John Russell Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195313932
- eISBN:
- 9780199871926
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313932.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
George Berkeley notoriously claimed that his immaterialist metaphysics was not only consistent with common sense, but that it was also integral to its defense. This book argues that understanding the ...
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George Berkeley notoriously claimed that his immaterialist metaphysics was not only consistent with common sense, but that it was also integral to its defense. This book argues that understanding the basic connection between Berkeley's philosophy and common sense requires a better understanding of the four principle components of Berkeley's positive metaphysics: the nature of being, the divine language thesis, the active/passive distinction, and the nature of spirits. This book begins by focusing on Berkeley's view of the nature of being. It elucidates Berkeley's view on Locke and the Cartesians, and examines Berkeley's views about related concepts such as unity and simplicity. From there, it moves on to Berkeley's philosophy of language, arguing that scrutiny of the famous Introduction to the Principles of Human Knowledge reveals that Berkeley identified the ideational theory of meaning and understanding as the root cause of some of the worst of humanity's intellectual errors, not abstract ideas. Abstract ideas are, rather, the most debilitating symptom of this underlying ailment. In place of the ideational theory, Berkeley defends a rudimentary use theory of meaning. This understanding of Berkeley's approach to semantics is then applied to the divine language thesis and is shown to have important consequences for Berkeley's pragmatic approach to the ontology of natural objects and for his approach to our knowledge of, and relation to, other minds, including God's. Turning next to Berkeley's much maligned account of spirits, the book defends the coherence of Berkeley's view of spirits by way of providing an interpretation of the active/passive distinction as marking a normative distinction and by focusing on the role that divine language plays in letting Berkeley identify the soul with the will. With these four principles of Berkeley's philosophy in hand, the book returns to the topic of common sense and offers a defense of Berkeley's philosophy as built upon, and expressive of, the deepest metaphysical commitments of mainstream Christianity.Less
George Berkeley notoriously claimed that his immaterialist metaphysics was not only consistent with common sense, but that it was also integral to its defense. This book argues that understanding the basic connection between Berkeley's philosophy and common sense requires a better understanding of the four principle components of Berkeley's positive metaphysics: the nature of being, the divine language thesis, the active/passive distinction, and the nature of spirits. This book begins by focusing on Berkeley's view of the nature of being. It elucidates Berkeley's view on Locke and the Cartesians, and examines Berkeley's views about related concepts such as unity and simplicity. From there, it moves on to Berkeley's philosophy of language, arguing that scrutiny of the famous Introduction to the Principles of Human Knowledge reveals that Berkeley identified the ideational theory of meaning and understanding as the root cause of some of the worst of humanity's intellectual errors, not abstract ideas. Abstract ideas are, rather, the most debilitating symptom of this underlying ailment. In place of the ideational theory, Berkeley defends a rudimentary use theory of meaning. This understanding of Berkeley's approach to semantics is then applied to the divine language thesis and is shown to have important consequences for Berkeley's pragmatic approach to the ontology of natural objects and for his approach to our knowledge of, and relation to, other minds, including God's. Turning next to Berkeley's much maligned account of spirits, the book defends the coherence of Berkeley's view of spirits by way of providing an interpretation of the active/passive distinction as marking a normative distinction and by focusing on the role that divine language plays in letting Berkeley identify the soul with the will. With these four principles of Berkeley's philosophy in hand, the book returns to the topic of common sense and offers a defense of Berkeley's philosophy as built upon, and expressive of, the deepest metaphysical commitments of mainstream Christianity.
James Halteman and Edd Noell
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199763702
- eISBN:
- 9780199932252
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199763702.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
Is economics like car building or car repair? Are we working toward a finished product, or are we attempting to answer pertinent questions that arise and change from time to time? These questions are ...
