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2012-01-23	Discussion of Winthrop Staples & Philip Cafaro, The Environmental Argument for Reducing Immigration into the United StatesBlog response
Richard Yetter Chappell Princeton University	For anyone interested, I've blogged a couple of criticisms of this paper, here. Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6575 Reply

2011-12-29

Philosophy of MindWhat it is like to have been a zombie

Bill Meacham

University of Texas at Austin

Philosophical zombies (as opposed to the ones in the movies, which are slow-witted, bloody and broken people with a crazed and single-minded desire to eat normal people) are hypothetical creatures used in thought experiments to elucidate what we mean by the term "consciousness." They are supposed to act just like humans but lack internal experience. David Chalmers defines them thus: "A zombie is physically identical to a normal human being, but completely lacks conscious experience. Zombies look and behave like the conscious beings that we know and love, but 'all is dark inside.' There is nothing it is like to be a zombie." (http://consc.net/zombies.html)

Derek Allen objects to the concept, saying it makes no sense. (http://philpapers.org/post/6535) In particular he objects to the phrase "There is nothing it is like to be a zombie." I agree that the phrase "what it is like to be " is problematic, but we all know what it is trying to get at. If one has a conscious exp ... (read more)

Latest replies:

John Ivor Jones, 2012-01-23 : I cannot make headway with the idea that consciousness is not necessary for certain responses . Even if we note that the... (read more)
Bill Meacham, 2012-01-23 : Sorry, I am having a bit First of all what does "contingently necessary" mean? Perhaps I am showing my ignoran... (read more)
Ron Morstyn, 2012-02-01 : I suspect the conscious state under midazolam is not that different to being in a dream which is a state of consciousnes... (read more)
John Ivor Jones, 2012-02-01 : Yes, if I may repeat my point so I can work from it. under the principles of science consciousness is neither necessary... (read more)
Melina Costello, 2012-02-01 : On 2011-12-29, Bill Meacham wrote: I suppose to do a true experiment we would have to administer the drug -- Versed, a t... (read more)
4 more ..

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6545 Reply

2011-12-13

Help Forum'Works by Iris Murdoch'

David Robjant

at http://philpapers.org/s/iris%20murdoch the page is headed
'Works by Iris Murdoch'

but the first item is a paper by Richard Moran.

Why is this?

Confession of interest: I noticed this because a paper of mine responds to Moran on this point, and I am curious as why Moran's paper has the special prominence accorded to 'works by iris murdoch' when no other contribution in commentary is visible on that page.

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6513 Reply

2011-12-02	Graduate ProgramsA new course at distance on Quantum Cognition
Elio Conte	it is a pleasure for me to inform you that we have arranged a new course at distance on Quantum Cognition. Please, visit our web site www.saistmp.com for details. On the same site you find also details on a new at distance course on applications of Herat Rate Variability in psychophysiology. I retain it may be of interest. Regards. EC Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6487 Reply

2011-12-04

Philosophy of Gender, Race, and SexualityRepronormativity-

Geraldina Gonzalez de la Vega

Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf

I've read recently Katherine M. Franke's paper, Theorizing Yes: An Essay on Feminism Law and Desire, in which she approaches the idea of repronormativity as a compulsory motherhood (parenthood actually, but she focuses on the feminist approach) In her paper Franke discusses how it is expected that women reproduce herselves and how this issue has been "taken for granted" in the femenist theory. She argues that not every woman actually wants to be a mother, and that this choice is actually like being heterosexual: social forces (heteronormativity) push women into motherhood.
A month ago the ECHR decided in a case S.H.&Others vs. Austria that it is not against the European Convention on Human Rights to deny the use of ova of third person in In vitro fertilisation processes, the argument is that this could disrupt the "normal" development of the child because having two mothers can be specially awkward and it would pose many problems to establish kinship and parental rights.

