Kant and analytic methodology

Don Garrett, Cognition and Commitment in Hume's Philosophy, New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. xiv + 270, Hb £40.00 ISBN 0–19–509721–1     

Pyrrhonian Scepticism and Hegel's Theory of Judgement: A Treatise on the Possibility of Scientific Inquiry

Leibniz, Determinist, Theist, Idealist by Robert Merrihew Adams, New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. xi + 433. £45.00. ISBN 0–19–508460–8     

India's environment: The enclosure of nature and the nature of enclosure

This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India, by Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992, 274 pages, £4.95 pb.

Nature, Culture and Imperialism: Essays on the Environmental History of South Asia, David Arnold and Ramachandra Guha. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995, 376 pages, £19.50.     

Indexicality,Transparency, and Mental Files

Abstract

Francois Recanati’s Mental Files (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) presents a picture of the mind on which mental representations are indexical and transparent. I dispute this picture: there is no clear case for regarding mental representations as indexical, and there are counterexamples to transparency.     

Implicit learning,consciousness, and the psychology of thinking

Abstract

Berry, D., & Dienes, Z. (1993). Implicit learning: Theoretical and empirical issues. Hove, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. 197pp. ISBN 0-86377-223-4 £19.95 (hbk).

Reber A. S. (1993). Implicit learning and tacit knowledge: An essay on the cognitive unconscious. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1 88pp. ISBN 0-19-505-9425 £30.00 (hbk).     

Rayo’s Metametaphysics

Abstract

In his important book The Construction of Logical Space (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), Agustín Rayo lays out a distinctive metametaphysical view and applies it fruitfully to disputes concerning ontology and concerning modality. In this article, I present a number of criticisms of the view developed, mostly focusing on the underlying metametaphysics and Rayo’s claims on its behalf.     

Nietzsche and the tradition 1

Nietzsche and Modern Times: A study of Bacon, Descartes and Nietzsche. Laurence Lampert. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. Pp. xii + 475. £35.00

Nietzsche and Metaphysics. Peter Poellner. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. Pp. xi + 320.     

Arithmetic,Mathematical Intuition,and Evidence

Abstract

This paper provides examples in arithmetic of the account of rational intuition and evidence developed in my book After Gödel: Platonism and Rationalism in Mathematics and Logic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). The paper supplements the book but can be read independently of it. It starts with some simple examples of problem-solving in arithmetic practice and proceeds to general phenomenological conditions that make such problem-solving possible. In proceeding from elementary ‘authentic’ parts of arithmetic to axiomatic formal arithmetic, the paper exhibits some elements of the genetic analysis of arithmetic knowledge that is called for in Husserl’s philosophy. This issues in an elaboration on a number of Gödel’s remarks about the meaning of his incompleteness theorems for the notion of evidence in mathematics.     

BOLZANO'S GESAMTAUSGABE

William Of Ockham Quodlibetal Questions Vols. 1 and 2 translated by Alfred J. Freddoso and Francis E. Kelley, Yale University Press 1991. ISBN 0–300–04832–7 (set)

The Philosophical Writings of Descartes Vol. III: The Correspondence trans. by J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, D. Murdoch and A. Kenny Cambridge University Press, 1991, xviii + 412 pp

Cartesian Method and the Problem of Reduction by Emily R. Grosholz, Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1991. viii + 161 pp

Cartesian Logic: An Essay on Descartes's Conception of Inference by Stephen Gaukroger, Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1989. viii + 145 pp

La philosophie d'Antoine Arnauld by A. R. Ndiaye, Paris: J. Vrin, 1991. 376 pp

Stuart Brown, ed. Nicolas Malebranche: His Philosophical Critics and Successors Assen: Van Gorcum, 1991, 173 pp

The Equality of the Sexes by François Poulain de la Barre, Classics of Philosophy and Science, translated with an introduction and notes by Desmond M. Clarke, Manchester University Press: Manchester and New York, 1990, pp. 149, £35.00

Expérience et Raison: les Fondements de la Morale selon Locke by J. M. Vienne, Paris, Vrin, 1991, 298 pp

Rezension der Schrift: ‘Britische Gassendi‐Rezeption am Beispiel John Lockes’ von Rolf W. Puster, (Quaestiones. Themen und Gestalten der Philosophie 3), Friedrich Frommann Verlag. Stuttgart‐Bad Cannstatt 1991 (168 Seiten)

