Philosophy Commons^™

Accounting For Tastes: On The Epistemic Significance Of Affective Character, Sofia Berinstein

Philosophy Faculty Works

This article explores the epistemology of a particular dimension of perceptual experience: its affective character. This includes the ‘badness’ of, for example, the smell of garbage or the pain of a stubbed toe and the ‘goodness’ of the taste of chocolate, touch of sunshine, or sound of a musical chord. I take the view that affective character is epistemically significant, disclosing objective axiological relations in which elements (garbage, bodily harm, sunshine, chocolate, and consonance) stand to perceivers. To this end I analyze two representationalist approaches to valenced perception—evaluativism and attitudinalism—which serve as exemplars of, respectively, cognitivism and non-cognitivism. Cognitivists …

Marx And The Missing Theory Of Ideology, Peter Baumann

Philosophy Faculty Works

Karl Marx is often and typically seen as one of the main theorists of ideology. However, a closer look shows that Marx does not offer anything like a developed theory of ideology. Rather, there are, as I argue here, elements for 3 quite different accounts of ideology to be found in his work: ideology as superstructure, as the rulers’ ruling ideas, and as false consciousness. This is a new reconstruction of Marx’ ideas about ideology. None of the above 3 ideas has been developed in any greater detail by Marx, and there is even the open question whether they are …

Transcendental Arguments In Reid? A Reply To Mccraw, Peter Baumann

Philosophy Faculty Works

Benjamin W. McCraw’s article “A Reidian Transcendental Argument Against Skepticism” (2025) constitutes an original and thought-provoking contribution both to Reid scholarship and to the discussion of epistemic skepticism.[1] In the following I will make a few remarks about it, focusing on the discussion of skepticism. I start with a brief historical remark on Reid and Kant (§ 1) before I explain the anti-skeptical argument in some detail (§ 2). A discussion of the premises of the argument follows (§ 3). I add some remarks about the social aspect of McCraw’s anti-skeptical stance (§ 4). I finish with another set of …

Enumerative Induction In Mathematics, Alan Richard Baker

Philosophy Faculty Works

In my 2007 paper, “Is There a Problem of Induction for Mathematics?” I rejected the idea that enumerative induction has force for mathematical claims. My core argument was based on the fact that we are restricted to examining relatively small numbers, so our samples are always biased, and hence they carry no inductive weight. In recent years, I have come to believe that this argument is flawed. In particular, while arithmetical samples are indeed biased, my new view is that this bias actually strengthens the inductive support that accrues from them. The reason is that small numbers typically provide a …

The (Anarchic) Gift Of Gelassenheit: On An Undeveloped Motif In Derrida's Donner Le Temps Ii, Ian Alexander Moore

Philosophy Faculty Works

In his recently published Donner le temps II, Derrida raises, but does not develop, the possibility that Heidegger's notion of Gelassenheit (‘releasement’, ‘letting-be’) might escape the economic confines of exchange, debt, and repayment and therefore qualify as a pure gift. In this paper, I explore this possibility, explaining that Gelassenheit would have to be understood, first, not primarily as a human comportment but at the level of being itself, second, beyond appropriation, and third, as ‘without why’. If Heidegger's focus on appropriation in ‘Time and Being’ remains entangled in the economy of exchange (as Derrida insinuates in the final …

The Divine Stakes Of Human Freedom: Jonas In Dialogue With Schelling, Ian Alexander Moore

Philosophy Faculty Works

In a recent article, Lore Hühn calls for a comprehensive study of the parallels between Schelling’s critique of the will, on the one hand, and the philosophies of nature and technology developed in the twentieth century by students of Heidegger such as Hannah Arendt, Günther Anders, and Hans Jonas, on the other. Hühn notes, in particular, that:

essential moments of Jonas’s ethics of responsibility, with its critique of classical metaphysics’ neglect of the body and nature, cannot be understood without the background of Schelling; this holds as well for Jonas’s speculative figure of the self-retraction of God and for his …

Articuli Temporis: St. Augustine And Phenomenology On The Temporal Syntax Of God’S Self-Disclosure, Scott Roniger

Philosophy Faculty Works

In this essay, I articulate an Augustinian “philosophy of history” by highlighting some important texts sprinkled throughout St. Augustine’s writings, especially his City of God. I concentrate on Augustine’s claim that there are “joints of time” that structure God’s self-disclosure to us through sacred history, and I develop these Augustinian insights with the help of Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology. While Augustine enables us to see that God’s revelation is achieved in a sacred history that illuminates the deepest structure and order of the temporal flow of human events, Husserl’s phenomenology can be used to show that the structure and order of …

Thomas Aquinas On Non-Theological Faith, Catherine Peters

Philosophy Faculty Works

The majority of studies on ‘faith’ (fides) in the thought of Thomas Aquinas consider it in a religious or theological context: fides as the theological virtue by which one assents to the truths of divine revelation. The focus on theological faith is appropriate, given its central importance as a theological virtue, but this is not the only sense of fides that Thomas identifies. The present study investigates two non-theological senses formulated in his commentary on the De Trinitate of Boethius: first, fides as the proximate cause of assenting to principles within a given science (‘epistemic faith’) and, second, fides as …

