These comments, which include informal offhand asides made during delivery, derive from an ‘Author Meets Critics’ session on Robert Brandom’s book, From Empiricism to Expressivism: Brandom Reads Sellars’ (2015), held at Kent State University and published subsequently in Sellars and Contemporary Philosophy (2017).

This is a comment on Professor Holm Tetens' paper, 'Scientific Objectivity with a Human Face'.

This book brings together twenty articles giving a comprehensive view of the work of the Aristotelian commentators.... The importance of the commentators is partly that they represent the thought and classroom teaching of the Aristotelian and Neoplatonist schools and partly that they provide a panorama of a thousand years of anicient Greek philosophy, revealing many original quotations from lost works. Even more significant is the profound influence... that they exert on later philosophy, Islamic and Western. Not only did they preserve (...) anti-Aristotelian marterial which helped inspire Medieval and Renaissance science, but they presented Aristotle in a form that made him acceptable to the Christian Church. It is not Aristotle, but Aristotle transformed and embedded in the philosophy of the commentators, that so often lies behind the views of later thinkers. --From book jacket. (shrink)

This comment deals with some basic elements Searle uses in order to construct social reality, i.e. togetherness, we-intentionality and the distinction between institutional and brute facts. The commentator argues that Searle’s theory tends to a partial biologism because lacking a sufficient concept of embodiment. Consequently ‘pre-institutional facts’ such as eating, copulating, working or torturing are systematically underdetermined. On the deontic level the theory relies on natural processes of conventional power. So the distinction between factual acceptance and acceptability is blurred (...) by a sort of conformism, and one neglects the status of dissidents and victims whose belonging to the predominant ‘we’ remains highly dubious. (shrink)

Comment philosopher en classe de terminale? Réflexions sur le commentaire de textes est un manuel qui traduit la nécessité de la maîtrise de la méthodologie dans l'entreprise philosophique. Il se présente aux yeux de l'auteur, le Dr Salif Coly, comme un moyen de partager avec les élèves, les étudiants, les enseignants et les intellectuels férus de philosophie un certain nombre de réflexions sur la méthodologie du commentaire de texte philosophique. C'est donc un manuel de méthodologie entièrement consacré au commentaire. (...) Au-delà des conseils pour éviter certains pièges, l'auteur passe en revue les points essentiels du commentaire et procède à une analyse approfondie de certaines parties du programme à travers une étude rigoureuse de quelques textes. (shrink)

If the begriffsschrift from Frege does represent the logical form of natural language it either lacks a logical form itself, or its logical form is different to that of natural language. But Frege insists that his notation has a logical form. So the second disjunct holds. This suggests that Frege's notation will generate consequences different to those that can be derived with natural language, with its different logical form. For anyone looking for "a means of avoiding misunderstandings", as Frege does, (...) this would be unpalatable, to say the least. (shrink)

This comment addresses two issues that arise in Sacconi/faillo/ottone's essay. The first is the problem of compliance as it arises in social contract theory. The second is the problem of avoiding an incoherence that arises in the formulation of welfarist principles of distributive justice if these principles are taken to be concerned with the distribution of welfare without restriction. Sacconi, Faillo, and Ottone define an interesting class of principles that govern only the distribution of 'material utility', which they distinguish (...) from 'conformist utility'. Sacconi, Faillo, and Ottone are primarily concerned, however, to argue that there is a need to revise 'the utility maximization model of a rational economic man'. I discuss this claim briefly, in concluding the paper. (shrink)

This comment on Kocyba's article discusses both his economic and moral assumptions, arguing that the shift from industrial capitalism towards a 'new spirit' of more autonomous forms of work is not captured by Kocyba's comparison between producing things alone and creating services together. Consequently, the main problem is not, as Kocyba believes, the determination of an individual's share in the (intangible) product, but the competitive mindset of this new spirit, which has many undesired consequences. Concerning the 'moral presuppositions' it (...) is argued that the questionable self-restriction to 'immanent norms' induces a strong affirmative tendency which is at odds with Kocyba's critical aspirations. The idea that critical theory can only refer to norms which are already institutionalized needs to be dropped in order to revive the critical dimension. It is argued that Kocyba is already half way there and needs to make this break more explicit. (shrink)

