DOCSLIB.ORG

Evolutionism

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Evolutionism Eolutionism: Present Approaches Eolutionism: Present Approaches Edited by WENCESLAO J. GONZALEZ General Editor Wenceslao J. Gonzalez EVOLUTIONISM: PRESENT APPROACHES Any form of reproduction, distribution, public communication or processing of this work can only be done with the permission of their owners, except where exempted by law. Contact CEDRO (Spanish Reprographic Rights Center, www.cedro.org) if you need to scan or photocopy any part of this work. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the owners of the copyright, including but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission or broadcast for distance learning. Copyright © 2008 by Netbiblo Copyright © by Wenceslao J. Gonzalez NETBIBLO, S. L. C/. Rafael Alberti, 6 bajo izq. Sta. Cristina 15172 Oleiros (La Coruña) – Spain Tlf: +34 981 91 55 00 • Fax: +34 981 91 55 11 www.netbiblo.com [email protected] Member of European Union Publishers’ Forum ISBN: 978-0-9729892-8-2 Editorial Manager: Cristina Seco López Editor: Paola Paz Otero Production Management: Gesbiblo, S. L. First Published 2008 by Netbiblo, S.L. Contents 1. Context Evolutionism from a Contemporary Viewpoint: The Philosophical-Methodological Approach Wenceslao J. Gonzalez ........................................................................................................................... 3 ParT I: DARWIN AND EVOLUTIONISM 2. The Eolution of Darwinian Thought Experiments James G. Lennox .................................................................................................................................... 63 3. ‘Is a New and General Theory of Eolution Emerging?’ A Philosophical Appraisal of Stephen Jay Gould’s Ealuation of Contemporary Eolutionary Theory Jean Gayon............................................................................................................................................. 77 ParT II: EVOLUTIONISM and presenT BIOLogY 4. Thought Experiments in Eolutionary Biology Today James G. Lennox .................................................................................................................................... 109 5. The Species Concept in Eolutionary Biology: Current Polemics Alfredo Marcos ...................................................................................................................................... 121 ParT III: EVOLUTIONISM and ECONOMICS 6. Three Eolutionary Ideas in Economics: Population, Idle Curiosity and Technological Change Santiago Lopez Garcia .......................................................................................................................... 145 7. The Concept of Eolution in Hayek: Institutions, Social Order and Economic Process Jose Luis Ramos Gorostiza .................................................................................................................... 161 i Eolutionism: Present Approaches ParT IV: EPISTEMOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONISM 8. Biocosmological Eolutionism and Eolutionist Epistemology in Popper Juan Arana .............................................................................................................................................. 187 9. Rationality as Eolutionary Adaptation in Herbert A. Simon. A Comparison with Karl Popper and Reinhard Selten Francisco J. Castro ................................................................................................................................ 201 Index of Names ........................................................................................................................................... 225 Subject Index .............................................................................................................................................. 235 Context EVOLUTIONISM FROM A CONTEMPORARY VIEWPOINT: THE PHILOSOPHICAL-METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH WENceSLAO J. GONZALEZ From a contemporary viewpoint, evolutionism appears as a multifaceted realm. On the one hand, a historical analysis reveals a clear diversity of evolutionisms to be considered, where Darwinism is a key conception that was preceded and followed by other evolutionary views. On the other hand, a philosophical-methodological study of those evolutionisms —among them, the influential conception developed by Charles Darwin— has a richness that exceeds the contents of any standard book. In effect, evolutionism has a strong influence on science —above all biology— with philosophical consequences that are relevant for general philosophy and methodology of science as well as for special domains (philosophy of biology, philosophy of economics, etc.). In addition, evolutionism has an undeniable repercussion on central parts of philosophy, such as theory of knowledge, metaphysics, and ethics. In the face of this multifaceted realm of evolutionism, this chapter seeks to offer the context of the philosophical-methodological approach to evolutionism. It takes into account the main lines of the historical background and, thus, within the space available, there are two axes in this contextualization: 1) Diversity of evolutionisms: Towards a philosophical- methodological framework, which focuses on the historical analysis of evolutionism, emphasizing the existence of a diversity of evolutionary positions; and 2) From a philosophical view of nature to naturalism in philosophy, where philosophy appears also in different ways: a) the philosophical-methodological influences on Darwin’s approach; b) the early stages in Darwin’s philosophical influence; and c) contemporary philosophical significance of Darwinism. Later on, there is an explanation of the structure and genesis of the book as well as a bibliography on the topics discussed. 