Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 151 - 180 of 212
Full-Text Articles in Philosophy
Necessary Truth And The Existence Of External Objects, Nathan J. Jun
Necessary Truth And The Existence Of External Objects, Nathan J. Jun
Episteme
Since the beginning of modern philosophy, philosophers have struggled to establish that both the external and the internal worlds exist. This paper's author summarizes the positions of the strong idealists of the modern period such as Locke, Berkeley, and especially Hume. Next he establishes that some contemporary analytic philosophers question not the external world, but the internal world—posing the problem from another angle. The author then embarks on proving the existence of the external world in such a way that the internal world is not put into question. From what we know about logic, necessity, and rationality, it follows that …
Truth, Inquiry, And The Prospect For Moral Knowledge, Adrian M. Viens
Truth, Inquiry, And The Prospect For Moral Knowledge, Adrian M. Viens
Episteme
Recent pragmatists Cheryl J. Misak and Christopher Hookway extend and improve upon C. S. Pierce’s pragmatist ethics. Their work demonstrates that an objective, determinate truth value for morality is most successfully achieved not by a form of realism but by pragmatic consideration, which finds that truth-aimed committed beliefs lead to definite consequences. While explaining pragmatic ethics, the author believes that the important insight is the link offered between inquiry and truth. The pragmatist conception of experience opens the door to establish genuine moral knowledge once the fact/value dichotomy is dissolved—thanks in part to Quine. Although criticized on account of qualification …
Revolutionary Modality In Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy Of Ambiguity: A Phenomenological Basis For Critical Politics, Andrew Thomas Lazella
Revolutionary Modality In Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy Of Ambiguity: A Phenomenological Basis For Critical Politics, Andrew Thomas Lazella
Episteme
Merold Westphal wrongly interprets the political power of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of ambiguity. Yet, Westphal is right about Merleau-Ponty’s politics as aesthetic: the essence of Merleau-Ponty’s political proposal is political activity defined as concrete lived-experience. The author argues in support of Merleau-Ponty’s politics, which, by way of the ambiguity of perception, must be related to his phenomenology. To keep dialogue—being-for-others—open, Merleau-Ponty embraces situated-ness. This allows him to avoid the foundationalist pitfalls of existential modality that lead to justifying vanguard party terrorism. Furthermore, his understanding of inter-subjectivity frees the proletariat from being irrational subjects merely used by political leadership. If Merleau-Ponty seems …
Against The Necessity Of Identity Statements, Philip D. Miller
Against The Necessity Of Identity Statements, Philip D. Miller
Episteme
Kripke’s Naming and Necessity argues for an odd form of necessity with regard to identity statements. This paper demonstrates that such oddness is due to internal inconsistency and the falseness of Kripke’s notion of rigid designation. The author first examines Kripke’s philosophy of language which covers necessary vs. contingent, necessary vs. a priori, and the overturning of Kant with the claim that a necessary truth can be an a posteriori truth, like “Hesperus is Phosphorous.” Following Michael Wreen’s systematic understanding of Kripke’s argument, and agreeing with the logic of David Bostock’s and Helen Steward’s criticisms of Kripke, which challenge Kripke …
Donagan And Heidegger: Two Conflicting Ideas Of Authenticity, Henry C. Driscoll
Donagan And Heidegger: Two Conflicting Ideas Of Authenticity, Henry C. Driscoll
Episteme
Alan Donagan criticizes Heidegger for falling into what Collingwood calls the “corrupt consciousness,” but this author explains that Donagan misunderstands Heidegger’s design. The paper opens with Donagan’s philosophy that ties ethics to rationality. Donagan’s fundamental principle of rationality requires each person to respect each other’s rationality, and Donagan’s Thomistic and Kantian theory of conscience determines the permissibility of actions. He believes that existentialism, including Heidegger’s, which does not agree to the principle of rationality, engenders a false consciousness, which thereby corrupts the conscience. But, the author contends, Heidegger’s phenomenology does not actually amount to this. Authenticity is not recognizing mortality …
Gadamer And The Authenticity Of Openness, Benjamin Mcmyler
Gadamer And The Authenticity Of Openness, Benjamin Mcmyler
Episteme
