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Articles 31 - 60 of 212

Full-Text Articles in Philosophy

Descartes And Our Philosophies, Juan Carlos Moreno Romo Oct 2020

Descartes And Our Philosophies, Juan Carlos Moreno Romo

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

We propose to show that, although we think of Descartes as a "modern Parmenides" or as the "father of Modernity", otherwise for excellent reasons, this condition is at least as ambiguous as different are the cultures or societies that arose from the breakdown of Christianity. Where the Protestant Reformation triumphed, the dominant conception of philosophy is manifestly anticartesian, although they recognize, curiously, a debt to Cartesian philosophy; for example, we recognize this due in Wittgenstein and Heidegger. Neither empiricist nor rationalist, neither analytical nor continental, nor national or identitarian either, more than a "French", "European" or "Western" philosopher, Descartes would …


Leibniz’S Analysis Of Change: Vague States, Physical Continuity, And The Calculus, Richard Arthur Oct 2020

Leibniz’S Analysis Of Change: Vague States, Physical Continuity, And The Calculus, Richard Arthur

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

One of the most puzzling features of Leibniz’s deep metaphysics is the apparent contradiction between his claims (1) that the law of continuity holds everywhere, so that in particular, change is continuous in every monad, and (2) that “changes are not really continuous,” since successive states contradict one another. In this paper I try to show in what sense these claims can be understood as compatible. My analysis depends crucially on Leibniz’s idea that enduring states are “vague,” and abstract away from further changes occurring within them at a higher resolution—consistently with his famous doctrine of "petites perceptions." As Leibniz …


Spinoza On Language, Luis Ramos-Alarcón Oct 2020

Spinoza On Language, Luis Ramos-Alarcón

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Some scholars have understood that Spinoza’s extreme rationalism, nominalism, conventionalism, and rejection of a semantic theory of truth make his philosophy incapable to use language for philosophical and scientific purposes; insofar he considered language a source of inadequate knowledge, falsity, and error. Thus Spinoza finds contradiction in his inevitable use of language to express his philosophy. This paper has four aims: first, propose an explanation on why language is inadequate knowledge for Spinoza; second, present differences between inadequacy, falsity, and error in language; third, argue on the Spinozian use of the geometrical method as a solution for the adequate use …


Introduction, Benjamin Hill, Alberto Luis López Oct 2020

Introduction, Benjamin Hill, Alberto Luis López

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.


Berkeley On Infinite Divisibility, David Mwakima Jun 2020

Berkeley On Infinite Divisibility, David Mwakima

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Berkeley, arguing against Barrow, claims that the infinite divisibility of finite lines is neither an axiom nor a theorem in Euclid The Thirteen Books of The Elements. Instead, he suggests that it is rooted in ancient prejudice. In this paper, I attempt to substantiate Berkeley’s claims by looking carefully at the history and practice of ancient geometry as a first step towards understanding Berkeley’s mathematical atomism.


Berkeley On Perceptual Discrimination Of Physical Objects, Keota Fields Jun 2020

Berkeley On Perceptual Discrimination Of Physical Objects, Keota Fields

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Commentators are divided over whether Berkeley holds that physical objects are immediately perceived by sense. As I read Berkeley, discrimination is necessary for perceiving physical objects by sense. Berkeley says that discrimination requires perceiving motion. Since motions can only be mediately perceived according to Berkeley, physical objects can only be mediately perceived by sense. I defend this reading against the following objections. First, that perception of physical objects is non-conceptual. Second, that physical objects are divinely instituted collections of ideas rather than psychologically associated collections of ideas. Third, that some physical objects are small enough to be immediately perceptually discriminated …


Browne’S Critique Of Religious Propositions In Berkeley: A Reply To Pearce, Benjamin Formanek Jun 2020

Browne’S Critique Of Religious Propositions In Berkeley: A Reply To Pearce, Benjamin Formanek

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.


Informal Discussion, Todd Derose Jun 2020

Informal Discussion, Todd Derose

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

What types of problems--whether methodological, pedagogical, or philosophical--are unique to Berkeley scholarship?


Does Berkeley Anthropomorphize God, Kenneth Pearce Jun 2020

Does Berkeley Anthropomorphize God, Kenneth Pearce

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Berkeley occasionally says that we use analogy in thinking and speaking of God (Alc, §4.21). However, the scholarly consensus is that Berkeley rejects the traditional doctrine of divine analogy and holds instead that words like ‘wise’ apply to God in precisely the same way as they apply to Socrates. The difference is only a matter of degree (Daniel 2011; Curtin 2014; Pearce 2018; Fasko 2018). Univocal theories of the divine attributes have historically been charged with anthropomorphism—that is, with imagining God to be too similar to human beings (see Maimonides, Guide, ch. 1.1). Can Berkeley fairly be charged with anthropomorphizing …


Day 3 Schedule, Benjamin Hill Jun 2020

Day 3 Schedule, Benjamin Hill

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.