This comment suggests that coordination and cooperation are very different things, as the former simply is a device for problem-solving, while the latter relies on the existence of some shared intentionality. Similarly there exist different origins for the normative expectations an agent might form. Hence the comment argues that Schmid's taxonomy of action types, though helpful, needs to be extended and revised.

This comment questions Lister's reading of the reciprocity condition in three respects. First, it challenges the view that this condition necessarily leads to egalitarian claims about just distribution. Secondly, it questions Lister's argument that the reciprocity condition is linked to substantial schemes of egalitarian distribution irrespective of context. Thirdly, it claims that entitlements to justice for people with mental or psychological impairments cannot be based on a distinction between willingness and unwillingness to contribute to the cooperative venture of a (...) society. (shrink)

In this comment I challenge Kerr’s claim that a coherent expression of a ‘liberalism of freedom’ needs an extended first Rawlsian principle of justice incorporating the principle of fair equality of opportunity for two reasons. First, such an extended first principle leads to illiberal consequences by narrowing down the scope of individual responsibility for choice and effort way too much. Second, such an extended first principle misses a main Rawlsian insight, namely that in a theory of justice the principle (...) securing basic liberties and the principle of fair equality of opportunity serve different purposes. (shrink)

In this comment I defend my account of moral understanding and its role in morally worthy action and claim that a fully virtuous person would have moral understanding. This means that deference to moral experts is not always appropriate. But there is still room for a social moral epistemology, whereby moral experts pass on moral understanding.

Sabine Hohl and Dominic Roser argue that states that emit their fair share of greenhouse gases have a duty to step in for states that emit more than their fair share. In this comment I ask two questions: First, given that Hohl and Roser are right, how relevant is the duty to step in for the polluters in practice? Second, is there such a duty on more non-ideal approaches than the one taken by Hohl and Roser as well? I (...) argue that the duty to step in for the polluters is not very relevant (because of considerations of demandingness and fairness) and that on more extremely non-ideal approaches there may be only a limited duty to take up the slack, or no such duty at all (because the duty must be weighed against other duties, and because states are poorly motivated to act in conformity with it). (shrink)

Les œuvres de l'esprit sont-elles simplement le réceptacle et le véhicule d'un sens qu'on y aurait déposé, et qui se transmettrait tel quel? Il semble bien que non, et qu'elles aient au contraire, dans la production de significations et d'émotions, un rôle propre à jouer, par leur insertion dans des dispositifs socialement ajustés, mais aussi par leurs qualités propres, y compris et surtout leurs qualités formelles. C'est de cette capacité de faire sens qu'il est ici question, à propos des œuvres (...) de cinéma. La thèse centrale de cet ouvrage est que les films, s'ils ne «pensent» pas comme les humains, ont cependant, par leur jeu sur les propriétés des images mouvantes, la capacité de produire des sens neufs--et que la tâche première de toute théorie de l'analyse de film est de s'attacher à cette précieuse aptitude à l'invention"--Back cover. (shrink)

Le péché originel.--L'orgueil.--La vaine gloire.--Le naturalisme.--La curiosité.--La puissance des illusions.--La simplicité.--La faiblesse.--Les consolations.--La tentation.--Le scrupule.--Les passions.--Le coeur.--Le sensualisme.--La langue.--L'envie.--L'imagination et la mémoire.-Le défaut dominant.--Le péché véniel.--Le monde et les démons.

