Charles Taylor and George Grant on the Problem of Instrumentalism: Expressivism and Justice As Alternative Ontologies
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Page 55 'SAVING the GREATEST NUMBER' THOM BROOKS Imagine
“05brooks” i i 2004/3/16 page 55 i i Logique & Analyse 177–178 (2002), 55–59 `SAVING THE GREATEST NUMBER' THOM BROOKS Imagine there are three boats equidistant from one another. You are alone in the first boat. The other two boats are sinking fast: one boat has one person (A), the other has two persons (B&C). There is only enough time to allow saving either A or B&C before their boats sink, drowning whoever is onboard.1 `As far as common-sense morality is concerned, one's duty as rescuer, under the circumstances, is a straightforward matter: one ought to save the greatest number' (Kumar 2001: 165). In this example, one reason in favour of saving B&C and not A is the Kamm-Scanlon argument, a contractualist framework without any commit- ment to aggregating various outcome values nor a combination of individual claims for rescue.2 If the claims of A, B, and C are accorded equal and positive weight, Michael Otsuka contends that the Kamm-Scanlon argument `considers C's claim in combination with B's claim so that they together tip the balance in favor of saving B and C' and not A (2000: 290–91; cf Scan- lon 1998: 232–33). C's presence in B's boat makes the difference between saving A or B&C. For Otsuka, the assertion that `C has a claim to be saved by virtue of an appeal to the difference that B and C make when considered together or in combination rather than one by one' amounts to an `appeal to the claim of a group of individuals' (2000: 292). -
VU Research Portal
VU Research Portal Realism, Instrumentalism, and Scientific Symbiosis: Psychological Theory as a search for truth and the discovery of solutions Cacioppo, J.T.; Semin, G.R.; Berntson, G.G. published in American Psychologist 2004 DOI (link to publisher) 10.1037/0003-066X.59.4.214 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Cacioppo, J. T., Semin, G. R., & Berntson, G. G. (2004). Realism, Instrumentalism, and Scientific Symbiosis: Psychological Theory as a search for truth and the discovery of solutions. American Psychologist, 59, 214-233. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.4.214 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 03. Oct. 2021 Realism, Instrumentalism, and Scientific Symbiosis Psychological Theory as a Search for Truth and the Discovery of Solutions John T. -
Grotius and Kant on Original Community of Goods and Property
grotiana 38 (2017) 106-128 GROTIAN A brill.com/grot Grotius and Kant on Original Community of Goods and Property Sylvie Loriaux Département de science politique, Université Laval, Quebec [email protected] Abstract This paper is interested in the critical potential of the idea of original common possession of the Earth. On the basis of a comparative analysis of Hugo Grotius and Immanuel Kant, it shows how different the meaning of this idea can be within a theory of property or territory. The first part is devoted to Grotius’s account of why and how the institution of property was progressively introduced. It highlights the importance this account attaches to the intention of the first distributors for a good understand- ing of property laws, and in particular, for an understanding of their non-application in situations of extreme necessity. The second part takes the opposite path and shows that although Kant rejects the very existence of a right of necessity, the idea that one might be liberated from a law is not completely absent from, and even plays a crucial role in, his account of property. Clarification of this role ultimately leads us back to the idea of original possession in common of the Earth. Keywords Hugo Grotius – Immanuel Kant – original community of goods – necessity – permissive law – property rights * The author would like to thank the journal’s anonymous referees and editor for their very helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this article. She would also like to thank the participants in the Workshop on Grotius’s Place in the History of Moral and Politi- cal Thought (Leuven, 2017) and in the Workshop on Private Property and Territorial Rights (Bayreuth, 2017) for illuminating discussions. -
Realism and Instrumentalism in Philosophical Explanation