Thomas Reid And The Priority Thesis: A Defence Against Turri, Benjamin Formanek, Lewis Powell Jun 2020

Thomas Reid And The Priority Thesis: A Defence Against Turri, Benjamin Formanek, Lewis Powell

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.


What Makes Hume An External World Skeptic?, Graham Clay, David Landy, Nathan Rockwood Jun 2020

What Makes Hume An External World Skeptic?, Graham Clay, David Landy, Nathan Rockwood

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

What would it take for Hume to be an external world skeptic? Is Hume's position on knowledge sufficient to force him to deny that we can acquire knowledge of (non-logical) propositions about the external world? After all, Hume is extremely restrictive about what can be known because he requires knowledge to be immune to error. In this paper, I will argue that if Hume were a skeptic, then he must also deny a particular kind of view about what is immediately present to the mind. I will argue that direct realisms—views that maintain that mind-independent (i.e. ontologically distinct) things are …


Informal Discussion, Benjamin Hill Jun 2020

Informal Discussion, Benjamin Hill

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

“What skills and capacities do you think the next generation of early modern scholars most need to advance the field?


Cancelled - Berkeley's A Priori Argument For God's Exstence, Stephen H. Daniel, Alberto Luis Lopez Jun 2020

Cancelled - Berkeley's A Priori Argument For God's Exstence, Stephen H. Daniel, Alberto Luis Lopez

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Berkeley’s appeal to a posteriori arguments for God’s existence supports belief only in a God who is finite. But by appealing to an a priori argument for God’s existence, Berkeley emphasizes God’s infinity. In this latter argument, God is not the efficient cause of particular finite things in the world, for such an explanation does not provide a justification or rationale for why the totality of finite things would exist in the first place. Instead, God is understood as the creator of the total unity of all there is, the whole of creation. In this a priori argument, we should …


Informal Discussion, Benjamin Hill Jun 2020

Informal Discussion, Benjamin Hill

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

If an idealist can easily live within her idealism, if idealism really is the philosophy of common sense (as Berkeley claimed), why are introductory and general ed students so resistant to adopt it?


Kant’S Long Shadow On The Interpretation Of Swedenborg, Hasse Hämäläinen, Alin Varciu Jun 2020

Kant’S Long Shadow On The Interpretation Of Swedenborg, Hasse Hämäläinen, Alin Varciu

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Among the readers of Swedenborg, the Swedish thinker’s ‘theory of correspondences’ is often interpreted as treating empirical realities as only imperfect manifestations of spiritual realities (e.g. Lamm 1915, Benz 1948, Beiser 2002). This interpretation that ascribes (Platonic) idealism to Swedenborg was originally proposed by Kant in the Dreams of a Spirit-Seer (1766). Although Kant criticizes Swedenborg’s theory, he considers it no inferior to the theories of Leibniz and Wolf, which can entice a reader of Swedenborg to take Kant’s interpretation at face value: even if Kant did not agree with Swedenborg, at least he took him to be on par …


Cavendish And Berkeley On Inconceivability And Impossibility, Peter West, Colin Chamberlain Jun 2020

Cavendish And Berkeley On Inconceivability And Impossibility, Peter West, Colin Chamberlain

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

In this paper, I compare Margaret Cavendish’s argument for the view that colours of objects are inseparable from their ‘physical’ qualities (such as size and shape) with George Berkeley’s argument for the view that secondary qualities of objects (such as colours, tastes, and sounds) are inseparable from their primary qualities (such as size and shape). By reconstructing their respective arguments, I show that both thinkers rely on the ‘inconceivability principle’: the claim that inconceivability entails impossibility. That is, both premise their arguments on the claim that it is impossible to conceive of an object that has size and shape but …


Day 2 Schedule, Benjamin Hill Jun 2020

Day 2 Schedule, Benjamin Hill

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.


The Middle Standpoint In Spinoza’S Ethics, Raphael Krut-Landau, Kristin Primus Jun 2020

The Middle Standpoint In Spinoza’S Ethics, Raphael Krut-Landau, Kristin Primus

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.


