Throughout the biological and biomedical sciences there is a growing need for, prescriptive ‘minimum information’ (MI) checklists specifying the key information to include when reporting experimental results are beginning to find favor with experimentalists, analysts, publishers and funders alike. Such checklists aim to ensure that methods, data, analyses and results are described to a level sufficient to support the unambiguous interpretation, sophisticated search, reanalysis and experimental corroboration and reuse of data sets, facilitating the extraction of maximum value from data sets (...) them. However, such ‘minimum information’ MI checklists are usually developed independently by groups working within representatives of particular biologically- or technologically-delineated domains. Consequently, an overview of the full range of checklists can be difficult to establish without intensive searching, and even tracking thetheir individual evolution of single checklists may be a non-trivial exercise. Checklists are also inevitably partially redundant when measured one against another, and where they overlap is far from straightforward. Furthermore, conflicts in scope and arbitrary decisions on wording and sub-structuring make integration difficult. This presents inhibit their use in combination. Overall, these issues present significant difficulties for the users of checklists, especially those in areas such as systems biology, who routinely combine information from multiple biological domains and technology platforms. To address all of the above, we present MIBBI (Minimum Information for Biological and Biomedical Investigations); a web-based communal resource for such checklists, designed to act as a ‘one-stop shop’ for those exploring the range of extant checklist projects, and to foster collaborative, integrative development and ultimately promote gradual integration of checklists. (shrink)

कुछ साल पहले, मैं उस बिंदु पर पहुँच गया जहां मैं आमतौर पर एक किताब के शीर्षक से बता सकते हैं, या कम से कम अध्याय शीर्षक से, दार्शनिक गलतियों के किस प्रकार किया जाएगा और कितनी बार. नाममात्र के वैज्ञानिक कार्यों के मामले में ये काफी हद तक कुछ अध्यायों तक सीमित हो सकते हैं जो दार्शनिक मोमकरते हैं या कार्य के अर्थ या दीर्घकालिक महत्व के बारे में सामान्य निष्कर्ष निकालने का प्रयास करतेहैं। आम तौर पर हालांकि तथ्य (...) के वैज्ञानिक मामलों उदारता से इन तथ्यों का क्या मतलब है के रूप में दार्शनिक अस्पष्ट के साथ interlarded रहे हैं. स्पष्ट भेद जो Wittgenstein वैज्ञानिक मामलों और विभिन्न भाषा के खेल द्वारा उनके विवरण के बीच कुछ 80 साल पहले वर्णित शायद ही कभी ध्यान में रखा जाता है, और इसलिए एक बारी-बारी से विज्ञान द्वारा wowed है और इसके असंबद्ध से निराश विश्लेषण. तो यह इस मात्रा के साथ है. यदि एक हमारे जैसे अधिक या कम एक मन बनाने के लिए है, एक तर्कसंगतता और विचार के दो प्रणालियों की समझ के लिए एक तार्किक संरचना की जरूरत है (दोहरी प्रक्रिया सिद्धांत). यदि एक इस बारे में दर्शन है, एक तथ्य के वैज्ञानिक मुद्दों और कैसे भाषा के मुद्दे पर संदर्भ में काम करता है के दार्शनिक मुद्दे के बीच अंतर को समझने की जरूरत है, और कैसे रिडक्शनिज्म और scientism के नुकसान से बचने के लिए, लेकिन Kurzweil, जैसे सबसे अधिकव्यवहार के छात्रों, काफी हद तक अनजान है. वह मॉडल, सिद्धांतों, और अवधारणाओं से मुग्ध है, और समझाने के लिए आग्रह करता हूं, जबकि Wittgenstein हमें पता चला है कि हम केवल वर्णन करने की जरूरत है, और है कि सिद्धांतों, अवधारणाओं आदि, भाषा का उपयोग करने के सिर्फ तरीके हैं (भाषा का खेल) जो मूल्य केवल insofar के रूप में वे एक स्पष्ट है परीक्षण (स्पष्ट truthmakers, या जॉन Searle (एआई के सबसे प्रसिद्ध आलोचक) के रूप में कहना पसंद करती है, संतोष की स्पष्ट शर्तें (COS)). मैं अपने हाल के लेखन में इस पर एक शुरुआत प्रदान करने का प्रयास किया है. आधुनिक दो systems दृश्यसे मानव व्यवहार के लिए एक व्यापक अप करने के लिए तारीख रूपरेखा इच्छुक लोगों को मेरी पुस्तक 'दर्शन, मनोविज्ञान, मिनडी और लुडविगमें भाषा की तार्किक संरचना से परामर्श कर सकते हैं Wittgenstein और जॉन Searle '2 एड (2019). मेरे लेखन के अधिक में रुचि रखने वालों को देख सकते हैं 'बात कर रहेबंदर- दर्शन, मनोविज्ञान, विज्ञान, धर्म और राजनीति पर एक बर्बाद ग्रह --लेख और समीक्षा 2006-2019 3 एड (2019) और आत्मघाती यूटोपियान भ्रम 21st मेंसदी 4वें एड (2019) . (shrink)

In this paper I argue against Michael Morris’ claim, that the Tractatus view involves holding that the possibility of truth-functional combination is prior to the possibility for sentential constituents to combine with one another. I provide an alternative interpretation in which I deny the presence of any distinction in the Tractatus between these two possibilities. I then turn to Adrian Moore’s ‘disjunctivist’ account of sentencehood, itself inspired by the Tractatus view. I argue that Moore’s account need not involve a (...) commitment to the kind of priority Morris describes, and that it need not involve a commitment to transcendental idealism. (shrink)

The immediate occasion for this special issue was Christia Mercer’s influential paper “The Contextualist Revolution in Early Modern Philosophy”. In her paper, Mercer clearly demarcates two methodologies of the history of early modern philosophy. She argues that there has been a silent contextualist revolution in the past decades, and the reconstructivist methodology has been abandoned. One can easily get the impression that ‘reconstructivist’ has become a pejorative label that everyone outright rejects. Mercer’s examples of reconstructivist historians of philosophy are deceased (...) (P. F. Strawson, Margaret J. Osler, Richard Watson, and Bernard Williams), anonymous (the fans of philosopher* mentioned by Lisa Downing), or authors whose more recent work followed a contextualist methodology (Jonathan Bennett). The reconstructivist camp seems to have turned into a shadowy group, largely extinct by now, not unlike the Death Eaters in the fictional universe of Harry Potter. There are some figures who previously belonged to this group, but they have since reformed their ways – or so it seems. Sometimes it is rumoured that certain people may still have secret allegiance to it, but no one dares to fly its banner openly. We decided to create this special issue because we believe that reconstructivist methodology does not deserve this shadowy existence. (shrink)

