bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Les fonctions de probabilité: la question de leur définissabilité récursive
Authors: Leblanc Hugues , Roeper Peter
Published: April 2010

Pensons aux divers énoncés qui peuvent être composés à partir d'un ensemble fini ou dénombrable d'énoncés atomiques à l'aide de, disons, ‘˜’ et ‘&’; soit A n'importe lequel de ces énoncés; et soit l'ensemble SA des composantes atomiques de A. La valeur de vérité de A dépend évidemment des valeurs de vérité de certains membres de SA (tous les membres de SA dans plusieurs cas, mais seulemént certains d'entre eux dans d'autres cas). En effet, si (i) aux valeurs de vérité Vrai et Faux sont substitués les entiers 1 et 0, respectivement; (ii) la valeur de vérité VVV(˜A) d'une négation ˜A est 1–VV(A); et (iii) la valeur de vérité VV(A & B) d'une conjonction A & B est min(VV(A), VV(B)), alors la valeur de vérité de A s'avère être une fonction numérique des valeurs de vérité de certains membres de SA. Et les fonctions de valeurs de vérité (c'est-à-dire les fonctions dont les arguments sont des énoncés du type en question, et dont les valeurs sont les entiers 1 et 0) sont dites, à titre de résultat, récursivement définissables.
Having a Future
Authors: Daniels Charles B.
Published: April 2010

In a recent article, Don Marquis canvasses the arguments on both sides of the abortion controversy and then puts forward his own argument against abortion:

A. To deprive someone of the value of his or her future is prima facie wrong.

B. The future an adult has is included in the future of the fetus it developed from.

C. Abortion deprives the fetus of the value of its future.

D. Therefore, abortion is prima facie wrong.

I wish to show that this reasoning in no way settles the issue of whether abortion is wrong. Section 1 concerns premise B, Sections 2 and 3 C, and Section 4 A.Notes
John Bishop's Natural Agency
Authors: Marshall Graeme
Published: April 2010

Philosophical inquiries in a particular field sometimes simply fade out. Interest shifts to new problems, the old problems come to seem intractable, philosophical curiosity does not survive the detailed work a glimpse of the solution discloses as necessary, or one finds that there is nothing new to say, that one can no longer be creative about the issues involved. But sometimes the loose ends are recognized and someone attempts to tie them up together and bring the inquiries to a more or less satisfactory conclusion. John Bishop has done this in his book about agency.
Moore's Arguments and Scepticism
Authors: Raff Charles
Published: April 2010

Once, G. E. Moore scorned the “common point of view which takes the world of experience as ultimately real.” The argument Moore followed to this sceptical conclusion in his fledgling 1897 fellowship dissertation was a legacy from Kant's Antinomies. By 1899 Moore had renounced idealist conclusions; he set out both to disengage from Kantian arguments and to reconcile with “the world of experience.” Moore's work for a stable realist basis for knowledge to fulfil both aims occupied his most famous argument, in his 1939 lecture “Proof of an External World.” Moore himself is sometimes supposed to have thought the argument of this masterwork unsatisfactory where it treats a traditional sceptical puzzle posed by dreaming. Critics, including Wittgenstein, have portrayed Moore's best reply to philosophical scepticism as dogmatic mere assertion, unresponsive or as ineffectual as sheer handwaving. However, these critics rate Moore's success against scepticism based on interpretations of “Proof of an External World” that neglect its part in Moore's campaign against Kant. Consequently, some potentially pivotal questions — which in this study I merely broach — remain wide open; for example, why in presenting his famous 1939 proof did Moore state that its purpose was to refute what “Kant declares to be his opinion, that there is only one possible proof of the existence of things outside of us” (PXW, p. 145)? And why did Moore explicitly reject the formula for posing philosophical scepticism in which Kant famously proclaimed this problem “a scandal to philosophy”?
La thèse des descriptions multiples: lieu commun ou paradoxe de la philosophie de l'action?
Authors: Neuberg Marc
Published: April 2010

Nous appelons «thèse des descriptions multiples» l'opinion qui veut qu'une seule et même action peut etre decrite de plusieurs façons différentes selon que Ton prend en considération ou non les différentes conséquences, plus ou moins lointaines, de cette action. Cette thèse joue chez certains penseurs un rôle essentiel dans la solution du problème de l'individuation des actions. Chez D. Davidson notamment, elle intervient de façon décisive dans la démonstration de sa fameuse thèse que toute action se réduit à des mouvements corporels. Nous entendons montrer, premièrement, que la thèse des descriptions multiples, à supposer même qu'elle soit vraie, ne saurait remplir le rôle que lui assigne Davidson dans le contexte de l'individuation des actions; deuxièmement, que cette thèse est fondée en fait sur l'ignorance de certaines distinctions importantes concernant l'action et le langage de l'action.
La place réservée à la pragmatique dans « Le procès de la métaphore » de Guy Bouchard
Authors: Leclerc André
Published: April 2010

