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Articles 301 - 330 of 1179
Full-Text Articles in Philosophy
Evidence In Neuroimaging: Towards A Philosophy Of Data Analysis, Jessey Wright
Evidence In Neuroimaging: Towards A Philosophy Of Data Analysis, Jessey Wright
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Neuroimaging technology is the most widely used tool to study human cognition. While originally a promising tool for mapping the content of cognitive theories onto the structures of the brain, recently developed tools for the analysis, handling and sharing of data have changed the theoretical landscape of cognitive neuroscience. Even with these advancements philosophical analyses of evidence in neuroimaging remain skeptical of the promise of neuroimaging technology. These views often treat the analysis techniques used to make sense of data produced in a neuroimaging experiment as one, attributing the inferential limitations of analysis pipelines to the technology as a whole. …
Behavior And Other Minds: A Response To Functionalists, Michael Lockhart
Behavior And Other Minds: A Response To Functionalists, Michael Lockhart
Episteme
Functionalism’s metaphysics is wrongly thought to answer the epistemological question of the existence of the other’s mentality. Contra Elliot Reed, the practical utility of being able to solve the problem of other minds does not make functionalism the best theory of mind, nor does it actually solve the problem of other minds. Reed’s circular argument implicitly relies on abstract behaviorism and the need to solve the problem of other minds. What must come first, however, is a correct ontology of the mind. Functionalism struggles with intentionality, disregards qualia, and, according to Searle’s excellent thought experiments, is incompatible with what we …
Religious Experience, Pluralistic Knowledge And William James, Brittany G. Trice
Religious Experience, Pluralistic Knowledge And William James, Brittany G. Trice
Episteme
This article explores the qualities and nature of the “religious” or mystical experience according to James and pragmatic philosophy in general. The author initially provides an overview of James’ philosophy of religion, which includes his pragmatic commitments, understanding of experience, and emphasis on cognitive relations. Then there arises a question: How can I know that others have mystical experience, too? James’s push to make the mystical experience scientific misjudges the utility of his quasi-chaos idea, which can be shown to support inter-subjective knowledge and position religion within what the author deems “pluralistic knowledge.” In the end, Rorty and Bruce Wilshire …
What Is 'Natural' About Natural Science: Philosophical Naturalism In The Evolution Debate, Hya P. Winham
What Is 'Natural' About Natural Science: Philosophical Naturalism In The Evolution Debate, Hya P. Winham
Episteme
Creationist Phillip E. Johnson argues that evolution theory is a product of a bias toward naturalistic explanation—a materialist philosophical ideology that encroaches on empirical science. This position even got some support from philosopher Michael Ruse. But the fact is science must include a base level of presupposition; the creationist, while supplying her own, mistakenly thinks that science can operate without such an explanatory guide. This paper defends naturalism in science, thereby rejecting the concerns and arguments of neo-creationists. In this effort, the author argues why naturalism is important to science, uses Dewey to explain why anti-naturalism leads to careless science, …
Desertification And Metaphysics In Nietzsche And Abbey, David Allen Chenault
Desertification And Metaphysics In Nietzsche And Abbey, David Allen Chenault
Episteme
The truth is neither simply culture derived from nature, nor nature from culture. Can we (qua humans) merge with nature and still maintain our self-intelligibility? –This is the question that the anti-anti-naturalist concentrates on. The author looks at Nietzsche’s critique of metaphysics, which posits a new metaphysics that requires us to enter the violent, heartless desert that is the paradoxical dual immanence of nature. The paper looks at the desert in the Genealogy’s discussion of the ascetic ideal, and how it relates to Edward Abbey’s isolation and book Desert Solitaire. Importantly, the similarities in-part stem from their similar post-modern sensibility. …
A Defense Of Scientific Phenomenalism From The Perspective Of Contemporary Physics, John Lee
A Defense Of Scientific Phenomenalism From The Perspective Of Contemporary Physics, John Lee
Episteme
Contrary to believing in scientific realism, the author provides a defense of scientific phenomenalism, which holds that only things that we can perceive can be counted as things that exist. The author agrees with W. T. Stace, who holds that science does not explain but merely describes and predicts. Such an understanding suggests that scientists go beyond their bounds when they support the existence of certain theoretical (non-observable) entities—things like quarks and warped spacetime. When such “things” are just mathematical constructs, it becomes easier to comprehend the nature of light, the Higgs mechanism, the electro and magnetic fields, and even …
Warrant, Proper Function, And The Great Pumpkin Objection, Joseph Curtis Miller
Warrant, Proper Function, And The Great Pumpkin Objection, Joseph Curtis Miller
Episteme
Because it eschews classical foundationalism and coherence theory, one must wonder about the reliability of Plantinga’s radical account of knowledge of God’s existence. How does his appeal to proper basicality and epistemic warrant fair against Keith Lehrer’s objections? The answer: not very well. The author gives an analysis of Plantinga’s proper functionality concept, his grounds for warranted belief, and his anticipated response to what he calls the Great Pumpkin Objection. Next, the author presents Lehrer’s two counterexamples, Mr. Truetemp and Ms. Prejudice, and supports Lehrer’s claims that they show that proper functionality is neither a sufficient nor necessary condition for …
Causality, Emergentism, And Mentality, Robert Hemm Jr.
Causality, Emergentism, And Mentality, Robert Hemm Jr.