Faith, Free Will Skepticism, And Fischer's Tao, Daniel Speak

Philosophy Faculty Works

Skepticism about moral freedom appears to be on the rise. This essay attempts to blunt the force of the recent growth of free will skepticism by appealing to a form of rational faith in free will. With a compelling account of the nature of faith (borrowed from Lara Buchak), we can see that even someone convinced by Pereboom-style skeptical arguments could nevertheless rationally accept and act on the claim that we enjoy moral freedom. Given an underappreciated aspect of P. F. Strawson’s famous paper “Freedom and Resentment,” this result should be less surprising than we might have thought. Further, this …

Crisis In Schelling’S Late System: Comments On Peter Dews’S Schelling’S Late Philosophy In Confrontation With Hegel, Marcela García Romero

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Spoiling The Party? Heidegger’S Lectures On Trakl At Spa Bühlerhöhe, Tobias Keiling, Ian Alexander Moore

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

The Call Of The Origin: On Christology, Conversion, And Peregrine Identity In Reiner Schürmann’S Early Work On Meister Eckhart, Francesco Guercio, Ian Alexander Moore

Philosophy Faculty Works

In 1969, Reiner Schürmann submitted a thesis to the Dominican school of theology Le Saulchoir. It was titled Peregrine Identity: The Concept of Detachment in Meister Eckhart’s German Sermons. Three years later, Schürmann published Wandering Joy, his celebrated book on Eckhart. In this article, we examine four aspects of the earlier study that cannot, as such, be found in the later one: (1) the specifically Christological dimension of Eckhart’s teaching of detachment; (2) a logic of conversion at work in Eckhart and St. Francis; (3) Schürmann’s hermeneutics of the symbol; and (4) the practical outcomes of Heidegger’s ontological …

Necessary Existent Theology, Rosabel Ansari, Billy Dunaway, Jon Mcginnis

Philosophy Faculty Works

A meta-theology makes claims about the structure of theological claims: it identifies a single, fundamental claim about God, and shows how other theological claims are derivable from the fundamental claim. In his book Depicting Deity and other articles, Jon Kvanvig has identified three distinct meta-theologies: Creator Theology, Perfect Being Theology, and Worship-worthiness Theology. In this article, we argue that the medieval Islamic philosopher Avicenna's views about God have the structure of a meta-theology, and that it is distinct from the three projects Kvanvig identifies. This view is Necessary Existent Theology.

Educating For Good Thinking: Virtues, Skills, Or Both?, Jason Baehr

Philosophy Faculty Works

This paper explores the relationship between intellectual virtues and critical thinking, both as such and as educational ends worth pursuing. The first half of the paper examines the intersection of intellectual virtue and critical thinking. The second half addresses a recent argument to the effect that educating for intellectual virtues (in contrast to educating for critical thinking) is insufficiently action-guiding and therefore lacks a suitable pedagogy.

The Declaration Of Independence: Inalienable Rights, The Creator, And The Political Order., Christopher Kaczor

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Heidegger’S Legacy And The Need/Use Of Being, Christopher D. Merwin, Ian Alexander Moore

Philosophy Faculty Works

This article first retraces the history of Heidegger’s “The Argument against Need” and situates it in the context of extant notes from his never-completed introduction to the Gesamtausgabe titled “The Legacy of the Question of Being.” It then argues that, for the later Heidegger, Brauch (“need,” “use”) becomes another name – indeed one of the most important, albeit neglected, names – for being in its deepest sense. To appreciate Heidegger’s legacy and that of the question of being, it is crucial that we (1) critically assess the argument against Brauch qua “need” – i.e., the argument according to which the …

On The Integration Of Positive Psychology And The Psychology/Spirituality: Logical, Normative, And Methodological Questions, S.L. Porter, Jason Baehr, T. Porter, R. C. Roberts

Philosophy Faculty Works

When it comes to the integration of positive psychology and the psychology of religion/spirituality (R/S), there are three second-order, philosophical questions that need answering: Can these two fields be integrated? Should these two fields be integrated? And, if so, how is it best to integrate these two fields? Although this chapter touches on the logical and normative questions, it is the third, methodological question that receives the greatest attention. We argue that although, from a philosophical perspective, there are no methodological barriers to integrating these two subfields, there is a methodological bonanza in their integration. The golden opportunity is for …

Limitations-Owning And Interpersonal Dimension Of Intellectual Humility, Jason Baehr

Philosophy Faculty Works

According to one prominent account of intellectual humility, it consists primarily of a disposition to “own” one’s intellectual limitations. This account has been criticized for neglecting the interpersonal dimensions of intellectual humility. We expect intellectually humble persons to be respectful and generous with their interlocutors and to avoid being haughty or domineering. I defend the limitations-owning account against this objection. I do so in two ways: first, by arguing that some of the interpersonal qualities associated with intellectual humility are qualities expressive of virtues other than intellectual humility; and second, by arguing that, when properly described, the kind of limitations-owning …

How To Read Meister Eckhart’S Poverty Sermon, Ian Alexander Moore

Philosophy Faculty Works

This paper outlines a few strategies for reading Meister Eckhart’s famous sermon on the first beatitude (Pr. 52). It looks at the political and ecclesiastical background of Eckhart’s teaching on poverty, some ways to manage the role of paradox in his preaching, and how to navigate tensions between the spirit and the letter of his text.