Le dernier livre du Professeur Guy Bouchard est remarquable à bien des égards. C'est d'abord un livre qui arrive à un bon moment, il me semble, pour faire le point sur la fameuse controverse opposant Ricoeur et Derrida. Cette controverse, relative à la possibilité de définir la métaphore et surtout à son rôle dans le discours philosophique, sert de fil conducteur à l'ouvrage. Cette polémique a pris beaucoup d'ampleur au cours des dernières années, en raison du très large auditoire dont jouissent depuis longtemps ces deux philosophes français. Et ce n'est pas un mince mérite que de s'attaquer, comme l'a fait G. Bouchard, à des questions qui intéressent aujourd'hui un nombre impressionnant de philosophes, linguistes, rhétoriciens, poéticiens, psychologues, pédagogues, etc. Ceux et celles qui connaissent déjà « La mythologie blanche » (Derrida),La métaphore vive(Ricoeur) et « Le retrait de la métaphore » (Derrida) apprécieront, j'en suis sûr, le très important travail de « correction » qu'a fait Bouchard des conceptions présentées par Ricoeur et Derrida, et particulièrement des « lectures » que fait Ricoeur d'un grand nombre d'auteurs dansLa métaphore vive. Je trouve un peu malheureux que ce travail de correction se retrouve surtout sous forme de notes placées à la fin du volume (il y a soixantehuit pages de notes dans cet ouvrage), ce qui ne contribue pas tellement à le mettre en valeur. Ces corrections me semblent souvent fort éclairantes et permettent de nuancer beaucoup les thèses philosophiques de Ricoeur et Derrida.
Une théorie réflexive du souvenir épisodique
Authors: Dokic Jérôme
Published: April 2010

This paper deals with the distinction between factual and episodic memory (memory that p vs. memory of particular x). The following theses are defended, (i) Episodic memory is internally related to a particular past experience. (ii) Factual memory about x does not imply episodic memory ofx. (iii) Episodic and factual memory may carry the same kind of information about the past. Finally, (iv) episodic memories are reflexive factual memories. When I remember x in the episodic sense, I have a collection of factual memories not only about x, but equally and simultaneously about the fact that this same collection comes directly from my past experience.
The Principle of Sufficient Reason and the Uncaused Beginning of the Universe
Authors: Allen Chad
Published: April 2010

Des philosophes théistes comme Thomas D. Sullivan ont adapté les arguments cosmologiques bases sur le Principe de raison suffisante (PRS) pour les ajuster à la cosmologie contemporaine du Big Bang Leur thèse centrale est que uisque le Big Bang n'a pas pu avoir une cause physique et puisque tout a une cause, le Big Bang a dû avoir une cause non physique ou surnaturelle. Des philosophes non théistes qui acceptent la cosmologie standard du Big Bang ont remis en question la vérité de PRS, en soutenant que certains événements (comme une singularité) peuvent se produire sans aucune cause. Quentin Smith a défendu l'idée que PRS n'est pas du tout évident par lui-meme et qu'il y a en fait de bonnes raisons de supposer que des choses comme des singularites peuvent se produire sans cause. Thomas D. Sullivan a répliqué à l'argument de Smith voulant que PRS ne soit pas évident par lui-même, et il afourni en outre une pretendue preuve de PRS. Je soutiens dans cet article que PRS, en réalité, n'est pas évident par soi-même et que l'argument de Sullivan en faveur du contraire repose sur un malentendu quant à ce que nous entendons généralement pas «évident par lui-même». J'essaie également de montrer que la preuve de PRS fournie par Sullivan souffre de nombreuses difficultés. Si j'ai raison sur tout cela le PRS nest pas evident par lui-même et nous ne disposons d'aucun argument en safaveur. Il n'en découle pas que PRS soit faux, mais il en découle que nous sommes justifiés de ne pas être convaincus par les arguments en faveur de l'existence de Dieu qui prennent PRS pour prémisse.
Searle's New Argument
Authors: Seidel Asher
Published: April 2010

John Searlea récemment soutenu que le cerveau ne peut pas être un ordinateur (non connexionniste). Son argument est que les vrais systèmes physiques comme les cerveaux fonctionnent à la causalité, tandis que les opérations computationnelles ne sont pas causales, mais sont plutôt des séquences formelles qui requièrent un interprète extérieur pour lew existence en tant que systèmes formels. Les vrais systèmes physiques, par contre, ne requièrent aucune interprétation pour lew existence comme systèmes physiques opérationnels.

Contrairement à Searle, je soutiens qu'iln'y a pas de démarcation nette entre notre application des formalismes mathématiques standard à des phénomènes physiques comme les oscillations, et notre application des formalismes computationnels aux divers phénomènes physiques qui sont, effectivement ou potentiellement, bien décrits et expliqués pas ces formalismes.
Compassion and Moral Worth
Authors: Sytsma Sharon E.
Published: April 2010

Mon projet est de montrer qu'une meilleure compréhension de la position de Kant sur la valeur morale et sur le rôle de la compassion révèle que les objections soulevées par les théoriciens contemporains de la psychologie morale et par les féministes ne sont pas fondées, et que la position de Kant sur ces questions n'est pas du tout contre-intuitive. D'autres on dej´ soutenu que Kant accorde un rôle important á la compassion et que sa présence, pour lui, ne diminue pas la valeur morale des actions, mais je soutiens, plus positivement, que la présence de la compassion, pour Kant, est la marque d'une personne qui a progressé vers I'idéal, inaccessible et pourtant nécessaire, de la vertu morale et que la personne idéale de Kant est quelqu'un qui agit par devoir et qui a développé un sens aigu de la compassion.
Neutralité libérale et croissance économique
Authors: Bonin Pierre-Yves
Published: April 2010