1. DIVERSITY OF EVOLUTIONISMS: TOWARDS A PHILOSOPHICAL-METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK “Evolutionism” is a polysemic term: its sense and reference varies according to the historical period and the school of thought (and sometimes in the same author from one stage of his life to another). 2 Besides the linguistic diversity, evolutionism also involves different realms because it embraces a wide variety of approaches both in science and in philosophy. Thus, evolutionism can be found in natural sciences —mainly in biology— as well as in social sciences, not only at the level of basic science (e.g., in palaeontology) but also in the stance of applied science (e.g., in evolutionary economics). In philosophy it appears in the discussion of theoretical issues (e.g., in metaphysics) and in the debates on practical matters (e.g., in ethics). 1 I am grateful to Jean Gayon for his comments on this paper. 2 This variety can be found in the list of publications offered in the bibliography of this chapter, where there is a distinction between Darwinism and other kinds of evolutionism. 3 4 Eolutionism: Present Approaches Initially “evolutionism” is a biological doctrine that started before Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), an author whose anniversaries —two centuries since his birthday and 150 years since his key book— should be kept in mind. According to Jean Gayon, “clustered around ‘evolution’ were, among others, the old theory of embryogenesis as the expansion of a preformed organism (this being the primary meaning of ‘evolution’ in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries); the associated theory of the pre-existence of germs, in connection with which the Swiss naturalist Charles Bonnet first applied ‘evolution’ not only to individual generation, but to the history of the successive appearance of species; the transcendental morphology of the nineteenth century, with its emphasis on parallelisms between embryogenesis and the graduated complexity of species (...).” 3 Generally, evolutionism was seen in the broad context of interest in some kind of progress. It received an impulse with Darwin’s views, principally those stated in The Origins of Species 4 and in The Descent of Man. 5 But evolutionism has numerous subsequent outlooks, some of them clearly different from his perspectives, even though he remains a key figure in the development of this conception. In addition, evolutionism became a philosophy in the relevant sense of rational reflection on reality as a whole 6 (natural, social and artificial). In this regard, it has influenced the main areas of philosophical research: theory of knowledge, metaphysics, ethics, etc. Among them, evolutionism has had a crucial role in general philosophy of science as well as in special domains of this realm (philosophy of biology, philosophy of economics, etc.). Besides biology, evolutionism has impinged on many scientific fields, which include a wide range of subjects within the social sciences: psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, etc. Moreover, it can be affirmed that evolutionism —in general, and Darwinism, in particular— is also seen as an intellectual worldview that goes beyond the status of a scientific theory to attract the attention of many people. 7 From this point of view, it is rather obvious that evolutionism is embedded in cultural approaches (in literature, journalism, etc.) and has a prominent relevance in social discussions in some countries (especially, the United States) with repercussions on ordinary life (education, legislation, etc.). 8 3 GAYON, J., “From Darwin to Today in Evolutionary Biology,” in HODGE, J. and RADICK, G. (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Darwin, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, p. 242. “In his
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Chapter IV Book IV
    Book IV 1 WE have thus spoken of the generation of animals both generally and separately in all the different classes. But, since male and fe- male are distinct in the most perfect of them, and since we say that the sexes are first principles of all living things whether animals or plants, only in some of them the sexes are separated and in others not, therefore we must speak first of the origin of the sexes in the lat- ter. For while the animal is still imperfect in its kind the distinction is already made between male and female. It is disputed, however, whether the embryo is male or female, as the case may be, even before the distinction is plain to our senses, and further whether it is thus differentiated within the mother or even earlier. It is said by some, as by Anaxagoras and other of the physicists, that this antithesis exists from the beginning in the germs or seeds; for the germ, they say, comes from the male while the fe- male only provides the place in which it is to be developed, and the male is from the right, the female from the left testis, and so also that the male embryo is in the right of the uterus, the female in the left. Others, as Empedocles, say that the differentiation takes place in the uterus; for he says that if the uterus is hot or cold what en- ters it becomes male or female, the cause of the heat or cold being the flow of the catamenia, according as it is colder or hotter, more ‘antique’ or more ‘recent’.
