Scholarly Publications - Philosophy

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11693/115655

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Open Access
Divided agency, manipulation, and regret
(Universitaet Wien * Institut fuer Philosophie, 2024-11-30) Payton, Jonathan D.
Saba Bazargan-Forward (2022, Authority, Cooperation, and Accountability), conceives of agency as divided into two functions: a deliberative function (deciding what to do) and an executive function (acting on that decision). He claims that these two functions can distributed across multiple agents, and that this has important moral consequences: if you outsource the executive function to me, then the practical reasons you take there to be, for A-ing, are relevant to whether I can permissibly A and to how my A-ing reflects on my character. However, the natural way of understanding the 'divided agency' model --- i.e. that in cases of divided agency the executor literally acts on the deliberator's reasons --- is problematic and doesn't seem to reflect Bazargan-Forward's considered view, while his considered view doesn't seem to support his moral judgments, either about the permissibility of the executor's behaviour or of their character. I suggest an alternative to Bazargan-Forward's 'divided agency' model and consider what moral judgments it supports.
Open Access
The synthetic unity of reason and nature in the third critique
(Routledge, 2024-01-02) Vatansever, Saniye
In this paper, I advance a new interpretation of the argumentative structure of the third Critique, which in turn clarifies the connection between its two apparently unrelated parts. I propose to read the third Critique as a response to Kant's question of hope, which concerns the satisfaction of reason's practical and theoretical interests. On this proposal, while the first part on aesthetics describes what we-as possessors of theoretical reason - may hope for, the second part, on teleology, describes what we - as possessors of practical reason - may hope for. The main question of the third Critique is, 'What may we hope if we act as we should, i.e. act rationally?' Kant's implicit answer is, 'to attain the ideals of reason, which leads to happiness as a consequence of it.' This novel reconstruction of the argumentative structure of the third Critique contributes to the literature by (i) explaining how the two parts of the third Critique on aesthetics and teleology are connected, (ii) clarifying how the ideals of reason are connected to hope and happiness, and (iii) showing how the spheres of nature and freedom can be synthetically unified through the faculty of judgment.
Open Access
Introduction
(Springer Dordrecht, 2024-11-27) Hormio, Säde; Wringe, Bill; Hormio, Säde; Wringe, Bill
Collective action and responsibility have gained increased attention in the past decades. The influence of collective agents on our lives and the prevalence of collective harms, such as climate change, has brought the collective nature of human action into the spotlight. Philosophers have addressed these issues from the viewpoint of social ontology and political philosophy. Despite their complementary focus on the nature of collective action and agency on the one hand and the nature of political action on the other, the two strands of philosophical literature have seen relatively little cross-pollination so far. This volume aims to bring these two strands a little closer to one another, aiming to expand the range of issues within political philosophy to which conceptual resources for understanding collective responsibility developed within the field of social ontology can be applied. At the same time, we aim to also shed new light on issues that have been staples of discussion within the social ontology literature, including the extent to which collective agents can be understood as moral agents and, hence, as bearers of a kind of collective moral responsibility. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.
Open Access
Husserl and the marks of the mental
(Springer, 2024-12-20) Kinkaid, James
An active area of research in the philosophy of mind concerns the relation between the two marks of the mental: intentionality and phenomenal consciousness. One position that has recently gained in popularity is the phenomenal intentionality theory, according to which intentionality arises from phenomenal consciousness. Proponents of the phenomenal intentionality theory recognize Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology as a precedent, but little work has been done to locate Husserl within the contemporary landscape of views on the relation between the marks of the mental. My aim is to do just that. I start by arguing that Husserl qualifies as an inseparatist: he holds that original intentionality and phenomenal consciousness necessarily co-vary. I then give a Husserlian critique of a notable and radical version of the phenomenal intentionality theory defended by Angela Mendelovici, focusing on her accounts of color perception and thought. Finally, I sketch a Husserlian version of the phenomenal intentionality theory that I think ought to be a serious contender in the contemporary scene.
Open Access
Can episodic memory deter cheating and promote altruism?