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Is economics like car building or car repair? Are we working toward a finished product, or are we attempting to answer pertinent questions that arise and change from time to time? These questions are entertained in this chapter in order to explore the nature of the methods economists employ. The subjective nature of data and the relevance of predicting from past trendsis explored. The proof that rational choice analysis predicts better than any alternative process is seen to be less than definitive by typical standards of proof. Welfare economics comes closest to philosophy when it optimizes social welfare with a social welfare function, but the ramifications of that model are rarely explored. Finally, it is suggested that key questions change and economic thinking then adapts to deal with the new challenges. The vignette for this chapter looks at John Maynard Keynes and his rethinking of mainstream macroeconomics.Less
Is economics like car building or car repair? Are we working toward a finished product, or are we attempting to answer pertinent questions that arise and change from time to time? These questions are entertained in this chapter in order to explore the nature of the methods economists employ. The subjective nature of data and the relevance of predicting from past trendsis explored. The proof that rational choice analysis predicts better than any alternative process is seen to be less than definitive by typical standards of proof. Welfare economics comes closest to philosophy when it optimizes social welfare with a social welfare function, but the ramifications of that model are rarely explored. Finally, it is suggested that key questions change and economic thinking then adapts to deal with the new challenges. The vignette for this chapter looks at John Maynard Keynes and his rethinking of mainstream macroeconomics.
Hagit Borer
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199263905
- eISBN:
- 9780191718182
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199263905.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics
This book explores the difference between words however defined and structures however constructed. It sets out to demonstrate over three volumes — of which this is the first — that the explanation ...
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This book explores the difference between words however defined and structures however constructed. It sets out to demonstrate over three volumes — of which this is the first — that the explanation of linguistic competence should be shifted from lexical entry to syntactic structure, from memory of words to manipulation of rules. Its reformulation of how grammar and lexicon interact has profound implications for linguistic, philosophical, and psychological theories about human mind and language. The book departs from both language specific constructional approaches and lexicalist approaches to argue that universal hierarchical structures determine interpretation, and that language variation emerges from the morphological and phonological properties of inflectional material. This volume applies this radical approach to nominal structure. Integrating research in syntax, semantics, and morphology, the volume argues that nominal structure is based on the syntactic realization of semantic notions such as classifier, quantity, and reference. In the process, this volume seeks to do away with lexical ambiguity and type-shifting. Among the topics the volume considers are the interpretation of proper names, the mass-count distinction, the weak-strong interpretation of quantifiers, partitive and measure phrases, and the structural representation of the definite article. In the process, the volume explores inter-language variation through the properties of the morpho-phonological system. The languages discussed include English, Chinese, Italian, and Hebrew.Less
This book explores the difference between words however defined and structures however constructed. It sets out to demonstrate over three volumes — of which this is the first — that the explanation of linguistic competence should be shifted from lexical entry to syntactic structure, from memory of words to manipulation of rules. Its reformulation of how grammar and lexicon interact has profound implications for linguistic, philosophical, and psychological theories about human mind and language. The book departs from both language specific constructional approaches and lexicalist approaches to argue that universal hierarchical structures determine interpretation, and that language variation emerges from the morphological and phonological properties of inflectional material. This volume applies this radical approach to nominal structure. Integrating research in syntax, semantics, and morphology, the volume argues that nominal structure is based on the syntactic realization of semantic notions such as classifier, quantity, and reference. In the process, this volume seeks to do away with lexical ambiguity and type-shifting. Among the topics the volume considers are the interpretation of proper names, the mass-count distinction, the weak-strong interpretation of quantifiers, partitive and measure phrases, and the structural representation of the definite article. In the process, the volume explores inter-language variation through the properties of the morpho-phonological system. The languages discussed include English, Chinese, Italian, and Hebrew.
T. A. Cavanaugh
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199272198
- eISBN:
- 9780191604157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199272190.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter analyzes the intended/foreseen (i/f) distinction: how to name it, how to make it, and how to apply it to the classic cases of euthanasia/terminal sedation, craniotomy/hysterectomy, and ...