Несколько летназад, я достиг точки, где я обычно могу сказать из названия книги, или, по крайней мере, из названия глав, какие философские ошибки будут сделаны и как часто. В случае номинально научных работ они могут быть в значительной степени ограничены определенными главами, которые воск философские или попытаться сделать общие выводы о значении или долгосрочнойперспективезначение работы. Нормально однако научные вопросы факта великодушно interlarded с философски тарабаризом о чего эти факты значат. Четкое различие, которое Витгенштейн описал около 80 лет назад между научными (...) вопросами и их описаниями различными языковыми играми, редко принимаются во внимание, и поэтому человек поочередно поражается наукой и встревожен ее бессвязным анализом. Так и с этим объемом. Если создать ум, более или менее похожий на наш, нужно иметь логическую структуру рациональности и понимание двух систем мышления (теория двойного процесса). Если философия об этом, нужно понимать различие между научными вопросами факта и философский вопрос о том, как язык работает в контексте, о котором идет речь, и о том, как избежать ловушек редукционизма и саентизма, но Kurzweil, как и большинство студентов поведения, в значительной степени невежественны. Он очарован моделями, теориями и понятиями, и желание объяснить, в то время как Витгенштейн показал нам, что нам нужно только описать, и что теории, концепции и т.д., это просто способы использования языка (языковые игры), которые имеют значение только в той мере, в какой они имеют четкий тест (ясные truthmakers, или как Джон Сирл (самый известный критик AI) любит говорить, Я попытался обеспечить начало этого в моих последних трудах. Те, кто желает всеобъемлющего до современных рамок для человеческого поведения из современных двух systEms зрения могут проконсультироваться с моей книгой"Логическая структура философии, психологии, Минd иязык в Людвиг Витгенштейн и Джон Сирл" второй ред (2019). Те, кто заинтересован в более моих сочинений могут увидеть "Говоря обезьян - Философия, психология, наука, религия и политика на обреченной планете - Статьи и обзоры 2006-2019 3-й ed (2019) и suicidal утопических заблуждений в 21-мst веке 4-й ed (2019) th и другие. (shrink)

Alguns anos atrás, cheguei ao ponto onde eu normalmente pode dizer a partir do título de um livro, ou pelo menos a partir dos títulos do capítulo, que tipos de erros filosóficos serão feitas e com que freqüência. No caso de obras nominalmente científicas, estas podem ser largamente restritas a certos capítulos que enceram filosóficos ou tentam tirar conclusões gerais sobre o significado ou significado a longo prazo do trabalho. Normalmente entretanto as matérias científicas do fato são misturado generosa com (...) o jargão filosófico a respeito do que estes fatos significam. As distinções claras que Wittgenstein descreveu cerca de 80 anos atrás entre questões científicas e suas descrições por vários jogos de linguagem são raramente levados em consideração, e assim um é alternadamente impressionados pela ciência e desanimado por sua incoerente Análise. Assim é com este volume. -/- Se alguém é para criar uma mente mais ou menos como a nossa, é preciso ter uma estrutura lógica para a racionalidade e uma compreensão dos dois sistemas de pensamento (teoria do processo dual). Se uma delas é filosofar sobre isso, é preciso entender a distinção entre questões científicas de fato e a questão filosófica de como a linguagem funciona no contexto em questão, e de como evitar as armadilhas do reducionismo e do cientismo, mas Kurzweil, como mais estudantes de comportamento, é em grande parte c sem noção. Ele está encantado com modelos, teorias e conceitos, e o impulso de explicar, enquanto Wittgenstein nos mostrou que só precisamos descrever, e que as teorias, conceitos etc, são apenas maneiras de usar a linguagem (jogos de linguagem) que têm valor apenas na medida em que eles têm uma clara teste (claro que os verdadeiros, ou como John Searle (crítico mais famoso da AI) gosta de dizer, claro condições de satisfação (COS)). Eu tentei fornecer um começo nisto em meus escritos recentes. -/- Aqueles que desejam um quadro até à data detalhado para o comportamento humano da opinião moderna dos dois sistemas consultar meu livros Falando Macacos 3ª Ed (2019), A Estrutura Lógica da Filosofia, Psicologia, Mente e Linguagem em Ludwig Wittgenstein e John Searle 2a Ed (2019), Suicídio Pela Democracia,4aEd(2019), Entendendo as Conexões entre Ciência, Filosofia, Psicologia, Religião, Política e Economia Artigos e Análises 2006-2019 (2019), Ilusões Utópicas Suicidas no 21St século 5a Ed (2019), A Estrutura Lógica do Comportamento Humano (2019), e A Estrutura Lógica da Consciência (2019) y outros. (shrink)

Hace algunos años, Llegué al punto en el que normalmente puedo decir del título de un libro, o al menos de los títulos de los capítulos, qué tipos de errores filosóficos se harán y con qué frecuencia. En el caso de trabajos nominalmente científicos, estos pueden estar en gran parte restringidos a ciertos capítulos que enceran filosóficos o tratan de sacar conclusiones generales sobre el significado o significado a largo plazo de la obra. Normalmente, sin embargo, las cuestiones científicas de (...) hecho se entrelazan generosamente con la galimatías filosóficas en cuanto a lo que estos hechos significan. Las claras distinciones que Wittgenstein describió hace unos 80 años entre los asuntos científicos y sus descripciones por varios juegos de idiomas rara vez se toman en consideración, y por lo tanto uno es cautivado alternativamente por la ciencia y consternado por su incoherente Análisis. Así es con este volumen. -/- Si uno es crear una mente más o menos como la nuestra, uno necesita tener una estructura lógica para la racionalidad y una comprensión de los dos sistemas de pensamiento (teoría del proceso dual). Si se trata de filosofar sobre esto, se necesita entender la distinción entre cuestiones científicas de hecho y la cuestión filosófica de cómo funciona el lenguaje en el contexto en cuestión, y de cómo evitar las trampas del reduccionismo y el cientismo, pero Kurzweil, como más estudiantes de conducta, no tiene ni idea. Él está encantado con los modelos, teorías y conceptos, y el impulso de explicar, mientras que Wittgenstein nos mostró que sólo necesitamos describir, y que las teorías, conceptos, etc., son sólo formas de usar el lenguaje (juegos de idiomas) que tienen valor sólo en la medida en que tienen un claro prueba (claro que los creadores de la verdad, o como John Searle (el crítico más famoso de AI) le gusta decir, claras condiciones de satisfacción (COS)). He intentado proporcionar un comienzo en este en mis escritos recientes. -/- Aquellos que deseen un marco completo hasta la fecha para el comportamiento humano de la moderna dos sistemas punta da vista puede consultar mi libro 'La estructura lógica de la filosofía, la psicología, la mente y lenguaje en Ludwig Wittgenstein y John Searle ' 2a ED (2019). Los interesados en más de mis escritos pueden ver 'Monos parlantes--filosofía, psicología, ciencia, religión y política en un planeta condenado--artículos y reseñas 2006-2019 3rd ED (2019) y Delirios utópicos suicidas en el siglo 21 4a Ed (2019) y otras. -/- También, como es habitual en las cuentas "fácticas" de la IA/robótica, no da tiempo a las amenazas muy reales a nuestra privacidad, seguridad e incluso la supervivencia de la creciente ' androidización ' de la sociedad que es prominente en otros autores (Bostrum, Hawking, etc.) y frecuentes en SciFi y películas, así que hago algunos comentarios sobre las delirios utópicos muy posiblemente suicidas de androides ' agradables ', humanoides, inteligencia artificial (IA), la democracia, la diversidad y la ingeniería genética. -/- Me da por sentado que los avances técnicos en electrónica, robótica e IA ocurrirán, resultando en profundos cambios en la sociedad. Sin embargo, creo que los cambios provenientes de la ingeniería genética son al menos tan grandes y potencialmente mucho mayores, ya que nos permitirán cambiar totalmente Quiénes somos. Y será factible hacer servidores SuperSmart/súper fuertes modificando nuestros genes o los de otros monos. Al igual que con otras tecnologías, cualquier país que resista se quedará atrás. Pero, ¿será socialmente y económicamente factible implementar BioBots o superhumanos a gran escala? E incluso si es así, no parece Probable, económica o socialmente, para evitar que el Destrucción de la civilización industrial por la sobrepoblación, el agotamiento de los recursos, el cambio climático y probablemente también la regla tiránica de los siete sociópatas que gobiernan China. -/- Por lo tanto, ignorando los errores filosóficos en este volumen como irrelevantes, y dirigiendo nuestra atención sólo a la ciencia, lo que tenemos aquí es otra ilusión utópica suicida enraizada en el fracaso de captar la biología básica, la psicología y la ecología humana, las mismas ilusiones que están destruyendo Estados Unidos y el mundo. Veo una remota posibilidad de que el mundo se pueda salvar, pero no por Ia robótica, CRISPR, ni por neomarxismo, diversidad y la igualdad. (shrink)

