End Times archive

Here he discusses the nature of metaethics and why the best-known approaches dissatisfy him, how normativity is to be fitted into a naturalistic framework, his 'moderate naturalism', why normativity raises issues of semantics, metaphysics and epistemology, what makes 'ought' statements true or false, how we know the real normative components of actuality, how to defend Normative Judgment Internalism, the normativity of rationality, degrees of rational thinking, how he defends his view from various objections, why 'reasons' talk is more complicated than many philosophers have assumed, whether rationality is a kind of value and the point of being guided by internal norms. As late summer brings us heatwaves, freshen up on this cool distillation ... Ralph Wedgwood Published on: Aug 26, 2016 @ 08:41

Here he discusses Hume's notion of 'reason', reason's normativity, doubts, contradictions and imperfections, lessons for contemporary epistemologists, what methodological feminism brings to Humean reason, Hume and causation, whether Hume would have been a Kantian if he'd done more maths, the bundle theory and personal identity. Then he discusses Spinoza and the possibility of error, what Spinoza might have said to the German idealists, whether Spinoza is a Hobbesian, and what makes Spinoza and Hume the greatest naturalist philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Don J Garrett Published on: Aug 19, 2016 @ 11:15

Here he discusses Pope's Essay on Man, its relation to Milton's Paradise Lost, Pope's religious attitude, whether Leibniz was an influence, on Pope's naturalism, the relation of the poetry to the philosophy, his perspectivalism, Pascal, his relationship to Bacon, Locke, Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume, why 'the world changes' is a key to understanding the poem, on whether his use of rhetoric is a 'perfect cheat', on how he manages to be provisional whilst seeming to be assertive, the relationship between reason and passion, Montaigne and Plutarch, on immortality, bliss, love and sex, on how modern Pope is, on suffering and in particular the suffering of animals, on Pope's attitude to self-love and on why Pope's a philosophical historian rather than a philosopher of sovereignty. Here's philosophy done in the lit critter mode. Enjoy... Tom Jones Published on: Aug 18, 2016 @ 21:05

Here I keep her on her toes by asking her about the 'f'word even though she makes it clear she'd rather not go anywhere near it and in turn she discusses acting skilfully, the Dreyfus/McDowell dispute and why she thinks they both get the issue wrong, x-phi dudes and whether she is one - and whether 'dude' isn't, you know, just wrong here, Gladwell and jam idiots, Taoism, speed chess, whether dance and sex performances are hindered by thinking about what you're doing, whether self awareness is required for expertise, about choking experts and about emergencies. But she isn't finished there: she turns to the hard problem of consciousness, whether pan-psychism can work, the combination problem and whether my i-phone is conscious. If you want super smart and sassy, this one is the flood... Barbara Gail Montero Published on: Aug 12, 2016 @ 14:14

Here he talks about recent developments in metaethics, Realism and Cognitivism, why he thinks reasons are fundamental, desire theories and Mark Schroeder and Bernard Williams, knowing irreducible normative truths, how Realism can maintain reason as an action guiding, practical force, contractualism, freedom of expression, toleration, consequentialism and instrumentalism, the doctrine of double effect (which says bad results can be morally OK if they are only side effects of a good action) and Kantianism, normative naturalism and Parfit. This one rock and rolls ... Thomas Scanlon Published on: Aug 5, 2016 @ 14:37

Here he discusses the use of models in political and moral philosophy, ideals of justice, Popper's Open Society and why an open society is an achievement, why he thinks human morality is at odds with ideal models, the importance of a heterogeneous society, why the open society isn't chaos, the character and role of public endorsement for moral truth, the good, the bad and the uppity, policy and philosophy and economics, Hayek, game theory, Hume and Ferguson and finally pluralism as the critical problem for modernity. Step right in folks... Jerry Gaus Published on: Jul 29, 2016 @ 12:22

Here she discusses what ethical agency looks like, what moral psychology is and what it does, appetites and reasons, desires, whether an agent's character matters in assessing her action's moral worth, akrasia, inverted akrasia, whether akrasia is actually weakness of will, externality, whether responsiveness to reasons is possible in a deterministic world, romantic necessity, why ought doesn't imply can, Olga the Optimist and Paul the Pessimist, and some cool comments on some cool books. Nomy Arpaly Published on: Jul 22, 2016 @ 06:15

Here he discusses Frege's philosophy of mathematics, Platonism, Logicism, Russell's paradox, his efforts with Crispin Wright to reverse Frege's abandonment of his logicist aim, how Frege answers some puzzles of the philosophy of maths, the Caesar Problem, absolute modality, Quine's dislike of higher-order logic, Dummett's two questions about absolute modality, the interdependence of modality and ontology, the relation between actuality and possibility, the difference between logical and metaphysical modality, what reality looks like and why he favours an essentialist theory of modality. Bob Hale Published on: Jul 15, 2016 @ 23:01

Here he discusses how to draw the line between science and pseudo-science, the application of evolutionary science to the social sciences, his skepticism towards selectionist approaches, problems with the 'culture' concept, co-evolutionary modelling, whether there's a robust distinction between human nature and human culture, bioethics and enhancement, why synthetic biology isn't about mastery of nature, origin essentialism, why distributive justice should factor in genes, the ethics of risk, the relationship between biology and ethics, the relevance of evolutionary biology for general work in ethics, and why science and philosophy should play nice. Tim Lewens Published on: Jul 8, 2016 @ 22:28

Here she discusses feminism, how to understand the many faces of oppression, intersectionality, how demography impacts even on metaphysics and logic, the underrepresentation of blacks in the philosophical academy, how expanding the demography of philosophy will bring it back to its origins, why hermeneutical phenomenology is crucial to the way forward for philosophy, what she means by 'hermeneutical ontology', what it looks like in terms of race and gender, on the mystery of the disconnect between academia and the law on race, about the multiracial experience in America, on what can be done to improve matters, on care ethics and moral particularism, hate speech and the scandals of male philosophers behaving badly in the academy. Tina Fernandes Botts Published on: Jul 4, 2016 @ 05:11

Here she first discusses Reid's theory of perception, what he means by representation, why he thinks alternative approaches by Descartes and Hume fail, the importance of Bacon and Newton to Reid's approach, the issue of direct and indirect realism, whether Reid is a first-order ot higher order consciousness guy, the threat of regress, whether he's a mysterian, why his 'common sense' doesn't mean what common sense might lead you to think it means and how his theory of aesthetic and moral sense links up with all this. Then she discusses Berkeley's theory of vision before moving on to discuss modern Italian philosophy and the link between a philospher's philosophical position and their social, political and economic context especially in the light of the dubious politics of some of the Italian modern masters. This is a full house... Rebecca Copenhaver Published on: Jun 25, 2016 @ 09:27

Here he discusses his work on perception and aesthetics. He talks about subjectivism and its history, his alternative theory of perception, his theory of image content, why he disagrees with Fodor, Marr and Gregory even though they take issue with subjectivism, the multi-modality of active perception, whether we need different theories of perception depending on which sense we're talking about and how tricky it is to count how many senses we actually have. Then he talks about art, what aesthetic pleasure is, why humans do art, and why it makes evolutionary sense. This is one hell of a clear view... Mohan Matthen Published on: Jun 18, 2016 @ 12:53