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This chapter analyzes the intended/foreseen (i/f) distinction: how to name it, how to make it, and how to apply it to the classic cases of euthanasia/terminal sedation, craniotomy/hysterectomy, and terror bombing/tactical bombing. Addressing the problem of closeness Foot moots, inadequate responses to this problem are considered such as paring one’s intentions, the counter-factual test, and conceptual necessity. The chapter presents an account of the i/f distinction based on the resources found in Aquinas, Anscombe, and Bratman who indicate how intention characteristically differs from foresight insofar as the former is while the latter is not a plan of action formed in deliberation embodying practical knowledge.Less
This chapter analyzes the intended/foreseen (i/f) distinction: how to name it, how to make it, and how to apply it to the classic cases of euthanasia/terminal sedation, craniotomy/hysterectomy, and terror bombing/tactical bombing. Addressing the problem of closeness Foot moots, inadequate responses to this problem are considered such as paring one’s intentions, the counter-factual test, and conceptual necessity. The chapter presents an account of the i/f distinction based on the resources found in Aquinas, Anscombe, and Bratman who indicate how intention characteristically differs from foresight insofar as the former is while the latter is not a plan of action formed in deliberation embodying practical knowledge.
Noam Reisner
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199572625
- eISBN:
- 9780191721892
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572625.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This brief epilogue offers a quotation from Wittgenstein's letters about poetry as a concluding remark for the book as a whole, and speculates whether or not Wittgenstein — a philosopher everywhere ...
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This brief epilogue offers a quotation from Wittgenstein's letters about poetry as a concluding remark for the book as a whole, and speculates whether or not Wittgenstein — a philosopher everywhere committed to exploring the limits of language and the problems of ineffability — would have approved of Milton's poetry, which appears to transgress the limits of Wittgensteinian ‘sense’ as it moves into the realms of ineffable ‘nonsense’. Using Wittgenstein's say-show distinction, as outlined in the Tractatus and implicitly alluded to in the discussed quotation, the epilogue finally concludes that Milton only ever pretends to say the unsayable, and that this pretence is what matters in his poetry.Less
This brief epilogue offers a quotation from Wittgenstein's letters about poetry as a concluding remark for the book as a whole, and speculates whether or not Wittgenstein — a philosopher everywhere committed to exploring the limits of language and the problems of ineffability — would have approved of Milton's poetry, which appears to transgress the limits of Wittgensteinian ‘sense’ as it moves into the realms of ineffable ‘nonsense’. Using Wittgenstein's say-show distinction, as outlined in the Tractatus and implicitly alluded to in the discussed quotation, the epilogue finally concludes that Milton only ever pretends to say the unsayable, and that this pretence is what matters in his poetry.
Robert Fiengo
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199208418
- eISBN:
- 9780191695735
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199208418.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This book examines a central phenomenon of language — the use of sentences to ask questions. Although there is a sizable literature on the syntax and semantics of interrogatives, the logic of ...
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This book examines a central phenomenon of language — the use of sentences to ask questions. Although there is a sizable literature on the syntax and semantics of interrogatives, the logic of ‘questions’, and the speech act of questioning, no one has tried to put the syntax and semantics together with the speech acts over the full range of phenomena we pretheoretically think of as asking questions. This book attempts to do this, and it also takes up some more foundational issues in the theory of language. By positioning the findings of contemporary grammatical theorizing within the larger domain of language use, this book makes some important challenges. It acknowledges the importance of grammatical form and the grammarian. In addition to developing an Austinian distinction between four questioning speech-acts, and a proposal concerning the philosophy of language, this book contains a discussion of the type-token distinction and how use of language compares with use of other things. The book also considers the nature of multiple questions, revealing what one must know to ask them, and what speech acts one may perform when asking them.Less
This book examines a central phenomenon of language — the use of sentences to ask questions. Although there is a sizable literature on the syntax and semantics of interrogatives, the logic of ‘questions’, and the speech act of questioning, no one has tried to put the syntax and semantics together with the speech acts over the full range of phenomena we pretheoretically think of as asking questions. This book attempts to do this, and it also takes up some more foundational issues in the theory of language. By positioning the findings of contemporary grammatical theorizing within the larger domain of language use, this book makes some important challenges. It acknowledges the importance of grammatical form and the grammarian. In addition to developing an Austinian distinction between four questioning speech-acts, and a proposal concerning the philosophy of language, this book contains a discussion of the type-token distinction and how use of language compares with use of other things. The book also considers the nature of multiple questions, revealing what one must know to ask them, and what speech acts one may perform when asking them.
