The chapter places Kant's discussions of empirical and rational psychology in the context of previous discussions in Germany. It also considers the status of what might be called his "transcendental psychology" as an instance of a special kind of knowledge: transcendental philosophy. It is divided into sections that consider four topics: the refutation of traditional rational psychology in the Paralogisms; the contrast between traditional empirical psychology and the transcendental philosophy of the Deduction; Kant's appeal to an implicit psychology in his (...) taxonomy and theory of cognitive faculties throughout the Critique of Pure Reason; and his new definitions of and support for empirical and rational psychology in the Doctrine of Method. (shrink)

Prior research on ethics codes has suggested, but rarely tested, the effects of code design alternatives on the impact of codes. This study considers whether the presence of explanatory rationales and descriptions of sanctions in ethics codes affects recipients'' responses to a code. Theories of organizational justice and persuasive communication support an expectation that rationales and sanctions will be positively related to code recipients'' recall of code content and perceptions of organizational justice. Content recall is an obvious precondition of code (...) compliance; justice perceptions have multiple implications for the attitudes and actions of organizational members. Results show that explanatory rationales are associated with a statistically significant increase in perceptions of organizational procedural justice, but that rationales and sanctions generally show no relationship to distributive justice perceptions and accurate content recall. These results suggest that common prescriptions regarding ethics code design are of uncertain value apart from further research which unearths the relationships among the intended and perceived purposes of codes, the organizational settings in which they are applied, and a wide variety of code designs. (shrink)

We examine a number of investigations of perceptual economy or, more specifically, of minimum tendencies and minimum principles in the visual perception of form, depth, and motion. A minimum tendency is a psychophysical finding that perception tends toward simplicity, as measured in accordance with a specified metric. A minimum principle is a theoretical construct imputed to the visual system to explain minimum tendencies. After examining a number of studies of perceptual economy, we embark on a systematic analysis of this notion. (...) We examine the notion that simple perceptual representations must be defined within the "geometric constraints" provided by proximal stimulation. We then take up metrics of simplicity. Any study of perceptual economy must use a metric of simplicity; the choice of metric may be seen as a matter of convention, or it may have deep theoretical and empirical implications. We evaluate several answers to the question of why the visual system might favor economical representations. Finally, we examine several accounts of the process for achieving perceptual economy, concluding that those which favor massively parallel processing are the most plausible. (shrink)

In this paper I argue for the following six claims: 1) The problem is that some think metacognition and consciousness are dissociable. 2) The solution is not to revive associationist explanations; 3) …nor is the solution to identify metacognition with Carruthers’ gatekeeping mechanism. 4) The solution is to define conscious metacognition; 5) … devise an empirical test for it in humans; and 6) … apply it to animals.

Theories of language production have long been expressed as connectionist models. We outline the issues and challenges that must be addressed by connectionist models of lexical access and grammatical encoding, and review three recent models. The models illustrate the value of an interactive activation approach to lexical access in production, the need for sequential output in both phonological and grammatical encoding, and the potential for accounting for structural effects on errors and structural priming from learning.

Defends a link between political and social freedom, and argues both for an understanding of social freedom and for institutional safeguards for this kind of freedom.

The work develops resources in the work of Charles S. Pierce for the purposes of contemporary philosophy. It articulates 'a nested continua model' for theological interpretation, which is indebted to Pierce's creation of 'Existential Graphs', a system of diagrams designed to provide visual representation of the process of human reasoning. Gary Slater investigates how the model can be applied by looking at recent debates in historiography and concludes with an assessment of the model's theological implications.

Very plausibly, nothing can be a genuine computing system unless it meets an input-sensitivity requirement. Otherwise all sorts of objects, such as rocks or pails of water, can count as performing computations, even such as might suffice for mentality—thus threatening computationalism about the mind with panpsychism. Maudlin in J Philos 86:407–432, ( 1989 ) and Bishop ( 2002a , b ) have argued, however, that such a requirement creates difficulties for computationalism about conscious experience, putting it in conflict with the (...) very intuitive thesis that conscious experience supervenes on physical activity. Klein in Synthese 165:141–153, ( 2008 ) proposes a way for computationalists about experience to avoid panpsychism while still respecting the supervenience of experience on activity. I argue that his attempt to save computational theories of experience from Maudlin’s and Bishop’s critique fails. (shrink)

Oakeshott sets out philosophical and historical views of the state. They are distinct, and their distinctiveness harmonizes with his notion of the exclusivity of philosophical and historical perspectives. The modal distinctness of philosophy, history, and practice is established in Experience and Its Modes and is then rehearsed in subsequent publications, notably in essays in Rationalism and Politics. History is a way of seeing the past that is at odds with practical thought and philosophy. It is the sign of ideology, and (...) its misperceptions of the relations between philosophy and practice that ideologists such as Lenin and Thatcher invoke abstractions of communism and the market to frame practical political decision-making. However, in considering art in the essay “The Voice of Poetry in the Conversation of Mankind,” Oakeshott imagines art to be independent of other activities and yet to maintain a conversational relationship between the modes of experience. What is meant by a conversation? For Oakeshott, a conversation does not preclude the independence of modes of experience from one another. The closeness between philosophy, practice, and history is also assumed and yet underplayed by the argument of On Human Conduct, which imagines theory to be separate from history and practice. In this paper, it is argued that the connections between practical, historical, and philosophical modes of understanding the state in Oakeshott’s work are closer than is suggested by the metaphor of conversation and at odds with the separation that is maintained in Experience and its Modes. (shrink)

Critically examines Peter Beinart's attempt to articulate a muscular liberalism with parallels to Cold War liberalism. Challenges Beinart's position as risking inconsistency with just war norms, among others.

