Thomas Kelly
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Load more
Recommended publications
-
Ernest Sosa and Virtuously Begging the Question
University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor OSSA Conference Archive OSSA 9 May 18th, 9:00 AM - May 21st, 5:00 PM Ernest Sosa and virtuously begging the question Michael Walschots University of Windsor Scott F. Aikin Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/ossaarchive Part of the Philosophy Commons Walschots, Michael and Aikin, Scott F., "Ernest Sosa and virtuously begging the question" (2011). OSSA Conference Archive. 38. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/ossaarchive/OSSA9/papersandcommentaries/38 This Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences and Conference Proceedings at Scholarship at UWindsor. It has been accepted for inclusion in OSSA Conference Archive by an authorized conference organizer of Scholarship at UWindsor. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ernest Sosa and virtuously begging the question MICHAEL WALSCHOTS Department of Philosophy University of Windsor 401 Sunset Ave. Windsor, ON N9P 3B4 Canada [email protected] ABSTRACT: This paper discusses the notion of epistemic circularity, supposedly different from logical circu- larity, and evaluates Ernest Sosa’s claim that this specific kind of circular reasoning is virtuous rather than vicious. I attempt to determine whether or not the conditions said to make epistemic circularity a permissible instance of begging the question could make other instances of circular reasoning equally permissible. KEYWORDS: begging the question, circular reasoning, Ernest Sosa, epistemic circularity, petitio principii, reliabilism. 1. INTRODUCTION In 1986, William Alston introduced the idea of ‘epistemic circularity’, which involves assuming the reliability of a given source of belief during the process of proving the reli- ability of that same source. -
Waldomiro José Silva Filho1 Marcos Antonio Alves2
Presentation Editorial / Editorial PRESENTATION Waldomiro José Silva Filho 1 Marcos Antonio Alves 2 It is with great happiness and honor that we present this special issue of Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp journal of philosophy in honor of Ernest Sosa. One of the most influential voices in the contemporary philosophy, Ernest Sosa was born in Cárdenas, Cuba, on June 17, 1940. He earned his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Master of Arts (M.A.) from the University of Miami and his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from the University of Pittsburgh in 1964. Since 2007, he has been Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. There is no doubt that Sosa is responsible for one of the revolution in Epistemology that will mark the history of philosophy. However, he also opened new paths in several central issues of philosophy, such as Metaphysics, Philosophy of Language and Philosophy of Mind. In 2020, the world philosophical community on all continents joined with his close friends and family to celebrate Ernie’s 80th birthday. Dozens of publications, books, journals, and webinars were held, even amidst the humanitarian devastation of the pandemic. The journal Trans/Form/Ação 1 Full Professor at the Philosophy Department of Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, BA – Brazil. Researcher of the CNPq, Brazil. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0874-9599 E-mail: [email protected] 2 Editor da Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp journal of Philosophy. Professor at the Philosophy Department of and Coordinator of Post Graduation Program in Philosophy – São Paulo State University (UNESP), Marília, SP – Brazil. -
Thomas Kelly