    [Show full text]
  • Foucault's Darwinian Genealogy
    genealogy Article Foucault’s Darwinian Genealogy Marco Solinas Political Philosophy, University of Florence and Deutsches Institut Florenz, Via dei Pecori 1, 50123 Florence, Italy; [email protected] Academic Editor: Philip Kretsedemas Received: 10 March 2017; Accepted: 16 May 2017; Published: 23 May 2017 Abstract: This paper outlines Darwin’s theory of descent with modification in order to show that it is genealogical in a narrow sense, and that from this point of view, it can be understood as one of the basic models and sources—also indirectly via Nietzsche—of Foucault’s conception of genealogy. Therefore, this essay aims to overcome the impression of a strong opposition to Darwin that arises from Foucault’s critique of the “evolutionistic” research of “origin”—understood as Ursprung and not as Entstehung. By highlighting Darwin’s interpretation of the principles of extinction, divergence of character, and of the many complex contingencies and slight modifications in the becoming of species, this essay shows how his genealogical framework demonstrates an affinity, even if only partially, with Foucault’s genealogy. Keywords: Darwin; Foucault; genealogy; natural genealogies; teleology; evolution; extinction; origin; Entstehung; rudimentary organs “Our classifications will come to be, as far as they can be so made, genealogies; and will then truly give what may be called the plan of creation. The rules for classifying will no doubt become simpler when we have a definite object in view. We possess no pedigrees or armorial bearings; and we have to discover and trace the many diverging lines of descent in our natural genealogies, by characters of any kind which have long been inherited.
    [Show full text]
  • Lucyna Kostuch Do Animals Have a Homeland
    H U M a N I M A L I A 9:1 Lucyna Kostuch Do animals have a homeland? Ancient Greeks on the cultural identity of animals The role of animals in ancient Greek culture has been discussed in a variety of contexts, — the relation between human and animal, the moral status of animals, animals in the works of naturalists, animals in tragedy, animals in art, zooarchaeological research. 1 In the literature of ancient Greece, animals are used to represent all things that do not belong to civil society or to the Greek community: slaves, women, and foreign peoples (barbaroi ). Symbolically, animals are often placed outside the country. 2 However, a close reading of texts by Greek authors leads to the conclusion that this is just one side of the coin. The Greeks attributed regional identity to animals, defined by the local geography, and by the history of a region enclosed by borders. At the same time, the world of animals seemed to be ethnically diversified, for the Hellenes coined the terms “Hellenic animal,” belonging to the Greek culture, and “barbaric animal,” belonging to a foreign culture. In this way, Greek animals became an inalienable part of the Hellenic “national” legacy. The Greeks imagined the human world and the world of animals as a world of common borders — there were “familiar” and “unfamiliar” animals at all levels of spatial division. This article, based primarily on literary sources, aims to answer the following questions: How did the ancient Greeks associate animals with space, geography, and their own settlements? Did they attribute nationality and territory to animals? Did they think animals missed their homelands? Could a foreign animal experience a process of cultural integration, namely Hellenization? Animals and Greek civilization .
    [Show full text]
  • Evolutionary Epistemology in James' Pragmatism J
    35 THE ORIGIN OF AN INQUIRY: EVOLUTIONARY EPISTEMOLOGY IN JAMES' PRAGMATISM J. Ellis Perry IV University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth "Much struck." That was Darwin's way of saying that something he observed fascinated him, arrested his attention, surprised or puzzled him. The words "much struck" riddle the pages of bothhis Voyage ofthe Beagle and his The Origin of Species, and their appearance should alert the reader that Darwin was saying something important. Most of the time, the reader caninfer that something Darwin had observed was at variance with what he had expected, and that his fai th in some alleged law or general principle hadbeen shaken, and this happened repeat­ edly throughout his five year sojourn on the H.M.S. Beagle. The "irritation" of his doubting the theretofore necessary truths of natu­ ral history was Darwin's stimulus to inquiry, to creative and thor­ oughly original abductions. "The influence of Darwinupon philosophy resides inhis ha ving conquered the phenomena of life for the principle of transi tion, and thereby freed the new logic for application to mind and morals and life" (Dewey p. 1). While it would be an odd fellow who would disagree with the claim of Dewey and others that the American pragmatist philosophers were to no small extent influenced by the Darwinian corpus,! few have been willing to make the case for Darwin's influence on the pragmatic philosophy of William James. Philip Wiener, in his well known work, reports that Thanks to Professor Perry's remarks in his definitive work on James, "the influence of Darwin was both early and profound, and its effects crop up in unex­ pected quarters." Perry is a senior at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmoltth.