몇 년전, 저는 보통 책의 제목이나 적어도 장 제목에서 어떤 종류의 철학적 실수를 저지르고 얼마나 자주 알 수 있는지 를 알 수 있는 지점에 도달했습니다. 명목상 과학적 작품의 경우, 이들은 크게 철학적 왁스 또는 의미 또는 긴에 대한 일반적인 결론을 그리려는 특정 장으로 제한 될 수있다-작업의기간 의의. 그러나 일반적으로 사실의 과학적 문제는 이러한 사실이 무엇을 의미하는지에 관해서는 철학적 횡설수설과 관대하게 얽혀있다. Wittgenstein이 약 80 년 전에 과학 문제와 다양한 언어 게임에 의한 설명 사이에 설명 한 명확한 차이점은 거의 고려되지 않으므로 (...) 과학에 의해 번갈아 열광하고 일관되지 않은 분석에 의해 실망합니다. 그래서이 볼륨입니다. 우리처럼 마음을 만들려면 합리성을 위한 논리적 구조와 두 가지 사상 체계(이중 프로세스 이론)에 대한 이해가 필요합니다. 이것에 대해 철학적으로 생각한다면, 사실의 과학적 문제와 언어가 문제의 맥락에서 어떻게 작동하는지에 대한 철학적 문제, 그리고 환원주의와 사이언티즘의 함정을 피하는 방법의 차이를 이해해야하지만, 커즈와일은 대부분의 행동 학생들처럼 대체로 단서가 없다. 그는 모델, 이론, 개념, 그리고 설명 하는 충 동에 의해 매료, Wittgenstein 우리가 설명 하는 데 필요한 것을 보여 주었다 하는 동안, 그리고 이론, 개념 등, 그들은 명확한 테스트 (명확한 진실 제작자, 또는 존 Searle (AI의 가장 유명한 비평가)를 좋아하는, 명확한 조건(명확한 진실 제작자)를 가지고 있는 한, 가치있는 언어 (언어 게임)를 사용하는 단지 방법입니다. 나는 나의 최근 글에서 이것에 대한 시작을 제공하기 위해 시도했다. 현대 의 두 시스템 보기에서인간의 행동에 대한 포괄적 인 최신 프레임 워크를 원하는 사람들은 내 책을 참조 할 수 있습니다'철학의 논리적 구조, 심리학, 민d와 루드비히 비트겐슈타인과 존 Searle의언어' 2nd ed (2019). 내 글의 더 많은 관심있는 사람들은 '이야기 원숭이를 볼 수 있습니다-철학, 심리학, 과학, 종교와 운명 행성에 정치 - 기사 및 리뷰 2006-2019 3 rd 에드 (2019) 및 21st 세기 4번째 에드 (2019) 및 기타에서 자살 유토피아 망상. 또한, AI/로봇 공학의 '사실' 계정에서 평소와 같이 그는 우리의 개인 정보 보호, 안전, 심지어 다른 저자 (Bostrum, 호킹등)에서 눈에 띄는 사회의 증가 '안드로이드화'에서 심지어 생존에 매우 실제 위협에 시간을 제공하지 않습니다, 그래서 나는 '좋은'안드로이드, 휴머노이드, 인공 지능 (AI), 인공 지능의 매우 자살 유토피아 망상에 대한 몇 가지 의견을 합니다. 저는 전자, 로봇 공학 및 AI의 기술적 발전이 사회에 중대한 변화를 초래할 것이라는 점을 당연하게 생각합니다. 그러나, 나는 유전 공학에서 오는 변경은 우리가 우리가 누구인지 완전히 바꿀 수 있게 해 줄 것이기 때문에 적어도 크고 잠재적으로 훨씬 더 크다고 생각합니다. 그리고 우리의 유전자 또는 다른 원숭이의 유전자를 수정하여 슈퍼 스마트 / 슈퍼 강한 종을 만드는 것이 가능할 것입니다. 다른 기술과 마찬가지로, 저항하는 모든 국가는 뒤에 남아있을 것입니다. 그러나 대규모로 바이오봇이나 초인간을 구현하는 것이 사회적, 경제적으로 실현 가능할까요? 그리고 그렇다 하더라도 인구 과잉, 자원 고갈, 기후 변화, 그리고 아마도 중국을 통치하는 일곱 사회경로의 독재적 통치에 의한 산업 문명의 파괴를 막기 위해 경제적, 사회적으로, 는 가능성이없어 보인다. 그래서, 이 볼륨의 철학적 실수를 무시하고, 과학에만 우리의 관심을 지시, 우리가 여기에 있는 것은 기본 생물학, 심리학 및 인간의 생태학, 미국과 세계를 파괴하는 동일한 망상을 파악하는 실패에 뿌리를 둔 또 다른 자살 유토피아 망상입니다. 나는 세계가 구원 될 수있는 원격 가능성을 볼 수 있지만, AI / 로봇 공학, CRISPR, 또는 신마르크스주의, 다양성과 평등에 의해. (shrink)

几年前,我通常可以从书名中分辨出什么,或者至少从章节标题中看出,会犯什么样的哲学错误,以及错误的频率。就名义上的科学著作而言,这些可能在很大程度上局限于某些章节,这些章节具有哲学意义或试图得出关于该作 品的意义或长期意义的一般性结论。然而,通常情况下,事实的科学问题慷慨地与哲学的胡言乱语,这些事实意味着什么。维特根斯坦在大约80年前描述的科学问题与各种语言游戏所描述的明确区别很少被考虑,因此人们交替 地被科学所震惊,并因它的不连贯而感到沮丧。分析。因此,这是与这个卷。 如果一个人要创造一个或多或少像我们一样的头脑,一个人需要有一个理性的逻辑结构,并理解两种思想体系(双过程理论)。如果一个人要对此进行哲学思考,就需要理解科学事实问题与语言如何在问题语境中工作,以及如何 避免还原主义和科学主义的陷阱的哲学问题之间的区别,但Kurzweil,如最学生的行为,基本上都是无知的。他被模型、理论和概念所陶醉,以及解释的冲动,而维特根斯坦向我们表明,我们只需要描述,理论、概念等 只是使用语言(语言游戏)的方式,只有它们有明确的价值测试(清晰的真理制造者,或约翰西尔(AI最著名的批评家)喜欢说,明确的满意条件(COS))。我试图在我最近的著作中对此作一个开端。 那些希望从现代两个系统的观点来看为人类行为建立一个全面的最新框架的人,可以查阅我的书《路德维希的哲学、心理学、Mind 和语言的逻辑结构》维特根斯坦和约翰·西尔的《第二部》(2019年)。那些对我更多的作品感兴趣的人可能会看到《会说话的猴子——一个末日星球上的哲学、心理学、科学、宗教和政治——文章和评论2006-201 9年第3次(2019年)和自杀乌托邦幻想21篇世纪4日 (2019) .