The Light of the Soul Theories of Ideas in Leibniz, Malebranche and Descartes by Nicholas Jolley, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1990. pp. x + 209

The New Art of Autobiography: An Essay On the Life of Giambattista Vico Written by Himself by Donald Phillip Verene, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. pp. xi + 263. Price £30.00

The Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant, trans. Mary Gregor, Cambridge University Press, 1992, £30.00 h/b, £10.95 pb

Kant and his Influence ed. by G. MacDonald Ross and T. McWalter, Bristol: Thoemmes, 1990. pp. xv + 374. £40.00

Menachem Fisch William Whewell: Philosopher of Science Oxford: Clarendon Press (Oxford University Press), 1991. pp. xiv + 220. £30. ISBN 0 19 824240 9

Bradley: A Research Bibliography by Richard Ingardia. Bowling Green, Ohio: Philosophy Documentation Center, 1991. pp. 195. US$35. ISBN 0–912632–88–7

Russell's Idealist Apprenticeship by Nicholas Griffin, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. pp. xiv + 410. Price £45.00     

On Recanati’s Mental Files

Abstract

In his book Mental Files (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), Francois Recanati develops a theory of mind and language based on the idea that Fregean senses should be identified with ‘mental files’, mental representations whose primary function is to store information about objects. I discuss three aspects of Recanati’s book. The first concerns his use of acquaintance relations in individuating mental files, and what this means for ‘file dynamics’. The second concerns his comments on a theory that I have elsewhere advocated, the ‘sequenced worlds’ or ‘multi-centered worlds’ theory. The third concerns how the mental file approach handles non-doxastic attitudes like imagining.     

Wittgenstein's philosophies of mathematics

Wittgenstein's philosophy of mathematics has long been notorious. Part of the problem is that it has not been recognized that Wittgenstein, in fact, had two chief post-Tractatus conceptions of mathematics. I have labelled these the calculus conception and the language-game conception. The calculus conception forms a distinct middle period. The goal of my article is to provide a new framework for examining Wittgenstein's philosophies of mathematics and the evolution of his career as a whole. I posit the Hardyian Picture, modelled on the Augustinian Picture, to provide a structure for Wittgenstein's work on the philosophy of mathematics. Wittgenstein's calculus period has not been properly recognized, so I give a detailed account of the tenets of that stage in Wittgenstein's career. Wittgenstein's notorious remarks on contradiction are the test case for my theory of his transition. I show that the bizarreness of those remarks is largely due to the calculus conception, but that Wittgenstein's later language-game account of mathematics keeps the rejection of the Hardyian Picture while correcting the calculus conception's mistakes.The following abbreviations are used in this article to refer to Wittgenstein's works: WWK: Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle: Conversations Recorded by Friedrich Waismann, ed. B. F. McGuinness, trans. J. Schulte and B. F. McGuinness, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1979; CAM I: Wittgenstein's Lectures: Cambridge, 1930–32, ed. D. Lee, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982; CAM II: Wittgenstein's Lectures: Cambridge, 1932–35; ed. A. Ambrose, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982; PG: Philosophical Grammar, ed. R. Rhees, trans. A. Kenny, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1974; BIB: The Blue and Brown Books, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1958; LFM: Wittgenstein's Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics: Cambridge, 1939, ed. C. Diamond, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1976; RFM: Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, ed. G. H. von Wright, R. Rhees, G. E. M. Anscombe, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe, revised ed., Cambridge: MIT Press, 1978; PI: Philosophical Investigations, ed. G. E. M. Anscombe, R. Rhees, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe, New York: Macmillan Company, 1953; Z: Zettel, ed. G. E. M. Anscombe, G. H. von Wright, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970.References to PI and Z are to remark number; references to RFM are to part number (Roman numerals) and remark number (Arabic numerals); and references to the other works are to page numbers. As the evolutionary nature of Wittgenstein's work is an important theme of this article, following the abbreviation for the book in the text I have put in brackets the date of the book or the part of the book from which the quotation comes.     