H.L.A. Hart
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199534777
- eISBN:
- 9780191720703
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199534777.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
This classic collection of essays, first published in 1968, has had an enduring impact on academic and public debates about criminal responsibility and criminal punishment. Forty years on, its ...
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This classic collection of essays, first published in 1968, has had an enduring impact on academic and public debates about criminal responsibility and criminal punishment. Forty years on, its arguments are as powerful as ever. H. L. A. Hart offers an alternative to retributive thinking about criminal punishment that nevertheless preserves the central distinction between guilt and innocence. He also provides an account of criminal responsibility that links the distinction between guilt and innocence closely to the ideal of the rule of law, and thereby attempts to by-pass unnerving debates about free will and determinism. Always engaged with live issues of law and public policy, Hart makes difficult philosophical puzzles accessible and immediate to a wide range of readers. For this new edition, otherwise a reproduction of the original, John Gardner adds an introduction, which provides a critical engagement with the book's main arguments, and explains the continuing importance of Hart's ideas in spite of the intervening revival of retributive thinking in both academic and policy circles. Unavailable for ten years, the new edition of Punishment and Responsibility makes available again the central text in the field for a new generation of academics, students and professionals engaged in criminal justice and penal policy.Less
This classic collection of essays, first published in 1968, has had an enduring impact on academic and public debates about criminal responsibility and criminal punishment. Forty years on, its arguments are as powerful as ever. H. L. A. Hart offers an alternative to retributive thinking about criminal punishment that nevertheless preserves the central distinction between guilt and innocence. He also provides an account of criminal responsibility that links the distinction between guilt and innocence closely to the ideal of the rule of law, and thereby attempts to by-pass unnerving debates about free will and determinism. Always engaged with live issues of law and public policy, Hart makes difficult philosophical puzzles accessible and immediate to a wide range of readers. For this new edition, otherwise a reproduction of the original, John Gardner adds an introduction, which provides a critical engagement with the book's main arguments, and explains the continuing importance of Hart's ideas in spite of the intervening revival of retributive thinking in both academic and policy circles. Unavailable for ten years, the new edition of Punishment and Responsibility makes available again the central text in the field for a new generation of academics, students and professionals engaged in criminal justice and penal policy.
Denis McManus
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199288021
- eISBN:
- 9780191713446
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288021.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This introductory chapter presents a sketch of the book as a whole. It identifies several features of the Tractatus that Wittgenstein himself described as crucial. It sets out a philosophical ...
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This introductory chapter presents a sketch of the book as a whole. It identifies several features of the Tractatus that Wittgenstein himself described as crucial. It sets out a philosophical conception of the intelligibility of thought labeled as ‘con-formism’, and which, the book argues, Wittgenstein seeks to undermine.Less
This introductory chapter presents a sketch of the book as a whole. It identifies several features of the Tractatus that Wittgenstein himself described as crucial. It sets out a philosophical conception of the intelligibility of thought labeled as ‘con-formism’, and which, the book argues, Wittgenstein seeks to undermine.
Denis McManus
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199288021
- eISBN:
- 9780191713446
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288021.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter discusses how Wittgenstein’s conception of ‘the illogical’ as sign/symbol confusion affects our understanding of logical and ontological ‘types’. It explores the notion that the ...
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This chapter discusses how Wittgenstein’s conception of ‘the illogical’ as sign/symbol confusion affects our understanding of logical and ontological ‘types’. It explores the notion that the confusion that ‘the illogical’ embodies needs to be addressed by introducing novel notations rather than constructing theories of logical and ontological ‘types’. It considers what talk of such ‘types’ amounts to if there is no real task for such theories to perform.Less
This chapter discusses how Wittgenstein’s conception of ‘the illogical’ as sign/symbol confusion affects our understanding of logical and ontological ‘types’. It explores the notion that the confusion that ‘the illogical’ embodies needs to be addressed by introducing novel notations rather than constructing theories of logical and ontological ‘types’. It considers what talk of such ‘types’ amounts to if there is no real task for such theories to perform.
