Space perception and William James's metaphysical presuppositions

William James's overtly philosophical work may be more continuous with his psychological work than is sometimes thought. His Essays in Radical Empiricism can be understood as an explicit statement of the absolute presupposition that formed the basis of Jamesian psychology: that direct experience is primary and has to be taken at face value. An examination of James's theory of space perception suggests that, even in his early work, he presupposed the primacy of direct experience, and that later changes in his account of space perception can be understood as making his view more consistent with this presupposition. In his earlier view of space perception, James argued that sensations were directly experienced as spatial, though he accepted that spatial relations between sensations may be constructed by higher order thought. In his later view, however, James argued that spatial relations were just as directly experienced as sensations. The work of T. H. Green may have prompted James to recognize the full consequence of his ideas and to realize that taking experience at face value required that spatial relations be thought of as intrinsic to experience rather than the result of intellectual construction.     

Structuralism and Metaphysics

I consider different versions of a structuralist view of mathematical objects, according to which characteristic mathematical objects have no more of a 'nature' than is given by the basic relations of a structure in which they reside. My own version of such a view is non-eliminative in the sense that it does not lead to a programme for eliminating reference to mathematical objects. I reply to criticisms of non-eliminative structuralism recently advanced by Keränen and Hellman. In replying to the former, I rely on a distinction between 'basic' and 'constructed' structures. A conclusion is that ideas from the metaphysical tradition can be misleading when applied to the objects of modern mathematics.     

葛洪与玄学

玄学是魏晋时期兴起的一种影响深远的社会思潮,两晋之际玄学在理论上发展到极至,其影响开始渗入社会生活的各个方面。葛洪早年深受儒家学说熏陶,又是官方道教理论的创立者,无论是为了维护传统的儒家思想,还是出于为官方道教建立理论的需要,葛洪在主观上都反对玄学所促发的行为方式。但客观上,葛洪却不自觉地受了玄学的影响。本文力图通过分析葛洪思想中玄学的成分,来揭示玄学对当时士人的巨大影响力。     

Real Metaphysics

Book Information Real Metaphysics. Real Metaphysics Hallvard Lillehammer and Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra, eds., London : Routledge, 2003, VIII + 248, £65 (cloth), £19.99 (paper) Edited by Hallvard Lillehammer; and Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra. Routledge. London. Pp. VIII + 248. £65 (cloth:), £19.99 (paper:),     

On the metaphysical presuppositions of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

Conclusion In what precedes, I have argued that Aristotle does not, in his ethics, commit three metaphysical errors sometimes imputed to him: he does not define the good as a fact; he does not claim that human beings move by nature towards their telos; he does not claim, in the ergon argument, that human beings are fixed rather than versatile. Instead, I have shown, he does the opposite in each case: he argues that the good cannot be defined as a fact; he claims that human beings move towards their telos only if they have virtue and virtue is not by nature; he locates, in the human ergon, that which is responsible for human versatility. Finally, I have shown by example that the metaphysical commitments of Aristotle's account of human happiness are not as controversial as they seem.If all of this is true, then perhaps the disorder that has existed in ethics since the enlightenment has been misdiagnosed. Perhaps it is not due to an unhappy choice between end-neutral emotivism on the one hand and Aristotle's bad metaphysics on the other. Perhaps instead it is due, at least in part, to a too hasty rejection of Aristotle's ethics on the grounds of a rejection of his biology.     

Pure Processes and Projective Metaphysics

Philosophical Studies -     

真之形而上学

“真”是语言哲学的核心概念,由于该词本身的特性,它的语义特征在日常使用中并不明显。围绕“真”有许多讨论,形成不同理论。这样的讨论和理论既有语言学层面的问题,也有形而上学层面的问题。戴维特详细分析论述了这两个层面的差异,并试图说明二者的优劣以及孰为先孰为后。无论他的观点是不是正确,不管他的论证是不是充分,他的文章至少是一篇出色的综述,从中可以使我们大致领略当前关于真之形而上学是一种什么样的讨论。