数年前、私は本のタイトルから、あるいは少なくとも章のタイトルから、どのような哲学的な間違いが起こり、どのくらいの頻度で分かることができるところまで達しました。名目上の科学的な研究の場合、これらは主に哲 学的なワックスや作品の意味または長期的な意義に関する一般的な結論を引き出そうとする特定の章に制限される可能性があります-。しかし、通常、事実の科学的な問題は、これらの事実が何を意味するのかについて、哲 学的なちんぷんかんぷんと寛大に絡み合っています。ヴィトゲンシュタインが約80年前に科学的な問題と様々な言語ゲームによる記述の間で述べた明確な区別はめったに考慮されないので、1つは交互に科学に驚き、その 支離滅裂な分析に失望しています。だから、このボリュームです。 多かれ少なかれ私たちのような心を作るのであれば、合理性と思考の2つのシステム(二重プロセス理論)の理解のための論理的な構造を持っている必要があります。このことについて哲学するならば、事実の科学的問題と 、問題となっている文脈における言語の仕組みの哲学的問題と、還元主義とサイエンティズムの落とし穴を避ける方法の区別を理解する必要がありますが、カーツワイルは、ほとんどの行動学生と同様に、ほとんど手がかり がない。彼はモデル、理論、概念、そして説明したいという衝動に魅了されていますが、ヴィトゲンシュタインは、私たちが記述する必要があり、理論、概念などは、明確なテストを持っている限り価値のある言語(言語ゲ ーム)を使用する方法にすぎないことを示しました(明確な真実主義者、またはジョン・サール(AIの最も有名な批評家)が言うのが好きです。私は最近の著作でこれに関するスタートを提供しようとしました。 現代の2つのシス・エムスの見解から人間の行動のための包括的な最新の枠組みを望む人は、私の著書「ルートヴィヒ・ヴィトゲンシュタインとジョン・サールの第2回(2019)における哲学、心理学、ミンと言語の論 理的構造」を参照することができます。私の著作の多くにご興味がある人は、運命の惑星における「話す猿--哲学、心理学、科学、宗教、政治―記事とレビュー2006-2019 第3回(2019)」と21世紀4日(2019年)の自殺ユートピア妄想st Century 4th ed (2019)などを見ることができます。 .

Il ya quelques années, j’ai atteint le point où je peux généralement dire à partir du titre d’un livre, ou du moins à partir des titres chapitre, quels types d’erreurs philosophiques seront faites et à quelle fréquence. Dans le cas des travaux théoriquement scientifiques, ceux-ci peuvent être largement limités à certains chapitres qui cire philosophique ou essayer de tirer des conclusions générales sur le sens ou la signification à long terme de l’œuvre. Normalement, cependant, les questions scientifiques de fait sont (...) généreusement entrecoupées de charabia philosophique quant à ce que ces faits signifient. Les distinctions claires que Wittgenstein a décrites il y a environ 80 ans entre les questions scientifiques et leurs descriptions par divers jeux linguistiques sont rarement prises en considération, et on est donc tour à tour séduit par la science et consterné par son analyse incohérente. Il en est de même pour ce volume. Si l’on veut créer un esprit plus ou moins comme le nôtre, il faut avoir une structure logique de rationalité et une compréhension des deux systèmes de pensée (théorie du double processus). Si l’on veut philosopher à ce sujet, il faut comprendre la distinction entre les questions scientifiques de fait et la question philosophique de la façon dont le langage fonctionne dans le contexte en cause, et de la façon d’éviter les pièges du réductionnisme et du scientisme, mais Kurzweil, comme la plupart des étudiants de comportement, est largement désemparé. Il est enchanté par les modèles, les théories et les concepts, et l’envie d’expliquer, tandis que Wittgenstein nous a montré que nous n’avons qu’à décrire, et que les théories, les concepts, etc., ne sont que des moyens d’utiliser le langage (jeux linguistiques) qui n’ont de valeur que dans la mesure où ils ont un test clair (les véridiques clairs, ou comme John Searle (le critique le plus célèbre de l’IA) aime à dire, claire conditions de satisfaction (COS)). J’ai essayé de donner un début à ce sujet dans mes écrits récents. (shrink)

Vor einigen, Jahren habe ich den Punkt erreicht, an dem ich normalerweise aus dem Titel eines Buches oder zumindest aus den Kapiteltiteln erzähle, welche philosophischen Fehler gemacht werden und wie häufig. Bei nominell wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten können diese weitgehend auf bestimmte Kapitel beschränkt sein, die philosophisch werden oder versuchen, allgemeine Schlussfolgerungen über die Bedeutung oder langfristige-Bedeutung des Werkes zuziehen. Normalerweise sind die wissenschaftlichen Fakten jedoch großzügig mit philosophischem Kauderwelsch darüber, was diese Tatsachen bedeuten, verwogen. Die klaren Unterscheidungen, die Wittgenstein vor etwa (...) 80 Jahren zwischen wissenschaftlichen Fragen und deren Beschreibungen durch verschiedene Sprachspiele beschrieb, werden selten berücksichtigt, so dass man abwechselnd von der Wissenschaft begeistert und von ihrer inkohärenten Analyse bestürzt ist. So ist es mit diesem Band. Wenn man einen Geist mehr oder weniger wie unseren erschaffen soll, braucht man eine logische Struktur für Rationalität und ein Verständnis der beiden Denksysteme (Dual-Prozess-Theorie). Wenn man darüber philosophieren will, muss man die Unterscheidung zwischen wissenschaftlichen Faktenfragen und der philosophischen Frage verstehen, wie Sprache im streitigen Kontext funktioniert und wie man die Fallstricke von Reduktionismus und Scientismus vermeiden kann, aber Kurzweil ist, wie die meisten Verhaltensstudenten, weitgehend ahnungslos. Er ist verzaubert von Modellen, Theorien und Konzepten und dem Erklärungsdrang, während Wittgenstein uns gezeigt hat, dass wir nur beschreiben müssen, und dass Theorien, Konzepte usw. nur Wege der Verwendung von Sprache (Sprachspiele) sind, die nur einen Wert haben, da sie einen klaren Test haben (klare Wahrheitsmacher, oder wie John Searle (der berühmteste Kritiker der AI) gerne sagt, klare Bedingungen der Zufriedenheit (COS). Ich habe versucht, in meinen jüngsten Schriften damit einen Anfang zu machen. Wer aus der modernen zweisystems-Sichteinen umfassenden, aktuellen Rahmen für menschliches Verhalten wünscht, kann mein Buch "The Logical Structure of Philosophy, Psychology, Mindand Language in Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Searle' 2nd ed (2019) konsultieren. Diejenigen,die sich für mehr meiner Schriften interessieren, können 'Talking Monkeys--Philosophie, Psychologie, Wissenschaft, Religion und Politik auf einem verdammten Planeten --Artikel und Rezensionen 2006-2019 3rd ed (2019) und Suicidal Utopian Delusions in the 21st Century 4th ed (2019) und andere sehen. (shrink)

MICHAEL Ruse aims to describe what scientists actually do in their research and how they arrive at their theories — a mixed bag of false starts, fallacious reasoning, the cultivation of followers, the marketing of ideas and so on. His approach, evolutionary naturalism, rejects the traditional distinction between the normative and the descriptive analysis of science. For him the path of discovery to, say, Darwin's theory of natural selection makes a difference to the theory itself, whereas for the normative (...) analyst it is just history. Normative analysts (who probably include most readers of Nature) would say that the logical structure of the theory, its truth or falsity and its relevance to the objective problem can all be assessed independently of the route of discovery. I defend the normative analysis of scientific method against philosophical naturalism. I defend the role of objective standards and logical rules of argumentation. (shrink)

This collection of essays by acclaimed philosophers explores Bertrand Russell's influence on one of the dominant philosophical approaches of this century. Michael Dummett argues that analytical philosophy began with Gottlob Frege's analysis of numbers. Frege had begun by inquiring about the nature of number, but found it more fruitful to ask instead about the meanings of sentences containing number words. Russell was to exploit this method systematically. I reflect on the essays of Charles R. Pigden, David Lewis as an (...) exponent of a variant of Russell's position: the good is what we are ideally disposed to desire to desire, and Greenspan's suggestion that Russell adopted some element of the Marxist theory on morals. (shrink)