Thomas Kelly Department of Philosophy [email protected] Princeton University https://www.princeton.edu/~tkelly/ 212 1879 Hall (617)308-9673 Princeton, NJ 08544 Employment Princeton University, 2004- Professor of Philosophy, 2012- Associated Faculty, University Center for Human Values, 2006- Associate Professor of Philosophy, 2007-2012 Assistant Professor of Philosophy, 2004-2007 Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame, 2003-2004. Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows, 2000-2003. Education Ph.D. in Philosophy, Harvard University, 2001. Dissertation: Rationality and the Ethics of Belief Committee: Robert Nozick, Derek Parfit, James Pryor. B.A. in Philosophy, summa cum laude, University of Notre Dame, 1994. Areas of Specialization Epistemology, Rationality, Philosophical Methodology. Areas of Competence History of Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Political Philosophy, Ethics, Philosophy of Religion. 2 Publications Papers (32) “Bias: Some Conceptual Geography.” To appear in Nathan Ballantyne and David Dunning (eds.) Reason, Bias, and Inquiry: New Perspectives from the Crossroads of Epistemology and Psychology. (31) “Evidence.” To appear in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (30) “Are There Any Successful Philosophical Arguments?” (co-authored with Sarah McGrath). In John Keller (ed.) Being, Freedom, and Method: Themes from the Philosophy of Peter van Inwagen (Oxford University Press 2017): 324-339. With a reply by Peter van Inwagen. (29) “Religious Diversity and the Epistemology of Theology” (co-authored with Nathan King). In William Abraham and Fred Aquino (eds.) The Oxford Handbook to the Epistemology of Theology (Oxford University Press 2017): 309-324. (28) “Historical versus Current Time Slice Theories in Epistemology.” In Hilary Kornblith and Brian McLaughlin (eds.) Goldman and His Critics (Blackwell Publishers 2016): 43-65. -
Herman Cappelen
CSMN & IFIKK GEORG MORGENSTIERNES HUS HERMAN UNIVERSITY OF OSLO [email protected] CAPPELEN PRIMARY POSITIONS CHAIR PROFESSORSHIP, PHILOSOPHY 2020- University of Hong Kong PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2015-2020 University of Oslo PROFESSOR AND ARCHÉ CHAIR 2007 – 2015 University of St Andrews CUF LECTURER, FELLOW AND TUTOR IN PHILOSOPHY 2006-2007 Somerville College and University of Oxford ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2003 – 2005 Vassar College, New York ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY 1996 – 2003 Vassar College, New York LONG-TERM AFFILIATED POSITIONS PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY (0.2 TIME) 2015-2020 University of St Andrews RESEARCH DIRECTOR, CSMN AT OSLO 2007 – 2017 University of Oslo 1 QUALIFICATIONS PhD In Philosophy. 1996 University of California, Berkeley Dissertation: “The Metaphysics of Words and the Semantics of Quotation”. Advisors: C. Chihara, S. Neale, and J. Searle BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. 1989 Balliol College, Oxford MAJOR RESEARCH GRANTS • ConsciousBrainConcepts – 16 million NOK (PI: J. Storm, with collaborators from medicine, philosophy and psychology) (2019- 2022) • Toppforsk for Conceptual Engineering, 25 million NOK (with Øystein Linnebo and Camilla Serck-Hanssen and Rachel Sterken). (2016-21) • CSMN, Phase II: approximately 60 million NOK over 5 years from the Norwegian Research Council (with 7 other applicants). • Rethinking Mind and Meaning: £250,000 from AHRC (PI: Juan Gomez).(2014-16) • Intuitions and Philosophical Methodology: £990.000 from AHRC (PI: Jessica Brown) (2008-12) • Contextualism and Relativism: £990.000, from AHRC (PI: Crispin Wright).(2007-10) • CSMN Phase I: approximately 60 million (NOK) over 5 years from the Norwegian Research Council (with 7 other applicants).( 2007-12) • Shared Content: Awarded 4.5 million (NOK), from The Norwegian Research Council. -
Belief in Psyontology Cumstances (Ross & Schroeder, 2014; Schwitzgebel, 2015)
Philosophers’ volume 20, no. 11 ow are full and partial belief related in psychology’s ontology? Imprint april 2020 H Credence-first philosophers think partial belief is more funda- mental. For example, Lockeans say that to believe P is just to have high credence in P. Whereas categorical-first philosophers make full beliefs fundamental instead. Having credence x in P might just amount to having a categorical belief that P’s probability is x, for example. Work in cognitive psychology supports a different view, however. In humans, beliefs come in both coarse and fine kinds, with neither BELIEF IN more fundamental than the other. Epistemologists who focus on one kind to the exclusion of the other, or who treat one as central and the other as an afterthought, risk toiling at a fiction. This conclusion is necessarily tentative. For one thing, the empir- PSYONTOLOGY ical work is nascent and ongoing, its results subject to revision. But more than that, it’s sometimes unclear what the present results tell us about the ontological and epistemological questions of interest to philosophers. Still, a prima facie case can be made. And making it is an essential step in bringing our best science to bear on what is, at least in part, an empirical question. 1. Background Jonathan Weisberg 1.1 Why Monism? Why think one kind of belief is more fundamental than the other? It’s not just that Anglophone philosophers use ‘belief’ for both kinds, so University of Toronto they must really be the same thing deep down.1 It’s rather what causes us to use ‘belief’ for both attitudes. -