Denis McManus
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199288021
- eISBN:
- 9780191713446
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288021.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter examines how Wittgenstein envisaged the analysis of some important kinds of proposition that, at least superficially, do not fit the requirements of the general form of the proposition. ...
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This chapter examines how Wittgenstein envisaged the analysis of some important kinds of proposition that, at least superficially, do not fit the requirements of the general form of the proposition. General propositions represent a fundamental and central case in point and an explanation is offered of how Wittgenstein might have imagined their analysis. This explanation draws on ideas set out earlier in the book concerning the articulation of how particular languages and models ‘make sense’, the character of ‘logical types’ and ‘the illogical’, and Wittgenstein’s philosophical ambitions for notational reforms.Less
This chapter examines how Wittgenstein envisaged the analysis of some important kinds of proposition that, at least superficially, do not fit the requirements of the general form of the proposition. General propositions represent a fundamental and central case in point and an explanation is offered of how Wittgenstein might have imagined their analysis. This explanation draws on ideas set out earlier in the book concerning the articulation of how particular languages and models ‘make sense’, the character of ‘logical types’ and ‘the illogical’, and Wittgenstein’s philosophical ambitions for notational reforms.
Denis McManus
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199288021
- eISBN:
- 9780191713446
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288021.003.0015
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter reviews how the author’s reading presents those features of the Tractatus (described in Ch. 1) that Wittgenstein himself described as crucial. It clarifies the interpretation of the ...
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This chapter reviews how the author’s reading presents those features of the Tractatus (described in Ch. 1) that Wittgenstein himself described as crucial. It clarifies the interpretation of the say/show distinction and explains how that theme runs through the many and superficially diverse interests of the book. It offers an interpretation of why Wittgenstein said that the ‘point’ of the Tractatus is ethical and connects this interpretation to his reflections on logical truth. Crucial to the diverse forms of philosophical confusion discussed is a spiritually significant willingness to confusedly endow words with a life of their own: this enchanting of, and enchantment by words transposes on to them, and the world which we then see them as ‘fitting’, responsibilities that are actually ours to bear.Less
This chapter reviews how the author’s reading presents those features of the Tractatus (described in Ch. 1) that Wittgenstein himself described as crucial. It clarifies the interpretation of the say/show distinction and explains how that theme runs through the many and superficially diverse interests of the book. It offers an interpretation of why Wittgenstein said that the ‘point’ of the Tractatus is ethical and connects this interpretation to his reflections on logical truth. Crucial to the diverse forms of philosophical confusion discussed is a spiritually significant willingness to confusedly endow words with a life of their own: this enchanting of, and enchantment by words transposes on to them, and the world which we then see them as ‘fitting’, responsibilities that are actually ours to bear.
Melchisedec TÖrÖnen
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199296118
- eISBN:
- 9780191712258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296118.003.0015
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The final chapter presents the way in which through a certain ‘intellectual’ asceticism the human person can reintegrate the fragmented humanity. Distinction, unification, wholeness, and deification ...
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The final chapter presents the way in which through a certain ‘intellectual’ asceticism the human person can reintegrate the fragmented humanity. Distinction, unification, wholeness, and deification are the keywords here. The power that enables this reintegration is the true love which is nothing else but God himself.Less
The final chapter presents the way in which through a certain ‘intellectual’ asceticism the human person can reintegrate the fragmented humanity. Distinction, unification, wholeness, and deification are the keywords here. The power that enables this reintegration is the true love which is nothing else but God himself.
Melchisedec TÖrÖnen
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199296118
- eISBN:
- 9780191712258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296118.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Describes Maximus' life and his place within the intellectual world of the Late Antiquity. It examines the logical tools Maximus makes use of in his theology, such as the Porphyrian Tree and the ...
