End Times archive

He's drawn to paradoxes—seemingly acceptable premises which lead to absurd conclusions. These lead to his interests in truth and vagueness. Far from being mere philosophers’ games, paradoxes are deep problems calling out for a philosophical solution. In the case of paradoxes about truth and vagueness, the paradoxes have had the best of it, so far. Here he discusses some of these things, including hypertensional contents, informativeness, how best to think about impossible worlds, why he rejects Meinongian beings that lack existence, how ertsatz worlds represent non-actual entities, bounded rationality and vagueness, grounding and fundamentality, essences, properties does the grounding relation have, what material objects are, what is fundamental to reality, and why heed the philosopher. Mark Jago Published on: Jun 9, 2018 @ 08:12

Plato was impressed by the Persians and Egyptians, and in antiquity he was thought to have traveled to meet them in his youth (and, on his death bed, a Chaldean came to gain wisdom from him). Plato wrote eloquently about the wisdom of Egypt in the Timaeus-Critias, ascribing the wisdom of his distant ancestor Solon of Athens to the Egyptians, and he praises the wisdom of the Persian kings Cyrus and Darius in the Laws. He also wrote about the Zoroastrian educational system, and in particular Ahura Mazda (who was the primary god of the Zoroastrian pantheon), in the First Alcibiades, which he praised in various ways, but ultimately considered deficient to the system of Socratic/Platonic education that he was advancing. Quite interestingly, as soon as Plato dies, his students in the Academy (especially his amanuensis Philip of Opus, and another figure called Hermodorus of Syracuse) claim that Plato took his overall metaphysical system from the Persians - a striking claim that, when compared with the surviving inscriptions from Persia and the Zoroastrian writings, which are collected under the title Avesta, show impressive connections. Phil Horky Published on: Jun 2, 2018 @ 09:36

Here he discusses why philosophy of language is important, the ancient roots of linguistic philosophy, literal vs non-literal meanings, artha, the importance of Sanskrit, how Indian philosophy deals with the primary/secondary meaning distinction, three conditions necessitating secondary meaning, complications of bitextuality and polysemy, suggested meaning and speaker’s intention, Buddhism and Jainism, whether Jainism is committed to a dialetheistic paraconsistent logic, Kashmiri Mukulabhaṭṭa, reading Indian and Chinese philosophy with an eye towards finding different questions, what Indian philosophy of language contributes to other philosophy of language, and why a cross-disciplinary and historical and transcultural approach to philosophy is important. Malcolm Keating Published on: May 31, 2018 @ 08:27

Gadamer conceives of the so-called hermeneutic circle of whole and part as an interpretive check that allows us to reject certain understandings. The circle describes the way we understand the parts of a text in terms of our anticipation of the meaning of the whole and the way we project the meaning of the whole in terms of our understanding of the parts. Where we cannot integrate parts and whole, we have to admit that either that which we are trying to understand is unintelligible or our attempt to understand has failed and we must begin again. Georgia Warnke Georgia Warnke

Both Avicenna and Averroes seek to harmonise philosophy and religion, but Averroes does this explicitly, especially in his Decisive Treatise on the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy, while Avicenna does it implicitly, by incorporating Islamic themes into his philosophy. Catarina Belo Published on: May 19, 2018 @ 05:40

It’s frequently noted that when one becomes aware that certain of one’s beliefs are logically inconsistent, the most rational response is often to keep the inconsistency, because one is not sure how best to eliminate it.  The ability to manage known inconsistencies and other tensions in one’s beliefs is one of the many important factors in rationality that stress on “being logical” obscures. Hartry Field  Published on: May 3, 2018 @ 13:02

Here he discusses what holism and compositionality are, Fodor and Lepore's claim that they're incompatible, Davidson, radical interpretation and pragmatic enrichment, assertion and what it is, social and non-social and normative and non-normative theories of assertion, Tim Williamson, Paul Grice, Robert Stalnaker, Donald Trump, de se communication and uncentred vs centred worlds,  then vagueness, Moore's paradox, whether we can intend to be misinterpreted, empty names and what we can learn about the nature of language from individuals or systems that are unlike normal speakers. Peter Pagin Published on: Apr 29, 2018 @ 00:05

Here she discusses the problem of our future selves, the distinction between hedonism and desire-satisfaction,the practice of Socratic protreptic, why aspiration is not the same as ambition, why adventures aren't aspirational, akrasia (weakness of will), how aspiration helps us overcome old points of view, whether we're responsible for the people we become, and should we work on becoming the future person, whether her view denies free-will and choice, how aspiration helps avoid two evils of liberal education and whether she's an Aristotelian or Humean about all this. Then she talks about reasons to be angry forever and the contrast between anger and sadness. Agnes Callard Published on: Apr 27, 2018 @ 13:30

He talks about Marx's move towards thinking about emancipation in terms of economics, the working class and alienation, his relationship to classical economic theories, the materialist theory of history, hand mills and steam mills, why Marx didn't think we should just wait for the inevitable revolution, Marx's critique of capitalism, what the obsolete Marxist societies in the near past tell us about Marx's ideas, what contemporary China tells us, Piketty, Globalisation, the environment, Utilitarianism and what is and isn't relevant in Marx for us today. Peter Singer Published on: Apr 26, 2018 @ 09:23

Here he discusses epistemic luck and anti-luck epistemology, neo-Moorean approaches, Pyrrhonian scepticism and how to live with scepticism, veretic luck, reflective luck, Wittgensteinian and McDowellian considerations, disjunctivism, epistemic angst, keeping apart underdetermination-based scepticism and closure-based radical scepticism, Wittgenstein on certainty and closure-based radical scepticism, Williamson's knowledge-first approach and how best to answer those who worry that philosophical questions can't ever be conclusively answered. Duncan Pritchard Published on: Apr 21, 2018 @ 04:57

Here she discusses why democratic legitimacy is important, what kind of decision making it requires, the equality requirement, why collective rationality isn't a requirement, what theory of legitimacy is required, whether political decision-making requires experts to make good decisions and the requirements of epistemic democracy. Then she discusses health equity and social justice, and the normative significance of our interactions with others. Fabienne Peter Published on: Apr 20, 2018 @ 20:28

Here he discusses Wittgenstein's anti-scientism, how he thought it might infect approaches to philosophy of mind, his use of 'Inner' and 'outer', the orthodox view about  his ideas about phenomenal concepts and Child's unorthodox position, on whether Cora Diamond's view about continuities between early and late Wittgenstein are right, whether there's a private language argument in the Tractatus,  whether Wittgenstein was a verificationist and whether the answer helps us answer the question as to whether he was a Behaviourist, whether Wittgenstein was a realist or anti-realist about the past and future, and why it matters, the problem of understanding action or perception in causal terms, Cartesianism, Interpretationism, anti-Cartesianism, Donald Davidson and Interpretationism, and whether Wittgenstein can help answer the hard question of consciousness. Bill Child Published on: Apr 14, 2018 @ 17:19