Philosophy Without Intuitions, by Herman Cappelen
546 Book Reviews Philosophy without Intuitions, by Herman Cappelen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, 242 pp. BIBLID [0873-626X (2012) 33; pp. 546-553] Metaphilosophy is a frustrating field. Since philosophy includes such diverse areas – struggling with what we can know, should do, and can hope – and in all these areas developed radically different approaches, it seems almost impossible to provide an interesting and adequate metaphilosophical outlook. Unless one characterizes at a rather abstract level what all these different approaches in those different areas have in common (which is likely to result in something pretty uninteresting), one will end up with a metaphilosophy that will at best be adequate for a rather small pocket of philosophy. That is not only because philosophy is such a salad bowl of areas and approaches, but also because metaphilosophy is itself philosophy. In order to say something interesting about philosophy as a discipline, one will have to say something interesting about first-order philoso- phy, too; presumably about metaphysics (What is the nature of the objects of philosophical inquiry?), epistemology (How can we know about the objects of philosophical inquiry?), and philosophy of science (How do our methods reflect our epistemic access?). Given the prominent perception of at least some of analytic philosophy as being either concerned with language (‘linguistic turn’), or else the mind (‘cognitive turn’), the philosophies of those areas will probably have to be addressed too, along with meta-ethics, if one intends to include practical philosophy in one’s metaphilosophical account. This fact exponentially increases the dilemma for the metaphilosopher: either one keeps one’s first-order philosophical commitments low, and ends up with nothing very interesting to say, or one takes up a stance on all this, and ends up with a metaphilosophy that might at best be ade- quate for what oneself and one’s closest colleagues are doing when engaged in philosophy, but probably inadequate for most of what is going on in the discipline. -
Kinds of Knowledge, Limits of Science De Ridder, Jeroen
VU Research Portal Kinds of knowledge, limits of science de Ridder, Jeroen published in Scientism 2018 DOI (link to publisher) 10.1093/oso/9780190462758.003.0009 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record document license Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) de Ridder, J. (2018). Kinds of knowledge, limits of science. In G. J. de Ridder, H. D. Peels, & R. van Woudenberg (Eds.), Scientism: Prospects and Problems (pp. 190-219). Oxford University press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190462758.003.0009 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: 27. Sep. 2021 Kinds of Knowledge, Limits of Science Scientism: Prospects and Problems Jeroen de Ridder, Rik Peels, and Rene van Woudenberg Print publication date: 2018 Print ISBN-13: 9780190462758 Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: August 2018 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190462758.001.0001 Kinds of Knowledge, Limits of Science Jeroen de Ridder DOI:10.1093/oso/9780190462758.003.0009 Abstract and Keywords Does scientific knowledge have limits? This chapter tries to answer this question by first investigating the distinct nature of scientific knowledge, as contrasted with other kinds of knowledge. -
Nonsense and Illusions of Thought 4