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Describes Maximus' life and his place within the intellectual world of the Late Antiquity. It examines the logical tools Maximus makes use of in his theology, such as the Porphyrian Tree and the distinction between the universal and the particular. Also such concepts as union, difference, whole, and part, as well as the Plotinian notion of the Universal Intellect are discussed.Less
Describes Maximus' life and his place within the intellectual world of the Late Antiquity. It examines the logical tools Maximus makes use of in his theology, such as the Porphyrian Tree and the distinction between the universal and the particular. Also such concepts as union, difference, whole, and part, as well as the Plotinian notion of the Universal Intellect are discussed.
Pieter A. M. Seuren
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199559473
- eISBN:
- 9780191721137
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199559473.003.0003
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
Thought as expressed in language is propositionally structured. The notion of proposition is explained in a historical context. Utterance tokens are per se context‐dependent: they are contextually ...
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Thought as expressed in language is propositionally structured. The notion of proposition is explained in a historical context. Utterance tokens are per se context‐dependent: they are contextually anchored and referentially keyed. Propositions‐in‐context consist of a topic and a comment. Truth and interpretation are both model‐theoretic and cognitive. Existential import is a matter of lexical argument term position.Less
Thought as expressed in language is propositionally structured. The notion of proposition is explained in a historical context. Utterance tokens are per se context‐dependent: they are contextually anchored and referentially keyed. Propositions‐in‐context consist of a topic and a comment. Truth and interpretation are both model‐theoretic and cognitive. Existential import is a matter of lexical argument term position.
Penelope Mackie
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199272204
- eISBN:
- 9780191604034
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199272204.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter examines David Wiggins’s version of sortal essentialism, which relies on the EPI thesis, that a thing’s principle of individuation is essential to it in order to derive the result that ...
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This chapter examines David Wiggins’s version of sortal essentialism, which relies on the EPI thesis, that a thing’s principle of individuation is essential to it in order to derive the result that certain sortals (‘ultimate sortals’) are essential sortals. It argues that the attempt to defend sortal essentialism by appeal to EPI faces a dilemma: either the thesis is vacuous, and lends no support to sortal essentialism, or it is a substantial thesis, but one that we have no good reason to accept. It concludes that even if it is true that, for any given individual, there are some sorts or kinds to which it could not have belonged, there is insufficient reason to believe the sortal essentialist’s explanation that this is because there is some sortal kind to which it belongs essentially.Less
This chapter examines David Wiggins’s version of sortal essentialism, which relies on the EPI thesis, that a thing’s principle of individuation is essential to it in order to derive the result that certain sortals (‘ultimate sortals’) are essential sortals. It argues that the attempt to defend sortal essentialism by appeal to EPI faces a dilemma: either the thesis is vacuous, and lends no support to sortal essentialism, or it is a substantial thesis, but one that we have no good reason to accept. It concludes that even if it is true that, for any given individual, there are some sorts or kinds to which it could not have belonged, there is insufficient reason to believe the sortal essentialist’s explanation that this is because there is some sortal kind to which it belongs essentially.
H. Matthew Kramer
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199247561
- eISBN:
- 9780191601927
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199247560.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The U Postulate, which specifies the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of any particular unfreedom, requires us to distinguish between the constraints on the freedom of any person ...
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The U Postulate, which specifies the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of any particular unfreedom, requires us to distinguish between the constraints on the freedom of any person P that are due partly to other people's actions and the constraints on the freedom of P that are due solely to natural forces and to P's own conduct. One's fleshing out of that basic distinction must consist in the elaboration of criteria that will enable the attribution of causal responsibility for freedom-impairing states of affairs. Those criteria separate unfreedoms from mere inabilities, and thereby significantly influence one's calculations of people's levels of overall liberty. Comes up with a comprehensively applicable test for the ascription of causal responsibility.Less
The U Postulate, which specifies the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of any particular unfreedom, requires us to distinguish between the constraints on the freedom of any person P that are due partly to other people's actions and the constraints on the freedom of P that are due solely to natural forces and to P's own conduct. One's fleshing out of that basic distinction must consist in the elaboration of criteria that will enable the attribution of causal responsibility for freedom-impairing states of affairs. Those criteria separate unfreedoms from mere inabilities, and thereby significantly influence one's calculations of people's levels of overall liberty. Comes up with a comprehensively applicable test for the ascription of causal responsibility.