(Springer, 2024-04-18) Keven, Nazım
Episodic memory gives us the ability to mentally travel back in time to revisit and relive past experiences. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in the function of episodic memory. According to the orthodox view, episodic memory should be considered a part of a constructive system that simulates the future for sophisticated foresight and flexible planning. In this paper, I offer a novel alternative view. I argue that episodic memory provides invaluable information about the past behavior of others, allowing us to identify reliable and trustworthy partners while avoiding dealing with cheaters. Theoretical models demonstrate that cooperation in groups can be maintained if potential partners use information about an individual’s past behavior to guide their behavior toward that individual. In these reputation-based models of human cooperation, individuals with a history of cheating are ostracized, whereas those with a history of cooperative behavior flourish. Against this theoretical background, it is possible to see a function of episodic memory in facilitating information exchange about others, helping group members make effective partner choices, and avoiding the risk of interacting with cheaters. If correct, episodic memory may have played a significant role in the evolution of human cooperation.
Open Access
Nietzsche's Greek pessimism
(Routledge, 2025-01-14) Wolt, Daniel
Despite his opposition to Schopenhauerian pessimism, Nietzsche repeatedly characterizes himself as a pessimist of sorts. Here I attempt to take this assertion seriously and offer an interpretation of in what sense Nietzsche can be called a pessimist. I suggest that Nietzsche's pessimism has to do not with life in general, but with life in its common form: such life is bad because it is characterized by meaningless suffering, and lacks aesthetic value. Against the Christian tradition, Nietzsche denies that there is a value inherent to life itself, and thinks instead, that value must be achieved, but rarely is. This form of pessimism is rooted in Nietzsche's engagement with the ancient Greeks, and bears important affinities to the thought of Burckhardt on Greek pessimism.
Open Access
Superplurals analyzed away
(Routledge, 2025-01-23) Nicolas, David; Payton, Jonathan D.
Many natural languages include plural terms, i.e. terms which denote many individuals at once. Are there also superplural terms, i.e. terms which denote many pluralities of individuals at once? Some philosophers say 'Yes', citing a range of sentence types which apparently can't be analyzed in a first-order plural logic, but which can be analyzed in a superplural one. We argue that all the data presented in favor of the superplural can, in fact, be analyzed using only first-order resources. The key is to add to ordinary plural logic a new notion of a generalized cover. A generalized cover reflects how interlocutors in a conversation may divide a salient plurality into many subpluralities, which can then be involved in reference and predication. With generalized covers in place, all the apparently troublesome sentences can be easily handled. Our approach can also be extended to account, not only for linguistic data which seem to favor the superplural but also for other phenomena involving plurals. The result is a unified approach to natural language plurals on which superplurals are analyzed away.
Open Access
The place of animals in Wollstonecraft’s early educational writings
(Cambridge University Press, 2024-09-25) Yücel, Uğur Eylül
Thomas Taylor’s parody of Mary Wollstonecraft’s support for rights of women and humans raises a question: does his satire unwittingly propose a defence of animal rights found in Wollstonecraft’s arguments? While Wollstonecraft’s later works do not mention animal rights, her early educational writings offer arguments on animal ethics. These works explore the value of animals from moral, theological, and consequentialist perspectives, emphasizing both their instrumental and inherent value. This article argues that Wollstonecraft’s moral psychology and theology highlight a benevolent attitude towards animals, underscoring their value beyond their utility. Résumé La parodie de Thomas Taylor sur la défense des droits des femmes et des humains par Mary Wollstonecraft soulève une question : sa satire propose-t-elle malgré lui une défense des droits des animaux présente dans les arguments de Wollstonecraft ? Alors que les œuvres ultérieures de Wollstonecraft ne font pas mention des droits des animaux, ses premiers écrits éducatifs offrent des arguments sur l’éthique animale. Ces œuvres explorent la valeur des animaux d’un point de vue moral, théologique et conséquentialiste, en mettant l’accent à la fois sur leur valeur instrumentale et inhérente. Cet article soutient que la psychologie morale et la théologie de Wollstonecraft mettent en lumière une attitude bienveillante envers les animaux, soulignant leur valeur au-delà de leur utilité.
