430 found
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  1.  59
    The death of A.J. Ayer, rational actor models, and the curriculum.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This paper reflects on an article that appeared after the death of A.J. Ayer, which complains about what British philosophers focus on. I propose that the content of the philosophy curriculum can be predicted from a rational actor model.
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  2.  76
    Six plus three approaches to interpreting Judith Butler.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This is a two page handout specifying approaches, or methods, used in interpreting Judith Butler. The methods of various analytic philosophers are identified.
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  3.  47
    Beyond tribalism: an attempted solution to the kalela dance paradox.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    I propose a solution to the paradox of the kalela dance, as presented by Richard Werbner, based on a variety of liberalism I once identified.
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  4.  69
    How well do we understand our own societies? Kakonomia again and Kathleen Stock on the perspective of love.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    How well do we understand our own societies? In this paper, I raise quite obvious puzzles for Diego Gambetta and Gloria Origgi’s depiction of Italy as a kakonomy and Kathleen Stock’s depiction of ordinary people.
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  5.  49
    Description of method.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    Timothy Williamson objects that we do not have any reason to regard reflective equilibrium as a philosophical method, whether good or bad. In this paper, I propose a less demanding account of when a method is being described.
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  6.  59
    Are reflective equilibrium and the original position consistent? The historical bias problem.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    In this paper, I present a problem for regarding the reflective equilibrium and original position methods as consistent. I do not prove that there is an inconsistency, but there is a puzzle of how the two methods can be made consistent. The concern about inconsistency is because the former method allows for a kind of historical bias, as noted by T.H. Irwin, whereas the latter method seeks to guard against historical bias.
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  7.  66
    No brilliant friend? Literary acknowledgement between the sexes.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This paper responds to an essay by Elena Ferrante on male literary figures acknowledging the influence of female ones. She poses a question about her reception by males which I address.
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  8. The death of Kripke and false accusations and filth.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    I consider the place of Saul Kripke and what to make of accusations against him. I raise the problem of evaluating such accusations in an environment of false accusations. I end with a response to a remark by Wittgenstein.
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  9.  52
    Almost Forgotten Deconstruction.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    I distinguish two senses of the word “deconstruction.” Then I quote a passage by a critic from the 1860s which, together with trends of that time, gives rise to the question of whether deconstructive interpretation existed in the nineteenth century.
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  10.  61
    Conceptual schemes, analytic truths, and organizing the Pacific Ocean.Terence Rajivan Edward -
    I draw attention to how one of Donald Davidson’s arguments against the claim that others have an alternative conceptual scheme does not look compatible with his rejection of analytic truths – how his rejection of the third dogma of empiricism depends on accepting the first. The appendix contests Davidson’s approach to organizing the Pacific Ocean.
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  11.  74
    Its many varieties: does liberalism merely alternate between ethics and economics?Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    I am not sure who said that liberalism merely alternates between ethics and economics – was it Karl Kraus? – but at first glance the claim is plausible. In this paper I argue that there are varieties of liberalism which do not. Some depend on a nature-culture distinction and some appeal to simplicity in a way that seems aesthetic. In the appendix I introduce a problem for utilitarianism.
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  12.  43
    On a Rawls specialist’s review of T.H. Irwin’s history of Western ethics.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    Should one read T.H. Irwin’s three volume history of Western ethics, or parts of it? Here one might turn to reviews. The journal The Philosophical Forum uses the sensible strategy of getting different specialists to review different parts of the book. There are two chapters on Rawls, each one reviewed by a Rawlsian. I wish to register discontent with Steven Ross’s review.
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  13.  52
    Are lectures obsolete? By R.K. N*r*yan.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This paper responds to the question of whether the Internet has made lectures obsolete and Matthew Pickles’ investigation of why lectures persist. It is written as a pastiche of R.K. Narayan, about whom a somewhat parallel question is probably asked. Pickles refers to a logic lecturer so dry people went swimming, and a pastiche approach is an alternative.
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  14.  61
    Translation, history of science, and items not on the menu: a response to Susan Carey.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    In “Conceptual Differences Between Children and Adults,” Susan Carey discusses phlogiston theory in order to defend the view that there can be non-translatability between scientific languages. I present an objection to her defence.
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  15.  51
    Intransitivity of translation, Le Débat, and the primacy of the signifier, by Ren*t* S*lecl.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This paper is a pastiche of the Lacanian philosopher Renata Salecl, my fourth attempt, combined with a note. In it I present a response I anticipate from analytic philosophy to the thesis that the signifier has priority over the signified: that this thesis is either trivially true or obviously false.
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  16.  74
    Literary Girls, by K*thleen St*ck: chapter 2, the low-high culture divide.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This paper is a response to Kathleen Stock’s book Material Girls, by way of imitation. I have attempted to write a faux chapter in the book’s style, identifying four moments in overcoming the low-high culture divide in responses to the arts.