Michael Hechter
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199247516
- eISBN:
- 9780191599460
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924751X.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The nationalism of concern here is collective action designed to render the boundaries of the nation congruent with those of its governance unit. Governance units are territorial units responsible ...
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The nationalism of concern here is collective action designed to render the boundaries of the nation congruent with those of its governance unit. Governance units are territorial units responsible for providing the bulk of collective goods to their members. Nations, for their part, are highly solitary, territorially concentrated, culturally distinctive groups. On the basis of these definitions, the chapter distinguishes between four analytically distinct types of nationalism: state‐building, peripheral, irredentist, and unification nationalisms.Less
The nationalism of concern here is collective action designed to render the boundaries of the nation congruent with those of its governance unit. Governance units are territorial units responsible for providing the bulk of collective goods to their members. Nations, for their part, are highly solitary, territorially concentrated, culturally distinctive groups. On the basis of these definitions, the chapter distinguishes between four analytically distinct types of nationalism: state‐building, peripheral, irredentist, and unification nationalisms.
Ira Katznelson
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780198279242
- eISBN:
- 9780191601910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198279248.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The first of the two main sections of this chapter discusses Marx's goal and the elements of a Marxist tradition, and presents the views of various later scholars (David Little, Steven Lukes, Alvin ...
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The first of the two main sections of this chapter discusses Marx's goal and the elements of a Marxist tradition, and presents the views of various later scholars (David Little, Steven Lukes, Alvin Goulder, Edward Thompson, Leonard Krieger, Georg Lukács, Antonio Gramsci, and others) on these elements. The three distinctive but inter‐related projects elaborated in Marx's aim of reconstructing the post‐capitalist world are examined in detail: the construction of a theory of history to account for the change between epochs on the largest possible scale, which focuses on the struggles between social classes within the twin frame of the development of the forces of production, and the nature of the relationships joining people in the social features of the production process; the building of a model of the economy within the capitalist epoch; and the construction of a social theory capable of inventing explanations about specific capitalist societies (the focus of most of this book). Gramsci elaborated on the most promising lines of inquiry embedded in Marx's historical writings to develop the base–superstructure distinction as a complex web of relations in which the economic, political, and cultural elements of a situation are interconnected, and in which the historicity of social structure is made central. The final section of the chapter explores these issues of Marxist social theory in the work of Edward Thompson, Raymond Williams, Eric Hobsbawm, and G. A. Cohen (who demonstrate the repertoire of alternative theoretical moves developed since Gramsci), and points out that the capacity of Marxism to provide an attractive alternative to the differentiation problematic in studies of the city hinges on the character and persuasiveness of these linkages. In the concluding discussion, the author returns to the issue of the capaciousness of Marxist theory.Less
The first of the two main sections of this chapter discusses Marx's goal and the elements of a Marxist tradition, and presents the views of various later scholars (David Little, Steven Lukes, Alvin Goulder, Edward Thompson, Leonard Krieger, Georg Lukács, Antonio Gramsci, and others) on these elements. The three distinctive but inter‐related projects elaborated in Marx's aim of reconstructing the post‐capitalist world are examined in detail: the construction of a theory of history to account for the change between epochs on the largest possible scale, which focuses on the struggles between social classes within the twin frame of the development of the forces of production, and the nature of the relationships joining people in the social features of the production process; the building of a model of the economy within the capitalist epoch; and the construction of a social theory capable of inventing explanations about specific capitalist societies (the focus of most of this book). Gramsci elaborated on the most promising lines of inquiry embedded in Marx's historical writings to develop the base–superstructure distinction as a complex web of relations in which the economic, political, and cultural elements of a situation are interconnected, and in which the historicity of social structure is made central. The final section of the chapter explores these issues of Marxist social theory in the work of Edward Thompson, Raymond Williams, Eric Hobsbawm, and G. A. Cohen (who demonstrate the repertoire of alternative theoretical moves developed since Gramsci), and points out that the capacity of Marxism to provide an attractive alternative to the differentiation problematic in studies of the city hinges on the character and persuasiveness of these linkages. In the concluding discussion, the author returns to the issue of the capaciousness of Marxist theory.