Simchen, O. 2019. Realism and Instrumentalism in Philosophical Explanation. Metaphysics, 2(1), pp. 1–15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/met.20 RESEARCH Realism and Instrumentalism in Philosophical Explanation Ori Simchen University of British Columbia, CA [email protected] There is a salient contrast in how theoretical representations are regarded. Some are regarded as revealing the nature of what they represent, as in familiar cases of theoretical identification in physical chemistry where water is represented as hydrogen hydroxide and gold is represented as the element with atomic number 79. Other theoretical representations are regarded as serving other explanatory aims without being taken individually to reveal the nature of what they represent, as in the representation of gold as a standard for pre-20th century monetary systems in economics or the representation of the meaning of an English sentence as a function from possible worlds to truth values in truth-conditional semantics. Call the first attitude towards a theoretical representation realist and the second attitude instrumentalist. Philosophical explanation purports to reveal the nature of whatever falls within its purview, so it would appear that a realist attitude towards its representations is a natural default. I offer reasons for skepticism about such default realism that emerge from attending to several case studies of philosophical explanation and drawing a general metaphilosophical moral from the foregoing discussion. Keywords: realism; instrumentalism; philosophical explanation; philosophical methodology 1 Introduction Any theoretical endeavour employs representations and philosophy is no exception. A representation for present purposes is a theoretical apparatus that stands for some subject matter within a purported explana- tion. -
Hume's Problem of Induction and the Universalization Of
In Defense of Newtonian Induction: Hume's Problem of Induction and the Universalization of Primary Qualities Ori Belkind November 1, 2018 Abstract This paper aims to advance two claims. First, it aims to show that Hume's argument against the rationality of induction is sound. However, I claim that the conclusion does not follow merely from the self-defeating attempts to justify the rule of induction, unlike traditional readings of the argument. Rather, the skeptical conclusion must also take into account Hume's argument that the secret powers that are present in bodies and give rise to sensible qualities are unknowable. The paper's second aim is to show that Newtonian induction escapes Hume's secret powers argument, given that it includes a transductive inference, from observable phenomena to the powers present in the ultimate parts of matter. Consequently Hume's argument against the rationality of induction does not demonstrate the non-rational nature of Newtonian induction. 1 Introduction This paper articulates a certain reading of Hume's argument against the rationality of induction. Unlike traditional interpretations of Hume's argument, mine takes his argument to involve two distinct sub-arguments; the first is that inductive inferences lack rational support. I term this sub-argument the No Rational Support Argument (NRSA) (Section 2). I also argue that Hume uses a second sub- argument, one I term the Secret Powers Argument, or SPA, to undermine our belief in the rationality of induction. According to the SPA (examined in Section 3), we do not have access to the secret powers of bodies. -
Contractualism
Contractualism Jussi Suikkanen Final author copy; To be published in Michael Hemmingsen (ed.): Ethical Theory in Global Perspective (SUNY Press). Introduction There is a long historical tradition of trying to understand morality in terms of a contract. The core idea in this tradition is that what is right and wrong is in some way grounded in either what we have agreed to do or in what we could be expected to agree to in some hypothetical circumstances. This contractualist way of thinking goes back to at least Ancient Greece (Plato, The Republic, 358e–359b), but it really became the prominent way of thinking especially about our political obligations during the Early Modern period through the social contract theories of Thomas Hobbes (1996 [1651]), John Locke (2002 [1689]), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1997 [1762]). Contractualism is not, however, merely a historical tradition, but rather it continues to be a popular approach. In political philosophy, many debates concerning justice still tend to take John Rawls’s (1971) contractualism as their starting point. Similarly, in moral philosophy, different ways of developing the basic contractualist insights are at the centre of several key theoretical debates (Gauthier 1986, Scanlon 1998, Southwood 2010, and Parfit 2011). That so many people have approached morality through the idea of a contract for over two millennia suggests that the contractualist framework must be getting something right. Yet, as we will see below, the devil will be in the details. 1 For the sake of simplicity, this chapter focuses on just one contemporary formulation of contractualism – the version outlined by T.M. -
The Unity of Science in Early-Modern Philosophy: Subalternation, Metaphysics and the Geometrical Manner in Scholasticism, Galileo and Descartes
