Misleading Evidence and the Dogmatism Puzzle

According to the Dogmatism Puzzle presented by Gilbert Harman, knowledge induces dogmatism because, if one knows that p, one knows that any evidence against p is misleading and therefore one can ignore it when gaining the evidence in the future. I try to offer a new solution to the puzzle by explaining why the principle is false that evidence known to be misleading can be ignored. I argue that knowing that some evidence is misleading doesn't always damage the credential of the evidence, and therefore it doesn't always entitle one to ignore it. I also explain in what kind of cases and to what degree such knowledge allows one to ignore evidence. Hopefully, through the discussion, we can not only understand better where the dogmatism puzzle goes wrong, but also understand better in what sense rational believers should rely on their evidence and when they can ignore it.     

Transcendental Arguments and Practical Reason in Indian Philosophy

This paper examines some Indian philosophical arguments that are understandable as transcendental arguments—i.e., arguments whose conclusions cannot be denied without self-contradiction, insofar as the truth of the claim in question is a condition of the possibility even of any such denial. This raises the question of what kind of self-contradiction is involved—e.g., pragmatic self-contradiction, or the kind that goes with logical necessity. It is suggested that these arguments involve something like practical reason—indeed, that they just are arguments against the primacy of “theoretical reason.” This characterization illuminates a characteristically Indic appeal to ordinary language.

Scepticism and the Development of the Transcendental Dialectic

Kant's response to scepticism in the Critique of Pure Reason is complex and remarkably nuanced, although it is rarely recognized as such. In this paper, I argue that recent attempts to flesh out the details of this response by Paul Guyer and Michael Forster do not go far enough. Although they are right to draw a distinction between Humean and Pyrrhonian scepticism and locate Kant's response to the latter in the Transcendental Dialectic, their accounts fail to capture two important aspects of this response. The first is that Kant's response to Pyrrhonian scepticism is also a response to Hume. The second is that aspects of this response are decidedly positive. In particular, I argue (1) that Kant believed Hume's scepticism manifested important elements of Pyrrhonian scepticism and (2) that both Pyrrhonian scepticism and Hume had a significant positive influence on the development of the Transcendental Dialectic.     

On Argumentation Schemes and the Natural Classification of Arguments

We develop conceptions of arguments and of argument types that will, by serving as the basis for developing a natural classification of arguments, benefit work in artificial intelligence. Focusing only on arguments construed as the semantic entities that are the outcome of processes of reasoning, we outline and clarify our view that an argument is a proposition that represents a fact as both conveying some other fact and as doing so wholly. Further, we outline our view that, with respect to arguments that are propositions, (roughly) two arguments are of the same type if and only if they represent the same relation of conveyance and do so in the same way. We then argue for our conceptions of arguments and argument types, and compare them to alternative positions. We also illustrate the need for, and some of the strengths of, our approach to classifying arguments through an examination of aspects of two prominent and recent attempts to classify arguments using argumentation schemes, namely those of M. Kienpointner and D. Walton. Finally, we clarify how our conception of arguments and of argument types can assist in developing an exhaustive classification of arguments.     

特征觉察器与康德的先验形式

康德主张对象必须符合主体的认识条件,即与特定的形式相符合,这与认知心理学上的特征觉察器相一致。特征觉察器是对特定的刺激物作出特定反应的高级神经元组织。康德的先验形式的问题可以用特征觉察器和特征捆绑等神经组织和神经过程来解释。特征觉察器可为审美先验形式提供生理心理基础,也可以使康德美学的主客之争得到相对缓解。     

寻求哲学的合法性--从西方哲学的现代转型看文德尔班价值哲学的理论旨趣

文德尔班开创的新康德主义价值哲学,是对黑格尔之后以危机形式表现出的“哲学合法性’’的探求,在这种探求中,文氏继承了洛采的价值思想,并将其置于康德先验哲学的框架中,从而建构了独具特色的先验价值哲学。     

与《告别中医中药》论者商榷

《告别中医中药》一文的立论和方法是不可取的;《告别中医中药》一文的四点论据还需商榷,《告别中医中药》一文与党的中医政策和构建社会主义和谐社会有着不和谐的声音.中医和西医与其他自然科学一样在各自起作用的范围内存在和发展.     