Gadamer is too often charged with subjectivism and relativism. Bearing in mind Hubert Dreyfus’ new interpretation that Heidegger describes two separate types of resoluteness and authenticity, the author rescues Gadamer’s philosophy of openness by identifying its hermeneutic with Heidegger’s Aristotelian side—skirting supposed associations with Kierkegaard or Nietzsche that have confused Gadamer’s project in the past. Following Heidegger, Gadamer’s epistemology identifies both a personal (situated, particular) horizon and historical (given, universal) horizon, and understanding is the fusion of the two. Gadamer’s openness is a condition of our accomplished understanding, where our knowing of our essential finitude promotes on-going attention to the …
Aristotle's Theory Of Sense Perception, David Tulkin
Aristotle's Theory Of Sense Perception, David Tulkin
Episteme
In recent years, Nussbaum/Putnam and M. F. Burnyeat have engaged in a back-and-forth debate over Aristotle’s theory of perception. This author traces the developments of this debate, explores the various questions that come into play, and ends up dissatisfied with both camps. There are two overriding questions: What does Aristotle mean to take as the nature of the sense-organ in perception? and How does esse naturale and esse intentionale link-up? The contemporary philosophers, perhaps sheltered by contemporary philosophy of mind, think they can prove their interpretation to be correct without answering this second question. The author reports the various replies, …
The Call Of Duty And Beyond: Problems Concerning Justification And Virtue In The Ethical Models Of Epistemology, Peter J. Tedesco
The Call Of Duty And Beyond: Problems Concerning Justification And Virtue In The Ethical Models Of Epistemology, Peter J. Tedesco
Episteme
Internalist considerations are crucial to a good theory of belief formation—epistemic or ethical. To get to this conclusion, the author first shows the insufficiency of a strong externalist account of true belief; he critique’s Plantinga’s reliabilism by way of demonstration. Plantinga’s idea of epistemic warrant shares a maximum ideal with utilitarianism (the desire for the most true beliefs), but the good intentions of the theory are undermined by 1) the author’s car counter-example that illustrates the relevance of internal circumstances, and 2) a realization that Plantinga pays no mind to volition variance. Next, the author analyzes Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski’s virtue …
Finding A New 'Meaning Of Meaning', Benjamin K. Herrington
Finding A New 'Meaning Of Meaning', Benjamin K. Herrington
Episteme
The twofold thesis of this paper is that Putnam is incorrect to accept the existence of narrow content mental states, and that Tyler Burge, in exposing this error, can explain why mental content is not in the hands of the individual. The author studies Burge’s extension of Putnam’s views on mental content, comparing the arguments made in “The Meaning of Meaning” with Burge’s “Individualism and the Mental”. Burge argues that if extension differs on Twin Earth, then so must intension differ—something that Putnam overlooks. Burge’s analysis of the Twin Earth logic and his own counterfactual thought experiment concerning the term …
Contra Mothersill Contra Kant: The Imperative Judgment Of Taste In Beauty Restored And The Critique Of Judgment, Christopher Douglas
Contra Mothersill Contra Kant: The Imperative Judgment Of Taste In Beauty Restored And The Critique Of Judgment, Christopher Douglas
Episteme
This article defends Kant’s aesthetics, drawn mainly from the Critique of Judgment. The author discusses the intricacies of Kant’s argument by exposing the errors in Mary Mothersill’s interpretations of Kant in her book Beauty Restored. One by one, the author supports his four theses. 1) Kant uses imperative language to surpass the counter intuitive deduction of aesthetic judgments, but those judgments are not any more or less normative compared to empirical judgments. 2) Kant does not demand for a principle to ground the judgment of taste: logic does. 3) Kant cannot be called conceptually biased because judgments of taste do …
A Critique Of Ricœur's Call For Faith From The Atheism Of Nietzsche: God Is Still Dead, James K. Kijowski
A Critique Of Ricœur's Call For Faith From The Atheism Of Nietzsche: God Is Still Dead, James K. Kijowski
Episteme
Ricœur offers an interesting hermeneutical interpretation of Nietzsche’s “God is dead” concept, but this author believes Ricœur ultimately suggests the impossible. Following an interpretation of Nietzsche’s atheism, Ricœur’s hermeneutics of religion, atheism, and faith deem atheism a faith for a postreligious age. Using the Madman in The Gay Science and key ideas from the Genealogy, the author analyzes then critiques Ricœur’s belief that Nietzsche leaves room for non-ethical obedience via the phenomenon of la parole (word) that comes to us from the ultimate word of Being: God. The author, being more convinced by Kofman’s analysis of Nietzsche’s take on God, …