Colin M. Macleod
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198293972
- eISBN:
- 9780191599798
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198293976.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Critically evaluates Dworkin's use of a hypothetical insurance market scheme to illuminate the degree to which justice requires the provision of compensation to persons with significant physical or ...
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Critically evaluates Dworkin's use of a hypothetical insurance market scheme to illuminate the degree to which justice requires the provision of compensation to persons with significant physical or mental disabilities. The chapter argues that the hypothetical insurance market scheme is procedurally unfair, is plagued by epistemic difficulties, and is insufficiently sensitive to the importance of addressing features of the social environment in virtue of which persons with disabilities are disadvantaged.Less
Critically evaluates Dworkin's use of a hypothetical insurance market scheme to illuminate the degree to which justice requires the provision of compensation to persons with significant physical or mental disabilities. The chapter argues that the hypothetical insurance market scheme is procedurally unfair, is plagued by epistemic difficulties, and is insufficiently sensitive to the importance of addressing features of the social environment in virtue of which persons with disabilities are disadvantaged.
Douglas Ehring
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199608539
- eISBN:
- 9780191729607
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199608539.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology, Philosophy of Science
The main goal of this work is to provide a metaphysical account of properties and of how they are related to concrete particulars. On the broadest level, this work is a defense of tropes and of trope ...
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The main goal of this work is to provide a metaphysical account of properties and of how they are related to concrete particulars. On the broadest level, this work is a defense of tropes and of trope bundle theory as the best accounts of properties and objects, respectively, and, second, a defense of a specific brand of trope nominalism, Natural Class Trope Nominalism. Each of these tasks is pursued separately, with the first Part of this work acting as a general introduction and defense of tropes and trope bundle theory, and the second Part acting as the more specific defense of Natural Class Trope Nominalism. In Part 1 it is argued that there are tropes. Part 1 also provides an outline of what tropes can do for us metaphysically, while remaining neutral between different theories of tropes. Included in Part 1 are an account of the universal–particular distinction, an argument for the existence of tropes based on the phenomenon of moving properties, the development of a trope bundle theory of objects and a trope-based solution to the problems of mental causations. The second Part presents a fuller picture of what a trope is by way of Natural Class Trope Nominalism, according to which a trope's nature is determined by membership in natural classes of tropes. In addition, in Part 2 a defense is developed of Natural Class Trope Nominalism against what have been thought to be fatal objections to this view, a defense grounded in property counterpart theory without modal realism.Less
The main goal of this work is to provide a metaphysical account of properties and of how they are related to concrete particulars. On the broadest level, this work is a defense of tropes and of trope bundle theory as the best accounts of properties and objects, respectively, and, second, a defense of a specific brand of trope nominalism, Natural Class Trope Nominalism. Each of these tasks is pursued separately, with the first Part of this work acting as a general introduction and defense of tropes and trope bundle theory, and the second Part acting as the more specific defense of Natural Class Trope Nominalism. In Part 1 it is argued that there are tropes. Part 1 also provides an outline of what tropes can do for us metaphysically, while remaining neutral between different theories of tropes. Included in Part 1 are an account of the universal–particular distinction, an argument for the existence of tropes based on the phenomenon of moving properties, the development of a trope bundle theory of objects and a trope-based solution to the problems of mental causations. The second Part presents a fuller picture of what a trope is by way of Natural Class Trope Nominalism, according to which a trope's nature is determined by membership in natural classes of tropes. In addition, in Part 2 a defense is developed of Natural Class Trope Nominalism against what have been thought to be fatal objections to this view, a defense grounded in property counterpart theory without modal realism.