This makes me wonder ... (read more)

Latest replies:

Jim Stone, 2011-12-06 : My understanding is that there are about 40 families waiting to adoptThere are enough minority families to adopt minorit... (read more)
Scott Forschler, 2011-12-12 : Jim, frankly your message here is a reflection of the kind of blind paranoia that arises from the stubborn refusal to ac... (read more)
Jim Stone, 2011-12-12 : You missed my point. What I said was compatible with the view that fetus's do not have a moral right to life. I was... (read more)
Scott Forschler, 2011-12-12 : Jim, I agree that what you said is *logically compatible* with abortion rights and fetal non-personhood. I never s... (read more)
Scott Forschler, 2011-12-12 : And I didn't "miss your point." You made several points. I didn't comment on those which m... (read more)
1 more ..

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6484 Reply

2011-11-19

Meta-EthicsGame theory, its ontology, and morality

Jay Quigley

Florida State University

A question from a novice on the topic:

I'm suspecting that certain game-theoretic norms constitute necessary, a priori discernable norms and hence provide a robustly realist foundation for morality. (And possibly even "non-naturalist", although I suspect that that categorization may not be meaningful or worth caring about.) As I understand the nature of game theory, it discovers norms of procedural collective rationality.

There is of course room to debate the extent to which morality really is based on the norms of game theory. However, my questions are slightly different: What is the ontological status of game theoretic norms? And what are the consequences for the ontology of morality?

Reading suggestions much appreciated.

Latest replies:

John Ivor Jones, 2012-01-04 : I assume by a priori you mean identifying or manifesting conditions, and not the parts so identified or manifested. Unfo... (read more)
Boram Lee, 2012-01-04 : What do you have in mind? Could you give me an example of a game-theoretic norm? (Perhaps the Nash Equilibri... (read more)
Joseph Wagner, 2012-01-23 : I view ontology as an ancient, antiquated, obsolete and wholly useless line of inquiry, which no longer has relevance to... (read more)
Sj Chapman, 2012-02-01 : Loving this discussion, just FYI. I came across something that reminded me of this forum today when reading about... (read more)
John Ivor Jones, 2012-02-01 : Responding to Joseph Wagner, and straying a little from the topic of game theory (though there are some relevant points... (read more)
10 more ..

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6439 Reply

2011-11-11	PhilPapers NewsA new philosophy calendar
David Bourget University of London	The PhilPapers team is pleased to announce the launch of PhilEvents, a comprehensive calendar of events in philosophy worldwide. Try it out! As always, we welcome any form of feedback. Please report any bugs and send your suggestions using our contact form on PhilEvents. Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6417

2011-11-08	Help ForumProposing a new category
Antonio Cansinos	Which is the correct forum to propose a new category? When I was about to begin to categorize a new papers for my leaf, I could see many paper that could be in a proper category, but that categoy does not exist. And I would like to propose a new category. Thanks! Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6407 Reply

2011-11-11

EpistemologyOn So-called Dogmas of Empiricism

Chaohui Zhuang

Xiamen University

Quine criticized the so-called two dogmas of Empiricism, and Davidson criticized the so-called third dogma of Empiricism. Then, McDowell criticized the existence of non-conceptual content of experience. we will show that their arguments are all wrong. Their arguments are some kind of proof by contradiction. If we accept some principle of Empiricism, then we have to face some problems, thus we could not accept some principle of Empiricism. We will show that these problems could be solved. In fact, Wittgenstein had solved these problems. Therefore, their arguments are all invalid. At last, we will examine proof by contradiction. What contradictions can tell us? What about ability and inability of conceptual analysis?

1. The first So-called dogmas of Empiricism

Quine criticize Frege's definition of analyticity, but it doesnot mean that there are no other definition s of analyticity. In fact, Wittgenstein had given another definition of analyticity: logically true statements are analyti ... (read more)

Latest replies:

Steve Wallis, 2011-11-15 : Regarding Wittgenstein, you might look at the work of John Shotter who has continued some of Wittgenstein's argument... (read more)
Chaohui Zhuang, 2011-11-19 : Thanks for your comments and recommendations. For understanding “there is a beautiful flower”, we need logic reasoning a... (read more)
Steve Wallis, 2011-11-22 : I am sorry but I don't see an important difference between experienced and conceived - as all my experiences must be... (read more)
Chaohui Zhuang, 2011-12-04 : R We both agree that ordinary experience includes conceptual content. We have different opinion toward the problem wheth... (read more)
Vincent Mennella, 2011-12-27 : Hello, I hope you guys don't mind if I chime in here. I find this material really interesting, and I'm cur... (read more)

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6402 Reply

2011-10-21

PhilJobsDiscriminatory Jobs Policy

Brad Weslake

University of Rochester

Thanks to all involved for a really useful service.