Kant's Ostensible Anti-Thesis Of "Public" And "Private" And The Subversion Of The Language Of Authority In 'An Answer To The Question: "What Is Enlightenment?", Michael D. Royal
Kant's Ostensible Anti-Thesis Of "Public" And "Private" And The Subversion Of The Language Of Authority In 'An Answer To The Question: "What Is Enlightenment?", Michael D. Royal
Episteme
In “An Answer to the Question: ‘What is Enlightenment?’” Kant provides a political argument built around his philosophical manipulation of the grammatical relationship between “public” and “private”. The author here elucidates the grammatical mechanism which, as John Christian Laursen argues, allows Kant to subvert concepts. A Wittgensteinian lens shows how Kant’s purportedly antonymic terms are drawn from different lines of opposition. He stealthily uses two meanings of the word “public.” Hamann’s influential critique, which establishes that Kant’s private use of reason amounts to a prescription of mere submission to authority, is deemed incorrect, if, in Kant’s address to the mind …
Aristotle's Theory Of Genius Examined Through Reid's Theory Of Natural Signs, Andrew M. Stewart
Aristotle's Theory Of Genius Examined Through Reid's Theory Of Natural Signs, Andrew M. Stewart
Episteme
This paper explains how we might comprehend Aristotle’s paradoxical theory of metaphor via Thomas Reid’s theory of natural signs. A realist, Aristotle believes that metaphor, as a stretching of the structure of language, relies on a fundamental relationship between things in the world. Metaphors are better or worse depending on the selection of fitting terms, and good metaphors are said to be the sign of genius. Metaphor mastery cannot be taught, but rather is an “intuitive perception”. Since what cannot be learned cannot be predicated on concepts, Reid’s account of the second type of natural signs helps clarify how Aristotle’s …
A Letter From The Editors, James L. Kijowski, Philip D. Miller
A Letter From The Editors, James L. Kijowski, Philip D. Miller
Episteme
No abstract provided.
The Buddhist Problem Of Emptiness, Ian Varley
The Buddhist Problem Of Emptiness, Ian Varley
Episteme
Isn’t there is logical disagreement in Buddhism’s dual theses: 1) humans tend toward incorrectly imputing permanence and a positive essence to the world, and 2) humans have no innate qualities at all—they are empty? In this article, the author presents the scope of this problem and then tries to defend Buddhism. Could it be that our physical survival depends on our substantialization? Can we re-work the theories of Gesha Rabten and Keiji Nishitani to support this? Or could it be that our language unfairly makes a word (such as “destiny”) into an object? No; none of these attempted solutions would …
Lost In The Horizon: Irigaray's Heidegger, Joanne Molina
Lost In The Horizon: Irigaray's Heidegger, Joanne Molina
Episteme
Heidegger’s ontology reminds us of our primordial task: to access the question of Being. But, according to Luce Irigaray’s commentary and reaction to Being and Time and Heidegger’s later writings, Heidegger is not able to escape the economy of presence and masculinity that emerges in his discourse. The author here looks closely at Iragaray’s interpretation and counter-arguments before coming to some conclusions about her deconstructive analysis. No doubt, Irigaray offers an interesting analysis of Heidegger using her air metaphor to represent the feminine. But it is odd that she commits herself to there being something essential to air. She ought …
Spelunking With Socrates: A Study Of Socratic Pedagogy In Plato's Republic, Victor Isaac Boutros
Spelunking With Socrates: A Study Of Socratic Pedagogy In Plato's Republic, Victor Isaac Boutros
Episteme
The author investigates the two most explicit educational methods and lessons found within Plato’s Republic. One, the allegory of the cave, represents Plato’s genuine thoughts; the other, the remarks on the education of the guardian class, ought to be read ironically. Early on, the paper includes an introduction to irony (conventional and mimetic) and how it relates to the dramatic context of Plato’s intertextuality. Following that, the author provides an analysis of Glaucon’s luxury suggestion, Socrates’ asceticism, and the dog analogy—how they all contribute to the education of the guardians. Later, it is argued that the preface to the allegory …
Is A Subjective Theory Of Moral Language Possible?, Ali R. Shahrukhi
Is A Subjective Theory Of Moral Language Possible?, Ali R. Shahrukhi
Episteme
In this paper, the author goes through considerations that come up when analyzing the prospect of a truly subjective theory of moral language. Certain forms of subjectivism are found to be either less than viable, similar to moral realism, or dependent upon psychological matters of debate. Support for this conclusion comes from Hume’s analysis of beliefs and desires; Wittgenstein’s private language argument; the fact that moral discussion is required; Smith’s theory of converging desires and beliefs within his moral realism; and the influence of community and environment. The discussion advocates a union of desires, moral beliefs, and actions, if subjectivism …