Spinoza’S Formal Essence, Christopher Martin Jun 2020

Spinoza’S Formal Essence, Christopher Martin

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Spinoza stipulates in E2def2, his definition of the essence of a thing, that the essence of each particular can neither exist nor, even, be conceived, except alongside its particular. Yet a mere eight propositions later states that God maintains an idea of the essence of nonactual particulars “in the same way as the formal essences of the singular things are contained in God’s attributes” (E2p8). While there are known interpretive controversies with each of these claims, I argue that according to E2def2, essences of particulars can only be and can only be conceived alongside the actual existence of their particular, …


Informal Discussion, Benjamin Hill Jun 2020

Informal Discussion, Benjamin Hill

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

“Do your students struggle with Spinoza’s geometric exposition, and if so, how do you get them past it?”


Malebranche’S Alleged Idealism, Fabio Malfara, Dylan Flint Jun 2020

Malebranche’S Alleged Idealism, Fabio Malfara, Dylan Flint

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Over the span of eleven years (1683-1694), Nicolas Malebranche and Antoine Arnauld, two prominent sympathizers of the Cartesian tradition, engaged in a rigorous debate. In his initial set of criticisms, Arnauld objects that a natural consequence of Malebranche’s theory of ideas is idealism.1 This charge of idealism has puzzled scholars: why did Arnauld believe this? Han Adriaenssen2 has convincingly argued that Arnauld’s charge of idealism is founded on the representationality of Malebranchean ideas. According to Arnauld, ideas represent for Malebranche in much the same way that portraits do—by inciting a perceiver to form a conception of whatever they pertain to. …


Informal Discussion, Benjamin Hill Jun 2020

Informal Discussion, Benjamin Hill

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

“Why is it important that philosophers study the history of philosophy and why should we continue to teach it? Alt formulation: Why should programs continue to have history of philosophy courses as degree requirements?”


Descartes And The Monstrous Thesis, Evan Thomas, Zachary Agoff Jun 2020

Descartes And The Monstrous Thesis, Evan Thomas, Zachary Agoff

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.


Welcome And Introductory Remarks, Benjamin Hill Jun 2020

Welcome And Introductory Remarks, Benjamin Hill

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.


Cancelled - The Ontological Status Of Cartesian Possibilia, Daniel Stermer, Marc Bobro, Liz Goodnick Jun 2020

Cancelled - The Ontological Status Of Cartesian Possibilia, Daniel Stermer, Marc Bobro, Liz Goodnick

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

In this paper I present a novel view of the ontological status of possible objects for Descartes. Specifically, I claim that possible objects just are innate ideas considered objectively. In the act of creation, God creates possibilities—in all its richness—in the form of innate ideas. Thus, in acts of thinking, one may clearly and distinctly perceive, via one’s innate ideas, that such and such is possible. To argue this, I first analyze and critique two competing views—one from Calvin Normore who claims that innate ideas represent an independent realm of possibilia, and another from David Cunning and Alan Nelson who …


Day 1 Schedule, Benjamin Hill Jun 2020

Day 1 Schedule, Benjamin Hill

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.


My Relational Autonomy And My Relationship With Susan Sherwin, Carolyn Mcleod Jan 2020

My Relational Autonomy And My Relationship With Susan Sherwin, Carolyn Mcleod

Philosophy Publications

I get both personal and philosophical in this piece. I reflect on how my relationship with Sue Sherwin has fostered my own relational autonomy. At the same time, I discuss what theories of relational autonomy, like Sue’s, add to the bioethics literature on autonomy. With this second objective, I begin clearing up some confusion that I see in this literature about the nature of relational autonomy.


Immunitary Foreclosures: Schelling And British Idealism, Tilottama Rajan Apr 2019

Immunitary Foreclosures: Schelling And British Idealism, Tilottama Rajan

Department of English Publications

This paper considers how Schelling’s earlier work functions as a fifth column for the Germano-Coleridgeans, particularly Coleridge himself and Green. I consider their engagement with Schelling’s First Outline in relation to the Hunterian collection bought by the Crown in 1799, which made the life sciences a public concern within the framework of how knowledge was to be organized. The paper explores the pressure the life sciences put on philosophy and the constraining of both, in the context of British Idealism, by religious imperatives that are internal, conceptual censors, and external (cultural and institutional) censors. Consolidating his work between the Romantic …


Parental Licensing And Discrimination, Carolyn Mcleod, Andrew Botterell Jan 2019

Parental Licensing And Discrimination, Carolyn Mcleod, Andrew Botterell

Philosophy Publications

In order to protect children from risks associated with bad parenting, some philosophers have recommended that all parents be licensed, in much the same way in which drivers of motor vehicles and many professionals, such as physicians, are licensed. In this chapter, we clarify what parental licensing is, describe philosophical theories about it, and assess these theories in terms of how well they deal with problems of discrimination in parental licensing. While much of our discussion focuses on biologism, the privileging of biological parenthood over non-biological forms of parenthood, we also touch on other forms of discrimination that parental licensing …