    [Show full text]
  • Our Knowledge of the External World As a Field for Scientific Method In
    Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy By Bertrand Russell 1 PREFACE The following lectures[1] are an attempt to show, by means of examples, the nature, capacity, and limitations of the logical-analytic method in philosophy. This method, of which the first complete example is to be found in the writings of Frege, has gradually, in the course of actual research, increasingly forced itself upon me as something perfectly definite, capable of embodiment in maxims, and adequate, in all branches of philosophy, to yield whatever objective scientific knowledge it is possible to obtain. Most of the methods hitherto practised have professed to lead to more ambitious results than any that logical analysis can claim to reach, but unfortunately these results have always been such as many competent philosophers considered inadmissible. Regarded merely as hypotheses and as aids to imagination, the great systems of the past serve a very useful purpose, and are abundantly worthy of study. But something different is required if philosophy is to become a science, and to aim at results independent of the tastes and temperament of the philosopher who advocates them. In what follows, I have endeavoured to show, however imperfectly, the way by which I believe that this desideratum is to be found. [1] Delivered as Lowell Lectures in Boston, in March and April 1914. The central problem by which I have sought to illustrate method is the problem of the relation between the crude data of sense and the space, 2 time, and matter of mathematical physics.
    [Show full text]
  • Evolutionism and Holism: Two Different Paradigms for the Phenomenon of Biological Evolution
    R. Fondi, International Journal of Ecodynamics. Vol. 1, No. 3 (2006) 284–297 EVOLUTIONISM AND HOLISM: TWO DIFFERENT PARADIGMS FOR THE PHENOMENON OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION R. FONDI Department of Earth Sciences, University of Siena, Italy. ABSTRACT The evolutionistic paradigm – the assumption that biological evolution consists in a mere process of ‘descendance with modification from common ancestors’, canonically represented by means of the phylogenetic tree model – can be seen as strictly connected to the classical or deterministic vision of the world, which dominated the 18th and 19th centuries. Research findings in palaeontology, however, have never fully supported the above- mentioned model. Besides, during the 20th century, the conceptual transformations produced by restricted and general relativity, quantum mechanics, cosmology, information theory, research into consciousness, chaos– complexity theory, evolutionary thermodynamics and biosemiotics have radically changed the scientific picture of reality. It is therefore necessary to adopt a more suitable and up-to-date paradigm, according to which nature is not seen anymore as a mere assembly of independent things, subject to the Lamarckian-Darwinian dialectics of ‘chance and necessity’, but as: (1) an extremely complex system with all its parts dynamically coordinated; (2) the evolution of which does not obey the logic of a deterministic linear continuity but that of an indeterministic global discontinuity; and (3) in which the mind or psychic dimension, particularly evident in semiotic aspects of the biological world, is an essential and indissoluble part. On the basis of its characteristics, the new paradigm can be generically named holistic, organicistic or systemic. Keywords: biological evolution, biostratigraphy, evolutionism, holism, palaeontology, systema naturae, taxa.
