Necessary Truth and the Transcendental Interpretation of Descartes's Cogito Argument
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Descartes' Influence in Shaping the Modern World-View
R ené Descartes (1596-1650) is generally regarded as the “father of modern philosophy.” He stands as one of the most important figures in Western intellectual history. His work in mathematics and his writings on science proved to be foundational for further development in these fields. Our understanding of “scientific method” can be traced back to the work of Francis Bacon and to Descartes’ Discourse on Method. His groundbreaking approach to philosophy in his Meditations on First Philosophy determine the course of subsequent philosophy. The very problems with which much of modern philosophy has been primarily concerned arise only as a consequence of Descartes’thought. Descartes’ philosophy must be understood in the context of his times. The Medieval world was in the process of disintegration. The authoritarianism that had dominated the Medieval period was called into question by the rise of the Protestant revolt and advances in the development of science. Martin Luther’s emphasis that salvation was a matter of “faith” and not “works” undermined papal authority in asserting that each individual has a channel to God. The Copernican revolution undermined the authority of the Catholic Church in directly contradicting the established church doctrine of a geocentric universe. The rise of the sciences directly challenged the Church and seemed to put science and religion in opposition. A mathematician and scientist as well as a devout Catholic, Descartes was concerned primarily with establishing certain foundations for science and philosophy, and yet also with bridging the gap between the “new science” and religion. Descartes’ Influence in Shaping the Modern World-View 1) Descartes’ disbelief in authoritarianism: Descartes’ belief that all individuals possess the “natural light of reason,” the belief that each individual has the capacity for the discovery of truth, undermined Roman Catholic authoritarianism. -
Greek and Latin Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes
GREEK AND LATIN ROOTS, PREFIXES, AND SUFFIXES This is a resource pack that I put together for myself to teach roots, prefixes, and suffixes as part of a separate vocabulary class (short weekly sessions). It is a combination of helpful resources that I have found on the web as well as some tips of my own (such as the simple lesson plan). Lesson Plan Ideas ........................................................................................................... 3 Simple Lesson Plan for Word Study: ........................................................................... 3 Lesson Plan Idea 2 ...................................................................................................... 3 Background Information .................................................................................................. 5 Why Study Word Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes? ......................................................... 6 Latin and Greek Word Elements .............................................................................. 6 Latin Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes .......................................................................... 6 Root, Prefix, and Suffix Lists ........................................................................................... 8 List 1: MEGA root list ................................................................................................... 9 List 2: Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes .......................................................................... 32 List 3: Prefix List ...................................................................................................... -
Phil 252S Seminar on Meta-Metaphysics
Phil 252S Seminar on Meta-metaphysics Professor: Sara Bernstein ([email protected]) Special Guest: Peter van Inwagen Metaphysics concerns questions about what exists: for example, do chairs really exist, or are there merely particles arranged chair-wise? What are the criteria for their existence? Meta-metaphysics concerns questions about the methodology and substantivity of metaphysics. For example, does reality furnish answers to metaphysical questions? If so, do we have epistemic access to the answers? Or is it our language and social conventions that give us answers to metaphysical questions? Do answers to these questions determine the substantivity of metaphysical debates? Required Texts: Metametaphysics (ed. Wasserman and Chalmers) Requirements: For undergraduate students: weekly well-formed questions due on Tuesdays at 6pm (20%) one in-class presentations on a course reading (20%) one 6-8 page term paper (40%) class participation (20%) For graduate students: weekly well-formed questions due on Tuesdays at 6pm (10%) one in-class presentation on a course reading (10%) one presentation on your own term paper and term paper (60%) class participation (20%) Schedule: Wednesday, January 19: Introduction to Metametaphysics Ted Sider, “Ontology” (chapter 9) and “Metametaphysics” (chapter 5) from Writing the Book of the World (unpublished draft) (Blackboard) 1 January 26: First-Order Ontological Debates Peter van Inwagen, Material Beings, Chapters 2 and 3 (Blackboard) David Lewis and Stephanie Lewis, “Holes” (Blackboard) February 2: -