I am writing to recommend that an anti-discrimination policy be enforced by PhilJobs. For example, PhilJobs could adopt the APA Statement on Non-Discrimination, and either:

Refuse to advertise these positions (my preferred option); or
Allow them to be filtered out in search results.

It is a disgrace that the current issue of JFP includes the following disclaimer:

Due to technical problems resulting from our recent transition to new administrative software, we are unable to assure that all of the universities listed in this issue agree to abide by the APA's nondiscrimination policy. If you have any concerns about this, please investigate the individual institutions' policy before applying for a position.

...and it would be great if PhilJobs was able to help compensate.

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6377 Reply

2011-11-11

Philosophy of LanguageTruth; semantic and assertion

Maarefi Mohammad

Redundancy theory of truth has been regarded one (may the most) powerful objection to Realism, new truth theorist, articulating rather different notion of truth claim that the semantic thesis of Realism must be rejected - and hence the whole project of realism - i think there is something wrong with - for example - Gary Kemps article and reasoning for redundancy theory of truth.
there could two problems be differed
1) the redundancy argument for redundancy of SEMANTIC content of truth;
2) the redundancy argument for redundancy of ASSERTION that notion;
arguments - as far as i have seen - are related to the second but not the first ( see for example Ramsey truism and Strawson's "Truth" and Gary Kemp's article "Meaning and truth conditions").
that seems to be about the redundancy argument for ASSERTION of truth predicate, but the reasoning does not entail that "truth" does not have any genuine semantic content. i think the very problem could be found in Tarski's "Sem ... (read more)

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6369 Reply

2011-10-18

Philosophy of MindHas Dennett discovered a new form of dualism - Dennettian Dualism?

JWK Matthewson Matthewson

In Consciousness Explained p407-408. Dennett considers the experiences of someone looking at the world, and describes his idea of the relationship between conscious experience, mind and representation:

"It seemed to him, according to the text, as if his mind - his visual field - were filled with intricate details of gold-green buds and wiggling branches, but although this is how it seemed this was an illusion. No such "plenum" ever came into his mind; the plenum remained out in the world where it didn't have to be represented, but could just be. When we marvel, in those moments of heightened self-consciousness, at the glorious richness of our conscious experience, the richness we marvel at is actually the richness of the world outside, in all its ravishing detail. It does not "enter" our conscious minds, but is simply available"

Here Dennett explicitly describes a "view", events arranged in a plenum but seen from one side and from a viewing point. Given that this is the ... (read more)

Latest replies:

JWK Matthewson Matthewson, 2011-10-18 : Note: Dennett actually describes this problem of the viewing point: "My point of view had lagged... (read more)

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6349 Reply

2011-10-10

Discussion of PhilPapers, MiscRequest for review of booklet “Philosophy of life and other

Brijbhushan Gupta

Dear members,

I have compiled my views on various issues such as Philosophy of life, Meaning of life, Purpose of life etc . I have uploaded them at following URL,

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

http://www.angelfire.com/ex/bjgupta/Booklet.htm

I would appriciate your review and feedback.

Regards,

(B. J. Gupta)

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6343 Reply

2011-10-09

Philosophy, MiscellaneousFrom Knowledge to Wisdom

Nicholas Maxwell

University College London

Since 1976, a growing body of work has argued that we urgently need to bring about a revolution in academic inquiry so that the basic aim becomes wisdom and not just knowledge - wisdom being the capacity to realize what is of value in life, for oneself and others, wisdom thus including knowledge, understanding and technological know-how, but much else besides. What we have at present, academic inquiry devoted, in the first instance, to the pursuit of knowledge is, it is argued, profoundly and damagingly irrational. The generation of our current global problems, and our current incapacity to tackle them intelligently, effectively and humanely, is in part due to the long-standing structural irrationality of our institutions of learning.