Heidegger On Deep Time And Being-In-Itself: Introductory Thoughts On ‘The Argument Against Need’, Ian Alexander Moore, Tobias Keiling

Philosophy Faculty Works

The article provides an introduction to Heidegger's manuscript “The Argument against Need”. It comments on the nature of the manuscript, the circumstances of its composition, and its major philosophical themes. These themes include the problem of ontological independence, the nature of time, and the question of realism.

Simple Is As Simple Does: Plantinga And Ghazālī On Divine Simplicity, Jon Mcginnis

Philosophy Faculty Works

This study considers the notion of divine simplicity, the idea that God is not a composite of more basic features, and the criticisms by al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) and Alvin Plantinga of that doctrine. What is shown is that most of the argumentation against divine simplicity frequently credited to Plantinga had been nearly perfectly anticipated by al-Ghazālī. Moreover, in responding to a stronger form of divine simplicity, which Avicenna (d. 1037) had presented, than the Thomistic version that Plantinga attacks, Ghazālī develops ‘new’ arguments and moves that are still valuable and informative to the discussion of divine simplicity today.

Pain Is Beyng Itself: Heidegger’S Algontology, Ian Alexander Moore

Philosophy Faculty Works

Among the many words Heidegger explores in order to elucidate his primary matter for thought, one would not likely expect Schmerz (“pain”) to play a prominent role. And yet, in a selection of notes recently published in a limited German edition under the title Über den Schmerz (On Pain), Heidegger goes so far as to claim that pain is beyng itself. In this paper I analyze Heidegger’s ontological treatment of pain and his etymology of its Greek counterpart, asking whether he does not ultimately anesthetize his readers to pain’s most rending effects.

Translating Gadamer And Heidegger Translating Aristotle: Über'setzen' And 'Über'setzen, Ian Alexander Moore

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Philosophy And Theology: Gender Ideology, Christopher Kaczor

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Philosophy And Theology: Lethal Organ Donation, Christopher Kaczor

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Philosophy And Theology: Conscientious Objection, Christopher Kaczor

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Thomas Aquinas On Gratitude To God, Christopher Kaczor

Philosophy Faculty Works

Discussions of gratitude to God characteristically presuppose some philosophical or theological framework. This philosophical and theological exploration of gratitude to God examines the topic in light of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Unlike some treatments of Aquinas’ account of gratitude, I draw extensively on Aquinas’ commentaries on Scripture as well as lesser known works, such as his sermons, to illuminate these topics rather than exclusively relying on the Summa theologiae. In the first part of this article, I focus on how Aquinas understands the virtue of gratitude to God. In the second part, I examine his account of ingratitude to …

Deductive And Inductive Arguments, Timothy Shanahan

Philosophy Faculty Works

In philosophy, an argument consists of a set of statements called premises that serve as grounds for affirming another statement called the conclusion. Philosophers typically distinguish arguments in natural languages (such as English) into two fundamentally different types: deductive and inductive. Each type of argument is said to have characteristics that categorically distinguish it from the other type. The two types of argument are also said to be subject to differing evaluative standards. Pointing to paradigmatic examples of each type of argument helps to clarify their key differences. The distinction between the two types of argument may hardly seem worthy …

“The Pealing Of Stillness”: Gadamer On Georg Trakl, Ian Alexander Moore

Philosophy Faculty Works

Addressing the place of the Austrian poet, Georg Trakl, in the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer, this article turns in particular to Trakl’s poem “A Winter Evening” in order to unfold a sense of language in dialogue with the poet. This engagement equally becomes the occasion for Gadamer to confront Heidegger, whose own reading of Trakl becomes both an inspiration and a challenge.

Can A Machine Flow Like Dao? The Daoist Philosophy On Artificial Intelligence, Robin R. Wang

Philosophy Faculty Works

This question might seem odd, but it is, nevertheless, directly relevant to our life today. My intention is to bring ancient Daoist philosophy into a conversation about the challenges that technology poses. Today, cutting-edge technologies do not exist just in research labs but have already easily penetrated all aspects of our lives. It is difficult to argue that we do not yet inhabit a world with Artificial Intelligence (AI), for it has become a pervasive and effective technology woven into the fabric of everyday living.