Examines a range of issues related to the experience of close interpersonal friendship, including the nature of friendship and links between friendship and spirituality, ethics, and politics. Combines philosophical, religious, and social-scientific perspectives.

Collingwood statement in his autobiography that he became convinced of the need for the rapprochement between philosophy and history as early as 1919 must be taken seriously. The aim of this dissertation is to demonstrate the nature, soundness and continuity of Collingwood's conception of that rapprochement and to show how that rapprochement develops, and is based upon, the idea of progress. The themes of the rapprochement and the idea of progress are traced through all of Collingwood's major works in chronological (...) order. ;Part I elaborates how Speculum Mentis and An Essay on Philosophical Method complement each other as the springboard for Collingwood's later writings. In Speculum Mentis, Collingwood appeals to the dialectic of experience to explain the unique yet imprecisely defined interdependence of history and philosophy. An Essay on Philosophical Method is mainly an attempt to state the logic behind the earlier work. ;Part II covers The Idea of Nature, The Idea of History and The Principles of Art. In The Idea of Nature, Collingwood attempts to follow the method outlined in An Essay on Philosophical Method. The method used is significant, but even more telling is his conclusion that science turns into history. In The Idea of History, Collingwood attempts to define history and begins to fill in the details of the desired rapprochement and the notion of progress. In The Principles of Art, he explains his philosophy of mind, effectively moving from 'experience' to 'consciousness'. ;Part III focuses on the relationship between philosophy and history as articulated in An Autobiography and An Essay on Metaphysics. An Autobiography contains the most complete rendering of the logic of question-and-answer, a philosophical method which links philosophy to progress. In the work on metaphysics, Collingwood develops the culminating idea that the subject matter of metaphysics, absolute presuppositions, is historically grounded. The result is that a philosopher cannot simply study a theory, but must study its development as well. ;In Collingwood's view, philosophy is the only inquiry in which, from start to finish, history is self-consciously both studied and made. In coming to terms with history, philosophy must also come to terms with the notion of progress. Collingwood's presentation of the notion of progress goes far toward dispelling the notion that philosophy and history can only provide knowledge for its own sake. His dialectical philosophy shows how the recognition of the historical character of philosophy makes possible the original vocation of philosophy, the love of wisdom. (shrink)

My central goal in this paper is to interpret what Quine says in his Kant lectures about the norms of epistemology and the doctrinal and conceptual tasks of epistemology—the tasks, respectively, of constructing good theories and of clarifying meanings—in light of what he says about these topics in several of his earlier and later works. I argue that despite one puzzling passage in the Kant lectures that misleadingly suggests otherwise, the norms of Quine’s epistemology are exclusively doctrinal, not conceptual.

Examines analogies between contracts and vows and uses analytical tools from contract law to highlight the limits of religious vows.

Rethinking R.G. Collingwood reviews Collingwood's thought via his own rethinking of Hegel. It establishes the revisionary character of Collingwood's defence of liberal civilization in theory and practice. Collingwood is seen as avoiding the pitfalls of Hegel's teleological historicism by developing an open and contestable reading of the rationality of liberal civilization, which neither reduces practice to theory nor philosophy to history. The contemporary relevance of Collingwood's standpoint is demonstrated by comparing it with those of recent defenders and critics of liberalism (...) Rawls, Lyotard and MacIntyre. (shrink)

Charles S. Peirce sketches "a nest of three arguments for the Reality of God" in his article "A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God." I provide careful analysis and explication of Peirce's argument, along with consideration of some objections. I argue that there are significant differences between Peirce's neglected argument and the traditional arguments for God's existence; Peirce's analysis of the neglected argument into three arguments is misleading; there are two distinct levels of argument that Peirce does not recognize; (...) and it is doubtful whether the argument meets all the criteria set by Peirce himself. (shrink)

Pope Benedict XVI’s social encyclical Caritas in Veritate offers insight into the relationship between theology and economics, between moral principles and economic policy. This article highlights potential obstacles to the reception of the emeritus pope’s arguments, identifies the encyclical’s principal lesson in one key sentence, and argues that there are compelling reasons for scholars and policymakers to consider and even appropriate Benedict’s substantial teaching on the enduring social question.

In a short speech in Book 24 of the Iliad, Priam tells Hecuba of his intention to visit the camp of the Achaians in order to attempt to ransom the body of Hector. Hecuba responds with predictable consternation to this dangerous proposition.

Presents a collection of photographs that depict everyday life on the streets of Chicago.

The target article provides a convincing argument that nonhuman animals cannot process role-governed rules, relational schemas, and so on, in a human-like fashion. However, actual human performance is often more similar to that of nonhuman animals than Penn et al. admit. The kind of rule-governed performance the authors take for granted may rely to a substantial degree on language on external symbol systems such as those provided by language and culture.

This article examines happiness as an activity, modeled on pleasure in NE 10, 1-5. Aristotle is not proposing a choice, but defining the formal nature of happiness. Contemplation, as the activity of wisdom, constitutes happiness in the strict and formal sense. It has all the attributes of happiness, highest, most continuous, most pleasant, most self-sufficient, leisured, and an end in itself. Practical virtues are formally secondary, as including elements outside the activity of the best part and having leisure as their (...) end. Thus, amusements, practical activities and contemplation are integrated in the life of the sage, the contribution of each formally defined. (shrink)

Stratagem of the Corpse is a philosophical and literary exposition of death not so much as seen by Baudrillard but Baudrillard as seen by death.