Some years ago I reached the point where I can usually tell from the title of a book, or at least from the chapter titles, what kinds of philosophical mistakes will be made and how frequently. In the case of nominally scientific works these may be largely restricted to certain chapters which wax philosophical or try to draw general conclusions about the meaning or long term significance of the work. Normally however the scientific matters of fact are generously interlarded with (...) philosophical gibberish as to what these facts mean. The clear distinctions which Wittgenstein described some 80 years ago between scientific matters and their descriptions by various language games are rarely taken into consideration, and so one is alternately wowed by the science and dismayed by its incoherent analysis. So it is with this volume. -/- If one is to create a mind more or less like ours, one needs to have a logical structure for rationality and an understanding of the two systems of thought (dual process theory). If one is to philosophize about this, one needs to understand the distinction between scientific issues of fact and the philosophical issue of how language works in the context at issue, and of how to avoid the pitfalls of reductionism and scientism, but Kurzweil, like nearly all students of behavior, is largely clueless. He, is enchanted by models, theories, and concepts, and the urge to explain, while Wittgenstein showed us that we only need to describe, and that theories, concepts etc., are just ways of using language (language games) which have value only insofar as they have a clear test (clear truthmakers, or as John Searle (AI’s most famous critic) likes to say, clear Conditions of Satisfaction (COS)). I have attempted to provide a start on this in my recent writings, such as The Logical Structure of Consciousness (behavior, personality, rationality, higher order thought, intentionality) (2016) and The Logical Structure of Philosophy, Psychology, Mind and Language as Revealed in the Writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Searle (2016). Those interested in all my writings in their most recent versions may consult my e-book Philosophy, Human Nature and the Collapse of Civilization - Articles and Reviews 2006-2016 662p (2016). I will give a very brief presentation of this framework since I have described it in great detail in many recent papers and several books, available on this site and others. -/- Also, as usual in ‘factual’ accounts of AI/robotics, he gives no time to the very real threats to our privacy, safety and even survival from the increasing ‘androidizing’ of society which is prominent in other authors (Bostrum, Hawking etc.) and frequent in scifi and films, so I make a few comments on the quite possibly suicidal utopian delusions of ‘nice’ androids, humanoids, democracy, diversity, and genetic engineering. -/- I take it for granted that technical advances in electronics, robotics and AI will occur, resulting in profound changes in society. However, I think the changes coming from genetic engineering are at least as great and potentially far greater, as they will enable us to utterly change who we are. And it will be feasible to make supersmart/super strong servants by modifying our genes or those of other monkeys. As with other technology, any country that resists will be left behind. But will it be socially and economically feasible to implement biobots or superhumans on a massive scale? And even if so, it does not seem remotely possible, economically or socially to prevent the collapse of industrial civilization. So, ignoring the philosophical mistakes in this volume as irrelevant, and directing our attention only to the science, what we have here is another suicidal utopian delusion rooted in a failure to grasp basic biology, psychology and human ecology, the same delusions that are destroying America and the world. I see a remote possibility the world can be saved, but not by AI/robotics,CRISPR, nor by democracy and equality. -/- Those wishing a comprehensive up to date framework for human behavior from the modern two systems view may consult my book ‘The Logical Structure of Philosophy, Psychology, Mind and Language in Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Searle’ 2nd ed (2019). Those interested in more of my writings may see ‘Talking Monkeys--Philosophy, Psychology, Science, Religion and Politics on a Doomed Planet--Articles and Reviews 2006-2019 3rd ed (2019), The Logical Structure of Human Behavior (2019), and Suicidal Utopian Delusions in the 21st Century 4th ed (2019). (shrink)

Alcuni anni fa, ho raggiunto il punto in cui di solito posso dire dal titolo di un libro, o almeno dai titoli dei capitoli, quali tipi di errori filosofici saranno fatti e con quale frequenza. Nel caso di opere nominalmente scientifiche queste possono essere in gran parte limitate a determinati capitoli che sono filosofici o cercanodi trarre conclusioni generali sul significato o sul significato a lungoterminedell'opera. Normalmente però le questioni scientifiche di fatto sono generosamente intrecciate con incomprodellami filosofici su ciò (...) che questi fatti significano. Le chiare distinzioni che Wittgenstein ha descritto circa 80 anni fa tra le questioni scientifiche e le loro descrizioni da parte di vari giochi linguistici sono raramente prese in considerazione, e quindi si è alternativamente stupiti dalla scienza e costerghi per la sua analisi incoerente. Così è con questo volume. Se si vuole creare una mente più o meno come la nostra, è necessario avere una struttura logica per la razionalità e la comprensione dei due sistemi di pensiero (teoria del doppio processo). Se si vuole filosofare su questo, bisogna capire la distinzione tra le questioni scientifiche di fatto e la questione filosofica di come funziona il linguaggio nel contesto in questione, e di come evitare le insidie del riduzionismo e dello scientismo, ma Kurzweil, come la maggior parte degli studenti di comportamento, è in gran parte all'oscuro. Egli è incantato da modelli, teorie e concetti, e dalla voglia di spiegare, mentre Wittgenstein ci ha mostrato che dobbiamo solo descrivere, e che le teorie, i concetti, ecc., sono solo modi di usare il linguaggio (giochi linguistici) che hanno valore solo nella misura in cui hanno un test chiaro (clear truthmakers, o come John Searle (il critico più famoso di AI) ama dire, chiare condizioni di soddisfazione (COS)). Ho cercato di dare un inizio su questo nei miei scritti recenti. Coloro che desiderano un quadro aggiornato completo per il comportamento umano dalla moderna vista a due systems possono consultare il mio libro 'La struttura logica della filosofia, psicologia, mente e il linguaggio in Ludwig Wittgenstein e John Searle' 2nd ed (2019). Coloro che sono interessati a più dei miei scritti possono vedere 'Talking Monkeys--Filosofia, Psicologia, Scienza, Religione e Politica su un Pianeta Condannato--Articoli e Recensioni 2006-2019 3rd ed (2019) e Suicidal Utopian Delusions in the 21st Century 5th ed (2019) . (shrink)

By re-examining Nietzsche's notion of the “eternal-feminine” and his views on women and feminism, this volume offers new perspectives on some of his key ideas. It brings together a diverse group of scholars to critically engage with Nietzsche's use of late-19th-century gender stereotypes and the ways in which they served his critique of values, including his use of “woman” as a trope for truth. -/- Among other subjects, the contributors consider the role of psychology in Nietzsche's thought, his concern with (...) style, self-creation, and advocacy of perfectionism, his views on romantic love and marriage, and his aim of revaluing all values to instigate a distant philosophy of the future. They investigate parallels between Nietzsche's thought and Shaktism, his relation to Goethe and Stendahl, and his influence on Beauvoir, Butler, and Dohm. With the inclusion of two seminal essays on Nietzsche and women by Lawrence J. Hatab and Kelly Oliver, the volume also illustrates some of the ways in which scholarship on these subjects has evolved over the last four decades. -/- Providing fresh insights into these inter-related subjects, Nietzsche on Women and the Eternal-Feminine highlights the enduring relevance of his thought and its still-underappreciated potential for re-thinking both the bases for and aims of feminism and other emancipatory movements. (shrink)

To what extent can Nietzsche's idea of the Overman be used in connection with transhumanist notions of highly advanced humans and even posthumans?