Is a policy of economic growth compatible with the neutrality of the State? Some liberals (Rawls, Dworkin, Ackerman, Larmore, Kymlicka) think so. I do not. I begin by explaining and discussing the different meanings of the neutrality thesis, then I show that, whatever meaning we give to the idea of neutrality, it is very difficult to argue convincingly that a policy of economic growth does not favour some conceptions of the good.
Miracles and God: A Reply to Robert A. H. Larmer
Authors: Overall Christine
Published: April 2010

J'ai soutenu dans un article de 1985 que s'il y avait des miracles, cela parlerait contre l'existence du Dieu judéo-chrétien. Dans son livre de 1988 sur le concept de miracle, Robert Larmer propose une critique de mes arguments. J'évalue ici la force de cette critique. Je montre que la redéfinition de «miracle» que propose Larmer est circulaire; que sa distinction est spécieuse entre violer une hi naturelle et la surmonter grâce à la création ou la destruction d'énergie par Dieu; et que sa tentative de montrer que les miracles sont le produit d'un être rationnel, bienfaisant et tout-puissant est inadéquate.
The Clash of Paradigms: Taylor vs. Narveson on the Foundations of Ethics
Authors: Beam Craig
Published: April 2010

Cet article examine les différences entre deuxparadigmes dominants en éthique: 1) la théorie du contrat, qui est fondationnelle et anhistorique, et 2) l'approche néo-aristotélicienne, qui s'enracine dans les phénomènes de l'expérience éthique ordinaire. Le premier paradigme est exemplifié par Jan Narveson, le second par Charles Taylor. Le présent article voudrait à la fois jeter quelque lumière sur ces divergences théoriques et soutenir l'approche de Taylor contre les tenants de la théorie du contrat. Je tiens que les theories procédurales du juste dependent en réalite d'une conception sous-jacente du bien; que nous ne devrions pas accepter une éthique des libertés (ni aucune autre éthique) sur la seule base d'un argument contractualiste abstrait; et que la théorie du contrat est incapable de mettre en lumière les veritables sources morales de l'éthique des libertés.
A Feeling Disputation
Authors: Wreen Michael J.
Published: April 2010

This, the latest volume in The Douglas Walton Encyclopedia of Argumentation—well, it's starting to look like that, anyway—is primarily concerned with four purported fallacies that involve an appeal to emotion: ad populum, ad misericordiam, ad baculum, and ad hominem. In very rough outline, the layout of the book is this. After some preliminary remarks about the four fallacies in the first chapter, and some remarks about the theoretical framework he will be working with in the second, Walton devotes a chapter apiece to each of the four in the order indicated above. A seventh chapter focuses on “borderline cases,” in which more than one of the so-called fallacies is involved, and an eighth summarizes and refines the findings of earlier chapters. As is obvious, The Place of Emotion is well organized; and, as would be a safe inference for anyone acquainted with any of Walton's work, it is written in a readily accessible and unpretentious style: a plain style, in the best sense of the term. Walton has something to say, and it's virtually impossible to miss it—and that independently of the fact that this book, like a number of his others, is somewhat repetitive. The Place of Emotion is one of those rare books that a specialist in a field would find of interest, but that could also be taught in an undergraduate course.
Hymns to the Night: On H. S. Harris's “The Cows in the Dark Night”
Authors: Vater Michael G.
Published: April 2010

As one of the bare handful of scholars working on Schelling, I should heartily like to accept Professor Harris's argument, for all these black cows hang around one's neck more heavily than did the albatross on the ancient mariner's. I find myself obliged, however, to closely test his argument. I regret that, viewed in the context of the whole of the Phenomenology's Preface, Harris's argument is not fully convincing. I shall argue that, since the Preface's plain intent is to contrast the vitalism of a method of thought that is spirit's coming into its own with all styles of fixated propositional thinking, the “formalism” Hegel attacks is a loose aggregate of the philosophical styles of Fichte, Schelling, Reinhold and Bardili. Hegel is content to leave the label loose and unspecified and not to name names. It is not strictly fair to let the scope of the term resonate upon Schelling's “first scientific grasp of the idea”, at least not for an author who knew Schelling's work so well. But as Harris points out, it is not fair to Hegel for his public to read him with the sole, simplistic question of what positions he supports and what positions he rejects.
Grazing in the Sunlight: On H. S. Harris's “The Cows in the Dark Night”
Authors: di Giovanni George
Published: April 2010

I have only two comments to make, both of which will appear incidental at first. Their full relevance to the paper you have just read will become clear at the end, as I hope.