Episteme
The author here combines the insights of John Dupré and Jaeqwon Kim to supply a new answer to the big conundrum in the philosophy of mind: the mind/body problem. He begins with an overview of Dupré’s take on the classic modern take of causality and determinism, concluding that if Dupré is right and probabilistic catastrophism is true, this theory of probability has important consequences for the mind/body problem. Specifically, probabilistic catastrophism can address the question forced by Kim’s emergentism: how do irreducible mental properties interact with the closed causal nexus of the physical world? The paper concludes by considering what …
Functionalism, Qualia, And Other Minds, Elliot Reed
Functionalism, Qualia, And Other Minds, Elliot Reed
Episteme
We can solve the problem of other minds by reference to behavior only if we conceive of consciousness in functional terms. Folk psychology, though incomplete, supplies us with mental categories that are useful for prediction and explanation and thus can become functional categories. We need psychology and linguistics to work together to create a substantial body of research. The author spends a great deal of time responding to an objecting interlocutor, out of which comes supplemental details such as a discussion of functional equivalence; a response to the reductio ad absurdum complaint against the liberal intentional stance; an argument about …
Anaphoric Deflationism: Truth And Reference, Lauren Hartzell
Anaphoric Deflationism: Truth And Reference, Lauren Hartzell
Episteme
As a reaction to Dorothy Grover and Robert Brandom, this paper examines semantic concerns about intralinguistic relationships and functions. The author supports Brandom’s interpretation of Grover and argues that the prosentential theory of truth must accept the pronominal theory of reference in order to maintain an anaphoric account of truth. The author uses Brandom’s logic to brand Grover an anaphoric deflationist—whether she intended to be one or not. But Brandom’s appeal to reference only begins the project of extending Grover. What other anaphoric mechanisms still need to be identified, the author asks? How do we account for notions of substantive …
The Hyperphilosophy Of Extraordinary Communication, Theresa Thuline
The Hyperphilosophy Of Extraordinary Communication, Theresa Thuline
Episteme
By rejecting orthodoxy, systemization, and objectivity, metaphor allows us to express the extraordinary, contradictory, and paradoxical. Kierkegaard’s Postscript provides a good entry into the concept of metaphor, because it demonstrates the dialectical concepts that give rise to the usefulness of figurative language tools like metaphor and its sidekick, irony. Ricœur extends and elaborates on Kierkegaard’s dialectical philosophy. Together, contrary to Marie I. George’s thoughts on the suitability of metaphors in philosophy, these thinkers speak of the necessarily indirect linguistic means to communicate divine passion and to avoid the pitfalls of standard social meaning-expression. The author concludes by appreciating Pastor Robert …
Deep Problems For Bayesianism, David James Anderson
Deep Problems For Bayesianism, David James Anderson
Episteme
The Humean skeptic seeks not that the future necessarily resembles the past, but only that it is more valid to say that something is always true than it is to say it is true before a certain time. Does Bayesianism provide the argument that Hume missed, thereby justifying inductive reasoning? No. The Bayesian argument sets out to justify the connections between our beliefs based on subjective probability. Although Bayesian conditionalization helps us justify the relative certainty of our beliefs, the Bayesian cannot show that P (h100) is more justified than P(ht), but only that the differential outcome is affected by …
Pragmatism, Neo-Pragmatism, Language And 'Truth', Andrew Forney
Pragmatism, Neo-Pragmatism, Language And 'Truth', Andrew Forney
Episteme
This article takes a look at the place and significance of Rorty’s neo-pragmatism. The author makes an effort to parse out how Rorty fits into the history of pragmatism, philosophies of language, science, and history, and in connection to such explicitly related philosophers as Dewey, James, Davidson, and Kuhn. The author covers a great deal of ground, discussing pragmatist topics such as verification, truth, and culture, as well as Rorty-specific conceptions of semantics, ethnocentrism, post-Kuhn paradigms, and a metaphysics that bears resemblance to Kant’s divided realms.
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 …
Free Will, Determinism, And Moral Responsibility: An Analysis Of Event-Causal Incompatibilism, Gunnar Footh
Free Will, Determinism, And Moral Responsibility: An Analysis Of Event-Causal Incompatibilism, Gunnar Footh
Philosophy Honors Projects
In this project, I will analyze, summarize, and critique the incompatibilist theory known as source incompatibilism, which argues that a moral agent is morally responsible for an action only if they are the proper source of that action. More specifically, I will analyze the source incompatibilist views of event-causal incompatibilism, which argues that an agent has free will only if there exists indeterminacy in her decision-making process, either before the formation of a decision itself of during the formation of a decision. I will argue that event-causal incompatibilist views suffer from problems of control and moral chanciness. Thus I will …
‘We Don’T Talk Gypsy Here’: Minority Language Policies In Europe, William S. New, Hristo Kyuchukov, Jill De Villiers
‘We Don’T Talk Gypsy Here’: Minority Language Policies In Europe, William S. New, Hristo Kyuchukov, Jill De Villiers
Philosophy: Faculty Publications
The Roma constitute an ideal case of educational injustice meeting linguistic difference, racism, social marginalization, and poverty. This paper asks whether human-rights or capabilities approaches are best suited to address issues related to the language education of Roma students in Europe. These children are disadvantaged by not growing up with the standard dialect of whatever language is preferred by the mainstream population, and by the low status of the Romani language, and non-standard dialect of the standard language they usually speak. We examine language education for Roma students in Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria, describing similarities and differences across …
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 …