic sense; and two primordial …

Review: The Guide To Practical Pastoring, Paul R. Fink

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Secular Humanism: The Word Of Man, W. David Beck

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Review: Preaching And Preachers, Paul R. Fink

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Agnosticism: Kant, W. David Beck

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter identifies the results of Kant's philosophical system on the contemporary discussion concerning an inerrant revelation. Knowledge, for Kant, is possible only as the forms and categories of the mind organize the raw data of the senses. Beyond this phenomenal world, the mind can only postulate what must or ought to be. It cannot know what is. The first postulate of this practical reasoning is freedom. The individual is autonomous, knows the good, and is capable of willing and doing as he ought.

Within such an epistemological framework, revelation becomes unnecessary, useless, and unverifiable. Inerrancy is not only false …

Foundationalism And The Proper Stopping Place For Socratic Questioning, Richard Legum

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Conclusion. Bibliography., Richard Legum

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Probability, Terminating Judgments, Memory, And Justified Belief, Richard Legum

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Chisholm's Rules Of Evidence, Richard Legum

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Directly Evident, Richard Legum

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Given, Richard Legum

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Foundationalism, Richard Legum

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Probability And Foundationalism, Richard Legum

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Peirce And Hegel On Absolute Meaning, Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

When Peirce's philosophy is approached in terms of his theory of meaning, it is usual to think of the connections between the pragmatic maxim and the more reductive accounts of classical empiricism or modern operationalism. The point of this paper is to suggest that this angle of approach is narrow and makes several aspects of Peirce's philosophy difficult to understand; on the positive side, I want to show how both the glories and miseries of Peirce's philosophical endeavor are thrown into high relief by noting his affinities and breaks with Hegel's dialectical theory of meaning. Peirce himself often pointed to …