Professor Hill delivered these comments as part of the International Society for Environmental Ethics panels on Environmental Virtue Ethics, held at the annual meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, April 2000, in Albuquerque, NM Philip Cafaro’s paper “Thoreau, Leopold and Carson: Toward an Environmental Virtue Ethics” appears in Environmental Ethics 23(2001), 3-17. Geoffrey Frasz’s paper “What is Environmental Virtue Ethics That We Should Be Mindful of It?” is published as part of this special issue of Philosophy (...) in the Contemporary World. (shrink)

" Montre-moi comment tu marches, je te dirai comment tu penses!... " II suffit de déambuler avec les philosophes en compagnie de Roger-Pol Droit — de la Grèce antique à nos jours, de Copenhague au Tibet —, pour comprendre à quel point marcher debout définit notre humanité. Et pour saisir comment marcher, parler et penser ne forment qu'un seul et même mouvement : être sur le point de tomber, se rattraper et recommencer sans fin. Aristote arpentant le (...) gymmase du Lycée avec ses disciples, Kant faisant sa promenade quotidienne dans Kônigsberg, Rousseau traversant la France à pied, Nietzsche cheminant sur les crêtes de Sils-Maria... chacun connaît ces silhouettes de philosophes en mouvement. Mais bien d'autres sont à découvrir qui, en changeant de continent ou de langue, ont élaboré leur pensée en marchant. En 27 récits allègres et virtuoses, Roger-Pol Droit dessine autour de la marche une petite histoire de la philosophie. Une randonnée littéraire inattendue et accessible à tous. (shrink)

On reflecting about the prospects of advancing the egalitarian cause in the United States, John Roemer makes the case for more traditional strategies than the coupon socialism model he advocated in earlier work. First of all, he suggests, an ethos of solidarity must be developed and the super-rich be subjected to higher taxation. This comment assesses this proposal. On the one hand it is discussed whether the ethos of solidarity Roemer calls for in order to counteract the culture of (...) greed among American elites requires nurturing an undesirable culture of envy among the rest of the population. On the other hand it is considered whether the neoclassical principal-agent model - that Roemer believes must be contested in order to popularize a steep progressive income tax - might be one of the more promising tools to restructure the incentives of economic elites and curb casino capitalism. (shrink)

"Sommes-nous entrés dans l'ère du déclin démocratique, voire dans un âge postdémocratique? Admettons au moins l'existence d'une triple déception : la démocratie libérale souffre d'une terrible crise de la représentation, d'une grave impuissance publique et d'un profond déficit de sens. Autrement dit, elle aurait perdu, en cours de route, à la fois le peuple qui la fonde, le gouvernement qui la maintient et l'horizon qui la guide. " P.-H. T. Pour Pierre-Henri Tavoillot, ce que nous avions pris pour un progrès (...) acquis — la démocratie — se révèle en réalité un vertigineux chantier. Avec ce livre qui renoue avec la tradition oubliée des traités d'art politique, il nous invite à réfléchir à ce qui fait le secret de l'obéissance volontaire. Car, en démocratie, l'art de gouverner est surtout un art d'être gouverné. Comment l'envisager aujourd'hui? Entre le cauchemar de l'impuissance publique et le spectre de l'autoritarisme, comment réconcilier la liberté du peuple et l'efficacité du pouvoir? (shrink)

The comment focusses on O'Neill's advocacy of Classical Institutionalism (CI) and the problems of the ideal-regarding approach to the construction of institutions. It maintains that CI shows no signs of progress which would justify a renewed exclusive interest in this paradigm and that the ideal-regarding approach needs some consequentialist balancing to avoid obvious risks of totalitarian denaturation.

In his paper, “Mersenne’s Principles of Song Creation,” Eric Wilkinson (2023) lists several aims he intends to establish. I will confine my comments to two areas only: First, on the reasons given for preferring Aquinas’s theory of the passions as the major influence on Mersenne to those of either Aristotle or Cicero, and Second, on its representation of Aquinas’s theory of the passions.