问诊的诊断价值及其方法学探讨

问诊作为临床诊断的开始和方法,具有促进医患良性沟通、明确诊断、减少医疗纠纷和贯彻新医学模式的重要价值。问诊过程中,医生除了注重其技术性和程序性内容以外,更要坚持哲学的普遍联系、辨证发展、病人个体差异和巧用过渡性语言等思维方法。     

Children's Judgments of Certainty and Uncertainty on a Problem Where the Possible Solutions Differ in Likelihood

In this study the author examined why children and adults think they need to eat. Preschoolers through adults were provided with physiological, social, psychological, and routine causes for eating breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner, and were asked to either agree or disagree with the causal responses provided. A 4 Reason × 4 Meal repeated measures analysis of variance revealed significant main effects for meals and reasons, as well as significant Meal × Reason and Meal × Reason × Grade interactions. The effect sizes ranged from 0.1 to 0.7. Across all age groups, participants acknowledged physiological needs and desires (fulfilling hunger and needs to stay healthy) and routine (e.g., it is dinner time) as the primary causes for eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. However, for snack physiological needs were the primary reason. Second-grade students onward spontaneously produced biological justifications such as the need for energy and nutrition as important reasons for food consumption. These results lend support to the developmental model that children's and adults’ understanding of eating changes in middle childhood.     

Russia and the West: The Root of the Problem of Mutual Understanding

I examine issues tied to the allegeddifficulties of mutual understanding betweenRussia and the West. I show that some of thebackground to these issues lies in thedifference of culturally grounded differencesin perceptual and conceptual schemata. In theWest, a broadly understood Aristotelianism andin Russia Neoplatonism designate dominantattitudes to the world. The Russian `lunar'consciousness, in comparison with the `solar'consciousness of the West, tends by and largeprecipitously to totalize the world, and theexperienced multiplicity of the real isreferred to its imagined center. The differencebetween Russia and the West, limited to somedegree by mutual similarities, can become thebasis of an axiological and intellectualdialogue important for one side and theother.     

辩乎先验经验之际--康德伦理学与儒家道德哲学的一种比较阐释

康德伦理学的精髓可以表述为,由于在直觉中获得了道德本体,所以特别有助于产生最清晰的道德概念;由于借助最纯粹的先验分析把它叙述出来,所以它才成为禽兽与异化的生命无论如何都无法超越的“铁门槛”。与中国的儒家伦理学相比,康德伦理学由于是用文明时代最有力的思想武器,复活了人类在轴心时代最高形态的精神生命,因此,它无疑是人类精神哲学中最高的本体论,对于中国儒家也具有十分重要的批判性启蒙意义。     

Phenomenology and the project of naturalization

In recent years, more and more people have started talking about the necessity of reconciling phenomenology with the project of naturalization. Is it possible to bridge the gap between phenomenological analyses and naturalistic models of consciousness? Is it possible to naturalize phenomenology? Given the transcendental philosophically motivated anti-naturalism found in many phenomenologists such a naturalization proposal might seem doomed from the very start, but in this paper I will examine and evaluate some possible alternatives.     

The unity of the Church according to Calvin and its meaning for the churches in Indonesia

Since the founding of the Council of Churches in Indonesia (DGI), which later changed its name to the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), a recurring question has been asked about what kind of unity the DGI/PGI intends to achieve. This issue was discussed by the General Assemblies, from the first in 1950 until the 10th in 1984, with various ideas being put forward. Some underscored the unity of structural organisations, whereas others emphasised our spiritual unity in Christ. It was only at the 10th General Assembly held in 1984 at Ambon that Indonesian churches discovered the answer they had been seeking all that time. The unity they sought was a shared understanding of Christian doctrine, mutual recognition and acceptance, and co-operation in working together to carry out their task and calling in Indonesia. In this respect, I believe that the view of Indonesian church unity conforms to Calvin’s concept which does not stress organisational unity but rather spiritual oneness, oneness in Christ, and oneness in the basic principles of the faith, in recognising each other as having the true preaching of the Word and administration of the sacraments. It is this kind of unity which has been expressed in the Five Documents of Church Unity (LDKG), later called Documents on Church Unity (DKG). The churches of Indonesia can learn much from the view of church reformer John Calvin.     

老年病诊疗中的几个问题

老年医学是哲学思维和理论含量很高的科学,老年病科医生要学会科学应用哲学的思维方法,克服临床思维过程中的缺点,将哲学思维应用于实际临床实践中,既要科学地分析,又要哲学地概括,在实际工作中做到主观与客观、理论与实践的具体统一,避免误诊、误治,提高老年病人的生活质量。     

Arguments,Meta-arguments,and Metadialogues: A Reconstruction of Krabbe,Govier, and Woods