NONSENSE AND ILLUSIONS OF THOUGHT1 Herman Cappelen Arché/University of St Andrews and CSMN/University of Oslo Note that this is the penultimate version of the paper published in Philosophical Perspectives, 2013 This paper addresses four issues: 1. What is nonsense? 2. Is nonsense possible? 3. Is nonsense actual? 4. Why do the answers to (1)-(3) matter, if at all? These are my answers: 1. A sentence (or an utterance of one) is nonsense if it fails to have or express content (more on ‘express’, ‘have’, and ‘content’ below). This is a version of a view that can be found in Carnap (1959), Ayer (1936), and, maybe, the early Wittgenstein (1922). The notion I propose abstracts away from their favored (but wrong) theories of what meaning is. It is a notion of nonsense that can be appealed to by all semantic frameworks and all theories of what content is, but structurally it is just like e.g. Carnap’s. Nonsense, as I construe it, is accompanied by illusions of thought (and I think that was part of Carnap’s conception as well). 2. Yes. In particular, I examine three arguments for the impossibility of illusion of thought (which on my construal accompanies linguistic nonsense) and they are all unsound. 3. There might be a lot of nonsense, both in ordinary and theoretical speech. In particular, it is likely that much of contemporary philosophy consists of nonsense. Empirical work is required to determine just how much. 4. The struggle to avoid nonsense (and achieve meaningfulness) is at least as 1 Thanks to Paul Boghossian, Jessica Brown, Josh Dever, Olav Gjelsvik, John Hawthorne, Tom Hodgson, Margot Strohminger, and Åsa Wikforss for helpful discussions of the issues discussed in this paper. -
Conceptual Engineering the Master Argument
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 17/12/2019, SPi 7 Conceptual Engineering The Master Argument Herman Cappelen I call the activity of assessing and developing improvements of our representational devices ‘conceptual engineering’.¹ The aim of this chapter is to present an argument for why conceptual engineering is important for all parts of philosophy (and, more gener- ally, all inquiry). Section I of the chapter provides some background and defines key terms. Section II presents the argument. Section III responds to seven objections. The replies also serve to develop the argument and clarify what conceptual engineering is. I. Background and Explanation of Central Terms If we use ‘conceptual engineering’ as I suggested above, that is, to mean the project of assessing and developing improvements of our representational devices, then if you think ‘concepts’ are the core representational devices, conceptual engineering amounts to the following: It is the project of assessing and then ameliorating our concepts.² For example: • An epistemological conceptual engineer will, in an ameliorative spirit, assess epistemic concepts. • A conceptual engineer in moral philosophy will, in an ameliorative spirit, assess moral concepts. • A metaphysical ameliorator will, in an ameliorative spirit, assess metaphysical concepts. • A semantic ameliorator will, in an ameliorative spirit, assess semantic concepts. This normative project contrasts with a descriptive one. The descriptivist aims to describe the concepts we have—to describe our epistemic, moral, metaphysical, semantic, and so on, concepts. One important strand in the history of philosophy ¹ It can also include the activity of trying to implement the proposed improvements (for more on this, see Cappelen and Plunkett’s Introduction to this volume). -
Philosophy of the Social Sciences Blackwell Philosophy Guides Series Editor: Steven M
The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences Blackwell Philosophy Guides Series Editor: Steven M. Cahn, City University of New York Graduate School Written by an international assembly of distinguished philosophers, the Blackwell Philosophy Guides create a groundbreaking student resource – a complete critical survey of the central themes and issues of philosophy today. Focusing and advancing key arguments throughout, each essay incorporates essential background material serving to clarify the history and logic of the relevant topic. Accordingly, these volumes will be a valuable resource for a broad range of students and readers, including professional philosophers. 1 The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology Edited by John Greco and Ernest Sosa 2 The Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory Edited by Hugh LaFollette 3 The Blackwell Guide to the Modern Philosophers Edited by Steven M. Emmanuel 4 The Blackwell Guide to Philosophical Logic Edited by Lou Goble 5 The Blackwell Guide to Social and Political Philosophy Edited by Robert L. Simon 6 The Blackwell Guide to Business Ethics Edited by Norman E. Bowie 7 The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Science Edited by Peter Machamer and Michael Silberstein 8 The Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics Edited by Richard M. Gale 9 The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education Edited by Nigel Blake, Paul Smeyers, Richard Smith, and Paul Standish 10 The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Mind Edited by Stephen P. Stich and Ted A. Warfield 11 The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences Edited by Stephen P. Turner and Paul A. Roth 12 The Blackwell Guide to Continental Philosophy Edited by Robert C. -
