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Articles 181 - 210 of 237
Full-Text Articles in Philosophy
Pierre Bayle's Philosophical Commentary On The Words Of Jesus Christ: Compel Them To Come In, John Kilcullen, Chandran Kukathas
Pierre Bayle's Philosophical Commentary On The Words Of Jesus Christ: Compel Them To Come In, John Kilcullen, Chandran Kukathas
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In this defence of religious toleration, Bayle discusses the words attributed to Jesus Christ in Luke 14:23, “And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be full.” Bayle contends that the word compel cannot mean “force.” From this perspective, he constructs his doctrine of toleration based on the singular importance of conscience. Bayle argues that if the orthodox have the right and duty to persecute, then every sect will persecute since every sect considers itself orthodox. The result will be mutual slaughter, something God …
Trust (And Social Capital) In Cultural Theory, Marco Verweij
Trust (And Social Capital) In Cultural Theory, Marco Verweij
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
No abstract provided.
Pre-Crime, Pre-Punishment And Pre-Desert, John N. Williams
Pre-Crime, Pre-Punishment And Pre-Desert, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
No abstract provided.
Moore's Paradoxes, Evans's Principle And Self-Knowledge, John N. Williams
Moore's Paradoxes, Evans's Principle And Self-Knowledge, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
I supply an argument for Evans’s principle that whatever justifies me in believing that p also justifies me in believing that I believe that p. I show how this principle helps explain how I come to know my own beliefs in a way that normally makes me the best authority on them. Then I show how the principle helps to solve Moore’s paradoxes.
Learning To Live A Life That's Full, Seow Hon Tan
Learning To Live A Life That's Full, Seow Hon Tan
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
No abstract provided.
Learning To Live A Life That's Full, Seow Hon Tan
Learning To Live A Life That's Full, Seow Hon Tan
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
No abstract provided.
A Simple Solution To The Surprise Exam Paradoxes, John N. Williams
A Simple Solution To The Surprise Exam Paradoxes, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
No abstract provided.
Know-How, John N. Williams
Know-How, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In daily life we not only speak not only of knowing facts but also of know-how. We may not only judge that someone knows that the stock market is in decline, that an avalanche is imminent or that ice is not marble but also that someone knows how to make money on the stock exchange, knows how to survive an avalanche or knows how to carve a realistic life-sized human figure from a block of marble. Ryle (1949, 26-60) first drew attention to analysis of know-how and argued that know-how does not consist of propositional knowledge. He went on to …
Using The Economic Concept Of A 'Merit Good' To Justify The Teaching Of Ethics Across The University Curriculum, Mark Nowacki, Wilfried Ver Eecke
Using The Economic Concept Of A 'Merit Good' To Justify The Teaching Of Ethics Across The University Curriculum, Mark Nowacki, Wilfried Ver Eecke
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Philosophers often lament the limited role that philosophy plays in the intellectual formation of the average university student. Once central to university life—there was a time when the study of philosophy defined what it meant to be a student of the liberal arts—philosophy as a subject of study has become marginalized. It is a painful reality that in many universities philosophy has been reduced to the status of a fluffy elective, a course of study to be conscientiously avoided by the more "practical" and "hard nosed" students bent upon success in the pragmatic worlds of business and politics. Only classical …
Thoughts And Propositions, Yoo Guan Tan
Thoughts And Propositions, Yoo Guan Tan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In "Reference and Contingency", Gareth Evans maintains that it is possible for an expression both to be a proper name and to have a descriptive sense. Evans calls such names descriptive names. He further claims that if ‘a’ is a name whose reference is fixed by a definite description ‘the φ‘, then ‘a’ will have the same sense as ‘the φ‘. Against Kripke’s objection that names and descriptions are not interchangeable salva veritate within modal contexts, Evans argues that the objection is based upon a false assumption about the connection between contents (thoughts in Frege’s sense) and propositions (sets of …
Nationalism And Multiculturalism, Chandran Kukathas
Nationalism And Multiculturalism, Chandran Kukathas
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
If any issue dominates contemporary political theory, it is how to deal with cultural diversity and the claims –moral, legal, and political – made in the name of ethnic, religious, linguistic, or national allegiance (Kymlicka,2001: 17). Today, governments are confronted by demands from cultural minorities for recognition, protection,preferential treatment, and political autonomy within the boundaries of the state. Equally, international societyand its political institutions, as well as states themselves, have had to deal with demands from various peoplesfor political recognition as independent nations, and for national self-determination. The turbulent politics ofthe contemporary world may account in part for this development: …
Moore's Paradox And Self-Knowledge, John N. Williams
Moore's Paradox And Self-Knowledge, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
What explanation is there of the source of my justification for my beliefs about my beliefs that respects the fact that I am normally the best authority on them? Moore's paradox demands an explanation of the absurdity of believing or asserting possible truths of the forms p but I don't believe that p or p but I believe that not-p. I argue for Evans principle that whatever justifies me in believing that p also justifies me in believing that I believe that p. This helps explain how I come to know my own beliefs and also shows that it is …
The Case For Open Immigration, Chandran Kukathas
The Case For Open Immigration, Chandran Kukathas
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
People favor or are opposed to immigration for a variety of reasons. It is therefore difficult to tie views about immigration to ideological positions. While it seems obviousthat political conservatives are the most unlikely to defend freedom of movement,and that socialists and liberals (classical and modern) are very likely to favor more openborders, in reality wariness (if not outright hostility) to immigration can be foundamong all groups. Even libertarian anarchists have advanced reasons to restrict themovement of peoples.