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  17.  42
    Economists, university rankings, and leaving the European Union, by M*l*n K*nder*.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    In this paper, I present some responses to an argument made by an economist in an online video: that when Britain leaves the European Union, it will be taking many high ranking universities with it, which will lead to an innovation deficit in the union. I present some responses by means of a pastiche of a widely read European fiction writer.
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  18. Objections to Robert Graves’s The Greek Myths.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This is a two page handout summarizing a number of objections made against Robert Graves's book of Greek myths.
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  19. Privileging writing over speech in teaching contexts.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    Jacques Derrida famously claims that the Western philosophical tradition has privileged speech over writing. In this paper, I present two teaching-related contexts in which it makes sense to privilege writing over speech.
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  20.  48
    Why sculpt fast? On R.K. Narayan’s “Such perfection”.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    What is R.K. Narayan’s position in relation to his story “Such perfection”? It is natural to interpret him as conveying a message similar to one Western readers are familiar with from ancient Greek myths: fear perfection; it offends the gods. But there is room for a more complicated interpretation.
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  21.  50
    An alternative history: what if Derrida had just been accepted into analytic philosophy?Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    What if, instead of a scandal, Jacques Derrida had been accepted by the community of analytic philosophers? My prediction is that little-known philosophers would make points like some which I have made: counterexamples to his claims. There is a different reaction to the question which I consider though, according to which these skills do not just transfer from topic to topic and would not be “activated” by Derrida’s philosophy.
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  22. Feminist Research and Paradigm Shift in Anthropology.Terence Rajivan Edward - 2012 - Meta: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy 4 (2):343-362.
    In her paper ‘An Awkward Relationship: the Case of Feminism and Anthropology’, Marilyn Strathern argues that feminist research cannot produce a paradigm shift in social anthropology. I reconstruct her arguments and evaluate them, revealing that they are insufficient for ruling out this possibility.
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  23. The Golden Bough as an argument against diffusionism.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This paper interprets Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough as presenting an objection to diffusionism: the diffusionist theory cannot account for the isolation of the rite Frazer focuses on, in the societies studied by classicists.
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  24. The will to be a great university, by Fri*drich Ni*tzsche.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    In this paper, I present some advice in the style of Nietzsche for a university aspiring to move from being good to great, as a nearby university is.
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  25. Against structural skepticism: Max Gluckman’s response to Elizabeth Colson.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    A quite recent book casts the anthropologist Elizabeth Colson as a systems skeptic, with Max Gluckman attempting to counter her skepticism. In this paper, I offer clarifications of the skepticism and of the counter.
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  26. Is that a myth? A dilemma for Malinowski.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This paper quotes a story about Bronislaw Malinowski trying to find out a myth and extracts a dilemma from it. The story content seems related to self-referential puzzles.
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  27. Imperialism and British anthropology again, with European intellectual cults.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    I address the problem that British social anthropologists ignored the wider colonial relations which the societies they studied were part of, by proposing a solution from reflecting on the structure of European intellectual cults.
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  28. Milan Kundera and crowds again.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    Influenced by Martha Kuhlman, I am disposed to read Milan Kundera as personally disliking crowds. But I speculate that there is a practical reason for his writing against crowds, if we see him as part of a system of novelists.
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  29.  51
    On the future of the Lorenzo Cañás Bottos family.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This brief paper asks how Lorenzo Cañás Bottos could bring himself to write comments on Nigel Rapport, after his Key Concepts in Social and Cultural Anthropology, with Joanna Overing! The title of my paper may be a bit misleading, but I present two futures for Argentine families, which start out similar, relating their conceptions of society to British anthropology.
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  30.  38
    A specialization puzzle, philosophy of science, and Susan Carey.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This paper proposes a solution to a puzzle regarding when people switch from one skilled area of specialization to another, in which they have had little training. Certain analogies between the previous area and the area switched to enable this. I use Susan Carey as an example.
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  31.  37
    Politics and the definition of analytic philosophy.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    I introduce the obvious thought that who counts as an analytic philosopher and what counts as analytic philosophy is partly determined by what may be called political factors. It may be the case that work T428 would ordinarily count as analytic philosophy, but it cannot be counted without admitting work C88+ and there is an interest in preventing work C88+ from being admitted.
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  32.  37
    Reflective equilibrium, literary canons, and the very idea of literature.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    We associate the method of reflective equilibrium with developing principles of social justice, but it can also be used on a literary canon, with the aim of identifying principles of inclusion and exclusion. But I note three risks of doing so, using the American literary canon as an example.
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  33.  42
    Comedies of translation: R.K. Narayan, V.S. Naipaul, Annie Saumont, and beyond.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This paper responds to Shashi Tharoor’s criticism that “much of Narayan’s prose reads like a translation.” He does not name any writers in another language to back up his claim and without doing so there is an explanation for his impression, but one which leaves it looking misleading.
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  34. What are the varieties of liberalism? Don’t forget backdoor liberal perfectionism.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    Jonathan Quong classifies varieties of liberalism based on two yes-or-no questions. I show that there is a kind of perfectionist liberalism that cannot be located on his map. I call it backdoor liberal perfectionism.