Parmenides' Theistic Metaphysics
Parmenides’ Theistic Metaphysics BY ©2016 Jeremy C. DeLong Submitted to the graduate degree program in Philosophy and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Chairperson: Tom Tuozzo ________________________________ Eileen Nutting ________________________________ Scott Jenkins ________________________________ John Symons ________________________________ John Younger Date Defended: May 6th, 2016 ii The Dissertation Committee for Jeremy C. DeLong certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Parmenides’ Theistic Metaphysics ________________________________ Chairperson: Thomas Tuozzo Date Defended: May 6th, 2016 iii Abstract: The primary interpretative challenge for understanding Parmenides’ poem revolves around explaining both the meaning of, and the relationship between, its two primary sections: a) the positively endorsed metaphysical arguments which describe some unified, unchanging, motionless, and eternal “reality” (Aletheia), and b) the ensuing cosmology (Doxa), which incorporates the very principles explicitly denied in Aletheia. I will refer to this problem as the “A-D Paradox.” I advocate resolving this paradoxical relationship by reading Parmenides’ poem as a ring-composition, and incorporating a modified version of Palmer’s modal interpretation of Aletheia. On my interpretation, Parmenides’ thesis in Aletheia is not a counter-intuitive description of how all the world (or its fundamental, genuine entities) must truly be, but rather a radical rethinking of divine nature. Understanding Aletheia in this way, the ensuing “cosmology” (Doxa) can be straightforwardly rejected as an exposition of how traditional, mythopoetic accounts have misled mortals in their understanding of divinity. Not only does this interpretative view provide a resolution to the A-D Paradox, it offers a more holistic account of the poem by making the opening lines of introduction (Proem) integral to understanding Parmenides’ message. -
Three Principles of Rationalism
Three Principles of Rationalism Christopher Peacocke It is just over fifty years since the publication of Quine’s ‘Two Dogmas of Empiricism’ (1951). That paper expresses a broad vision of the system of relations between meaning, experience, and the rational formation of belief. The deepest challenges the paper poses come not from the detailed argument of its first four sections – formidable though that is – but from the visionary material in its last two sections.1 It is this visionary material that is likely to force the reader to revise, to deepen, or to rethink her position on fundamental issues about the rela- tions between meaning, experience, rationality, and, above all, the a priori. Does what is right in Quine’s argument exclude any rationalist view of these relations? How should a rationalist view be formulated? Those are the questions I will be addressing. I start with the critical part of this task, a consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of Quine’s vision. Drawing on the constraints emerg- ing from that critical discussion, I will then turn to the positive task of articulat- ing and defending a rival conception. The rival conception can be described as a Generalized Rationalism. 1. The Character of the Quinean Challenge Quine argued as follows. (a) Whatever meaning is, and whatever it is that has meaning – whether an individual sentences, group of sentences, or whole theory – mean- ing must be characterized in terms of the experiences or evidence that would support what it is that has meaning. (b) For a vast range of individual sentences, experiences or evidential conditions cannot be associated with those sentences one-by-one if the association is meant to capture the meaning of those individual sentences. -
On Van Cleve (Rysiew)
Penultimate version 1 First Principles as General, First Principle 7 as Special PATRICK RYSIEW 1. Introduction Thomas Reid claimed that his main achievement was having called into question the ‘theory of ideas’, the sceptical tendencies of which he saw Hume as having brought to full fruition (COR, 210-11). But those who’ve studied Reid’s work know that it contains many important positive contributions beyond that. James Van Cleve’s masterful Problems from Reid displays the breadth, depth – and, at times, difficulties -- of Reid’s writings, with penetrating critical discussion of his views on perception, memory, personal identity, knowledge, action, and morals, among other topics. The book is a model of clarity and rigor, bringing Reid to life, and his ideas into productive and illuminating contact with contemporary debates and positions. Below, I focus on Van Cleve’s discussion of Reid’s epistemological views, which many have found to be rich and rewarding – while, tellingly, often disagreeing as to just what they are. After outlining the central issues Van Cleve addresses and the interpretive choices he favors, I’ll raise some questions about the latter and suggest some alternatives. Specifically, I will address the distinction, prominent in Van Cleve’s discussion, between first principles as particular and as general, and argue that the generalist line not only has much more going for it than Van Cleve suggests, but also that this doesn’t come at the cost of sacrificing other of his central claims. Further, I will (much more briefly) suggest that Reid’s seventh first principle is special, though not in the way Van Cleve considers and criticizes, and that, here too, the suggested alternative does not compromise Van Cleve’s central theses. -