The Unity of Science in Early-Modern Philosophy: Subalternation, Metaphysics and the Geometrical Manner in Scholasticism, Galileo and Descartes by Zvi Biener M.A. in Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, 2004 B.A. in Physics, Rutgers University, 1995 B.A. in Philosophy, Rutgers University, 1995 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2008 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Zvi Biener It was defended on April 3, 2008 and approved by Peter Machamer J.E. McGuire Daniel Garber James G. Lennox Paolo Palmieri Dissertation Advisors: Peter Machamer, J.E. McGuire ii Copyright c by Zvi Biener 2008 iii The Unity of Science in Early-Modern Philosophy: Subalternation, Metaphysics and the Geometrical Manner in Scholasticism, Galileo and Descartes Zvi Biener, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2008 The project of constructing a complete system of knowledge—a system capable of integrating all that is and could possibly be known—was common to many early-modern philosophers and was championed with particular alacrity by Ren´eDescartes. The inspiration for this project often came from mathematics in general and from geometry in particular: Just as propositions were ordered in a geometrical demonstration, the argument went, so should propositions be ordered in an overall system of knowledge. Science, it was thought, had to proceed more geometrico. I offer a new interpretation of ‘science more geometrico’ based on an analysis of the explanatory forms used in certain branches of geometry. These branches were optics, as- tronomy, and mechanics; the so-called subalternate, subordinate, or mixed-mathematical sciences. -
PHYSICS, PHILOSOPHY and PSYCHOANALYSIS Essays in Honor of Adolf Grilnbaum
PHYSICS, PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS Essays in Honor of Adolf Grilnbaum Edited by R. s. COHEN Boston University and L. LAUDAN Virginia Polytechnic Institute D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP DORDRECHT I BOSTON I LANCASTER Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: Physics, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. (Boston studies in the philosophy of science; v. 76) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Physics-Philo sophy-Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Philos- ophy-Addresses, essays, lectures. 3. Psychoanalysis-Addresses, essays;lectures. 4. Griinbaum, Adolf. I. Griinbaum, Adolf. II. Cohen, Robert Sonne. III. Series. Q174.B67 vol. 76 [QC6.21 501s 1530'.011 83-4576 ISBN-I3: 978-94-009-7057-1 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-7055-7 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-7055-7 Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company, P.O. Box 17,3300 AA Dordrecht, Holland. Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Boston Inc., 190 Old Derby Street, Hingham, MA 02043, U.S.A. In all other countries, sold and distributed by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, Holland. All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 1983 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland and copyright holders as specified on appropriate pages within. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 15t edition 1983 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any informational storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. -
Just a Tool? John Dewey's Pragmatic Instrumentalism and Educational
Just a Tool? John Dewey’s Pragmatic Instrumentalism and Educational Technology By © 2018 Mike Bannen Submitted to the graduate degree program in Social & Cultural Studies in Education and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Chair: Suzanne Rice, Ph.D. John L. Rury, Ph.D. Argun Staatcioglu, Ph.D. Heidi Hallman, Ph.D. Joe E. O’Brien, Ed.D. Date Defended: 31 January 2018 The dissertation committee for Mike Bannen certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Just a Tool? John Dewey’s Pragmatic Instrumentalism and Educational Technology Chairperson: Suzanne Rice, Ph.D. Date Approved: 31 January 2018 ii Abstract This dissertation examines how John Dewey’s philosophy of knowledge might be used to consider the aims of contemporary educational technologies. While significant scholarship exists examining the historical and philosophical importance of Dewey’s contributions to American progressive education, much less scholarship has focused on examining the relationship between Dewey’s theory of knowledge and his thoughts regarding the purposes and aims of educational technologies. I argue that because many of Dewey’s ideas were heavily influenced by the material and social changes of the industrial revolution, his theories about knowledge, technology, and education offer a unique perspective when considering the educational significance of digital technologies. This dissertation is guided by two central questions: (1) What is the relationship between Dewey’s philosophy of knowledge, his philosophy of technology, and his philosophy of education? (2) How might Dewey’s ideas about the relationship between knowledge, technology, and education help educators, students, and policy makers think about the aims and uses of digital technologies in contemporary educational contexts? I begin by examining Dewey’s pragmatically instrumental account of knowledge. -