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  35.  45
    Briefly, “What are concepts?” and the handmaiden of colonialism again.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This paper makes two criticisms of the book Key Concepts in Social and Cultural Anthropology, by Nigel Rapport and Joanna Overing. The second criticism is that they do not acknowledge the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges as the conceiver of the fictional Chinese encyclopaedia. What they say raises the worry that anthropologists have not moved on much from being the handmaiden of colonialism.
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  36.  87
    Mathematicians against the myth of genius: beyond the envy interpretation.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This paper examines Timothy Gowers’ attempt to counter a mythology of genius in mathematics: that to be a mathematician one has to be a mathematical genius. Someone might take such attacks on the myth of genius as expressions of envy, but I propose that there is another reason for cautioning against placing a high value on genius, by turning to research in the humanities.
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  37.  62
    Ought-implies-can, the original position, and reflective equilibrium.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    Are John Rawls’s most noticeable methodological contributions, reflective equilibrium and the original position, consistent with each other? I draw attention to a worry that they stand in inconsistent relationships to the claim that ought implies can: it can only be the case that we ought to do something if we can do it.
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  38.  34
    In defence of adversarial philosophy?Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    Adversarial philosophy is under attack (!), but I speculate that it is useful for working out the level of a philosopher and sometimes for increasing the respect awarded to some individuals and groups. There may be no alternative to it when you have an excess of philosophers of around the same level.
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  39.  36
    The English canon, Blake’s tyger, R.K. Narayan: inference to the best explanation.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    R.K. Narayan has been criticized as “indifferent to the wider canon of English fiction.” I think the best explanation for certain convergences between the contents of some of his short stories and William Blake’s poem The Tyger is that he is responding to it, although the response may be somewhat mocking.
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  40.  39
    On the meaning of “legitimate fieldwork” in social anthropology.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    This is a one-page handout specifying five kinds of legitimacy.
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  41.  33
    Fodor’s style, Helen Beebee’s essay writing guide, but no causal overdetermination.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    I consider the opening to a paper by Jerry Fodor referring to graffiti in the subway stations and what Helen Beebee once said about it in her essay writing guide. I used to just pass over that stuff, but now I find it may be more important.
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  42. Russia versus the West and the power of words: a response to Tatyana Tolstaya.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    In this paper, I respond to an essay by Tatyana Tolstaya, which describes a contrast between the Russian and the Western perspective on words. Her contrast may generally be true, but I know of a counterexample: a tale about a Western philosopher and his followers and what happened to them.
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  43. Surrogacy: a letter to the Scottish nation?Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    How old is the distinction between the genetic and the gestational parent? Anca Gheaus “suggests” it is quite new, but I believe people have made a distinction along these lines for centuries in their imaginations. I present a problem related to the distinction and to the Scottish enlightenment.
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  44.  32
    Joel Smith’s definition of empathy X: autism and SYSTEMS theory.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    I consider further the objection that Joel Smith’s definition of empathy discriminates against high functioning autistics, if this is a politically correct description. I introduce a defence which appeals to SYSTEMS theory. I do so within a dialogue, in which Joel Smith features.
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  45. Father McKenzie level? Adam Smith on the effects of specialization on character: a solution.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    I propose a solution to a problem raised by E.G. West’s paper “Adam Smith’s Two Views on the Division of Labour.” Smith seems committed to the views that the division of labour makes people more and less intelligent.
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  46.  38
    Anthropology away versus anthropology at home: a deconstruction.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    It is tempting to represent anthropology at home versus anthropology in exotic places like so: “Whereas the latter is obviously legitimate and of interest to the discipline, the former is a borderline phenomenon at best and no department could function with just it. It is probably parasitic.” This paper offers a deconstruction of this portrait, but not a spectacular one, in which anthropology at home is presented as essential for accountability.
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  47.  32
    Why does Fodor write like that?Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    I present two hypotheses, both of which concern what a philosopher would have to do to become a prominent member of another discipline.
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  48.  32
    Sacrificing liberty for realizing the difference principle.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    John Rawls famously prioritized the protection of liberty rights over realizing an economy which is better for the worst off. But his arguments have been disputed. I present a somewhat alternative approach.
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  49.  33
    Russell Brand versus Stephen Hawking?Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    Apparently comedian Russell Brand claims that he is more intelligent than Stephen Hawking (or claimed that he was). Why? In this brief paper, I consider some solutions to this puzzle.
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  50.  44
    Graphomania and the all-or-nothing problem.Terence Rajivan Edward - manuscript
    When Milan Kundera introduces the concept of graphomania, he seems to register only two extremes: the person who writes for a few known people and the person who writes for a very large audience. Joe Horton’s all-or-nothing problem provides a way of making sense of this conceptualization of the situation, though in a way that breaks with Kundera’s emphasis on a writer’s craving for audience attention.
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