Krabbe (2003, in F.H. van Eemeren, J.A. Blair, C.A. Willard and A.F. Snoeck Henkemans (eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth Conference of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation, Sic Sat, Amsterdam, pp. 641–644) defined a metadialogue as a dialogue about one or more dialogues, and a ground-level dialogue as a dialogue that is not a metadialogue. Similarly, I define a meta-argument as an argument about one or more arguments, and a ground-level argument as one which is not a meta-argument. Krabbe (1995, in F.H van Eemeren, R. Grootendorst, J.A. Blair, C.A. Willard and A.F. Snoeck Henkemans (eds.), Proceedings of the Third ISSA Conference on Argumentation, Sic Sat, Amsterdam, pp. 333–344) showed that formal-fallacy criticism (and more generally, fallacy criticism) consists of metadialogues, and that such metadialogues can be profiled in ways that lead to their proper termination or resolution. I reconstruct Krabbe’s metadialogical account into monolectical, meta-argumentative terminology by describing three-types of meta-arguments corresponding to the three ways of proving formal invalidity he studied: the trivial logic-indifferent method; the method of counterexample situation; and the method of formal paraphrase. A fourth type of meta-argument corresponds to what Oliver (1967, Mind 76, 463–478), Govier (1985, Informal Logic 7, 27–33), and Copi (1986) call refutation by logical analogy. A fifth type of meta-argument represents my reconstruction of arguments by parity of reasoning studied by Woods and Hudak (1989, Informal Logic 11, 125–139). Other particular meta-arguments deserving future study are Hume’s critique of the argument from design in the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, and Mill’s initial argument in The Subjection of Women about the importance of established custom and general feeling vis-à-vis argumentation.     

魏晋至唐初易学演变与发展的特征

在中国易学发展史上,魏晋南北朝至唐初是一个比较重要的历史阶段.本文认为这一时期易学演变与发展的显著特征,彰显为魏晋南北朝时期象数与义理两大学术流派自始至终的既斗争又统一,以至于唐初之走向融合.     

基础医学研究进展的还原论与系统论

从分子生物学、基因组学、蛋白质组学到糖组学,以还原论为哲学指导的医学研究已经取得了辉煌成果,与此同时,以系统论为哲学指导的系统生物学也日益受到关注,更被誉为新世纪生物学、医学研究的核心驱动力。还原论是系统论的基础和条件,而系统论则是还原论的归宿和终点,整个基础医学的研究进展经历了一场由还原论到系统论、再实现还原论与系统论辩证统一的演化过程。医学科学的发展历程闪耀着人类哲学理性思考的光辉,同时哲学思维也对医学研究进展做出了巨大的指导作用。     

Bergson's and Sartre's Account of the Self in Relation to the Transcendental Ego

The historico-political category of 'Continental philosophy' arose in the United State and includes such figures as Adorno, Arendt, Beauvoir, Cairns, Carr, Cavailles, Deleuze, Derrida, Fink, Foucault, Funke, Gadamer, Gurwitsch, Habermas, Heidegger, Held, Ihde, Jaspers, Jonas, Kersten, Kristeva, Ingarden, Landgrebe, Levinas, Lyotard, Marcel, Marcuse, Marx, Merleau- Ponty, Mohanty, Natanson, Ortega y Gasset, Pato?ka, Reinach, Ricoeur, Sartre, Scheler, Schutz, Seebohm, Sokolowski, Spet, Stein, Stroeker, and Waldenfels. What these diverse figures share is (a) an early but not necessarily continued critical involvement with Husserl's phenomenology and (b) subsequent intellectual interaction with others who also began that way. Some comments on relations with analytic philosophy are also included with this historical sketch.     

Moral Learning,Rationality, and the Unreliability of Affect

James Woodward and John Allman [2007, 2008] and Peter Railton [2014, 2016] argue that our moral intuitions are products of sophisticated rational learning systems. I investigate the implications that this discovery has for intuition-based philosophical methodologies. Instead of vindicating the conservative use of intuitions in philosophy, I argue that what I call the rational learning strategy fails to show philosophers are justified in appealing to their moral intuitions in philosophical arguments without giving reasons why those intuitions are trustworthy. Despite the fact that our intuitions are outputs of surprisingly sophisticated learning mechanisms, we do not have reason to unreflectively trust them when offering arguments in moral philosophy.     

German Idealism and the Concept of Punishment

This paper examines the Leibnizian background to Kant's critique of the ontological argument. I present Kant's claim that existence is not a real predicate, already formulated in his pre-critical essay of 1673, as a generalization of Leibniz's reasoning regarding the existence of created things. The first section studies Leibniz's equivocations on the notion of existence and shows that he employs two distinct notions of existence – one for God and another for created substances. The second section examines Kant's position in his early paper of 1763. My claim is that Kant's view of existence in 1763, namely that it is not a predicate, is strongly related to the logical notion of possibility, formulated by Leibniz and accepted by Kant.