Freud On Writing: Some Historicist Perspectives, Sanja Perovic
Freud On Writing: Some Historicist Perspectives, Sanja Perovic
Episteme
The author looks at three readings of Freud by Derrida, Michel de Certeau, and Deleuze/Guattari, trying to answer the question: For Freud, how does writing produce meaning and what does this historicizing function imply about the psyche in general? The author inspects two of Freud’s analogies that are to explain and justify psychoanalysis: books avoiding political censorship and the mystic writing pad. These become doorways to the ensuing criticisms. The three commentaries trace sections of Freud’s thought as they relate to his fundamental concepts and to the work those concepts are supposed to do. Read together, the readings each supply …
The Value Of Natural Kinds From A Kripkean Perspective: A Critique Of Eric Katz's 'Organism, Community And The "Substitution Problem", Jessica H. Mitchell
The Value Of Natural Kinds From A Kripkean Perspective: A Critique Of Eric Katz's 'Organism, Community And The "Substitution Problem", Jessica H. Mitchell
Episteme
The author endeavors to extend the Kripke/Putnam theory of reference in order to improve Eric Katz’s argument in “Organism, Community, and the ‘Substitution Problem.” Katz criticizes the organism model for species and supports the community model, which supposedly strikes a balance with a species’ intrinsic value and functional purpose within a natural ecosystem. But since it can be shown that the so-called organism model includes intrinsic value, too, the substitution problem (which had plagued it for Katz) is unfounded. Because Katz’s real goal is to differentiate between the intrinsic and instrumental value of a given species, Kripke’s theory of natural …
Persons, Materialism And Consciousness, Brendan Neufeld
Persons, Materialism And Consciousness, Brendan Neufeld
Episteme
In this article, the author criticizes the materialist theory of mind but salvages the causal insights put forth by neurophysiology’s linkage of the mind and the brain. P. M. S. Hacker’s exegesis of Wittgenstein argues that materialist philosophers and neuroscientists make grammatical contradictions when accounting for the mental. To begin to pinpoint the error of physicalism, the author provides examples that elaborate on Norman Malcolm’s two distinct senses of the term “consciousness.” Materialism’s (and neurophysiology’s) causal nature accounts for intransitive consciousness, but neither are especially promising when it comes to transitive consciousness. In the background, there is a major problem: …
Explanatory Pervasion And The Unity Of Science, Andrew Miller
Explanatory Pervasion And The Unity Of Science, Andrew Miller
Episteme
The philosophy of science has seen a range of theories since the radical introduction of reductionism as an offshoot of the logical positivists. This author argues that while the various sciences may not be unified by law, there is every reason to believe that they are unified by explanation. In essence, Alan Garfinkel and David Owens are judged to be less convincing that the arguments given by Karen Neander and Peter Menzies. The author shows the insufficiency of Garfinkel’s attempt to illustrate the missing link between macro and micro explanation in the theory of explanatory pervasion. The author then supports …
General Rules And The Normativity Of Causal Inferences In The First Book Of Hume's Treatise, Joshua Derman
General Rules And The Normativity Of Causal Inferences In The First Book Of Hume's Treatise, Joshua Derman
Episteme
In the paper, the author has undertaken the task of illuminating the meanings and connections that constitute Hume’s account of causality. The author’s method is critical, questioning the logical consistency and explanatory power of Hume’s skeptical causality and inference, only to eventually reveal the validity of Hume’s argument. Much of the analysis is spent making sense of the seemingly contradictory or confusing statements Hume makes in his Treatise; lots of examples help this process. The paper includes addressing the paradoxical connection between our internal/subjective general rules and our customs. It also examines the interesting question of how to judge the …
Thomistic Metaphysics And The Synthetic A Priori, Brent D. Timmons
Thomistic Metaphysics And The Synthetic A Priori, Brent D. Timmons
Episteme