Open Access
Inorganic compounds and teleological explanation in Aristotle’s meteorology 4.12
(Brill, 2024-09-23) Krizan, Mary Katrina
Aristotle’s Meteorology 4.12 is puzzling, in part because the chapter appears to extend teleological explanation to include certain inorganic materials without natural biological functions, such as metals and stone. This paper examines two attempts to explain why such materials can have functions, and shows that they are problematic. As an alternative, I argue that raw inorganic materials—as well as separated parts of organisms—can have extrinsic functions. Extrinsic functions can explain why natural inorganic materials can be sorted into natural kinds, even if their functions are ultimately related to their uses in the productive arts.
Open Access
Phenomenology and metaphysics in being and time
(Philosophy Documentation Center, 2024-10) Kinkaid, James
On the dominant interpretation of Being and Time, Heidegger's investigation of being ( Sein ) is really an investigation of meaning (Sinn). On a competing interpretation, Being and Time is a work of realist metaphysics. I argue that existing interpretations of both types oversimply the relationship between phenomenology and metaphysics in Being and Time. I show how a Husserlian framework for mapping the relations between formal ontology, regional ontology, and phenomenology illuminates the structure and ambitions of Being and Time. What results is a version of the metaphysical realist reading that combines the virtues, while correcting the oversights, of existing accounts in both camps. On this reading, phenomenology for both Husserl and Heidegger aims to vindicate claims to a priori knowledge, including ontological knowledge, through a regional ontology of the subject that presupposes the categories of formal ontology.
Open Access
What is narrativity?
(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2024-06-10) Keven, Nazım
In recent years, narrative accounts of the self have gained increasing attention. It is widely accepted that humans are storytelling creatures, that stories shape our self-conception, and that we fail to be agents without a narrative framework. While there is less agreement on what constitutes a narrative, it is generally understood to be more than a chronological listing of life events; it is also an account of the explanatory relationships among these events-a story of how events lead to other events. However, specifying the nature of this explanatory relationship has proven difficult. As critics have pointed out, narrativists often resort to simplistic notions of narrative when faced with criticism. The concept of narrative explanation needs to be elaborated in a way that is both substantive enough to exclude trivial behaviours from being considered narratives and nonrestrictive enough to accommodate ordinary lives that may not be particularly story-like. In this paper, I review existing accounts of narrative explanation and propose a teleological account, according to which narratives consist of goal-directed explanations of a sequence of events. I argue that a teleological account of narrative explanation can be a fruitful way to clarify the concept of "narrative" in the context of the narrative self by addressing the most common objections.
Open Access
Mary Wollstonecraft’s influence on French revolutionary educational reform
(Routledge, 2025-07-25) Bergès, Sandrine
When Mary Wollstonecraft travelled to Paris in December 1792, she was already well-known there as a republican writer, and a defender of women’s rights, particularly to education. Her philosophy of education was very closely tied to her republican beliefs – to educate a child in the right way was to preserve her from domination. In Paris, Wollstonecraft became friends with several famous Girondins, including Madame Roland and Jacques-Pierre Brissot. She was asked to participate in the drafting of Nicolas de Condorcet's report on the reform of education. Condorcet was himself an early proponent of women's rights in France and unlike his predecessor, Talleyrand, he did not want to leave women out from French educational reforms. Although her notes on this report did not survive, I argue that Wollstonecraft did in fact influence French educational reforms. Looking at the reception of Wollstonecraft's work among the Girondins, and Condorcet's early drafts of the reform proposal, I argue that Wollstonecraft's legacy in the final years of the Revolution can be traced in particular to the 1795 Loi Daunou and its corresponding report, by Joseph Lakanal, on girls’ primary education.
Open Access
Immanuel Kant and deontology
(Suny-State Univ. New York Press, 2024-02) Thorpe, Lucas; Hemmingsen, Michael
Embargo
Early modern women philosophers and politics: Accommodating sphere restrictions
(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc., 2024-07-12) Berges, Sandrine
In his Politics, Aristotle decreed that human beings neededto take part in politics to flourish, but that women, despitebeing human, needed to stay at home and away from pol-itics. This paper offers an overview of how early modernwomen philosophers worked to makes their lives morepolitical despite being constricted to the domestic sphere.Lucrezia Marinella argued that the home was like a smallcity, requiring quasi political skill to run, Cavendishbelieved that politics should cover the home and its in-habitants, not just the so‐called ‘public domain’. MaryAstell, less optimistic, thought that women could compen-sate for the urge to be political by retreating into a well‐educated mind.
