_Nonlinear Studies_. forthcoming For languages which conform to classical logic such extensions are constructed that they conform to classical logic, and possess a consistent theory of truth. Every language, whose sentences have meanings which make them true or false, are shown to conform to classical logic. […]

_Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy_. forthcoming Strong non-maximalism holds that some truths require no ontological ground of any sort. Strong non-maximalism allows one to accept that some propositions are true without being forced to endorse any corresponding ontological commitments. We show that there is a version of truthmaker theory available—anti-aboutness truthmaking—that enjoys the dialectical benefits of the strong non-maximalist’s position. According to […]

_Les Ateliers de l'Éthique / the Ethics Forum_ 13 (1):143-158. 2018 GREGORY McELWAIN | : This paper explores the intersection of animal and environmental ethics through the thought of Mary Midgley. Midgley’s work offers a shift away from liberal individualist animal ethics toward a relational value system involving interdependence, care, sympathy, and other components of morality that were often overlooked or marginalized in hyperrationalist ethics, though which are now more widely […]

_Analysis (Australian Centre for Psychoanalysis)_ 3:104. 1992 (direct link) […]

_Journal of Moral Philosophy_. forthcoming Bart Streumer thinks that the following principle is true of all normative judgements: (A) When two people make conflicting normative judgements, at most one of them is correct. Streumer argues that noncognitivists are unable to explain why (A) is true, or our acceptance of it. I argue that his arguments are inconclusive. I also argue that our acceptance of (A) is limited in the case of instrumental and epistemic normative judgements, and that the […]

There is a familiar story about Spinoza on which his substance monism arises straightforwardly from Descartes’ own conception of substance, which the latter combines—not entirely consistently—with substance pluralism. I argue that this story is mistaken: substance pluralism is fully consistent with Descartes’ conception of substance; it is also consistent with his claim that the term ‘substance’ is non-univocal. In defense of these claims, I argue that Descartes denies, whereas […]

Suppose we suffer a loss, such as the death of a loved one. In light of her death, we will typically feel grief, as it seems we should. After all, our loved one’s death is a reason for grief. Yet with the passage of time, our grief will typically diminish, and this seems somehow all right. However, our reason for grief ostensibly remains the same, since the passage of time does not undo our loss. How, then, could it not be wrong for grief to diminish? Or how are we to make sense of the […]

Just as theory of representation is deficient if it can’t explain how misrepresentation is possible, a theory of computation is deficient if it can’t explain how miscomputation is possible. Nonetheless, philosophers have generally ignored miscomputation. My primary goal is to clarify both what miscomputation is and how to adequately explain it. Miscomputation is a special kind of malfunction: a system miscomputes when it computes in a way that it shouldn’t. To miscompute is to […]

Between the first and second editions of A System of Logic, John Stuart Mill underwent a startling conversion from an uncompromising frequentist philosophy of probability to a thoroughly Bayesian degree-of-belief view. The conversion was effected by correspondence with the eminent scientist Sir John Herschel, to whom Mill already owed what have become known as Mill's Methods of Experimental Inference. We present the relevant correspondence, and discuss the extent of Mill's conversion. […]

This paper explores the possibility that Zhuangzi (a pre-Qin Chinese philosopher) can be fruitfully interpreted as a fictionalist. It proceeds in four parts. Part one discusses two distinct and very general types of fictionalism—force and content—that might prove useful for an interpreter of the Zhuangzi. The former type of view would have it that the expressions in question—that is, the expressions that Zhuangzi is held to advocate using and interpreting non-literally—are not best seen […]

“A clueless lot of scruffs, potentially quite dangerous.” Were Hobsbawm, E.P. Thompson, and like-minded historians really Stalinists, as MI5 feared? Continue reading . . . News source: Arts & Letters Daily Click the title to visit philosophynews.com for mor […]

Lots of graduate students and other people on the job market are advised to not be themselves in a job interview. Yourself? God, no. Please.  The idea you could be yourself is a symptom of grad student naiveté, so the idea goes, quickly shed once you become more job market savvy. Job consultant Karen Kelsky calls the be yourself advice one of the most persistent academic myths, and writes ""yourself"  is the very last person you want to be." The problem is, while Kelsky is not […]

Gillette recently ignited a fire on social media with it’s the Best Men Can Be themed advertisement. The name is, of course, best on Gillette’s classic advertising line—”the best a man can get.” As would be expected, the likes of Piers Morgan and James Wood responded harshly. In the case of Morgan, he accused Gillette of virtue signaling, fueling the “global assault on masculinity” and called for us to “Let boys be damn boys” and to […]

[New Entry by William Starr on January 18, 2019.] Modal discourse concerns alternative ways things can be, e.g., what might be true, what isn't true but could have been, what should be done. This entry focuses on counterfactual modality which concerns what is not, but could or would have been. What if Martin Luther King had died when he was stabbed in 1958 (Byrne 2005: 1)? What if the Americas had never been colonized? What if I were to put that box over here and this one over there? These […]

by Sabrina D. MisirHiralall Virginia Held is a professor emerita of philosophy at the City University of New York, Graduate School and Hunter College. Among ... Read more... Continue reading . . . News source: Blog of the APA Click the title to visit philosophynews.com for mor […]