    [Show full text]
  • PRAGMATISM AS a PHILOSOPHY of ACTION (Paper Presented at the First Nordic Pragmatism Conference, Helsinki, Finland, June 2008)
    1 PRAGMATISM AS A PHILOSOPHY OF ACTION (Paper presented at the First Nordic Pragmatism Conference, Helsinki, Finland, June 2008) Erkki Kilpinen University of Helsinki When I gave the doctrine of pragmatism the name it bears, – and a doctrine of vital significance it is, – I derived the name by which I christened it from pragma, – behaviour – in order that it should be understood that the doctrine is that the only real significance of a general term lies in the general behaviour which it implies. Charles S. Peirce, May 1912 cited by Eisele (1987:95).1 Introduction: Action ahead of knowledge on pragmatism’s philosophical agenda Although the very founder of the pragmatic movement is adamant that this philosophy is inherently related to action – or behaviour as Peirce laconically says here – philosophers have been curiously reluctant to recognize this. Of course one finds in the literature comments about how pragmatists often talk about action, and some commentators feel that they talk about it too often, at the expense of traditional philosophical problems. To see this is not yet, however, to see the essential pragmatist point; in what sense they talk about action. Their usage of this term and the underlying idea differ from what is customary in other philosophical approaches. Pragmatism namely approaches all theoretical and philosophical problems as problems that in final analysis are related to action. In mainstream philosophy, both in its positivist-analytic and phenomenological versions, action is a contingent empirical phenomenon demanding an explanation. In pragmatism, action is a universal phenomenon which in itself begs no explanation but rather makes the starting point for explanations.
    [Show full text]
  • By Jacques Loeb [1]
    Published on The Embryo Project Encyclopedia (https://embryo.asu.edu) The Mechanistic Conception of Life (1912), by Jacques Loeb [1] By: Elliott, Steve Keywords: Mechanism [2] Jacques Loeb [3] published The Mechanistic Conception of Life in 1912. Loeb’s goal for the book was to further disseminate his explanations of organic processes—such as embryonic development and organisms’ orientations to their environments—which relied on physics and chemistry. Loeb also wanted to provide an alternative explanatory framework to vitalism [4] and what he called romantic evolutionism [5], then both widespread. Loeb mined his work on tropisms [6] and artificial parthenogenesis [7], both of which he considered central to biology, to show that physicochemical explanations accounted for some of the most perplexing organic phenomena. Thus, for those processes, anyone who appealed to vitalism [4] or romantic evolutionism [5] offered only impotent explanations. The Mechanistic Conception of Life established Loeb’s widespread reputation as a mechanist, both to the public and to generations of biologists. In The Mechanistic Conception of Life ten popular lectures were presented, each originally published elsewhere beginning in 1893. The University of Chicago Press [8] published the first edition in 1912. In 1964 Donald Fleming [9] edited a second edition through the Harvard University Press [10]. Fleming’s edition included his biography of Loeb as well as notes appended to each essay relating its contents to contemporary biology. In the opening and closing essays, Loeb discussed what biologists studied and the nature of their explanations. In the first essay, the book’s title piece, Loeb promulgated two principles that ground biology, make it a rigorous discipline, and by which biologists explain phenomena.
    [Show full text]
  • AR Wallace's Approach
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Apollo Volume 5, No. 4 16 Evolutionism Combined with Spiritualism: A. R. Wallace’s Approach ∗ Li LIU Peking University Abstract: A. R. Wallace was the co-founder of the theory of natural selection and a solid supporter of Darwin, but he combined evolutionism with spiritualism, and tried to understand human evolution and evolutionary ethics with a spiritualistic teleology. This teleological version is a typical example of non-Darwinian evolutionism ， which was rooted in the ideology of Victorian progressionism, and was used to avoid the materialism implicated in Darwinism. Through investigating Wallace's approach, we may realize how progressionism had worked as the bridge between science and religion in Victorian Age. Key Words: A. R. Wallace, evolutionism, spiritualism, Victorian progressionism ∗ Department of Philosophy, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China. E-mail: [email protected] Journal of Cambridge Studies 17 1. INTRODUCTION Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Robert Darwin independently discovered the principle of natural selection and their articles were announced to scientific community by a joint publication, on 1st July 1858. It’s the starting point of the Darwinian revolution or as Peter Bowler put in his book, “the non-Darwinian revolution”. Stimulated by Wallace, Darwin finally finished and then published his Origin of Species, and got “the whole credit for one of the most liberating advances in scientific thought”, as Wallace “agreed of his own free will to play moon to Darwin’s sun.”1 Considered as a Darwinist, Wallace positively defended Darwinism in his time, and published a book named Darwinism (1889).
