Introduction AN ANTHOLOGY OF PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES Edited by PATRICIA HANNA ADRIANNE L. MCEVOY PENELOPE VOUTSINA ATINER 2006 1 An Anthology of Philosophical Studies 2 Introduction Athens Institute for Education and Research 2006 An Anthology of Philosophical Studies Edited by Patricia Hanna Adrianne L. McEvoy Penelope Voutsina 3 An Anthology of Philosophical Studies PUBLISHED BY ATHENS INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH 14 Solomou Street, 10683 Athens, Greece Tel. +30 210 36.34.210 Fax +30 210.36.34.209 Email: [email protected] URL: www.atiner.gr This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of the Athens Institute for Education and Research. First Published: 2006 ISBN: 978-960-6672-11-8 Typeset, printed and binding by Theta Co. 4 Introduction Table of Contents List of Contributors i Introduction 1 Voutsina, P. PART I EPISTEMOLOGY 1. Imagination in Descartes’ Skepticism 7 Scholl, A. 2. Descartes on Sensations and Ideas of Sensations 17 Cunning, D. 3. The Myth of Hume’s Compatibilism 33 Morris, E.W. 4. From Contextualism to Skepticism 43 Wilburn, R. 5. The Puzzle of Self-Knowledge 51 Voutsina, P. 6. Unconfined Rationality: A Normative yet Realistic Model of 59 Inference Morado, R. and Savion, L. PART II METAPHYSICS AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 7. Language as Community Property: What’s Wrong with 75 Chomsky’s Individualism? Hanna, P. 8. What do Concepts Consist of? The Role of Geometric and 93 Proprioceptive Information in Categorization Dellantonio, S. and Pastore, L. 9. Personal Identity and Survival 105 Ward, A. 10. Emergence, Mind, Identity, Composition 119 Vision, G. 5 An Anthology of Philosophical Studies 11. On the Plausibility of Higher-Level Causation 137 Marras, A. 12. The Other Explanatory Gap 155 Yoo, J. 13. A Hylomorphic Solution to the Problem of Mental Causation 171 Jaworski, W. 14. Transcendental and Realist Philosophy 189 Pietersma, H. 15. How to be a Scientific Realist 199 Doppelt, G. PART III ETHICS 16. Morality without Metaphysics: Another Look at Hume’s 209 Sentimentalism Brown, C. 17. Moral Philosophy & Religious Ethics 221 Blizek, L.W. 18. Courage, Self-Trust and Self-Defence 235 Burrow, S. 19. Virtues Required by the Socially Reproductive Beings 247 Schuller, M.P. 20. A Human System Approach to Environmental Ethics 265 Choi, M.K. & Dixon, H. M. PART IV CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY AND PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION 21. Would Existentialism Exist if Hegel had been Correctly 283 Critiqued? Hegel, Kierkergaard and Philosophy of God Murphy, W.D. 22. The Audible Geometry of Cézanne: Merleau - Ponty’s Musical 299 Philosophy Wiskus, J. 6 Introduction 23. History and Love in Nietzsche: How Circe keeps us in her Grip 309 Burch, R. 24. Philosophy and Its Vicissitudes: A Psychiatric Approach to 323 Philosophical Historiography De Vleminck, J. 25. The Therapeutic Nature of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Method 339 Gitsoulis, C. 26. A Philosophical View of the Clash of Civilizations 349 Nicholson, C. 27. The Contradiction Approach to Resolving Problems about 357 Omnipotence Wreen, M. 28. Boethius and the Problem of Evil 367 Weed, H.J. 29. God and God’s Form: On the Metaphysical Foundation of 379 Theology Kim, C.T. PART V POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 30. Temptation, Public Policy, and the Impairment of Personal 393 Autonomy Hughes, M.P. 31. Libertarianism and the Dichotomy between Positive and Negative 403 Rights Etieyibo, E. 32. Can there be a Nonconscequentialist Rights-Based Moral 421 Justification of Terrorism? Shanahan, T. 33. Globalization, Human Rights and Cultural Diversity: Humanism 433 and the Question of Difference Stivachtis, A.Y. 34. The Priority of Courts in the General Theory of Law 457 Sheinman, H. 7 Introduction i Introduction List of Contributors Blizek L. William, Professor, University of Nebraska, U.S.A. Brown Charlotte, Associate Professor, Illinois Wesleyan University, U.S.A. Burch Ruth, Doctoral Researcher, University of Warwick, U.K. Burrow Sylvia, Assistant Professor, Cape Breton University, Canada Choi Moon-Ki, Professor, Seowon University, South Korea Cunning David, Assistant Professor, University of Iowa, U.S.A. Dellantonio Sara, PhD Student, University of Trento, Italy De Vleminck Jens, PhD Student, Research Assistant, Catholic University Leuven, Belgium Dixon Harold Mark, Assistant Professor, Ohio Northern University, U.S.A. Doppelt Gerald, Professor, University of California, U.S.A. Etieyibo Edwin, PhD Student, University of Alberta, Canada Gitsoulis Chrysoula, Adjunct Lecturer, Baruch College, CUNY, U.S.A. Hanna Patricia, Professor, University of Utah, U.S.A. Hughes M. Paul, Professor, University of