What Are The "Four Roots Of Capacity And Nature"?, Alan Kam Leung Chan
What Are The "Four Roots Of Capacity And Nature"?, Alan Kam Leung Chan
Research Collection College of Integrative Studies
During the third century C.E., a debate on the relationship between “capacity” (cai 才) and “nature” (xing 性) captured the imagination of the Chinese elite. Historical sources relate that four views were put forward on the subject, which continued to dominate the intellectual scene during the fourth and fifth centuries. Yin Hao 殷 浩 (306–356), a major statesman and leader of the literati, for example, was known especially for his expertise on the four views of “capacity and nature” (caixing) (Shishuo xinyu 1992, 4.34; cf. Mather 1976, 110).1 Writing in the fifth century, Wang Sengqian 王 僧 虔 (426–485) observed …
Moorean Absurdity, Knowledge And Iterated Belief, John N. Williams
Moorean Absurdity, Knowledge And Iterated Belief, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
No abstract provided.
Moorean Absurdity And Conscious Belief, John N. Williams
Moorean Absurdity And Conscious Belief, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
G. E. Moore observed that to for me to assert, “I went to the pictures last Tuesday but I don’t believe that I did” would be “absurd” (1942: 543). Over half a century later, the explanation of the nature of this absurdity remains problematic. Such assertions are unlike semantically odd Liar-type assertions such as “What I’m now saying is not true” since my Moorean assertion might be true: you may consistently imagine a situation in which I went to the pictures last Tuesday but fail to believe that I did. Moreover, if you contradict my assertion then your words, “If …
Wittgenstein, Moorean Absurdity And Its Disappearance From Speech, John N. Williams
Wittgenstein, Moorean Absurdity And Its Disappearance From Speech, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
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 …
Moorean Absurdities And Iterated Beliefs, John N. Williams
Moorean Absurdities And Iterated Beliefs, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
No abstract provided.
Moorean Absurdity And Expressing Belief, John N. Williams
Moorean Absurdity And Expressing Belief, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
No abstract provided.
Zhong Hui’S Laozi Commentary And The Debate On Capacity And Nature In Third-Century China, Alan Kam Leung Chan
Zhong Hui’S Laozi Commentary And The Debate On Capacity And Nature In Third-Century China, Alan Kam Leung Chan
Research Collection College of Integrative Studies
Zhong Hui (a.d. 225-264) was a major, albeit neglected figure in third-century Chinese intellectual history. Author of a Laozi com mentary, a work on the relationship between "capacity" (cai yf) and "nature" (xing f-fe), two treatises on the Yijing HH, and other writings, Zhong Hui played a significant role in the development of xuanxue -P (learning of the mysterious Dao), which, as is well known, came into prominence during the Zhengshi JEin reign (240-249) of the Wei H dy nasty (220-265) and dominated the Chinese intellectual scene well into the sixth century Zhong Hui was highly regarded by his contemporaries …
Superman, Wittgenstein And The Disappearance Of Moorean Absurdity, John N. Williams
Superman, Wittgenstein And The Disappearance Of Moorean Absurdity, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
'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.