    [Show full text]
  • Collective Degradation: Slavery and the Construction of Race
    1 Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Gilder Lehrman Center International Conference at Yale University Collective Degradation: Slavery and the Construction of Race November 7-8, 2003 Yale University New Haven, Connecticut The Black in Medieval Science: What Significance? Peter Biller, University of York, England My theme is the black1 in medieval science. “Science” here refers to texts, and specifically those which came under the headings of “natural philosophy” or “medicine”, dealing with the world and bodies in it according to the order of nature as this was understood in universities. The question is first a descriptive one – what was the image of the black in these texts? – and then secondly it is interpretation – what was the significance of this image? In gatherings of non-medieval historians there is usually some pessimism in a question about the significance of any medieval topic – entertaining? Yes. Significant? No. We know that the middle ages are picturesque, as we hold in our minds colourful pictures of castles and jousting knights, but are the middle ages relevant? On our particular theme, the question is sharpened by the great historiographical monument which looms over any approach to it, the two medieval volumes of The Image of the Black in Western Art, published in 1979.2 Enormous scholarly labour went into the research into images in manuscript illustration, church sculpture and painting, heraldry and coins. The large books which emerged had beautiful illustrations and provided the reader with many interesting puzzles – how, for example, did an artist produce the staggeringly realistic portrait of a negro warrior in the mid 13th century on the cathedral at Magdeburg, and what ideas lay behind this? At the same time the attempts to interprete and contextualise the images were simultaneously clever and limited.
    [Show full text]
  • Merely Living Animals in Aristotle
    Journal of Ancient Philosophy J. anc. philos. (Engl. ed.), São Paulo, v.9, n.1. p. 115-134, 2015. ISSN 1981-9471 - FFLCH/USP DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11606/issn.1981-9471.v9i1p115-134 www.revistas.usp.br/filosofiaantiga Merely Living Animals in Aristotle Refik Güremen In Parts of Animals II.10, 655b37-656a8, Aristotle tacitly identifies a group of animals which partake of “living only”. This paper is an attempt to understand the nature of this group. It is argued that it is possible to make sense of this designation (i.e. “merely living animals”) if we consider that some animals, which are solely endowed with the contact senses, do nothing more than mere immediate nutrition by their perceptive nature and have no other action. It is concluded that some of Aristotle’s merely living animals would be certain kinds of sponge, certain sea anemones and the ascidians among testacea. Introduction Aristotle starts Parts of Animals, II.10 by addressing the necessary parts of all complete animals and then, representing the living world on a scale ranging from plants to mankind, he says: It is, then, of the nature of plants, being immobile, not to have many forms of the non-uniform parts; for few actions [πράξεις] require the use of few instruments. Accordingly, we should study the visible character of plants independently. But those [living beings] that have, in addition to life, sensation, are more polymorphic in visible character and some of these more than others. And there is still greater variety among those whose nature partakes not only of living but, in addition, of living well.
    [Show full text]
  • Essay on Robert Brandom, Making It Explicit Daniel Dennett July 31, 2006
    Essay on Robert Brandom, Making it Explicit Daniel Dennett July 31, 2006 The Evolution of AWhy?@ 1. The descent of content. Which way is up? I have recently completed the bracingBand long overdueBexperience of reading Making it Explicit, and trying to superimpose my own views on it to see where the disagreements stand out. Mainly, there is agreement. Claim after claim, page after page, I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with Brandom, and this is not just on matters about which philosophers in general agree. Brandom and I are on the same page about many issues that divide the profession. Moreover, on a few points where Brandom explicitly objects to positions I have maintained, I think he is, in the main, right, and I will acknowledge this in more detail below. What then is left to argue about? There is a fundamental difference of direction in our work. But I will try to show that our residual disagreementsBwhich at first make us appear poles apart on some very central thesesBmight quite easily be nudged into consonance if Brandom can take on what I view as a few friendly amendments. We both learned a lesson from Wilfrid Sellars that still hasn=t sunk in with many of our colleagues. I quote, not for the first time, what I consider to be the pithiest expression of it in Sellars: My solution is that A>. .= means - - -@ is the core of a unique mode of discourse which is as distinct from the description and explanation of empirical fact, as is the language of prescription and justification.
    [Show full text]