What exactly do we mean when we refer to disability as a social construction? How viable are the justifications for this? These questions are explored in this paper. To this end, various theories that are influential in German-language disability studies are examined and criticised. These include Oliver's social model, furthermore the "Thomas theorem", Berger and Luckmann's sociology of knowledge, Foucault's discourse theory and Waldschmidt's theory. Subsequently, social constructivist approaches of Watzlawick and Gergen and Gergen are discussed. It is shown (...) that a relativistic understanding of social construction can be used to deny facticity and thus undermines the foundations of scientific knowledge. This danger must be taken seriously when defending the scientificity of disability studies. (shrink)

Semantic essentialism holds that any scientific term that appears in a well-confirmed scientific theory has a fixed kernel of meaning. Semantic essentialism cannot make sense of the strategies scientists use to argue for their views. Newton's central optical expression "light ray" suggests a context-sensitive view of scientific language. On different occasions, Newton's expression could refer to different things depending on his particular argumentative goals - a visible beam, an irreducibly smallest section of propagating light, or a traveling particle of light. (...) Essentialist views are too crude to account for the richness and subtleties present in actual episodes of scientific debate and theory-change. (shrink)

Book Review of: Lara Denis and Oliver Sensen (Eds.). Kant’s Lectures on Ethics: A Critical Guide. Cambridge University Press, 2015.

The open secret of analytic philosophy of religion since its 20th century revival has been that it is for the most part a revival of philosophical theology, and particularly Christian philosophical theology. More recently, Christian analytic philosophers and theologians sympathetic to them have transformed this open secret into a research program by explicitly thematizing the use of analytic philosophical tools for the particular work of Christian theology. Dubbing this work as “analytic theology” (AT) Oliver Crisp and Michael Rea (...) have succeeded in inaugurating AT as a distinct subregion in the philosophy of religion. Besides prompting a spate of first-rate philosophical work theorizing a variety of Christian theological commitments, the advent of AT has also prompted a good deal of meta-theological reflection: Is AT more conducive for certain conceptions of Christian theology than others? Among the various kinds of theology produced by AT, liberation theology is notably absent. In this paper, I offer a diagnosis of why that might be, outline an argument for analytic engagement with liberation theology, and sketch what such an engagement might consist in. (shrink)

2021 marks Dylan's 80th birthday and his 60th year in the music world. It invites us to look back on his career and the multitudes that it contains. Is he a song and dance man? A political hero? A protest singer? A self-portrait artist who has yet to paint his masterpiece? Is he Shakespeare in the alley? The greatest living exponent of American music? An ironsmith? Internet radio DJ? Poet (who knows it)? Is he a spiritual and religious parking meter? (...) Judas? The voice of a generation or a false prophet, jokerman, and thief? Dylan is all these and none. The essays in this book explore the Nobel laureate’s masks, collectively reflecting upon their meaning through time, change, movement, and age. They are written by wonderful and diverse set of contributors, all here for his 80th birthday bash: celebrated Dylanologists like Michael Gray and Laura Tenschert; recording artists such as Robyn Hitchcock, Barb Jungr, Amy Rigby, and Emma Swift; and 'the professors’ who all like his looks: David Boucher, Anne Margaret Daniel, Ray Monk, Galen Strawson, and more. Read it on your toaster! (shrink)

We introduce a fairness criterion that we call Spanning. Spanning i) is implied by Calibration, ii) retains interesting properties of Calibration that some other ways of relaxing that criterion do not, and iii) unlike Calibration and other prominent ways of weakening it, is consistent with Equalized Odds outside of trivial cases.

Philosophers often claim that studying philosophy helps people to become better thinkers. Thanks to a grant from the American Philosophical Association, we were able to test this claim empirically, using a large sample of students (N = 122,352) graduating from 369 colleges and universities across the United States between 2010 and 2019. We investigated whether philosophy majors show more growth than non-philosophy majors in intellectual traits like open-mindedness and a tendency to think carefully and thoroughly, as well as more personal (...) forms of growth that might be fostered by philosophical study (e.g., self-understanding). Additionally, although this was not our primary question, we sought to better understand what students who major in philosophy are like. Specifically, we examined the demographics of philosophy majors, the other subjects that they tend to study when they double major, and the patterns of adding and dropping of philosophy majors between freshman and senior year. (shrink)

In this essay, I discuss in detail two of the earliest such documentaries: Death Mills (1945), directed by Billy Wilder; and Nazi Concentration Camps (1945), directed by George Stevens. Both film-makers were able to get direct footage of the newly-liberated concentration camps from the U.S. Army. Wilder served as a Colonel in the U.S. Army’s Psychological Warfare department in 1945 and was tasked with producing a documentary on the death camps as well as helping to restart Germany’s film industry. I (...) next review the great French Holocaust documentary Night and Fog (1955), directed by Alain Resnais. This was a widely acclaimed film, winning the Prix Jean Vigo in 1956. Resnais employed a camp survivor (Jean Cayrol) to write the dialogue, and it is powerful, indeed, truly lyrical in places. The last film I review in the essay is a generally overlooked British Thames Television documentary, Genocide: 1941-1945 (1974), directed by Michael Darlow (and narrated by Sir Laurence Oliver). It was the first of the major Holocaust documentaries to focus on the point that the Nazi genocide targeted first and foremost the Jewish people, and to explore the development of Nazi racial theory, and the rise of the SS. (shrink)

Psychopaths exhibit diminished ability to grieve. Here I address whether this inability can be explained by the trademark feature of psychopaths, namely, their diminished capacity for interpersonal empathy. I argue that this hypothesis turns out to be correct, but requires that we conceptualize empathy not merely as an ability to relate (emotionally and ethically) to other individuals but also as an ability to relate to past and present iterations of ourselves. This reconceptualization accords well with evidence regarding psychopaths’ intense focus (...) on the temporal present and difficulties in engaging in mental time travel, as well as with the essentially egocentric and identity-based nature of grief. -/- . (shrink)

In this paper I argue that philosophers of sport should avoid value-laden definitions of sport; that is, they should avoid building into the definition of sport that they are inherently worthwhile activities. Sports may very well often be worthwhile as a contingent matter, but this should not be taken to be a core feature included in the definition of sport. I start by outlining what I call the ‘legitimacy-conferring’ element of the category ‘sport’. I then argue that we ought not (...) to include such a dimension in our definition of sport, on the grounds that it confuses issues of description with issues of definition: the issue of what sport does with what sport is. Following this, I consider a Wittgensteinian family resemblance approach to defining sport; Kevin Schieman’s argument that sports are necessarily good games; and the oft-cited wide-following and institutional criteria, as arguments for including an evaluative dimension in the definition of sport. I conclude that none succeed, for similar reasons: they either fail to track our common sense intuitions about what does or does not count as a sport; and/or they make it impossible for us to ever describe something a ‘bad’ sport (or instance of sport). Just as a good definition of, say, art, shouldn’t make it impossible for us to describe something as ‘bad art’, I argue that our definition of sport shouldn’t build in a necessarily positive evaluation. I conclude by discussing some of the practical reasons why supporters of activities about which there is currently debate as to their status as sports might want to see those activities included under the sports umbrella, but suggest that this on its own isn’t a good reason for modifying a philosophical definition of sport to include them. (shrink)

Marine ecosystems are under increasing pressure from human activity, yet successful management relies on knowledge. The evidence-based policy (EBP) approach has been promoted on the grounds that it provides greater transparency and consistency by relying on ‘high quality’ information. However, EBP also creates epistemic responsibilities. Decision-making where limited or no empirical evidence exists, such as is often the case in marine systems, creates epistemic obligations for new information acquisition. We argue that philosophical approaches can inform the science-policy interface. Using marine (...) biosecurity examples, we specifically examine the epistemic challenges in the acquisition and acceptance of evidence to inform policy, discussing epistemic due care and biases in consideration of evidence. (shrink)