The revolution we require would change every branch and aspect of academic inquiry. A basic intellectual task of academic inquiry would be to articulate our problems of living (personal, social and global) and propose and critically assess possible so ... (read more)

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6337 Reply

2011-10-06

PhilJobsPossible Future Revisions

Douglas W. Portmore

Arizona State University

This is excellent thanks. Here are a couple of suggestions:

(1) It would be good if one could filter the search by rank or by whether the job is for either junior or senior level position.
(2) I would prefer it if it just listed all the search results on one page.
(3) I find PhilJobs a little more difficult to read than http://phylo.info/jobs. And Phylo jobs has certain nice features (like integration with Google Maps). Perhaps, the two teams could get together and collaborate. Philosophy needs a service like this, but we need just one service, not two.

Latest replies:

David Bourget, 2011-10-07 : Thanks for the suggestions.&Re (1), this is done using the 'contract type' option, which allows you to select te... (read more)
Douglas W. Portmore, 2011-10-07 : Thanks for the quick reply. Regarding (1), I don't see how the contract type search function differentiates between... (read more)
David Bourget, 2011-10-07 : Hi Douglas, if you tick only "continuing or permanent", you shouldn't get assistant professor jobs in the... (read more)

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6325 Reply

2011-10-06

PhilPapers NewsPhilJobs

David Bourget

University of London

The PhilPapers team is pleased to announce a new online database of job ads in philosophy: PhilJobs. The database is to cover jobs in philosophy of all types from all over the world. It is searchable in many different ways (including AOS and geographic parameters). Search parameters can be saved and can be used to generate email alerts. Ads from PhilJobs will soon start appearing in PhilPapers' content alerts and certain sections of the site. Posting and viewing ads on PhilJobs is free. David Chalmers has more details on the project here.

If you are advertising a job in philosophy, we encourage you to submit the advertisement to PhilJobs. If you are seeking a job in philosophy, we encourage you to search for jobs on the site. Any feedback would be welcome, either through the feedback form on the site or through posting on the PhilJobs discussion forum.

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6323

2011-10-06

Philosophy of Physical ScienceExplaining implementation of computations

Jacques Mallah

I am posting an explanation of this on my blog. It's drawn from my eprint

The Many Computations Interpretation (MCI) of Quantum Mechanics
http://arxiv.org/abs/0709.0544

but I expect to make a shorter paper just on this more limited topic.

My question is: is the explanation I give and purpose of what I am doing clear? Comments on the validity of the ideas are also welcome. Thanks.

So far I have the following posts on it (and see the main blog for more context related to QM):

Basic idea of an implementation
http://onqm.blogspot.com/2011/10/basic-idea-of-implementation.html

The Putnam-Searle-Chalmers Theorem
http://onqm.blogspot.com/2011/10/putnam-searle-chalmers-theorem.html

Restrictions on mappings 1: Independence and Inheritance
http://onqm.blogspot.com/2011/10/restrictions-on-mappings-1-independence.html

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6315 Reply

2011-10-06

Philosophy of MindDo zombies have intentional states about qualia?

Ramiro Frick

Instituto de Filosofía y Ciencias de la Complejidad

Hey guys,

1. As far as I understand, philosophical zombies are physically and behaviorally identical to normal beings, they have all the intentional mental states of normal beings, but they have no qualia. The lack of qualia is the only difference.

2. There is a certain kind of intentional mental states: intentional states about qualia.I have the belief that I'm seeing red, I have the desire to have an orgasm, I have the fear of experiencing pain. Much of the intentional mental states are about phenomenal properties of experience.

3. So my question is: Do zombies have intentional states about qualia?

I'm not sure about exactly what is the relevance of this question, but I have a hunch that there is something here...

Thanks in advance!

Ramiro Frick.

Instituto de Filosofía y Ciencias de la Complejidad,
Santiago de Chile.

