What is the relation between a reason and an action when the reason explains the action by giving the agent's reason for doing what he did? We may call such explanations rationalizations, and say that the reason rationalizes the action. In this paper I want to defend the ancient - and common-sense - position that rationalization is a species of ordinary causal explanation. The defense no doubt requires some redeployment, but not more or less complete abandonment of the position, as (...) urged by many recent writers. (shrink)

The subject of this paper, Excuses, is one not to be treated, but only to be introduced, within such limits. It is, or might be, the name of a whole branch, even a ramiculated branch, of philosophy, or at least of one fashion of philosophy. I shall try, therefore, first to state what the subject is, why it is worth studying, and how it may be studied, all this at a regrettably lofty level: and then I shall illustrate, in more (...) congenial but desultory detail, some of the methods to be used, together with their limitations, and some of the unexpected results to be expected and lessons to be learned. Much, of course, of the amusement, and of the instruction, comes in drawing the coverts of the microglot, in hounding down the minutiae, and to this I can do no more here than incite you. But I owe it to the subject to say, that it has long afforded me what philosophy is so often thought, and made, barren of -- the fun of discovery, the pleasures of co-operation, and the satisfaction of reaching agreement. (shrink)

It is my view that one essential difference between persons and other creatures is to be found in the structure of a person's will. Besides wanting and choosing and being moved to do this or that, men may also want to have certain desires and motives. They are capable of wanting to be different, in their preferences and purposes, from what they are. Many animals appear to have the capacity for what I shall call "first-order desires" or "desires of the (...) first order," which are simply desires to do or not to do one thing or another. No animal other than man, however, appears to have the capacity for reflective self-evaluation that is manifested in the formation of second-order desires. (shrink)

Die primäre Aufgabe des Artikels ist es, die Eckpfeiler einer methodisch-kulturalistischen Handlungstheorie einzuschlagen. Zunächst soll die kategoriale Unterscheidung von Handeln und Verhalten und die Notwendigkeit einer philosophischen Handlungstheorie motiviert werden. Darüber hinaus liefert der Aufsatz die terminologischen Grundlagen einer entsprechenden Handlungstheorie und es wird aufgezeigt, wie diese in eine Theorie des Sprechhandelns und eine Theorie der Handlungsdeutung erweitert werden kann.

Zettel, an en face bilingual edition, collects fragments from Wittgenstein's work between 1929 and 1948 on issues of the mind, mathematics, and language.

Voluntary acts are preceded by electrophysiological (RPs). With spontaneous acts involving no preplanning, the main negative RP shift begins at about200 ms. Control experiments, in which a skin stimulus was timed (S), helped evaluate each subject's error in reporting the clock times for awareness of any perceived event.

In the first two sections of the paper, some basic terminological distinctions regarding “freedom of the will” as a philosophical problem are expounded and discussed. On this basis, the third section focuses on the examination of two neurophysiological experiments (one by Benjamin Libet and one by William Grey Walter), which in recent times are often interpreted as providing an empirical vindication of determinism and, accordingly, a refutation of positions maintaining freedom of the will. It will be argued that both experiments (...) fall short in this respect, and that in general—for methodical reasons—the prospects of ever deciding the dispute about freedom of the will through empirical research are rather poor. (shrink)

Since Edmund L. Gettier reminded us recently of a certain important inadequacy of the traditional analysis of "S knows that p," several attempts have been made to correct that analysis. In this paper I shall offer still another analysis (or a sketch of an analysis) of "S knows that p," one which will avert Gettier's problem. My concern will be with knowledge of empirical propositions only, since I think that the traditional analysis is adequate for knowledge of nonempirical truths.

Since the publication of W. V. Quine's classic paper “Epistemology Naturalized” there have been many discussion on the virtues and vices of naturalistic epistemology. Within these discussions not much attention has been paid to a basic question: What makes an epistemology naturalistic? I give an answer by providing a logical geography of competing naturalistic positions. Then I defend naturalistic epistemology against the charge of the so-called causal fallacy. Finally I give a critical appraisal of different naturalistic theories of knowledge and (...) introduce cooperative naturalism as the most promising research strategy. (shrink)