The first refers to Harris's remark that Jacobi, Schleiermacher and Herder “make strange bedfellows”. Actually, they do not. This is one more example, I believe, of Hegel's usual idiosyncratic yet conceptually sound classification of philosophers and philosophies. I am thinking especially of the Jacobi-Herder pair, but I suspect that what I have to say would apply to the third member of the trio as well. We must remember that, at the time of the writing of the Preface to the Phenomenology, the 1815 edition of Jacobi's dialogue David Hume on Faith, which Jacobi himself had overseen, did not exist. It is the edition that we are most likely to have read, because the wonders of photomechanical reproduction have made it easily available. Hegel, however, could only have read the dialogue in its 1787 edition, without the long new Introduction which Jacobi added in 1815 as an introduction to his collected works as well.
A Critique of Two Recent Husserl Interpretations
Authors: Pietersma Henry
Published: April 2010

In an article which appeared in The Philosophical Review Karl Ameriks argues in favour of the rather surprising thesis that Husserl, his own statements and a host of commentators and critics notwithstanding, was a realist, i.e., a philosopher who held that “there are physical objects which exist outside consciousness and are not wholly dependent on it” (498). More recently, Harrison Hall, in his contribution to the volume Husserl, Intentionality, and Cognitive Science, has argued that in Husserl's view there is no legitimate philosophical issue between realism and idealism, because philosophy is concerned exclusively with meanings. Both interpretations are careful, documenting each point with texts, and contain several elements that are illuminating. Yet they are fundamentally mistaken as regards their main thesis, as I shall argue in this paper.
Suffit-il d'agir rationnellement pour agir moralement?
Authors: Kaufmann J. Nicolas
Published: April 2010

L'histoire de la philosophie est marquée par de nombreuses tentatives pour soustraire la morale aux préceptes dictés par une croyance religieuse aveugle, l'arracher aux limbes des émotions, des intérêts égoïstes, des «nobles» sentiments ou des passions troubles de la volonté de puissance, la sortir du terrain où se disputent âprement les évidences intuitives, l'inscrire dans le règne de la raison. Il s'agit de tentatives en vue de fonder les obligations morales, l'éthique tout court, de manière rationnelle. Or, ces démarches peuvent emprunter des chemins variables selon que la rationalité de l'action se trouve conceptualisée dans la perspective des intérêts et préférences raisonnés (de la προαίρεσις d'Aristote), ou qu'elle se comprend à partir de la raison pratique dans sa pureté (en posant, à la manière de Kant, un impératif du devoir comme déterminationa prioride la volonté par une «reine praktische Vernunft»).
A Dialogue Concerning Liberty and Community
Authors: Mann Doug , Murray Malcolm
Published: April 2010

Dans ce dialogue, deux personnages principaux, Philopolis et Éleuthérios, proposent la position communautarienne et la position contractualiste libérale comme fondements de la théorie politique. Le débat se déroule, comme tout bon débat devrait lefaire, autour d'une bouteille de Chardonnay.
Sentence Meaning, Speaker Meaning, and Davidson's Denial of Metaphorical Meaning
Authors: McGuire John Michael
Published: April 2010

Cet article concerne le rejet controversé de la notion de signification métaphorique par Donald Davidson. Il a deux objectifs: d'abord, de montrer que l'argument de Davidson contre la signification mètaphorique est vicié par une ambiguîté qui, une fois révélée, lui ôte toute portée; et deuxièmement, d'expliquer d'où vient cette ambiguîté. L'explication proposée rapporte l'erreur de Davidson au sujet de la signification métaphorique à sa négligence de la notion de signification du locuteur et, plus généralement, à une orientation théorique envers le langage, qui ne s'intéresse, principalement, qu'aux aspects de la communication qui peuvent recevoir un traitement sémantique formel.
Psychologie évolutionniste et théories interdomaines
Authors: Faucher Luc , Poirier Pierre
Published: April 2010

Evolutionary psychology presupposes relations between theories of different domains that the two traditional models, reduction and autonomy, cannot properly account for. We aim to construct a model of relations between theories that succeeds where traditional models fail. We show that the multiple realizability argument, on which the autonomist model is thought to rest, is compatible with reductionism and, following Kim, that an autonomist reading of the argument deprives psychology of its scientific status. We therefore opt for a reductionist model compatible with functionalism and multiple realizability, but show that, within evolutionary psychology at least, the very application of the conditions of reduction requires strong interactions between psychology and various other adjacent disciplines. We also show that reduction must be preceded in evolutionary psychology by an “augmentation” of the reduction base, which brings still other disciplines into play. Finally, we present a model of the interaction between disciplines we believe accounts best for these relations and discuss the problems facing this kind of enterprise.
Realism and the Epistemological Significance of Inference to the Best Explanation
Authors: Vahid Hamid
Published: April 2010

Malgré son usage très répandu, l'inférence à la meilleure explication (IME) a souvent été considérée avec suspicion par des théoriciens d'allégeances diverses. On lui a reproché à maintes reprises defaire reposer son recours à la simplicité et ses autres vertus explicatives sur des présuppositions métaphysiques douteuses. J'aborde ces questions, dans le présent article, dans le contexte d'une discussion large de l'usage de l'IME pour fonder notre croyance au monde extérieur. Distinguant entre la légitimité et l'efficacité de l'IME, je soutiendrai qu'elle constitue bien une forme légitime d'inférence, mais que son efficacité dépend de la fonction de la théorie de la connaissance qui la supporte.
À la recherche du sens commun: Hannah Arendt, Aristote et les stoïciens
Authors: Lefebvre René
Published: April 2010

