Sorites

ISSN: 1135-1349

14 found

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  1. Evaluating Williamson’s Anti-Scepticism.Tony Cheng - 2008 - Sorites 21:06-11.
    Timothy Williamson’s Knowledge and its Limits has been highly influential since the beginning of this century. It can be read as a systematic response to scepticism. One of the most important notions in this response is the notion of «evidence,» which will be the focus of the present paper. I attempt to show primarily two things. First, the notion of evidence invoked by Williamson does not address the sceptical worry: he stipulates an objective notion of evidence, but this begs the (...)
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  2. Knowing that p rather than q.Bjørn Jespersen - 2008 - Sorites 20:125-134.
    I offer a two-tiered critique of epistemological contrastivism as developed by Jonathan Schaffer. First, I investigate the cornerstone of contrastivism, the notion of knowing the selected proposition p rather than the eliminated, or contrast, proposition q. Contrastivism imposes the ternicity constraint that the knowledge relation should span a knower and two propositions. However, contrastivism has yet to explain how to square this constraint with the required contrast between the selected and the eliminated propositions, and it is not immediately obvious how (...)
     
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  3. Temporal and Counterfactual Possibility.Muhammad Ali Khalidi - 2008 - Sorites 20:37-42.
    Among philosophers working on modality, there is a common assumption that there is a strong connection between temporal possibility and counterfactual possibility. For example, Sydney Shoemaker 1998, 69 70) writes: It seems to me a general feature of our thought about possibility that how we think that something could have differed from how it in fact is [is] closely related to how we think that the way something is at one time could differ from the way that same thing is (...)
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  4. Actualism and the Distinction of Truth over Truth in a World.Edward Moad - 2008 - Sorites 20:43-48.
    Robert Adams characterizes actualism regarding possible worlds as «the view that if there are any true statements in which there are said to be nonactual possible worlds, they must be reducible to statements in which the only things there are said to be are things which there are in the actual world, and which are not identical with nonactual possibles.» In this paper, I will briefly explain actualism about possible worlds, showing that an essential pillar of the theory is the (...)
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  5. The Constitution Argument Against Conceptualism.André Abath - 2008 - Sorites 20:49-66.
    According to philosophers such as McDowell and Brewer, the contents of perceptual experience are conceptual. This view came to be known as Conceptualism. However, a number of critics have argued that they are wrong in thinking this, for they claim that there is an argument, the so-called Fineness of Grain Argument, which is valid and sound, and has as its consequence the falsity of Conceptualism. Although McDowell and Brewer seem to acknowledge that the Fineness of Grain Argument, if valid and (...)
     
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  6. Free Agency and Self-Esteem.Robert Allen - 2008 - Sorites 20:74-79.
    In this paper I define the role of self-esteem in promoting free agency, in order to meet some objections to the content-neutrality espoused by the reflective acceptance approach to free agency, according to which an agent has acted freely if and only if she would reflectively accept the process by which her motive was formed -- in other words, any volition the agent forms is an impetus to a free action just in case she would positively appraise its genesis. For (...)
     
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  7. The Interpretive Mind.Peter Colbourne - 2008 - Sorites 20:80-93.
    There are significant physical and intellectual perceptual barriers between our inquiring minds and the phenomena of the extant universe that make our relationship with the external world both complex and problematic. Focusing on scientific processes of inquiry, this paper explores those barriers through a reanalysis of dualism, and an analysis of a form of monism that has arisen out of recent neurobiological research. It is argued that objectivism as the primary principle of scientific inquiry is discredited and should be integrated (...)
     
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  8. Nozick, Parfit, and Platonic Glasses.Wesley Cooper - 2008 - Sorites 20:98-116.
    The Closest-Continuer schema of identity is distinguished here from the Closest-Continuer theory of personal identity, the latter applying the former to personal identity by reference to the self's self-defining activity. Nozick's «Platonic glasses» mode of conceptualizing personal identity is defended against Parfit's objections and extended beyond hypothetical branching to the actual branching hypothesized by the «no-collapse» theories of quantum mechanics. The reader may wish to consult Lev Vaidman's Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy essay, «Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics», for an accessible (...)
     
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  9. Kant and the Expression of Imperatives.Ronald Cordero - 2008 - Sorites 20:117-124.
    According to a popular English translation of the Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant says that all imperatives are expressed by an `ought.' This, however, seems so clearly to be wrong that it is hard to suppose Kant said it. In this paper I discuss different senses in which imperatives can be said to be expressed and examine in particular the use of Kant's term `sollen' for such purposes. I argue that what Kant says does not in fact commit (...)
     
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  10. Hypothesis Testing Analysis.Mikael Eriksson - 2008 - Sorites 20:141-156.
    Logic, as the theory of reasoning, traditionally focuses upon the validity of natural language arguments. During the millennia several logical systems have evolved, each using a specific set of logical constants validating some part of the natural language arguing. Therefore, at the time when reasoning of empirical knowledge entered the scene, it was not surprising to find logical systems having their set of logical constants validating that natural phenomenon. The aim of this paper is to question the strength of such (...)
     
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  11. Free-Will and Determinism: A Debate in Sociology.Jorge Gibert-Galassi - 2008 - Sorites 20:67-73.
    The matter of this paper is the problem of determinism in social sciences, from the general scientific pretense of achieving constant and univocal connections among events, states of things, as well as ideal objects. The historical obstacle that had placed social sciences in front of that pretense, it has been the fact of the individual freedom and the social contingency, through the paradoxical question: How can we determine relations between the phenomena of social life if they are contingent in fact?. (...)
     
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  12. Locke on `Substance in General'.Matthew Jordan - 2008 - Sorites 20:8-26.
    My goal in this paper is to answer two questions: what, if anything, did Locke have in mind when he spoke of substance in general? and did Locke affirm the existence of substance in general? Concerning the first of these, I argue that what Locke had in mind were bare particulars . In the first part of this paper, I show why this interpretation of Locke is preferable to its two main rivals. Concerning the second question, Locke was agnostic about (...)
     
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  13. Quine, the Natural Standpoint, and Indeterminancy.M. Yoes - 2008 - Sorites 20:27-36.
    Quine's philosophy, early and late, proceeds from the natural standpoint, that is the explicit acceptance of science. This paper attempts to explain what this means and how it fits with his early criticism of reductive empiricism. A kind of horizontal reductionism remains, it is argued, which aims to explain the import of his thesis of the indeterminacy of translation. In the second part of this paper an argument is developed to cast doubt on the significance of this thesis. Because of (...)
     
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  14. The Two Envelope Paradox and Using Variables Within the Expectation Formula.Eric Schwitzgebel & Josh Dever - 2008 - Sorites:135-140.
    You are presented with a choice between two envelopes. You know one envelope contains twice as much money as the other, but you don't know which contains more. You arbitrarily choose one envelope -- call it Envelope A -- but don't open it. Call the amount of money in that envelope X. Since your choice was arbitrary, the other envelope (Envelope B) is 50% likely to be the envelope with more and 50% likely to be the envelope with less. But, (...)
     
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