The Extent and Relevance of Instrumentalism, Constructivism and Critical Realism in High School Physical Science Textbooks - a Critical Study
THE EXTENT AND RELEVANCE OF INSTRUMENTALISM, CONSTRUCTIVISM AND CRITICAL REALISM IN HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICAL SCIENCE TEXTBOOKS - A CRITICAL STUDY A Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Philosophy by Brian Arthur Jacoby UniversitySchool of Educationof Cape Town University of Cape Tmm March 1990 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town CONTENTS Page 1.0 INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM POSED 1.1 Instrumentalism as a form of anti-realism ................................................ 1 1.2 Definition of terms .......................................................................................... 3 1.3 Instrumentalism is the prevailing view in science today .......................... 5 1.4 Instrumentalism in school science textbooks ............................................. 5 1.5 Out-dated view of the nature of science ...................................................... 8 1.6 Point of departure and summing up........................................................ 12 1.7 Outline of this study ..................................................................................... 13 2.0 INSTRUMENTALISM: ITS ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS 2.1 Introduction -
CONTRACTUALISM Rahul Kumar
41 CONTRACTUALISM Rahul Kumar What is contractualism? Contractualism is a non-consequentialist moral theory first advanced by T. M. Scanlon in his influential article, “Contractualism and Utilitarianism” (1982), and later developed in detail in his book, What We Owe to Each Other (1998). Its distinctive central claim is that one person morally wrongs another by treating him in a way whose permissibility is not justifiable to him on grounds he cannot reasonably reject. The name, “contractualism,” suggests an account belonging to a tradition of thinking about morality associated with Hobbes. Its animating idea is that valid moral norms are those that can be thought of as the object of a hypothetical agreement, reached through a process of self-interested bargaining, among all those to whom they apply. In this respect, the name is misleading. Scanlonian contractualism’s roots lie not in Hobbes, but in the social contract tradition of Rousseau and Kant, one that treats what motivates the parties to the hypo- thetical agreement as the appeal of living in community with others on a basis of mutual respect for one another, along the lines of what Kant calls a the “king- dom of ends,” a “systematic union of different rational beings through common laws” (Kant 1997: 4:433). This strand of the social contract tradition is one that John Rawls brilliantly develops in his A Theory of Justice (1971). Scanlon’s contractualism is importantly indebted to Rawls’s work, but is not helpfully understood as an extension of it. Rawls’s concern is with the nature of justice, and in particular, how a society’s basic institutions ought to be regulated so as to enable ongoing social coopera- tion on terms of fair reciprocity. -
Open JAM Dissertation Final.Pdf
The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts HANNAH ARENDT’S THEORY OF DELIBERATIVE JUDGMENT A Dissertation in Philosophy by Joshua A. Miller © 2010 Joshua A. Miller Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2010 The dissertation of Joshua A. Miller was reviewed and approved* by the following: John Christman Associate Professor of Philosophy and Political Science Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Shannon Sullivan Professor of Philosophy, Women's Studies, and African and African American Studies Head of the Department of Philosophy Dennis J. Schmidt Liberal Arts Research Professor of Philosophy, Comparative Literature, and German Stephen H. Browne Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences *Signatures are on file with the Graduate School. ii Abstract In this dissertation, I investigate the role of judgment in the work of Hannah Arendt, focusing on her reading of Kant and Augustine and her account of deliberation in democratic theory. In an attempt to fill the lacuna left by her unfinished work, The Life of the Mind, I argue that Arendt’s appropriation of the Kantian sensus communis entails a theory of ethical and political judgment centered in the community rather than the subject. Taking my cue from her comment that the goal of philosophy is to teach us how to “think without banisters,” I defend Arendt’s view that the faculty of thinking cannot practically constrain the faculty of willing, and that the categorical imperative is inadequate to challenge of the explosive unforeseeability that Arendt attributes to action. Thus Arendt’s account of judging cannot be equated with reasoning over consequences or intentions.