Latest replies:

Derek Allan, 2011-12-28 : The term “phenomenal” gets used a lot in the philosophy of consciousness but always very questionably. Clear definitions... (read more)
Bill Meacham, 2011-12-29 : Perhaps I can throw some light on the question, for I have been a zombie. I have started a new thread on the topic... (read more)
Derek Allan, 2011-12-30 : Hi Bill This is a reponse to part of your comment on the new thread you started. I give it here because it also se... (read more)
Bill Meacham, 2012-01-02 : At the risk of aborting an interesting discussion, I have to say that I agree with you. I have never liked the phr... (read more)
Derek Allan, 2012-01-03 : Hi Bill Nice to encounter someone who agrees with me on the point. The only other person I am aware of who does is Peter... (read more)
11 more ..

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6314 Reply

2011-09-22

EpistemologyIs the World In your Head, or your Head in the World?

Steven Lehar

Boston University

Is the world that we experience around us, the real world itself, experienced out there where it lies? Or is our experience of the world a "picture" generated by our brain inside our head?

I posed this question in Lehar( 2003 ) and Lehar( 2003 }, and I have posted an informal cartoon outlining the issue here:

A Cartoon Epistemology
http://cns-alumni.bu.edu/~slehar/cartoonepist/cartoonepist.html

What is the current state of consensus in the community on this subject? Are there more naive realists out there, or is representationalism the dominant paradigm yet?

And why is this most central and foundational issue not discussed more widely? Surely just about everything else in philosophy and psychology depends critically on getting this profound epistemological issue right. The issue is by no means irrelevant or insignificant. What is your view on this?

Steve Lehar

Latest replies:

Aleksandar Sasa, 2011-12-04 : SL: "How our brain paints the picture of reality that is our experience?& Your putting this question perhaps&n... (read more)
Steven Lehar, 2011-12-04 : Just rejecting self-contradictory proposals? Thats funny, that is exactly what I have beed doing! Its just that evidentl... (read more)
Jonathan C.W. Edwards, 2011-12-27 : Point 1. As I have tried to emphasise at least somewhere in these threads, direct perception is a non-starter. All biolo... (read more)
Steven Lehar, 2011-12-27 : >&WHAT PIGMENT DEPICTS THE OUTSIDE(NESS)? I'm not at all sure how you mean that question, but I'll take a sta... (read more)
Greg P. Hodes, 2011-12-27 : .
24 more ..

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6262 Reply

2011-09-18

Discussion of PhilPapers, MiscInconsistent applications of the "professional author" status

Olof Leffler

Göteborgs Universitet

Hi!

I've lately noticed that a number of papers by professional authors have not been displayed as such. The problem is not that these are the only papers by these authors - rather, they have several papers accepted qua professional authors, but some other papers by the same authors are not displayed as having been written by professional authors. For one example (for the sake of privacy, I will not menton any names here), there is a professor who has an article accepted as professionally written, but his reply to a critic against that article in the same journal and issue is not shown as being written by a professional author. This is clearly inconsistent. So: what, if anything, can be done about this?

//Olof

Latest replies:

David Bourget, 2011-10-06 : Hi Olof, thanks for reporting this. Could you please email me the details of the papers so I can look into it?

Permanent link: http://philpapers.org/post/6251 Reply

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Applied ethics	Epistemology	History of Western Philosophy	Meta-ethics	Metaphysics	Normative ethics
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Online research in philosophy

All discussions

Basic idea of an implementationhttp://onqm.blogspot.com/2011/10/basic-idea-of-implementation.html

The Putnam-Searle-Chalmers Theoremhttp://onqm.blogspot.com/2011/10/putnam-searle-chalmers-theorem.html

Restrictions on mappings 1: Independence and Inheritancehttp://onqm.blogspot.com/2011/10/restrictions-on-mappings-1-independence.html

Basic idea of an implementation
http://onqm.blogspot.com/2011/10/basic-idea-of-implementation.html

The Putnam-Searle-Chalmers Theorem
http://onqm.blogspot.com/2011/10/putnam-searle-chalmers-theorem.html

Restrictions on mappings 1: Independence and Inheritance
http://onqm.blogspot.com/2011/10/restrictions-on-mappings-1-independence.html