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Ted Honderich in the New York Times

January 14, 2008/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

Perhaps this “dispute” between Honderich and me has gone on too long already—has any worthwhile philosophy emerged from it?—but one thing stood out for me in the generally sensible and fair article by Patricia Cohen. Namely: Honderich speculates that the editors at the Philosophical Review might have been motivated to publish my review by their political opposition to […]

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0 0 admin admin2008-01-14 23:57:122013-10-14 23:57:55Ted Honderich in the New York Times

2008

January 2, 2008/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

Speaking of value, I’ve just finished my book about the value of sport. Instead of giving my view here, I invite others to submit their answers to this question. I also invite opinions on who is your favorite reviewer of philosophy books (I’ve recently had occasion to think about the art of book reviewing). I […]

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0 0 admin admin2008-01-02 23:56:282013-10-14 23:56:532008

The paradox of infallibility

December 14, 2007/1 Comment/in Uncategorized /by admin

It has been generally supposed that certain self-ascriptions, such as “I am in pain”, are infallible. This seems right. However, it is clear enough that the self-ascriptive thought is not identical to the state ascribed: the pain isn’t the same as the thought about it. This means that these are “distinct existences”, in the Humean […]

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0 0 admin admin2007-12-14 23:55:482013-10-14 23:56:10The paradox of infallibility

Whence Value?

December 3, 2007/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

Is something valuable because we value it or do we recognize value in something that it has independently of being valued? (Compare: is something good because the gods say it’s good or is goodness something that the gods in their wisdom recognize?) One way to answer this question is to ask if there can be […]

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0 0 admin admin2007-12-03 23:55:152013-10-14 23:55:41Whence Value?

The Constitution of Value

November 26, 2007/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

It is often held that something has value only in virtue of being valued by some evaluative being: value is conferred on something by the attitude of valuing. This is supposed to be true even of pleasure. But is the act of valuing itself something that has value? If not, it is hard to see how […]

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0 0 admin admin2007-11-26 23:50:492013-10-14 23:51:35The Constitution of Value

Celestial Ethics

November 10, 2007/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

Some superpowerful aliens arrive one day and offer to ship us off to their galaxy if we’d like. It’s really nice there, they assure us, and they have the photographs to prove it. Our standard of living will go up at least 20% and we can all live at the beach. But if we accept […]

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0 0 admin admin2007-11-10 23:55:132013-10-14 23:50:37Celestial Ethics

Meta-Physics

November 10, 2007/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

If physics needs an interpretation, in rather the way a formal language does, if it is to be meaningful, doesn’t that show that metaphysics is indispensable? Physical knowledge can’t be all the knowledge there is, because the formulas of physics stand in need of interpretation. Are electrons continuant particulars or are they just sequences of events? […]

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0 0 admin admin2007-11-10 23:49:392013-10-14 23:50:05Meta-Physics

Climate Change

October 31, 2007/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

I’m about to go to Chicago for a conference on global warming and like environmental issues (part of the Chicago Festival of the Humanities). I’m appearing with Peter Singer and Chris Stone, with Dale Jamieson as chair. For me there will be some local cooling–going from Miami to Chicago. My thesis will be that the […]

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0 0 admin admin2007-10-31 23:49:042013-10-14 23:49:19Climate Change

Deontological Pluralism

October 26, 2007/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

I like W.D. Ross’s mixed deontology of irreducible prima facie duties, like keeping promises and repaying debts and exercising beneficence. Ross takes these duties to be self-evident and known with certainty, while he acknowledges that we can have no more than “probable opinion” about the rightness of a particular action. He also accepts that the […]

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0 0 admin admin2007-10-26 23:44:342013-10-14 23:48:57Deontological Pluralism

Dispositions and Reality

October 26, 2007/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by admin

Dispositions don’t tie down meaning and reference (Quine, Kripke). Dispositions don’t tie down qualia (pace functionalism). And dispositions don’t tie down matter (Russell et al). Neither language nor mind nor matter can be explained in terms of dispositions. Dispositions are a superstructure suspended over these three realms, but not their essence. Reality is not subjunctive.

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0 0 admin admin2007-10-26 23:37:522013-10-14 23:39:29Dispositions and Reality
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