Since Case and Deaton (2015) coined the term ‘deaths of despair,’ there has been significant empirical work and public interest in the topic. Yet social scientists studying this topic lament the absence of a clear theory of despair. Philosophical inquiry into the nature and value of hope has begun to fill this gap, with despair often cited as the opposite of hope. The assumption that hope and despair are opposites has helped to motivate two central tasks in the literature: how (...) a theory of hope can make sense of the difference between hope and despair, and how hope might prevent people from falling into despair. Yet the focus of inquiry has been principally on hope. This paper builds on the existing literature to offer a theory of despair. We argue that despair is a mode of sadness whereby one experiences the loss of reasons to take seriously that which one desires. Our account of despair captures a set of desiderata that any theory of despair should explain, and it offers useful conceptual resources to social scientists studying deaths of despair. (shrink)

A very influential idea in the epistemology of modality is that we acquire knowledge of metaphysical modality through knowledge of essence. As a consequence, the epistemology of essence becomes crucial in the attempt to answer the question of how we come to know modal propositions. In this paper I investigate Lowe’s and Hale’s approach to the epistemology of essence and argue that both of them remain in a crucial, structural sense incomplete. Systematizing this criticism against Lowe and Hale, I then (...) break down desiderata of what I call a structurally complete picture of the epistemology of essence. Finally, I discuss Husserl’s epistemology of essence and defend it against a notorious objection. However, Husserl’s approach also seems to remain incomplete, due to its appeal to imagination, which operates on the basis of background assumptions that are themselves in need of justification. I indicate, however, that a Husserlian theory of intuitive awareness of universals might supply us with (direct) justification of these background assumptions and, hence, that we might be able to paint a structurally complete picture of the epistemology of essence with Husserlian means. (shrink)

This study explores the relationship between perceptions of catastrophic events and beliefs about climate change. Using data from the 2023 Life in Transition Survey, the study finds that contrary to conventional wisdom, more accurate knowledge about past catastrophes is associated with lower concern about climate change. The paper proposes that heightened threat sensitivity may underlie both the tendency to overestimate disaster impacts and increased concern about climate change. The findings challenge the assumption that a more informed citizenry necessarily leads to (...) better climate policy decisions. Instead, they suggest that psychological factors, like anxiety and risk perception, play crucial roles in shaping climate attitudes. Illuminating these dynamics can help societies to foster a more nuanced and constructive public dialogue about the urgent challenges facing our planet and our species. (shrink)

People attribute purposes in both mundane and profound ways—such as when thinking about the purpose of a knife and the purpose of a life. In three studies (total N = 13,720 observations from N = 3,430 participants), we tested whether these seemingly very different forms of purpose attributions might actually involve the same cognitive processes. We examined the impacts of four factors on purpose attributions in six domains (artifacts, social institutions, animals, body parts, sacred objects, and human lives). Study 1 (...) manipulated what items in each domain were originally created for (original design) and how people currently use them (present practice). Study 2 manipulated whether items are good at achieving a goal (effectiveness) and whether the goal itself is good (morality). We found effects of each factor in every domain. However, whereas morality and effectiveness had remarkably similar effects across domains, the effects of original design and present practice differed substantially. Finally, Study 3 revealed that, within domains, the effects of original design and present practice depend on which entities design and use items. These results reveal striking similarities in purpose attributions across domains and suggest that certain entities are treated as authorities over the purposes of particular items. (shrink)

During the eighteenth century, German philosophers wrote on a broad range of topics in moral philosophy: from meta-ethical issues such as the nature of obligation, to elaborate systems of normative ethics (often in the form of a doctrine of duties to self, others, and God), to topics in applied ethics such as the permissibility of the death penalty and censorship. Moral philosophy was also intimately related to the modern natural law tradition at the time, as well as to discussions taking (...) place in theology and psychology, to name only a few other disciplines. As a result, it is often hard to isolate eighteenth-century German moral philosophy without addressing a whole host of other philosophical subjects. There are nonetheless certain central topics that were discussed by nearly every major figure of the period and which therefore serve as a window into how German philosophers approached moral philosophy during the eighteenth century. In this chapter I illustrate that one such topic is the principle of morality; namely what philosophers took to be the supreme norm at the foundation of judging actions to be morally good or evil. As we will see, although several figures approached this principle in a broadly similar way by identifying “perfection” as the central concept at work, they differ considerably with respect to important details. Furthermore, certain common threads reveal themselves: philosophers differ not only with respect to the content of the principle, but also with respect to the way in which it can be derived, how particular duties can in turn be derived from the supreme principle, and how the principle can be formulated. I begin by outlining Christian Wolff’s influential principle of perfection (Section 1), followed by a consideration of Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten’s subtle revision of this principle (Section 2) and Christian August Crusius’s theological alternative (Section 3). I then briefly consider the impact that the reception of eighteenth-century British philosophy had on German moral philosophy during the second half of the eighteenth century (Section 4), before considering Moses Mendelssohn’s and Immanuel Kant’s answers to the 1763 Prize Essay Question (Section 5) and Johann August Eberhard’s unique mixture of rationalism and empiricism from the early 1780s (Section 6). I conclude (Section 7) with a brief discussion of Kant’s approach to the principle of morality and the principle of happiness proposed against it by his early empiricist critics. (shrink)

Perceptualism is a prominent theory analyzing emotions as perceptual experiences of value. A longstanding challenge to perceptualism says that emotions cannot be perceptual because they are subject to normative assessments in terms of reasons and rationality while perceptual experiences are not. I defend perceptualism from this charge. My argument begins by distinguishing two forms of normative assessment: fundamental and non-fundamental. Perceptualism is compatible with the latter (i.e., non-fundamental reasons and rationality); even sensory experiences are so assessable. I next argue that (...) emotions are only non-fundamentally assessable. Following this argument, I outline a perceptualist-friendly theory of emotions as non-fundamentally normatively assessable. (shrink)

Kant refers to analytic cognition in several prominent places. The prevailing wisdom, however, denies the possibility of analytic cognition within his theory of cognition. I shall argue that this is mistaken. I show that we can account for analytic cognition’s possibility by appealing to variants of the more familiar conditions on the cognition of objects. I also highlight analytic cognition’s connection to insight and analytic knowledge. In the process, I provide a fuller account of Kant’s view of our mental lives (...) than has been typically acknowledged. (shrink)

The physicalist credo is that the world is physical. But some phenomena, such as minds, morals, and mathematics, appear to be nonphysical. While an uncompromising physicalism would reject these, a conciliatory physicalism needn’t if it can account for them in terms of an underlying physical basis. Any such account must refer to the nonphysical. But won’t this unavoidable reference to the nonphysical conflict with the physicalist credo? This essay aims to clarify this problem and introduce a novel solution that relies (...) on a distinction between “circumstantial” facts that are based in the circumstances and “acircumstantial” facts that are not. This is used in two ways. First, physicalism is restricted to circumstantial facts: only they must have a physical basis that does not refer to the nonphysical. Second, facts accounting for the nonphysical are not restricted to the circumstantial: they may refer to the nonphysical if they are acircumstantial. Facts about how the physical accounts for the nonphysical therefore do not conflict with the physicalist’s credo. This provides a credible answer to what physicalism could be. (shrink)

We reply to Eva's comment on our "New Possibilities for Fair Algorithms," comparing and contrasting our Spanning criterion with his suggested Spacing criterion.