In „Philosophische Grundlagen der Psychologie“ wird eine Wissenschaftstheorie der Psychologie entwickelt. Dabei wird die Psychologie nicht, wie in der Philosophie sonst üblich, in erster Linie im Rahmen des Leib-Seele Problems thematisiert, sondern von den Debatten und Theorien innerhalb der Disziplin her. Der Methodische Kulturalismus bildet den Ausgangspunkt für die philosophische Rekonstruktion psychologischer Grundbegriffe wie "Lernen", "Wahrnehmung", "Aufmerksamkeit", "Vorstellung", "Denken", "Gedächtnis", "Emotion" und "Motivation". Im Anschluss an die Klärung dieser Grundbegriffe wird gezeigt, dass die philosophische Behandlung des Leib-Seele Problems in der (...) Analytischen Philosophie auf einem "zweiten" und "dritten naturalistischen Fehlschluss" beruht. Der zweite Fehlschluss besteht dabei in der Hypostasierung theoretischer Konstrukte und der dritte in der Auffassung, dass den hypostatisierten Konstrukten ein ontologisches und methodisches Primat zukomme. (shrink)

Dieses Buch hat sich die Aufgabe gestellt, den Beitrag der allgemeinen Wissenschaftstheorie der Naturwissenschaften zur Forschungsmethodik des naturwissenschaftlich arbeitenden Zweiges der Psychologie zu erbringen. Im Anschluss an die Ausarbeitung der Programmatik einer Protopsychologie – der Wissenschaftstheorie der Psychologie – werden traditionelle wissenschaftstheoretische Probleme erörtert, welche für die naturwissenschaftliche Psychologie – aber auch für andere Naturwissenschaften – von Relevanz sind. Die Themenpalette reicht hierbei von der Frage nach den wesentlichen Merkmalen von Naturgesetzen bis hin zur Planung, Durchführung und Evaluation von Experimenten. (...) Spezifische Probleme der Psychologie – etwa die Frage nach der methodischen Rolle der Instruktion im psychologischen Experiment – werden dabei jeweils besonders berücksichtigt. (shrink)

This is a new release of the original 1949 edition.

That a science of human conduct is possible, that what any man may do even in moments of the most sober and careful reflection can be understood and explained, has seemed to many a philosopher to cast doubt upon our common view that any human action can ever be said to be truly free. This book, first published in 1961, into crucially important issues that are often ignored in the familiar arguments for and against the possibility of free action. These (...) issues are brought to light and examined in some detail. (shrink)

Hier wird primär ein methodischer Naturalismus diskutiert, der die These vertritt, dass sich alle Phänomene - auch die das Handeln des Menschen und seine Kultur betreffen - mit den Mitteln der Naturwissenschaften vollständig beschreiben und erklären lassen. Aus dieser These folgt zum einen, dass nicht (mehr) zwischen Verhalten und Handeln unterschieden werden kann. Zum anderen folgt, dass die Erkenntnistheorie keine normative Disziplin ist. In Bezug auf den methodischen Naturalismus wird von den Autoren geltend gemacht, dass dessen Thesen eine metaphysische Position (...) konstituieren, die den eigenen metaphysikkritischen Ansprüchen nicht genügt. (shrink)

What is consciousness? Some philosophers have contended that ‘qualia’, or an experiential medium from which consciousness is derived, exists as a fundamental component of reality. Whitehead, for example, described the universe as being comprised of ‘occasions of experience’. To examine this possibility scientifically, the very nature of physical reality must be re-examined. We must come to terms with the physics of space-time -- as is described by Einstein's general theory of relativity -- and its relation to the fundamental theory of (...) matter -- as described by quantum theory. This leads us to employ a new physics of objective reduction: OR which appeals to a form of ‘quantum gravity’ to provide a useful description of fundamental processes at the quantum/classical borderline . Within the OR scheme, we consider that consciousness occurs if an appropriately organized system is able to develop and maintain quantum coherent superposition until a specific ‘objective’ criterion is reached; the coherent system then self-reduces . We contend that this type of objective self-collapse introduces non-computability, an essential feature of consciousness. OR is taken as an instantaneous event -- the climax of a self-organizing process in fundamental space-time -- and a candidate for a conscious Whitehead-like ‘occasion’ of experience. How could an OR process occur in the brain, be coupled to neural activities, and account for other features of consciousness? We nominate an OR process with the requisite characteristics to be occurring in cytoskeletal microtubules within the brain's neurons. (shrink)

This is a critical discussion of the argument that since intentions are "logically connected" with their objects, Intentional actions cannot include intentions as their causes. Various versions of the argument are discussed, And it is argued that none of them shows the causal theory of intention to be inconsistent. It is argued that the causal theory is nevertheless wrong since intentions must be understood teleologically and as being, Therefore, Non-Contingently linked with actions.