Mary Briody Mahowald
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195176179
- eISBN:
- 9780199786558
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195176170.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
This book deals with bioethical issues relevant to women across the life span. “Gender justice” is the starting point and the end point of the author’s approach to the issues addressed. The first ...
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This book deals with bioethical issues relevant to women across the life span. “Gender justice” is the starting point and the end point of the author’s approach to the issues addressed. The first section offers an overview of bioethics, critiques prevalent approaches to bioethics and models of the physician-patient relationship, and sketches distinguishing aspects of women’s health care. Classical pragmatists and feminist standpoint theorists are enlisted in support of “an egalitarian perspective”, and positions on the moral status of fetuses and those already born are examined. The second section identifies topics that are directly or indirectly related to women’s health; these include prenatal testing, childbirth and newborn decisions, treatment of minors and the elderly, assisted reproduction, abortion, eating disorders, domestic violence, breast and gynecological cancer, end of life care, and research on women. Brief cases illustrate variables related to each topic. Empirical and theoretical considerations follow each set of cases; these are intended to precipitate more expansive and critical examination of the questions raised. The book concludes with discussion of an egalitarian ideal to be pursued through an ethic of virtue or supererogation rather than obligation. By embracing this ideal, according to the author, moral agents support a more demanding level of morality than guidelines or laws require.Less
This book deals with bioethical issues relevant to women across the life span. “Gender justice” is the starting point and the end point of the author’s approach to the issues addressed. The first section offers an overview of bioethics, critiques prevalent approaches to bioethics and models of the physician-patient relationship, and sketches distinguishing aspects of women’s health care. Classical pragmatists and feminist standpoint theorists are enlisted in support of “an egalitarian perspective”, and positions on the moral status of fetuses and those already born are examined. The second section identifies topics that are directly or indirectly related to women’s health; these include prenatal testing, childbirth and newborn decisions, treatment of minors and the elderly, assisted reproduction, abortion, eating disorders, domestic violence, breast and gynecological cancer, end of life care, and research on women. Brief cases illustrate variables related to each topic. Empirical and theoretical considerations follow each set of cases; these are intended to precipitate more expansive and critical examination of the questions raised. The book concludes with discussion of an egalitarian ideal to be pursued through an ethic of virtue or supererogation rather than obligation. By embracing this ideal, according to the author, moral agents support a more demanding level of morality than guidelines or laws require.
Jason A. Springs
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195395044
- eISBN:
- 9780199866243
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Discontinued
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195395044.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Toward a Generous Orthodoxy provides a refined exposition of Hans Frei's christologically motivated engagement with Ludwig Wittgenstein, Clifford Geertz, Erich Auerbach, his use of ...
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Toward a Generous Orthodoxy provides a refined exposition of Hans Frei's christologically motivated engagement with Ludwig Wittgenstein, Clifford Geertz, Erich Auerbach, his use of ordinary language philosophy and nonfoundational philosophical insights, while illuminating and expanding his orientational indebtedness to Karl Barth's theology. By placing Frei's work into critical conversation with developments in pragmatist thought and cultural theory since his death, the rereading of Frei offered here aims to correct and resolve many of the complaints and misunderstandings that vex his theological legacy. The result is a clarification of the unity and coherence of Frei's work over the course of his career; a reframing of the complex relationship of his work to that of his Yale colleague George Lindbeck and successive "postliberal" theological trends; demonstration that Frei's uses of Barth, Wittgenstein, Auerbach, and Geertz do not relegate his theological approach to critical quietism, methodological separatism, epistemic fideism, or a so-called "theological ghetto"; explication and development of Frei's account of the "plain sense" of Scripture that evades charges of narrative foundationalism and essentialism on one hand and, on the other, avoids criticisms that any account so emphasizing culture, language, and practice will reduce scriptural meaning to the ways the text is used in Christian practice and community. What emerges from Toward a Generous Orthodoxy is a sharpened account of the christologically anchored, interdisciplinary, and conversational character of Frei's theology, which he came to describe as a "generous orthodoxy," modeling a way for academic theological voices to take seriously both their vocation to the Christian church and their roles as interlocutors in the academic discourse.Less