This paper investigates the lived experience of alienation as a form of mental strife or pathology as it is connected to the digitalization of modern life. To do so, I deploy the concept of affordances from ecological psychology, phenomenology, and embodied cognition. I propose an affordance-based model for understanding digitalized alienation. First, I argue that the lived sense of alienation is best understood as a fracturing of the affordance space, where possibilities for action are lived as disconnected from one another (...) and therefore from one’s personal development and search for meaning. Using this model, I show how the process of digitalization can lead to a lived sense of alienation for modern subjects. On this model, digitalization is alienating insofar as it fractures the affordance space into disconnected fields that invite determinate, separate, and repeatable tasks—swiping, clicking, scrolling, etc.—rather than offering opportunities for the development of new cognitive and bodily skills that are mutually informing and enriching across different affordance fields. (shrink)

Surveys arguments for/against the existence of a self in Descartes, Hume, Kant, and others. Argues that the self as human perceiving subject persisting through time as a single self, is an unavoidable aspect of the world-perceived. This self is not a substance, this perceiving self never appears as an object-perceived in the world.

The Gamer's Dilemma is a much-discussed issue in video game ethics which probes our seemingly conflicting intuitions about the moral acceptability of virtual murder compared to virtual child molestation. But how we approach this dilemma depends on how we frame it. With this in mind, I identify three ways the dilemma has been conceptualized: the Descriptive Gamer's Investigation, which focuses on empirically explaining the source of our intuitions; the Gamer's Puzzle, which uses the dilemma to explore and test moral or (...) metaphysical theories; and the Applied Gamer's Dilemma, which reconstructs the moral commitments underlying the intuitions to provide action-guidance. Clearly distinguishing these framings allows us to identify the distinct methodologies and criteria of success for each approach. This tripartite framework helps resolve confusions in the debate, highlights the need for experimental philosophy to test proposed resolutions, and opens space for a serious reconsideration of consequentialism. The paper thus provides conceptual clarity to move the discussion forward productively. (shrink)

Louis Althusser is perhaps most well-known for his concept of ‘Ideological State Apparatuses’ (ISAs). However, Althusser is not clear about what role, if any, ISAs play in a post-capitalist society. At times, Althusser talks about ISAs (and the state) withering; at other times, they are merely reformed. Sometimes, ISAs are described as having an inescapable repressive dimension; on other occasions, they are a perfectly acceptable tool for the reproduction of socialism. In this paper, I offer a way of thinking through (...) this confusion that draws on the thought of the Daoist philosopher, Zhuangzi. I argue that Zhuangzian friendship represents a kind of radical equality that is reproducible without the traditional kind of ideological interpellation of ISAs, thereby allowing Althusser explain post-capitalist ideological reproduction. It is worth noting that in this paper, I am not engaging in a textual exegesis of the Zhuangzi. My primary interest is in using the contemporary literature on the Zhuangzi to think through a problem in Althusser’s philosophical system. (shrink)

This article argues (against John Hick and Huston Smith) that different religions teach truths that are different even at the most fundamental level. Nevertheless these are genuine axiological truth claims that can be subject to rational evaluation, differentiating well-founded interpretations of a given religion from interpretations that are not well-founded.

In this paper I outline the PAIR account of joint attention as a perceptual-practical, affectively charged intentional relation. I argue that to explain joint attention we need to leave the received understanding of propositions and propositional attitudes and the picture of content connected to it behind and embrace the notions of subject mode and position mode content. I also explore the relation between joint attention and communication.

Discussions of divine simplicity generally overlook the distinction between identity claims that are reductivist and identity claims that are eliminativist. If, for instance, the identity claim that 'the chair = a configuration of particles' is merely reductive, then there exist chairs and there exist configurations of particles and it turns out that they are identical. The identity in this case does not reduce the ontological complexity of the world. But if the identity claim is eliminativist, then it is true again (...) that chairs are configurations of particles, but chairs do not in fact exist. The illusory object that we call a chair turns out to be nothing over and above a configuration of physical particles. The chair reduces to the configuration of particles without remainder. The defense of divine simplicity in this paper argues that it is in this eliminativist sense that God's intrinsic properties are identical to God. (shrink)

Is knowledge a uniform kind? If not, what relation do the different kinds of knowledge bear to one another? Is there a central notion of knowledge which other kinds of knowledge must be understood in terms of? In this paper, I use Aristotle’s theory of homonyms as a framework to make progress on these questions. I argue that knowledge is not a uniform kind but rather a core-dependent homonym. To demonstrate this, I focus on knowledge by acquaintance. I argue that (...) the principles that govern propositional knowledge cannot govern knowledge by acquaintance. I then develop analogue principles for knowledge by acquaintance and show why, despite their different modal profiles, knowledge by acquaintance is nevertheless a form of knowledge. I then show that the analysis of propositional knowledge fundamentally depends on knowledge by acquaintance. (shrink)

When a piece of fruit is in a bowl, and the bowl is on a table, we appreciate not only the individual objects and their features, but also the relations containment and support, which abstract away from the particular objects involved. Independent representation of roles (e.g., containers vs. supporters) and “fillers” of those roles (e.g., bowls vs. cups, tables vs. chairs) is a core principle of language and higherlevel reasoning. But does such role-filler independence also arise in automatic visual processing? (...) Here, we show that it does, by exploring a surprising error that such independence can produce. In four experiments, participants saw a stream of images containing different objects arranged in forcedynamic relations — e.g., a phone contained in a basket, a marker resting on a garbage can, or a knife sitting in a cup. Participants had to respond to a single target image (e.g., a phone in a basket) within a stream of distractors presented under time constraints. Surprisingly, even though participants completed this task quickly and accurately, they false-alarmed more often to images matching the target’s relational category than to those that did not — even when those images involved completely different objects. In other words, participants searching for a phone in a basket were more likely to mistakenly respond to a knife in a cup than to a marker on a garbage can. Follow-up experiments ruled out strategic responses and also controlled for various confounding image features. We suggest that visual processing represents relations abstractly, in ways that separate roles from fillers. (shrink)

Over the past 45 years there has been increasing vocal opposition to religious schools, particularly in Western Europe. Only some of this opposition is related to the perception that some religious schools might be excluding the less fortunate. Much of the opposition rests on the conviction that it is no longer tenable to fund and support so many religious schools when the number of persons professing religious belief has sharply declined. This argument, buttressed by the belief that Europe has undergone (...) a profound “secularization,” maintains that religious schools are but an obsolete cultural relic to be discarded in favor of nondenominational alternatives. Relatedly, religious schools are believed to contribute to segregation and “divisiveness”: Rather than maintain a system in which persons are drawn to schools that reflect their own cultural or religious background, children ought to attend the same schools, learning from – and not only about – each other through substantive interaction. Underneath this argument lies a concern with fostering the skills and dispositions necessary for citizenship. It remains unclear, however, whether religious schools are more guilty of segregation than nonreligious schools. Nor is it clear why attending a religious school would make one less capable of cultivating the skills and dispositions necessary for citizenship than nonreligious alternatives. (shrink)

It is commonly believed that intrinsically bad possible worlds are inconsistent with the perfect goodness of God. A perfectly good being could not exist in possible worlds that are intrinsically bad. Indeed it is widely believed that possible worlds that are insufficiently good are inconsistent with a perfectly good God. Modal atheological arguments aim to show that, since the pluriverse includes intrinsically bad worlds and insufficiently good worlds, there necessarily does not exist a perfectly good God. I show that modal (...) atheological arguments are in general invalid. Modal atheological arguments fail to show that there exists no perfectly good God even on the assumption that there are extremely bad worlds in the pluriverse. Modal atheological arguments depend entirely on the logic of modality in S5. But the logic of S5 ensures that a perfectly good God is consistent with extremely bad possible worlds and so guarantees that a perfectly good God is consistent with a plenitudinous pluriverse. (shrink)