La nature du projet de Danielle Lories est exposée clairement dans les premières pages de l'ouvrage. L'auteure situe les origines de son entreprise dans la volonté d'affronter la difficulté que présente la notion de «sens commun», aux paragraphes 18,22 et 40 de la Critique de la faculté de juger de Kant, mais aussi le propos de Hannah Arendt tiré de «La crise de la culture» qu'elle cite en page 2, sur la jonction des sens communs kantien et aristotélicien. Ce qui préoccupe essentiellement l'auteure, dans la perspective d'une pensée de la «spécificité du jugement praxique», est ici la façon dont s'articulent le sens commun (aristotélicien) en tant qu'unification de l'expérience sensorielle par-delà la diversité des cinq sens, et le sens communautaire (kantien) en vertu duquel nous communions dans une même appréhension du réel, la constitution d'un rapport au réel étant d'abord affaire de sens : «Chez Arendt, tout se passe comme si le partage des choses perçues avec autrui et donc leur réalité “objective” était le prolongement naturel du partage d'une même chose perçue par nos divers sens» (p. 3).
The Spirit of Modesty
Authors: Young Shaun P.
Published: April 2010

What is the principal function of political philosophy? This question has long been the source of discourse and debate, especially amongst those who practise this ancient art. For Ronald Beiner, the primary and proper function of political philosophy is, always has been, and forever will be, to expand our analytical horizons and thereby improve our ability to judge accurately the desirability and subsequent acceptability of our existing social order(s). Beiner contends, however, that contemporary theorists have so restricted the scope and focus of their investigations that political philosophy is no longer able to fulfil its intended function. This is a theme which has animated much of Beiner's recent work, and provides the foundation and focus for his book Philosophy in a Time of Lost Spirit: Essays on Contemporary Theory (PTS), the subject of this essay.
The Idea of Extension: Innate or Adventitious? On R. F. McRae's Interpretation of Descartes
Authors: Miles Murray
Published: April 2010

In two separate studies, published some four years apart, Robert McRae has argued the provocative thesis that the idea of extension is not to be numbered among the ideas accounted innate by Descartes, but among the adventitious. He has defended this view despite explicit statements to the contrary by Descartes both in the Correspondence and in the second part of the Principles of Philosophy. Against such evidence McRae has urged the overriding importance of the sixth Meditation, where, he alleges, Descartes asserts “unequivocally… that the idea of extension is produced in us by bodies and is therefore not innate” (147; my emphasis). It is only in the later of the two studies that McRae's reasons for regarding the testimony of the sixth Meditation as authoritative are fully spelt out. Express statements to the contrary “must give away”, he writes, “for the proof of the existence of body by the adventitious idea of it is absolutely crucial to the Meditations” (L 100; my emphasis). In this paper I propose to challenge McRae's interpretation of the extension of the concept “innate idea”, while acknowledging his signal contribution to the clearing up of the intensional meaning, or rather meanings, of the concept of innateness. My thesis is that “extension” is an innate idea, though constraints of time will allow me to do little more than try to show that McRae's stated reasons for rejecting this view are not compelling.
Reply
Authors: McRae Robert
Published: April 2010

There are at issue here, I believe, two related questions: What is an adventitious idea for Descartes, and what is the relation between the understanding and the senses? Miles asserts that there is an adventitious idea of body but that it consists only of the proper sensibles, i.e., colours, sounds, tastes, odours, etc. Only these are given through the senses. Extension is not included in the adventitious idea, but is given only to the understanding. I take this to mean also that the modes of extension, figure, motion and magnitude, are not given through the senses either, since the thought of them presupposes extension. Against this I would say, however, that there are passages in which Descartes seems definitely to be including extension and its modes in what is given through the senses. In Meditation III when he introduces the notion of the adventitious idea it is as one which seems to be produced by external bodies. In his ideas of corporeal things he finds a few which he clearly perceives: extension, figure, relative position and change of positions. His ideas of the other qualities are confused and obscure. In MeditationVI he undertakes to examine the nature of sense, and to enquire whether from those ideas which are apprehended by this mode of thought— “or the mode which I entitle sensing (sensum)” —he could derive any certain proof of the existence of corporeal things. First he perceives by the senses that he has a body. “And outside myself, in addition to the extension, figure and motion of bodies, I sensed (sentiebam) in them” (AT VII, 74f.) hardness, heat, lights and colours, scents and sounds. At the end of the Principles of Philosophy in treating of the senses Descartes says that nothing in external things can be apprehended by us through sense except their figure, size and motion (IV. 198, AT VIII-1, 321). And later he remarks that we observe size, figures and motions by several senses, e.g., by touch, sight and hearing; “we also distinctly imagine and understand this. This cannot be said of other things that come under our senses, such as colours, sound and the like, which are perceived not by several senses but by single ones; for their images are always confused in our minds, nor do we know what they are” (IV. 200, AT VIII-1, 323).
McRae on Innate Ideas: A Rejoinder
Authors: Miles Murray
Published: April 2010

It will come as no surprise that I have a different interpretation of the four passages in which, McRae claims, Descartes “definitely includes extension and its modes in what is given through the senses”. In the first, Descartes includes extension, etc., among his ideas of corporeal bodies. This is not to say that he includes them among his adventitious ideas, though. All adventitious ideas are ideas of external bodies. But the converse is not true. Not all ideas of corporeal bodies are ipso facto adventitious ideas, for, as I see it, the idea of the true and immutable nature of body is non-sensible and innate. McRae slides from “all adventitious ideas seem to be ideas of external bodies” to “all ideas of external bodies (including extension) are adventitious”.
Descartes' Doubt of Minds
Authors: Cook Monte
Published: April 2010