Orwell And Huxley: Making Dissent Unthinkable, John N. Williams
Orwell And Huxley: Making Dissent Unthinkable, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
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? …
Moorean Absurdities And Higher Order Beliefs, John N. Williams
Moorean Absurdities And Higher Order Beliefs, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
No abstract provided.
Untimely Punishment And Dubious Desert, John N. Williams
Untimely Punishment And Dubious Desert, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Discussions of punishment have always assumed (e.g.[4, pp. 80-5]) that there are no circumstances in which someone can be justifiably punished for a crime that he will commit. This assumption has been directly challenged by Christopher New’s apparent example of morally justified ‘prepunishment’ [7]. In a recent paper, Fred Feldman rejects the ‘received wisdom’1 that desert cannot precede its basis by giving apparent examples of ‘predeserved’ charity, reward and apology [3, pp. 71-75]. If there can be cases of predeserved punishment as well, then anyone who holds that it is morally justifiable to punish an offender if and only if …
Is Public Space Suited To Co-Operative Inquiry?, Sor-Hoon Tan
Is Public Space Suited To Co-Operative Inquiry?, Sor-Hoon Tan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This article questions the nature of the philosophical commitment to the problem of 'the public' in modernity. To what extent does the natural form of the public determine the use and value of the instruments of pragmatism in the public-private divide. In this interpretation, John Dewey's ideas about 'the public' are presented in terms of how to solve a specific problem through what he sees as 'co-operative inquiry'. The article also examines the role of public space in the process of democratization through the potential of co-operative inquiry. More often than not, it appears that the politics of public space …
Externalism And Knowledge Of Comparative Content, Yoo Guan Tan
Externalism And Knowledge Of Comparative Content, Yoo Guan Tan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Concepts are the constituents of thoughts, which in turn, are the contents of propositional attitudes. They are also what the predicates of our language express. According to a tradition going back to Plato, questions about comparative content – questions of the form Is concept F the same as concept G? – are purely about relations of ideas, and so are answerable a priori. This does not mean that no experience at all is necessary to answer such questions, for experience may be needed to grasp their content. Call a piece of information about Fs extraneous if it is not required …
Ethical Pluralism From A Classical Liberal Perspective, Chandran Kukathas
Ethical Pluralism From A Classical Liberal Perspective, Chandran Kukathas
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Is the ideal society one that embodies or aims for ethical uniformity, orone that emphasizes instead the accommodation of ethical pluralism?From a classical liberal perspective the answer can only be that ethicalpluralism should be accommodated.
Mentors Or Friends: Confucius And Aristotle On Equality And Ethical Development In Friendship, Sor-Hoon Tan
Mentors Or Friends: Confucius And Aristotle On Equality And Ethical Development In Friendship, Sor-Hoon Tan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In Thinking from the Han, David Hall and Roger Ames compare Plato's - and Confucius's views of friendship in relation to the question of transcendence and arrive at the sad conclusion that Socrates and Confucius could not be friends. "Socratic irony would not allow the inequality Confucius requires as a means of self-betterment. Confucius would not permit he and Socrates to hold all things in common." Along the way, they articulate an understanding of Confucius’ view of friendship as "a one-directional relationship in which one extends oneself by association with one who has attained a higher level of realization." Hall …
Confucian Ethics And The Critique Of Ideology, Alan Kam Leung Chan
Confucian Ethics And The Critique Of Ideology, Alan Kam Leung Chan
Research Collection College of Integrative Studies
The debate between Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jürgen Habermas provides a fresh perspective from which Confucian philosophy may be approached. In this paper, focusing on the Lunyu (Analects), I argue that the sayings of Confucius reflect an essentially 'conservative' orientation, finding in tradition a reservoir of insight and truth. There is a critical dimension to it in that ethical reflection and self-cultivation would enable the individual to challenge particular claims of tradition. However, can self-cultivation transcend tradition as a whole and enable the individual to effect radical change? Following the strategy of Habermas' critique of Gadamer, what happens if tradition is …
The Ethics Of Placebo-Controlled Trials In Developing Countries To Prevent Mother-To-Child Transmission Of Hiv, John N. Williams
The Ethics Of Placebo-Controlled Trials In Developing Countries To Prevent Mother-To-Child Transmission Of Hiv, John N. Williams
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
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 …