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1. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Fernando R. Molina C. I. Lewis’ Notebook on Kant, 1910-11
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This edition is of a notebook prepared by C.I. Lewis during 1910-11. The text covers the "predicament" of philosophy at the time of Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason, and The Metaphysic of Morals. The highly detailed discussion of the Critique was "based on" Lewis' own outlines made in the Kant course conducted by Ralph Barton Perry.
2. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Harry A. Nielsen Influence and Experience in Hume’s ‘Enquiry'
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The ordinary justification for my not doubting that the next bread I eat will nourish me as in the past is that we humans do not bother ourselves with doubts except where life actually prompts a doubt. Hume, however, represents this not-doubting as an inference we repeatedly draw, and not a very strong one since it concludes to a future-tense judgement from past-tense premisses. Thus Hume creates the impression that the commonest ways of leaning on past experience as a guide involve a woefully weak type of inference, and this paper challenges that impression.
3. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Dennis E. Bradford Moore, Russell, and the Foundations of Analytic Metaphysics
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What is the general nature or logical status of existence? This question is the (logically) first question of ontology. Moore, in his early article "The Nature of Judgment", and Russell, in The Principles of Mathematics, offer the same answer to it, and their answer has philosophical—as well as historical—importance. Existence is what Moore calls a "concept" and what Russell calls a "term". The chief features of the early Moore-Russell ontology, their attempt to understand the ultimate constituents of the world and the connections among them, are delineated and evaluated. Though their ontology has its successes (e.g., a useful, univocal concept of existence), it ultimately is a failure, and the reasons for its failure are deeply rooted and instructive.
4. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Harold Zellner The Third Way: The Opening Move
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After pointing out a meaning difference between "that which is possible not to be at some time is not" and "that which is possible not to be exists for only a finite time", we consider the assumptions necessary in a Thomistic context to derive the conclusion that if everything is contingent then at one time nothing was in existence. The needed key is in limiting the amount of matter which has ever existed, or, since "matter" is not a count-noun, that some 'basic' particulars are finite in number; i.e., particulars which must exist if any physical particulars are to exist. (Though it is not essential to the argument, it is convenient and probably not far off historically to regard "things which are possible not to be" as physical objects.) Given some other assumptions it is then shown the desired conclusion will follow in both a "Genesis" and a "Doomsday" version. We then try to match the argument developed with the Thomistic corpus.
5. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Robert Van Gulick Rationality and the Anomalous Nature of the Mental
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Donald Davidson's argument for the nonlawlike nature of psycho-physical generalizations is discussed and refuted. It is shown that his appeals to the rational and holistic character of intentional description do not support his conclusion of anomalism. An alternative methodological role is suggested for the concept of rationality in application to current empirical research in cognitive psychology.
6. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Ruth Mattern Locke on Power and Causation: Excerpts From the 1685 Draft of the‘Essay'
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Ten chapters of Locke's 1685 draft are given here, with an introduction, an index of correlating passages in the Essay and the draft, and an interpretive essay, "Locke on Active Power and the Idea of Active Power from Bodies." The passages discuss various aspects of Locke's views on power and causation, including his distinction between active and passive powers, the relation between active power and minds, passive power and bodies, the origin of the idea of power, the definition of qualities as powers, the distinction between actual and potential qualities, our ignorance of the causal basis of properties, and the nature of the causal relation between inner constitutions and sensible qualities of bodies.
7. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Pete A. Y. Gunter Henri Bergson: A Bibliography 1911-1980
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This is a 1,039-item updating and extension of Henri Bergson: A Bibliography, published by the Philosophy Documentation Center in 1974. While it concentrates on bibliographic items that have appeared in the 1970s, this bibliography contains items both by and about Bergson which were published prior to the 1970s. The present work is admittedly incomplete; but it attempts a more complete annotation than was available in the 1974 bibliography.
8. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Barry L. Whitney Does God Influence the World’s Creativity?: Hartshorne’s Doctrine of Possibility
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Since Hartshorne rejects Whitehead's doctrine of eternal objects, this seems to deny Hartshorne's God any causal influence via providing initial subjective aims to the world's creatures. If there are no specific eternal objects as possibilities to be actualized by creatures, there can be no specific initial aims. Hartshorne's metaphysics, however, can be rendered coherent at this point by interpreting the initial aims as hierarchies of indeterminate possibilities which are not specific until rendered so by creatures. Such an interpretation is coherent with his doctrine of possibility understood as a hierarchy of indeterminate potentiality. A further issue remains, nevertheless, in regard to Hartshorne's claim that the possibilities offered by God to creatures are both infinite and yet limited. It is difficult to see how they can be both.
9. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Fernando R. Molina A Reconstruction of C. I. Lewis’ Lectures on Kant
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Notes by Dr. Robert Gahringer, who was C.I. Lewis' assistant at Harvard, Dr. Francis H. Parker, and those of the editor were used to reconstruct Lewis' lectures in Phil. 130, Kant, as those lectures were presented at Harvard in the late 40's and early 50's. The test of the reconstruction includes a detailed discussion of European epistemology in the period before Kant in addition to Lewis' interpretation of Kant's epistemology, critique of metaphysics, theology, and a brief presentation of his moral philosophy.
10. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Edward Halper Self-Relation in Hegel’s Science of Logic
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This paper uses self-relation to reconstruct Hegel's reasoning in the Logic. In the sphere of "being," selfrelation is self-predication, and the predicate is the active, participial form of the category. Examining the first three and the last category in this sphere, I explain how Hegel argues that each category is itself engaged in the activity that it signifies. However, this self-predication adds new content to the category transforming it into a new category. Ultimately, this process leads to the collapse of "being" into "essence ." Categories in this later sphere exhibit a different kind of self-relation : each contains its relation to itself as an activity that negates itself and then, negating this negation, returns to itself. Hegel's analysis at the beginning of "essence" is, I argue, parallel to Kant's "Transcendental Deduction," but relations among categories replace the transcendental ego. The significance of self-relation is that it (1) effects transitions to new categories by an internal mechanism, thereby (2) allowing the Logic to be a self-exposition of the categories that (3) avoids an external (Kantian) transcendental ground.
11. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
William Lad Sessions William James and the Right to Over-Believe
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William James's essay, "The Will to Believe," is interpreted as a philosophical argument for two conclusions: (l) Some over-beliefs—i.e., beliefs going beyond the available evidence—are rationally justified under certain conditions; and (2) "The Religious Hypothesis" is justified for some people under these conditions. Section I defends viewing James as presenting arguments, Sections II-III try to formulate the dual conclusions more precisely, and Section IT defends this reading against alternative interpretations. Section 7, the heart of the paper, elaborates five logically distinct arguments (or approaches) implicit in "The Will to Believe" with regard to non-evidential justification. Section VI examines "The Religious Hypothesis," and Section VII concludes by noting that while James's particular arguments are largely unsuccessful nevertheless the project of finding non- evidential or "practical" rational warrants for religious over-beliefs seems promising. Two appendices supplement the body of the text. The first considers some formal aspects of the so-called "ethics of belief" in order to clarify James's desired conclusions) in "The Will to Believe," and the second shows that and how James's own "technical distinctions" are both obscure and largely irrelevant to his central task.
12. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Craig K. Ihara Towards a Rule-Utilitarian Theory of Supererogation
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This article seeks to make a contribution toward the eventual construction of an adequate formulation of rule-utilitarianism by explaining same of the difficulties the notion of supererogation poses for such an enterprise, and by describing a rule-utilitarian theory of supererogation which would resolve those difficulties. The first difficulty that the notion of supererogation raises for rule-utilitarianism is that beliefs concerning acts "beyond the call of duty" are not an insignificant part of many persons' considered moral opinions and any theory, rule-utilitarian or not, which does not provide a place for them will be found lacking on that account. Secondly, I shall argue that without an adequate theory of supererogation it is extremely unlikely that the rule-utilitarian will succeed in arriving at a moral code which will maximize utility. Thirdly, without an adequate theory of supererogation, rule-utilitarian accounts of basic moral concepts such as "right", "obligatory", and "wrong" will be unsatisfactory, even frcm a utilitarian point of view. I begin in section I by considering how best to define 'supererogation." I propose a reforming definition at the end of that section. In section II I claim that rule-utilitarians must recognize a distinction between two types of rules if they hope to avoid the difficulties mentioned above. In section III I attempt to explain and to resolve the difficulties supererogation poses for rule-utilitarianism.
13. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Eddie Yeghiayan Promises: A Bibliography
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The aim of this bibliography is to present a comprehensive list on the concept of promises. Its main focus is the ethical discussions of promises. It includes also some of the essential legal reference works and literature on promises and contracts, the linguistic materials on speech-acts and performatives (for example, the so-called performative analysis of John Ross) that have a bearing on the concept of promises, and some of the philosophical literature on the related topics of social contract, consent, and obligation. Readers are invited to submit to the author any omissions.
14. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Michael J. Seidler Kant and the Stoics on the Emotional Life
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This essay examines Kant's relationship to the Stoics with respect to the affective dimension of the moral life. Besides offering a general description and comparison of the two philosophies in this particular regard, it utilizes numerous specific Kantian references to and parallels with Stoicism to argue that his own position was, throughout its development, shaped by a growing contact with and appreciation of the Stoic view. The paper proceeds from some negative remarks of Kant about suppressing or even eliminating the emotions and inclinations found mainly in the Grundlegung and the second Critique, and then goes on to show how Kant was able to draw upon a number of Stoic distinctions and concepts, such as that between the affects and the passions, in order to mitigate these negative and exclusivistic attitudes and to reincorporate the affective components of the personality into his conception of a fully human moral life. Moreover, because of the numerous subtopics explored in making the main case for the Kant-Stoa link, the essay also accomplishes its subsidiary purpose of showing the importance of the sometimes overlooked emotional factor or dimension of Kant's ethics as such.
15. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Philip A. Pecorino Evil as Direction in Plotinus
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This paper examines problems and inconsistencies in the Plotinian conception of evil. A review of all the pertinent passages in the Enneads concludes that evil is non-existent in the metaphysical realm and that the absolute evil of the moral realm is subservient to a universal order and functions to produce a harmony in accord with the intellectual realm (Nous) of which it is but an image. [Most of the difficulties are seen as eliminated by adopting an interpretive view of evil as the result of the soul’s misdirected orientation toward its own completeness in matter.]
16. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
J. van Brakel, H. Vermeeren On The Philosophy of Chemistry
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While in the research area known,as ’philosophy of science' there is a growing interest in separate disciplines of the empirical sciences, applied sciences and even technologies, one can find hardly any reference to the discipline of chemistry other than some preliminary discussions of chemical concepts or studies concerning the rational reconstruction of the history of chemistry. No analyses, which might be called 'philosophy of chemistry’ can be found to date. It is hoped that this review paper on what has been published on the philosophy of chemistry will show that chemistry is a philosophically rich field. After an introduction, in section 2, a more detailed classification is given of the various areas from which a (marginal) interest in the philosophy of chemistry has emerged.In section 3 there is a review of the opinions on the subject matter of chemistry, be it straightforward definition or indications of the relation to other natural sciences, in particular physics. In section 4 publications on the philosophy of chemistry are reviewed which fit the conventional format of the philosophy of science (discussing laws, theories,explanations , models). In section 5 some of the literature on the concept of chemical species is reviewed. In section 6 and 7 a review of the literature on the concepts of chemical structure and chemical reactions is presented.
17. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Michael Philips David Levy on Perversion
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In "Perversion and the Unnatural as Moral Categories" (Ethics, 90:191-202, January 1980) David Levy argues against a number of theories of perversion by means of the method of counter-example. This is inappropriate since many familiar accounts are not attempts to provide a "one-over-many" formula for a core of clear cases. Rather, like Levy himself, many understand perversions as "unnatural" or "non-human" actions, i.e. as distortions of human nature. Here there is agreement on the intension of the term. Differences in the extension arise in virtue of the relational character of the meaning. For what counts as a distortion of human nature depends on the paradigm of human nature one endorses. In these cases the appropriate way to decide between competing lists of perversions is to evaluate the competing paradigms of human nature on which they rest. Typically these paradigms embody important value assumptions.
18. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
R. I. Sikora Synthetic A Priori Truths In An Artificial Language
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I try to show that there is much sap (synthetic a priori) knowledge although one may not find many, or even any, sap true statements in most natural languages. Reasons are given for the difficulty of expressing sap truths in natural languages, but it is argued that these are not necessary features of language as such. There are, then, sap true statements in some possible languages.Admission of the sap gives one a way of distinguishing logical from metaphysical possiblity. Something is metaphysically impossible just in case it is a sap truth that it is impossible. I argue that the realm of logically possible entities is vastly larger than the realm of metaphysically possible entities.My .defence of the sap begins with a partial defence of the analytic/synthetic distinction. In particular, I attack the intentionality circle argument,Quine's indeterminacy thesis and some applications of the Kripke/Putnam theory of meaning for natural kind terms. Without being a conclusive defence of the analytic/synthetic distinction, this section makes the defence of the sap more secure. Arguments are then mounted in direct defence of the sap by showing that the purported reduction of sap truths to analytic truths is mistaken. Examples are adduced to show that, even where expressions of natural language fail, one can stipulate usage in ways that allow expression of sap truths. I then consider and reply to various objections, giving an example of the sort of meaning theory which illegitimately legislates the analyticity of any purported sap true statement.
19. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Vere Chappell Selected Articles on Locke: A Computerized Bibliography
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This is a list of journal articles and chapters of hooks on locke's philosophy, published in the last fifty years or so. The subjects covered are those treated by locke in the Essay concerning Human Understanding, i.e. metaphysics, theory of knowledge, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, and ethics. The bibliography was produced with the help of a computer, using the INFOL-2 program and RNF text processor. There are 202 distinct items. These are first listed chronologically, then alphabetically; then eight lists of items on special topics, selected from the master list, are given. The special topics are Innate Ideas, Primary and Secondary Qualities, Substance, Personal Identity, language, Essence, Knowledge, and locke and Leibniz.
20. Philosophy Research Archives: Volume > 7
Richard Ingardia Francis Herbert Bradley (1846-1924): A Research Bibliography
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Sorely needed by scholars of nineteenth-century philosophy is a researdh bibliography on Francis Herbert Bradley (1846-1924). The existent bibliographic tools presently available on Bradley are very incomplete, inaccurate, and outdated, making them valueless for serious philosophical research on this very important contemporary philosopher. Every major book, review, doctoral dissertation, article, and note is cited exactly and completely. Approximately a thousand different citations are given indicating the tremendous influence Bradley's thought had on subsequent thinkers and movements. It is no minor thinker who could influence deeply a Russell, James, or Whitehead. Like Plotinus before'him, Bradley's place in philosophy has not been fully appreciated because of the artificial divisions of philosophy proposed by its historians. In any event, this bibliography is offered to scholars whose interests are English Idealism in general and Bradley's philosophic contributions in particular.