Early in the Second Meditation Descartes has found grounds to doubt his previous opinions, and following his resolve to reject as false anything not entirely indubitable, he rejects these opinions. He then asks whether there might remain something impervious to doubt that he has not yet considered. One item as yet unconsidered is his own existence:

I myself, am I not at least something? But I have already denied that I had senses and body. Yet I hesitate, for what follows from that? Am I so dependent on body and senses that I cannot exist without these? But I was persuaded that there was nothing in all the world, that there was no heaven, no earth, that there were no minds, nor any bodies: was I not then likewise persuaded that I did not exist? (HR I, 150)
Why There Is Something: The Anthropic Principle and Improbable Events
Authors: Katz Jonathan
Published: April 2010

The Anthropic Principle, in use by physicists, astronomers, and cosmologists, is currently under consideration by philosophers. This principle, in its various forms, appeals to man's existence as a constraint on our determination of natural laws and natural constants, as a principle of prediction, and, in its strongest form, as a principle of explanation which sanctions an argument for the universe being a product of design. What I shall endeavour to show here is (1) how this principle, in its various forms, is used in furthering our understanding of cosmology, and (2) why this principle cannot be used as a principle of explanation.
Morality and Reason
Authors: Odegard Douglas
Published: April 2010

The thirteen papers in Morality, Reason and Truth address various dimensions of the complex relationship between morality and rationality. Most of the papers are new and they are generally at the cutting edge of current research. The collection is a substantial and important contribution to metaethics. The following are the views I found most challenging. Although they do not exhaust the book's contents, they are a good sample of its unity, range, and instructive power.
The Liberal Tradition, Kant, and the Pox
Authors: George Rolf
Published: April 2010

Charles Taylor begins his essay “Kant's Theory of Freedom” by stating that in the last three centuries people have sought recognition, equality and justice as corollaries of “liberation”. The process, he says, “has been punctuated, and partly shaped, by paradigm statements by major thinkers …. Among these statements, Kant's has been very important. It marked a crucial step on the way.” Similar sentiments are expressed by Hayek, Rawls and others.
Maximizing, Optimizing, and Prospering
Authors: Sobel Jordan Howard
Published: April 2010

David Gauthier distinguishes maximizing given the actions others do from maximizing given the happiness others get, and maintains that universal conformities to the first rule coincide with equilibria in utility spaces of possible interactions, whereas universal conformities to the second coincide with optima. In Part One of the present paper some of his views concerning these matters of technical detail are tested under a variety of interpretations, and against a range of situations including most prominently situations in which actions of agents are interdependent. Several limitations and needed qualifications are discovered.
Egoicity and Twins
Authors: Smook Roger
Published: April 2010

In Part 1 of this paper I will define a sense of “person” which is importantly connected with ordinary notions of personhood. It is a consequence of my definition that each person exemplifies a specific “egoicity”. In Part 2 I will argue, on the basis of empirical facts about monozygotic (“identical”) twins, that egoicity is not determined by bodily constitution. In Part 3 I will conclude with a brief discussion of implications for The Mind-Body Problem.
Forgotten Vintage
Authors: Tully R. E.
Published: April 2010

Anyone interested in the development of analytic philosophy will likely find Russell's Theory of Knowledge a work of great importance in itself; but anyone who, in addition, is fascinated by scholarly mystery and the psychology of philosophers will certainly regard its publication at last, nearly three-quarters of a century after Russell abandoned it unfinished—principally because of the young Wittgenstein's virulent criticisms—as an event nothing short of momentous. Theory of Knowledge may well have played as important a role in Wittgenstein's early work (from the Notebooks to the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus) as the Tractatus itself did in his later writings—each representing for Wittgenstein an attitude, a philosophical method, and above all a theory of propositions, against which he was driven to react. But it would be a sad irony if renewed interest in Wittgenstein's early work were to eclipse all over again the very piece of writing which helped move him to creative rebellion. Unlike the two previous volumes in the Collected Papers (numbers 1 and 12), which broaden rather than deepen our knowledge of his philosophical growth, Theory of Knowledge deserves to become a standard text in Russell studies. It contains crucial material not found elsewhere in his writings and hence it fills a gap—ironically,, a gap Russell himself created—in what we know of his thought in the years immediately preceding the outbreak of World War I, when his career at Cambridge was at its apogee.
Non-Reductive Materialism and the Spectrum of Mind-Body Theories
Authors: Kernohan Andrew
Published: April 2010

In what follows I will sketch a very simple possible-world semantics which will allow us to sharpen the notion of a non-reductive, but materialist, mind-body identity theory. This simple semantics will enable us to characterize the various possible positions on mind-body identity and display the range of positions with respect to psycho-physical reduction. Though I am sympathetic to a non-reductive position which I label “autonomous monism”, I will be concerned here less with presenting positive arguments for that position than with describing a framework in which such arguments can be made and pointing out the issues that the position raises. The discussion achieves its abstract viewpoint at the cost of slightly idealizing the process of theory reduction, but the overview attained is worth the price.
Meeting Current Needs
Authors: Michalos Alex C.
Published: April 2010