And If .L Didn't Do
Sorryfor the conditionof this document. I almost didn't put in on thesystem, but it is an importantwork; and if .l didn'tdo it I wouldbe doingsomething less important at the moment. SteveBayne . www.hist-analytic.org META.MEDITATIOT{S: Studiesin Descartes edircdb1 Alexander Sesonsfr'eand Noel Flerrting SANTA BARBARA UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA' WADSWORTH STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHICAL CRITICISM Alexander Sesonshe and, Noel Flemi.ng, Edi,tors HUMAN UNDERSTANDING: Studies philosophy in the of DavidHume J META.MEDITATIONS: Studiesin Descartes PLATO'S MENO: Texr and Criticism fnc' Wadsuorth. Publish'ing Cornparyt' BELMONT' CALIFORNIA Cogito, Ergo Sum 5l Augustine'santicipation. [t cannot be denied,of course,that the simi- COGITO, ERGO SUM: larities are striking. One may wonder, howevcr, whether they are all there is to the matter. Perhapsthere are also dissimilaritiesbetween INFERBNCB Descartesand Augustine important enough to justify or at least to ex- plain the one's reluctance to acknowledge tlrc cxtent of the other's OR PERFORMANCE?* anticipation. But we cannot tell whether thcrc is more ro Descartes's cogito, ergo sum than there is to St. Augustinc'ssirrilar f Hinti,kha argumentbe- aaho fore we cantell exactlywhat thereis to the cogittt:lrgrrmcnt. rv If there are important differences betwccn l)cscartes and his 2n predecessors,the questionwill also arisewhcthcr sonlc of thc anticipa- tions are closerthan others.For instance,Descartcs corrkl havefound l. Cogito, crgo sum as a problem. The fame (some would say the no- the principlein St. ThomasAquinas as well asin St. Augustine.Which toriety) of thc ntltgc cogito, ergo fl,rm makes one expect that scholarly of the two saintscomes closer to the cogito, ergo sum? industry hns l<lng sincc exhaustedwhatever interest it may have histor- 3. -
SPREAD WORLDS, PLENITUDE and MODAL REALISM: a PROBLEM for DAVID LEWIS by Charles R
1 SPREAD WORLDS, PLENITUDE AND MODAL REALISM: A PROBLEM FOR DAVID LEWIS By Charles R. Pigden and Rebecca E. B. Entwisle 1. Introduction: Modal Realism and Meta-Philosophy David Lewis was famous (among other things) for the meta-philosophical claim that knock-down refutations are rare to non-existent in philosophy. You can argue that the costs of a theory exceed the intellectual benefits but it is difficult, if not impossible, to prove that it is false. When it comes to choosing between philosophical theories, it is generally a matter of ‘the price is right’, and when it comes to refuting a theory the best you can generally do is to drive up the costs whilst diminishing the benefits. There may come a time when the costs are so high and the benefits are so low that the theory can’t attract any takers, but this is usually due to a cumulative process of philosophical debate not to a sudden drop in net value brought about by a single decisive counterargument. When philosophers win, it’s nearly always a victory on points and almost never a knock-out. At the same time, Lewis subscribed to a philosophical thesis so outrageous as to cry out for knock-down refutation, namely that in order to make sense of modal truths, we must postulate an infinity of possible universes, all just as real as the one that we inhabit, but cut off from us in space and time. (This has the corollary that in order to make sense of causality we must postulate an infinity of items that have no causal connection to anything that happens in this universe.) Thus the temptation is to go for the double-whammy, the knock-down refutation of modal realism which is also a counterexample to the meta- philosophical claim. -
Enhancing Well-Being and Alleviating Depressive Symptoms with Positive Psychology Interventions
Enhancing Well-Being and Alleviating Depressive Symptoms With Positive Psychology Interventions: A Practice-Friendly Meta-Analysis m Nancy L. Sin University of California, Riverside m Sonja Lyubomirsky University of California, Riverside Do positive psychology interventions—that is, treatment methods or intentional activities aimed at cultivating positive feelings, positive behaviors, or positive cognitions—enhance well-being and ameliorate depressive symptoms? A meta-analysis of 51 such interventions with 4,266 individuals was conducted to address this question and to provide practical guidance to clinicians. The results revealed that positive psychology interventions do indeed significantly enhance well-being (mean r 5 .29) and decrease depressive symptoms (mean r 5 .31). In addition, several factors were found to impact the effectiveness of positive psychology interventions, including the depression status, self-selection, and age of participants, as well as the format and duration of the interventions. Accordingly, clinicians should be encouraged to incorporate positive psychology techniques into their clinical work, particularly for treating clients who are depressed, relatively older, or highly motivated to improve. Our findings also suggest that clinicians would do well to deliver positive psychology interventions as individual (versus group) therapy and for relatively longer periods of time. & 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 65: 467–487, 2009. Keywords: depression; meta-analysis; positive psychology; psy- -