Embargo
Leibniz on per se possibility
(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2024-08-24) Fatollahi, Alireza
This essay critically examines a widely held assumption in interpreting Leibniz's modal metaphysics: that whatever is necessarily actual is necessary. I argue that Leibniz rejected this axiom for principled reasons having to do with his views on the grounding of metaphysical modalities in divine power and intellect (but not divine will). I also argue that if we read him in light of this rejection, his per se possibility theory becomes (contrary to its reception in the literature) quite successful in addressing the problem of necessitarianism.
Open Access
God and/as the Universe
(De Gruyter, 2024-04-22) Aranyosi, Istvan; Szatkowski, M
I address the issue of what the role of the particular theoretical physical model of the Universe we inhabit should be in one's pantheistic or panentheistic theology, as this question is scarcely addressed in the traditional pantheistic or panentheistic views. Pantheists and panentheists do consider the God-Universe relation as crucial, but they do not delve into the physical theory, that is, into cosmology. This might be due to their thinking that the particular cosmology is not important as long as we have the general picture of how God is supposed to be related to the Universe. In this essay, I argue that as compared to the Big Bang model of the Universe, the more recent Big Bounce model, based on quantum cosmology, is more congenial to a naturalistic version of panentheism.
Open Access
Regime type and data manipulation: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic
(Duke University Press, 2024-12) Wigley, Simon
Context: This study examines whether autocratic governments are more likely than democratic governments to manipulate health data. The COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity for examining this question because of its global impact. Methods: Three distinct indicators of COVID-19 data manipulation were constructed for nearly all sovereign states. Each indicator was then regressed on democracy and controls for unintended misreporting. A machine learning approach was then used to determine whether any of the specific features of democracy are more predictive of manipulation. Findings: Democracy was found to be negatively associated with all three measures of manipulation, even after running a battery of robustness checks. Absence of opposition party autonomy and free and fair elections were found to be the most important predictors of deliberate undercounting. Conclusions: The manipulation of data in autocracies denies citizens the opportunity to protect themselves against health risks, hinders the ability of international organizations and donors to identify effective policies, and makes it difficult for scholars to assess the impact of political institutions on population health. These findings suggest that health advocates and scholars should use alternative methods to estimate health outcomes in countries where opposition parties lack autonomy or must participate in uncompetitive elections.
Open Access
Virtue and moral obligation
(Routledge, 2023-06-19) Bergès, Sandrine; Detlefsen, K.; Shapiro, L.
Although Early Modern male philosophers arguably moved away from virtue ethics toward theories of obligation, it is less clearly true of women philosophers of that period. I argue that Early Modern women philosophers in France and England mixed elements from virtue ethics and theories of moral obligation in order to theorize their moral experience. I look at Christine de Pizan, Jacqueline Pascal, Catherine Trotter Cockburn, and Mary Wollstonecraft.
Open Access
Predictivism and model selection
(Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2023-02-21) Fatollahi, Alireza
There has been a lively debate in the philosophy of science over predictivism: the thesis that successfully predicting a given body of data provides stronger evidence for a theory than merely accommodating the same body of data. I argue for a very strong version of the thesis using statistical results on the so-called “model selection” problem. This is the problem of finding the optimal model (family of hypotheses) given a body of data. The key idea that I will borrow from the statistical literature is that the level of support a hypothesis, H, receives from a body of data, D, is inversely related to the number of adjustable parameters of the model from which H was constructed. I will argue that when D is not essential to the design of H (i.e., when it is predicted), the model to which H belongs has fewer adjustable parameters than when D is essential to the design of H (when it is accommodated). This, I argue, provides us with an argument for a very strong version of predictivism.
Open Access
Newton’s example of the two globes
(Springer, Cham, 2023-11-28) Solomon, Monica
At the end of the Scholium Newton includes a long paragraph about two globes revolving around their center of gravity and held together by a tensed cord. It has been interpreted as a thought experiment (Sect. 6.2) meant to show how the properties of true circular motion defined as absolute motion can be determined in a three-dimensional empty universe. I start by showing that this reading of Newton’s example as a bona fide thought experiment is riddled with interpretation problems and that it is less straightforward than so far assumed (Sect. 6.3).