The latest book by one of Canada's most distinguished philosophers has been in the works for some time. So it is fitting that the Canadian Philosophical Association should have devoted a special symposium to David Braybrooke's Meeting Needs in our 1987 annual meeting. An earlier version of the review that follows was presented at that symposium and has benefitted from some replies from Braybrooke. As one might have expected, as we parted company after that symposium, we still had some fundamental disagreements.
Rigorous Regularism: Physical Laws Without Necessity
Authors: Ruse Michael
Published: April 2010

This is a book about laws. Not, however, about the laws of which we learned in science classes at school: “scientific laws”. It is rather about those universalities which govern the world of facts, what Swartz calls “physical laws”—although this language is slightly misleading because the term is intended to cover the living as well as the non-living world. Of course, it may well be that a scientific law (like Boyle's law) does capture the essence of a physical law, but not necessarily or (apparently) usually. A physical law by definition can never be false, whereas (as Michael Scriven pointed out some years ago) almost paradoxically nearly all (if not all) scientific laws are false.
Reply to Ruse
Authors: Swartz Norman
Published: April 2010

In Chapters 10 and 11, I was privileged to act as amanuensis to a visiting Martian and to transcribe his lectures which, the truth be told, embodied views remarkably similar to my own. Ruse, in a playful vein, wonders “why this Martian would go to British Columbia to do philosophy”. I must admit that I do not really know the answer. I can only speculate that it might be for the same reasons that so many philosophers in Eastern Canada have applied for teaching positions here in Canada's Sun Belt.
Merleau-Ponty's Indirect Ontology
Authors: Smith Dale E.
Published: April 2010

Twenty-three years after its publication, Maurice Merleau-Ponty's The Visible and the Invisible remains a philosophical enigma. Consider, for example, the curious niche the work occupies within the body of phenomenological literature. The Visible and the Invisible is frequently cited for its study of the residual problem areas of phenomenology—the relationship of consciousness to the perceptual milieu and, more recently, the relationship of language to the world—while its proposed solutions to such problems remain largely ignored.
Charity and Ideology: The Field Linguist as Social Critic
Authors: Ramberg Bjørn
Published: April 2010

The problem I want to raise in this paper will not be a problem for anyone who does not share both the following concerns or prejudices. The first is that we should take a materialist, extensional approach to linguistic meaning, specifically, the approach that is suggested by the work of Donald Davidson. The second is that social analysis must be emancipatory, and that this requires the conceptual possibility of postulating social structures that are in some sense hidden by discourse. The problem I want to address lies in a possible conflict between these concerns, both of which I will clarify, though not justify (except in so far as we take their compatibility to be apart of their respective justifications). The problem is this: Does the methodological core of Davidson's semantics—the principle of charity—permit interpretation informed by a concept of ideological concealment?

As with many of our philosophical problems, the existence of this one is quite precarious. We can avoid avoiding it only if we move along a rather specific route, which, I am afraid, will constitute a good chunk of my paper.
Les deux versants de la pensée. A propos du livre de Jean Grondin: Le tournant dans la pensée de Martin Heidegger
Authors: Mattéi Jean-François
Published: April 2010

Si les interprétations de ce qu'il est convenu de nommer la « dernière philosophie » de Heidegger sont aujourd'hui monnaie courante, non sans risque d'inflation parfois quand on les lie sans précaution à l'engagement politique de l'auteur de Sein und Zeit, personne pourtant n'avait jusqu'ici pris le risque d'aborder la question controversée du « tournant » de front. Les différences évidentes entre un Heidegger I, parti de la phénoménologie pour revenir à une « ontologie fondamentale », et relevant encore à ce titre de la philosophie, et un Heidegger II, voué désormais à une « autre pensée » réfractaire à l'élaboration conceptuelle, sinon à une sorte de mysticisme poétique, paraissent si tranchées à la plupart des commentateurs qu'ils entérinent sans plus attendre une telle division. Celle-ci a d'ailleurs été accréditée par l'auteur lui-même qui, le premier, mentionna l'existence d'un « tournant » (Kehre) de sa propre pensée, en termes réservés toutefois, sinon énigmatiques.
Liberal Neutrality
Authors: Haworth Lawrence
Published: April 2010

InPatterns of Moral Complexity, Charles Larmore describes three related ways in which moral and political theory are more complex than is often allowed. He objects to three parallel simplifications: that moral decision making largely consists in the application of rules to particular situations; that the ideals by which we are guided in our personal (private, social) lives should also do service as political ideals, a simplification which he calls “expressivism”; and that there is but a single source of moral value (that we must be either consequentialists, or deontologists, or endorse the “principle of partiality”). Against these simplifications he argues in a sort of Aristotelian way for (1) the centrality of judgment in moral reasoning; (2) for the liberal principle that the state should not strive to express our highest personal ideal; and (3) for the, I suppose eclectic, view that partiality, deontological reasons, and consequentialist reasons all have a place in moral reasoning and that therefore the moral person may well be caught in conflicts that present him or her with tragic choices. These are the three “patterns of moral complexity” that the title of the book refers to.
Une conception sociopolitique de la nation
Authors: Seymour Michel
Published: April 2010