The Oberlin Colloquium in Philosophy: Program History
The Oberlin Colloquium in Philosophy: Program History 1960 FIRST COLLOQUIUM Wilfrid Sellars, "On Looking at Something and Seeing it" Ronald Hepburn, "God and Ambiguity" Comments: Dennis O'Brien Kurt Baier, "Itching and Scratching" Comments: David Falk/Bruce Aune Annette Baier, "Motives" Comments: Jerome Schneewind 1961 SECOND COLLOQUIUM W.D. Falk, "Hegel, Hare and the Existential Malady" Richard Cartwright, "Propositions" Comments: Ruth Barcan Marcus D.A.T. Casking, "Avowals" Comments: Martin Lean Zeno Vendler, "Consequences, Effects and Results" Comments: William Dray/Sylvan Bromberger PUBLISHED: Analytical Philosophy, First Series, R.J. Butler (ed.), Oxford, Blackwell's, 1962. 1962 THIRD COLLOQUIUM C.J. Warnock, "Truth" Arthur Prior, "Some Exercises in Epistemic Logic" Newton Garver, "Criteria" Comments: Carl Ginet/Paul Ziff Hector-Neri Castenada, "The Private Language Argument" Comments: Vere Chappell/James Thomson John Searle, "Meaning and Speech Acts" Comments: Paul Benacerraf/Zeno Vendler PUBLISHED: Knowledge and Experience, C.D. Rollins (ed.), University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964. 1963 FOURTH COLLOQUIUM Michael Scriven, "Insanity" Frederick Will, "The Preferability of Probable Beliefs" Norman Malcolm, "Criteria" Comments: Peter Geach/George Pitcher Terrence Penelhum, "Pleasure and Falsity" Comments: William Kennick/Arnold Isenberg 1964 FIFTH COLLOQUIUM Stephen Korner, "Some Remarks on Deductivism" J.J.C. Smart, "Nonsense" Joel Feinberg, "Causing Voluntary Actions" Comments: Keith Donnellan/Keith Lehrer Nicholas Rescher, "Evaluative Metaphysics" Comments: Lewis W. Beck/Thomas E. Patton Herbert Hochberg, "Qualities" Comments: Richard Severens/J.M. Shorter PUBLISHED: Metaphysics and Explanation, W.H. Capitan and D.D. Merrill (eds.), University of Pittsburgh Press, 1966. 1965 SIXTH COLLOQUIUM Patrick Nowell-Smith, "Acts and Locutions" George Nakhnikian, "St. Anselm's Four Ontological Arguments" Hilary Putnam, "Psychological Predicates" Comments: Bruce Aune/U.T. -
Constructive Empiricism in the Social Sciences
Constructive empiricism in the social sciences Abstract ‘What problems face the aspirant empiricist today?’ is the question Bas C. van Fraassen asks in his seminal work The Scientific Image (1980). In this thesis, I interpret this question as a challenge to develop constructive empiricism [CE] in a field of scientific inquiry other than the context of physics in which it was conceived. The first part of the thesis expounds CE with reference to classical empiricism, discloses some of its fundamental assumptions, and spells out in detail its account of science. In the second part of the thesis, CE is extended to social science. Since CE was developed in the context of natural science, I take an articulation of the alleged fundamental differences between natural and social science as indicating challenges a CE-outlook on social science must address. I also provide a brief history of the gap between the sciences. Then, in the bulk of this thesis, I argue that CE’s model view accommodates social science, that description, prediction and explanation in the light of CE are proper fruits of inquiry in social science, and that CE is able to make sense of the differences in the concepts used in natural and social science. In the discussion of the feasibility of CE for social science, I show concurrently that contemporary articulations of the differences between the natural and the social sciences pose no insuperable problems for the constructive empiricist. Bram van Dijk | 3691454 History & Philosophy of Science | Utrecht University Daily supervisors | dr. Guido Bacciagaluppi & dr. Ruud Abma Third examiner | dr.