Michigan-Dearborn, U.S.A. Jaworski William, Assistant Professor, Fordham University, U.S.A. Kim Chin-Tai, Professor, Case Western Reserve University, U.S.A. Marras Ausonio, Professor, University of Western Ontario, Canada McEvoy Leigh Adrianne, Assistant Professor, Mansfield University, U.S.A. Morado Raymundo, Researcher, National University of Mexico, Mexico Morris Edward William, Associate Professor, Illinois Wesleyan University, U.S.A. Murphy W. Daniel, Assistant Professor, Saint Anselm College, U.S.A. Nicholson Carol, Professor, Rider University Lawrenceville, U.S.A. Pastore Luigi, Assistant Professor, University of Bari, Italy Pietersma Henry, Professor, University of Toronto, Canada Savion Leah, Faculty, Indiana University Bloomington, U.S.A. Scholl Ann, Assistant Professor, American University of Kuwait, Kuwait Schuller M. Peter, Associate Professor, Miami University, U.S.A. Shanahan Timothy, Professor, Loyola Marymount University, U.S.A. Sheinman Hanoch, Assistant Professor, Rice University, U.S.A. Stivachtis A. Yannis, Director, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, U.S.A. Vision Gerald, Professor, Temple University, U.S.A. Voutsina Penelope, PhD Student, University of Sheffield, U.K. Ward Andrew, Lecturer, University of York, U.K. Weed Hart Jennifer, Assistant Professor, Tyndale University College, Canada Wilburn Ronald, Assistant Professor, University of Nevada, U.S.A. Wiskus Jessica, Assistant Professor, Duquesne University, U.S.A. Wreen Michael, Professor, Marquette University, U.S.A. Yoo Julie, Assistant Professor, Lafayette College, U.S.A. i An Anthology of Philosophical Studies ii Introduction Introduction This volume includes selected philosophical papers that were presented in the 1st International Philosophical Conference in Athens that was organised by the Athens Institute for Research and Education. Over 120 speakers gathered to present papers on a wide range of topics. The aim of the following introductory comments is to make explicit the particular themes that individual emerge in all of the papers. The first part includes six papers that deal with current epistemological issues. The section begins with a paper by Assistant Professor A. Scholl from the American University of Kuwait. The main argument of this paper is that Descartes’ Skepticism deviates from traditional skeptical problems like the problem of Hallucination and Perceptual Relativity and proposes that Descartes’ arguments should be understood as arguments intended to conceive imagination and sense perception as genuine faculties of thought. This paper is followed by one written by Assistant Professor D. Cunning from the University of Iowa. His paper defends the thesis that some of the confusion surrounding the issue of the Cartesian sensations is due to Descartes’ interchangeable use of the language of ‘sensations’ and the language of ‘sensory’ ideas. The third paper is by Associate Professor W. Morris from Illinois Wesleyan University. The aim of his paper is to criticize Hume’s ‘compatibilism’ by making clear that it is largely due to the attempt to assimilate the doctrine of necessity to the metaphysical theses of free will and determinism. The fourth paper written by Assistant Professor R. Wilburn from University of Nevada, claims that contextualism generates scepticism as a conditional claim. According to the author, ‘external world’ scepticism has always emerged from manifestly contextualist assumptions about knowledge. The fifth paper is written by Ph.D student P. Voutsina from University of Sheffield and tutor of religious studies in Athens. This paper explores the conflict between philosophical intuitions and psychological accounts of self-knowledge. The author provides a rationale for the claim that we need an epistemology of self- knowledge that can subsume the psychological work on first-person error while leaving the intentional authority of agents intact. The last paper of that part is written by Researchers L. Savion and R. Morado from Indiana University and University of Mexico respectively. This paper proposes a notion of inference that includes both deductive methods and cognitive inferential heuristics that allows fallibility and aims to provide an alternative to already existing models of inference. In the second part nine papers deal with issues on metaphysics, philosophy of mind and philosophy of science. The part begins with a paper by Professor P. Hanna from University of Utah. Her paper elaborates a social account of language − based on results of research in child language acquisition − in contrast to Chomsky’s claim that knowledge of language is theoretical. This paper is followed by one written by Assistant Professor L. Pastore and Post- Doc S. Dellantonio from University of Bari and University of Trento respectively. The authors argue