I submit what, I believe, is a fairly new definition of the nation, one which I call the sociopolitical conception. I try to avoid as much as possible the traditional dichotomy between the exclusively civic and ethnic accounts, and try to explain my reasons for doing so. I also adopt as a general framework a certain conceptual pluralism which allows me to use many different concepts of the nation. After that, I proceed by formulating some constraints on any acceptable new definition. My own sociopolitical conception is then finally introduced. The sociopolitical nation is a political community, most often composed, sociologically, of a national majority, national minorities, and individuals with other national origins. The concept of national majority is crucial for the account and refers to the largest sample in the world of a given population sharing a common language, history, and culture. National minorities are defined as extensions of neighbouring nations, while individuals of other national origins are those members of ethnic minorities that have come from immigration. There would be no sociopolitical nation if there were no national majority, but this is compatible with a pluricultural and multi-ethnic view of the nation, since the political community may also include national minorities and individuals with a different origin. I end the article by showing that this definition meets the constraints that were initially introduced.
Sumner on Welfare
Authors: Sobel David
Published: April 2010

L. W. Sumner's excellent book Welfare, Happiness, and Ethics has four central goals. He aims (1) to demonstrate the subjectivity of welfare (chaps. 1 to 3); (2) to show that the traditional subjective accounts of welfare—namely, hedonism and preference theories—are inadequate (chaps. 4 and 5); (3) to construct an alternative subjectivist account of welfare (chapter 6); and (4) to argue for the moral primacy of welfare (chap. 7). I will not comment here on Sumner's treatment of the subjectivity of welfare, as I have had my say on this topic elsewhere. In fact, my space here will only permit me to discuss the second and fourth goals of the book. Even with this narrow focus, I will be forced to leave unexplored a wealth of truly lovely work which passes by us on the road to these central conclusions.
Remarques sur La liberté grecque
Authors: Muller Robert
Published: April 2010

Pour ceux qui entreprennent de parler de la liberté, la conception grecque constitue une référence quasi inévitable. Mais si les uns l'invo-quent avec nostalgie comme un modèle, d'autres s'efforcent au contraire d'en exposer les limites ou la spécificité. C'est que la notion elle-même de «liberté grecque» continue à être l'objet de controverses; et il n'est pas étonnant que les interprétations proprement philosophiques des doctrines s'en ressentent directement. On peut sans doute trouver à ces divergences plusieurs explications: la difficulté intrinsèque du sujet et les passions qu'il suscite presque immédiatement, la diversité des domaines et des auteurs concernés, les choix philosophiques des interprètes, notamment.
The Moral and Ethical Significance of TIT FOR TAT
Authors: Danielson Peter
Published: April 2010

TIT FOR TAT (TFT) is the familiar strategy of returning like for like, good for good, bad for bad. Recently Robert Axelrod has shown this rule to be remarkably effective in promoting co-operation among egoists.1Nevertheless, it has been morally denigrated, most notably in the Sermon on the Mount but also by the modern patron of TFT, Anatol Rapoport:

Of the contingent strategies, Tit-for-tat elicits consistently the most cooperation in the Prisoner's Dilemma. Obviously, it would be fatuous to interpret this result as a vindication of the “eye-for-an-eye” principle. The success of Tit-for-tat may be no more than that of a simple reinforcement schedule in à two-choice situation, devoid of ethical overtones.
La pensée d'Aristote s'organisait-elle en système? Réflexions sur l'exégèse d'un philosophe
Authors: Bodéüs Richard
Published: April 2010

Nous savons bien aujourd'hui que, dès l'Antiquité, leCorpus Aristoteli-cuma été constitué, mis en ordre et commenté de manière à faire ressortir, en tout, la cohérence des doctrines du Stagirite, dont ses écrits, tels qu'il nous les a laissés, ne portaient pas la marque évidente. Le sentiment que ce travail de mise en forme, poursuivi par la tradition, devait avoir oblitéré quelque chose de la nature de la pensée aristotélicienne conduisit à soulever la question qui sert d'intitulé à la présente étude.
Putnam, Reference and Essentialism
Authors: Weckert John
Published: April 2010

In Putnam's theory of reference, an historical component and an indexical one both play some part in establishing the extension of terms, although in “The meaning of ‘meaning’” it is not altogether clear just how important he believes the historical element to be. He seems to be much more interested in its indexical component, which he believes plays more or less the same role in his theory as rigidity does in Krip-ke's. In this paper, I will look more closely at these two elements and see what sorts of roles they could play in a theory like Putnam's. A theory of the extensions of general terms will emerge which differs from Putnam's in some important respects. It does, however, have some similarity with a recently published theory of Matthen's, but the arguments are different. I will also outline a theory of essences and kinds, which is based on this modified version.
Commentaire sur le texte de Sr Prudence Allen intitulé « Aristotelian and Cartesian Revolutions in the Philosophy of Man and Woman »
Authors: St-Arnaud Jocelyne
Published: April 2010

Par sa recherche sur le concept philosophique de femme, Sr Prudence Allen apporte un éclairage neuf sur toute l'histoire de la philosophic Mon commentaire est basé essentiellement sur le texte ayant pour titre « Aristotelian and Cartesian Revolutions in the Philosophy of Man and Woman » sachant pertinemment que le livre The Concept of Woman traite de façon détaillée de ce qui apparaît dans l'article comme un exposé synthétique. Trois idées générales admises par Sr Prudence Allen font l'objet de notre commentaire. Ce sont I'interpretation égalita-riste des idées de Platon quant aux différences sexuelles, la neutralité du concept d'homme et 1'interpretation philosophique de la complémenta-rite des sexes comme modèle des relations égalitaires.