Aquinas’ metaphysics is a powerful, comprehensive system, but one that is subtle and demands careful attention. The author here argues that Henry B. Veatch’s paper, which attempts to reconcile Aquinas with Kant’s metaphysics, mistakenly turns Aquinas’ thought into a mere empirical science. The article begins with an overview of Kant’s two types of judgments and Aquinas’ notion of principia per se nota, or first principles. Aquinas’ first principles are analytic on Kant’s analysis yet are also said to give information about the world, according to Thomist thought. But “how are the principia per se nota informative about the world?”—Kant would …
Inchoate Feminism In Plato's Republic V, Amy Coplan
Inchoate Feminism In Plato's Republic V, Amy Coplan
Episteme
Is Plato a feminist from the classical era? No, but he comes closer than any other man from that time. Although by no means reducible to modern feminist arguments about equality, Book V of the Republic espouses some important ideas about women, nature, and society. There is no doubt that Plato challenged the prevailing wisdom in Athens and sought a utopia that produced the best possible men and women—at least for the guardian class. We should understand that it is Plato’s elitism, not his misogyny, which influences his handling of the lower social strata. And furthermore, his sexist remarks are …
A Question Of Ethics, Joseph Landau
A Question Of Ethics, Joseph Landau
Episteme
“If we look around us, there is no doubt that the question of ethics is currently more complex than it has ever been,” writes the author of this paper, who examines the existential importance that the question of ethics carries in modern times. The author believes that out of this age of confusion and difference, what is needed is an ethic that emphasizes community and mutual understanding. We cannot rely on capital T truth or the ethicists that came before us. Instead, once we realize our dialectical, interdependent identity, we will be able to increase our mutual conversation and acceptance. …
And Levinas Created A Controversy About Women, Shulamit M. Shapiro
And Levinas Created A Controversy About Women, Shulamit M. Shapiro
Episteme
Feminist critiques railed against Levinas are not convincing. The “politically correct” feminist critics miss the Biblical and Talmudic application in Levinas’ philosophy. In this paper, the author rejects Luce Irigaray’s argument about the importance of sexual pleasure. Neither does Catherine Chalier succeed with her argument that Levinas essentializes the feminine in a way that keeps women from “the highest destiny of human beings.” In point of fact, Levinas believes in the interdependence of men and women. He finds that the human psyche is better probed through the notion of ethical responsibility than sexual liberation. There’s not anything immoral about this …
Kant And The Noumenal Agent, Heather M. Kendrick
Kant And The Noumenal Agent, Heather M. Kendrick
Episteme
This paper’s goal is to defend Kant’s version of freedom, in spite of the confusing metaphysical issues that surround Kant’s rational being (who belongs both to the world of phenomena and the world of noumena). Contrary to a certain line of criticism, the author argues for how Kant’s agent manages to be free—how the noumenal agent can affect action in the sensible world. Kant does not believe that our noumenal selves cause the world our phenomenal selves act in. Some readers misunderstand him. And while sure, Kant’s theory gives rise to questions about how our noumenal self can account for …
You Just Can't Crispin Brains In A Vat, David Miguel Gray
You Just Can't Crispin Brains In A Vat, David Miguel Gray
Episteme
In this article, the author lays out a defense of Putnam’s controversial “Brains in a Vat” paper, and it’s famous refutation of the Cartesian brain-in-a-vat skeptic. The author looks closely at the paper, its argument, and its relation to skepticism. In addition to properly understanding the thought experiments and logical argument put forth by Putnam, one must also understand that his refutation is not aimed at the infinitely regressive skeptic, but rather the internal skeptic. The author shows this fact by inventing his own brain-in-a-vat scenario. So, although it remains a possibility that we are brains in a vat, we …
Subjectivity Vs. Use: A Heideggerian Critique Of Sartrean Values, Laura M. Bruce
Subjectivity Vs. Use: A Heideggerian Critique Of Sartrean Values, Laura M. Bruce
Episteme
Dostoevsky laments: is everything truly permitted? This article illustrates how Heidegger avoids the phenomenological and ethical deficiencies found in Sartre’s philosophy. The author argues that a rejection of ethical absolutes does not inevitably lead to Sartrean relativism, because Heidegger’s account of Being critiques Sartre and considers shared practices of ordinary experience, which is necessary for values and ethics. Sartre’s phenomenology is characterized by Husserl’s influence and the subject/object distinction that finds values to arise necessarily from Nothingness. The author exposes why Sartre believes what he does and why Heidegger provides a substantially different ontology. Contrary to Sartre’s problematic phenomenology, Heidegger …