On Reid's ‘Inconsistent Triad’: A Reply To McDermid

Thomas Hobbes, The Correspondence edited by Noel Malcolm. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994 (The Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes, vols. VI and VII), pp. lxxvi‐1008. ISBN 0–19–824065–1 (v. 1), 0–19–824099–6 (v. 2). £60.00 each     

Mental Files,Blown Up by Indexed Files

Abstract

Our paper discusses Recanati’s application of the mental files apparatus to reports of beliefs and other attitudes. While mental files appear early on in Recanati’s work on belief-reports, his latest book introduces the concept of indexed files (a.k.a. vicarious files) and puts it to work to explain how we can report other people’s attitudes and to account for opacity phenomena. Our goal is twofold: we show that the approach in Recanati’s Mental Files (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) departs significantly from his earlier proposals as well as from the very spirit of truth-conditional pragmatics; and we argue that the indexed files approach, qua an attempt to provide a semantics for belief-reports, is untenable.     

SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY

Knowledge and Faith in Thomas Aquinas. John I. Jenkins. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997. pp. 267. £35.00 hb. ISBN 0–521–58126–5. The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas. Norman Kretzmann and Eleonore Stump. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993. pp. 302. £12.95 pb. ISBN 0–521–43769–5. The Metaphysics of Theism: Aquinas's Natural Theology in the Summa Contra Gentiles I. Norman Kretzmann. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997. pp. 302. £35.00 hb. ISBN 0–19–823660–3. Thomas Aquinas: God and Explanations. C. F. J. Martin. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1997. pp. 212. £40.00 hb. ISBN 0–7486–0901–6. Theories of Cognition in the Later Middle Ages. Robert Pasnau. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997. pp. 330. £37.00 hb. ISBN 0–521–58368–3.     

Book reviews

What is Mathematics, Really?. Reuben Hersh, 1997 New York, Oxford University Press xxiv+343, $CAN 51.95, $US 35.00, ISBN 0–19–511368–3

Philosophy of Mathematics: Structure and Ontology. Stewart Shapiro, 1997. Oxford, Oxford University Press x + 277, $CAN 73.95, ISBN 0–19–509452–2     

Book reviews

Abstract

THE INTERNATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE: Theory, Translation, Measurement and Analysis. Sally A. Shumaker and Richard Berzon (eds). Oxford: Rapid Communications of Oxford, 1995. 275 + vi pages. Price £80/US$125. ISBN 1-86560-004-7.

UNDERSTANDING DISABILITY. FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE (1996), MICHAEL OLIVER, BASINGSTOKE: Macmillan Press Ltd. UK £11.50 pbk. ISBN 0333599160.     

Non-monotonicity and Informal Reasoning: Comment on Ferguson (2003)

In this paper, it is argued that Ferguson’s (2003, Argumentation 17, 335–346) recent proposal to reconcile monotonic logic with defeasibility has three counterintuitive consequences. First, the conclusions that can be derived from his new rule of inference are vacuous, a point that as already made against default logics when there are conflicting defaults. Second, his proposal requires a procedural “hack” to the break the symmetry between the disjuncts of the tautological conclusions to which his proposal leads. Third, Ferguson’s proposal amounts to arguing that all everyday inferences are sound by definition. It is concluded that the informal logic response to defeasibility, that an account of the context in which inferences are sound or unsound is required, still stands. It is also observed that another possible response is given by Bayesian probability theory (Oaksford and Chater, in press, Bayesian Rationality: The Probabilistic Approach to Human Reasoning, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK; Hahn and Oaksford, in press, Synthese).     

Secularism's threat to tradition: A reading of Europe,India and the Limits of Secularism

ABSTRACT

This article offers a reading of Jakob De Roover's important book, Europe, India and the Limits of Secularism (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016). It invokes the way in which the English courts have re-described Sikh tradition as religion in order to illustrate the relevance of Jakob De Roover's hypothesis about secularism, explaining its dependence on Christian theology and its inbuilt normative dynamic, which reframes tradition and poses a lethal threat to it.     

Essay review

MICHAEL DUMMETT, Elements of intuitionism. With the assistance of Robert Minio. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977. xii + 466 pp. No price stated.     

Book Reviews

Science and Reason H. E. Kyburg Jr, 1991 Oxford, Oxford University Press £27.50, ISBN 0 19 5062531

Sociology of Science. A Sociological Pilgrimage M. Mulkay, 1991 Open University Press