Plato's Metaphysics of Morals
Created on 19 July 2003 at 9.15 hours page 39 PLATO’S METAPHYSICS OF MORALS C. D. C. REEVE craft (τÝχνη) constituted the paradigm of knowledge when Plato began to develop his philosophy,he used it—critically— as a model. He uncovered epistemological flaws in the crafts and described, in outline at least, a craft-like science that avoided them. This science, which has the Good itself as its unhypothetical— because dialectically defensible—first principle, is the superordi- nate craft that occupies the pinnacle of an allegedly unique craft hierarchy. It is philosophy as Plato conceives of it. Its deep simi- larities to Aristotle’s science of first principles—metaphysics or primary philosophy—should be evident, though there are, it goes without saying, deep di·erences as well. The craft paradigm, as we may call it, is at the heart of Plato’s conception of philosophy, then, determining its structure and un- derwriting many of its central doctrines. In the present paper I want to provide some justification for these stark claims by exam- ining Plato’s critique of the specifically mathematical crafts and its surprising consequences for his metaphysics of morals.1 The Re- public and Philebus are my chief textual focus, but the Euthydemus, Cratylus, and Symposium also come into the picture. ã C. D. C. Reeve 2003 I am grateful to audiences at Northwestern University, Princeton University, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and (especially) to David Sedley for their very helpful comments and criticisms. 1 Calculation and geometry are crafts at Chrm. -
Substance, Causation and Free Will in Spinoza and Leibniz
6x9:Layout 1 8/21/2008 2:00 PM Page 17 a0rxh/ Substance, Causation and Free Will in Spinoza and Leibniz ROSS WOLFE Pennsylvania State University In Western monotheism, it is believed that God possesses all of man’s moral features in their perfection—that indeed man was created in His1 (spiritual) image. It follows from this doctrine that He possesses a perfect will, which guides the fates of men and the material flow of reality. This divine attribute is usually referred to as Providence. Much energy has been devoted through the ages to reconciling our own claim to free will as humans with this transcendent will of God. But a more fundamental question remains to be asked, if one considers the logical intricacies this notion. For how can it be logically consistent that God’s determinations are freely chosen, if every one of these choices can be traced back to prior causes that themselves demand that certain necessary effects result? If one were to pursue the logic of this proposition back to its strictest foundation (the causa sui), he would be forced to conclude that there was never any point at which a deviation could have occurred, where different possibilities might have emerged. The conception of God as acting freely according to His will would thus seem fundamentally flawed in this system of causation. This apparent contradiction was the occasion of a major controversy at the close of the seventeenth century. The iconic philosophers Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Wil- helm Leibniz stood at opposite poles in this debate. The former’s final treatise, The Ethics, lays forth the provocative assertion that God lacks free will. -
Parental Meta-Emotion Philosophy and the Emotional Life of Families: Theoretical Models and Preliminary Data
Journal of Family Psychology Copyright 1996 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 1996, Vol. 10, No. 3, 243-268 O893-32O0/9OT3.OO Parental Meta-Emotion Philosophy and the Emotional Life of Families: Theoretical Models and Preliminary Data John M. Gottman, Lynn Fainsilber Katz, and Carole Hooven University of Washington This article introduces the concepts of parental meta-emotion, which refers to parents' emotions about their own and their children's emotions, and meta-emotion philosophy, which refers to an organized set of thoughts and metaphors, a philosophy, and an approach to one's own emotions and to one's children's emotions. In the context of a longitudinal study beginning when the children were 5 years old and ending when they were 8 years old, a theoretical model and path analytic models are presented that relate parental meta-emotion philosophy to parenting, to child regulatory physiology, to emotion regulation abilities in the child, and to child outcomes in middle childhood. The importance of parenting practices for refers to executive functions of emotion. In this children's long-term psychological adjustment article, we discuss the evolution of the meta- has been a central tenet in developmental and emotion construct and describe its relationship family psychology. In this article, we introduce to various aspects of family and child function- a new concept of parenting that we call parental ing. We present a parsimonious theoretical meta-emotion philosophy, which refers to an model of the role of parental meta-emotions in organized set of feelings and thoughts about children's emotional development, operational- one's own emotions and one's children's emo- ize this model, and present some path analytic tions.