Toward a Generous Orthodoxy provides a refined exposition of Hans Frei's christologically motivated engagement with Ludwig Wittgenstein, Clifford Geertz, Erich Auerbach, his use of ordinary language philosophy and nonfoundational philosophical insights, while illuminating and expanding his orientational indebtedness to Karl Barth's theology. By placing Frei's work into critical conversation with developments in pragmatist thought and cultural theory since his death, the rereading of Frei offered here aims to correct and resolve many of the complaints and misunderstandings that vex his theological legacy. The result is a clarification of the unity and coherence of Frei's work over the course of his career; a reframing of the complex relationship of his work to that of his Yale colleague George Lindbeck and successive "postliberal" theological trends; demonstration that Frei's uses of Barth, Wittgenstein, Auerbach, and Geertz do not relegate his theological approach to critical quietism, methodological separatism, epistemic fideism, or a so-called "theological ghetto"; explication and development of Frei's account of the "plain sense" of Scripture that evades charges of narrative foundationalism and essentialism on one hand and, on the other, avoids criticisms that any account so emphasizing culture, language, and practice will reduce scriptural meaning to the ways the text is used in Christian practice and community. What emerges from Toward a Generous Orthodoxy is a sharpened account of the christologically anchored, interdisciplinary, and conversational character of Frei's theology, which he came to describe as a "generous orthodoxy," modeling a way for academic theological voices to take seriously both their vocation to the Christian church and their roles as interlocutors in the academic discourse.
Simon Blackburn
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199548057
- eISBN:
- 9780191594953
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199548057.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This book is a collection of sixteen chapters written over the last twenty years. They include chapters on quasi-realism and practical reasoning, but range over many other topics, including trust, ...
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This book is a collection of sixteen chapters written over the last twenty years. They include chapters on quasi-realism and practical reasoning, but range over many other topics, including trust, dilemmas, fiction, semantics, pragmatism, observation, and the nature of reason. This is the first book linking well-known expressivist work on practical reason to the wider concerns of contemporary pragmatism.Less
This book is a collection of sixteen chapters written over the last twenty years. They include chapters on quasi-realism and practical reasoning, but range over many other topics, including trust, dilemmas, fiction, semantics, pragmatism, observation, and the nature of reason. This is the first book linking well-known expressivist work on practical reason to the wider concerns of contemporary pragmatism.
Robert B. Brandom
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199542871
- eISBN:
- 9780191715662
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199542871.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Language
This book aims to reconcile pragmatism (in both its classical American and its Wittgensteinian forms) with analytic philosophy. It investigates relations between the meaning of linguistic expressions ...
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This book aims to reconcile pragmatism (in both its classical American and its Wittgensteinian forms) with analytic philosophy. It investigates relations between the meaning of linguistic expressions and their use. Giving due weight both to what one has to do in order to count as saying various things and to what one needs to say in order to specify those doings makes it possible to shed new light on the relations between semantics (the theory of the meanings of utterances and the contents of thoughts) and pragmatics (the theory of the functional relations among meaningful or contentful items). Among the vocabularies whose interrelated use and meaning are considered are: logical, indexical, modal, normative, and intentional vocabulary. As the argument proceeds, new ways of thinking about the classical analytic core programs of empiricism, naturalism, and functionalism are offered, as well as novel insights about the ideas of artificial intelligence, the nature of logic, and intentional relations between subjects and objects.Less
This book aims to reconcile pragmatism (in both its classical American and its Wittgensteinian forms) with analytic philosophy. It investigates relations between the meaning of linguistic expressions and their use. Giving due weight both to what one has to do in order to count as saying various things and to what one needs to say in order to specify those doings makes it possible to shed new light on the relations between semantics (the theory of the meanings of utterances and the contents of thoughts) and pragmatics (the theory of the functional relations among meaningful or contentful items). Among the vocabularies whose interrelated use and meaning are considered are: logical, indexical, modal, normative, and intentional vocabulary. As the argument proceeds, new ways of thinking about the classical analytic core programs of empiricism, naturalism, and functionalism are offered, as well as novel insights about the ideas of artificial intelligence, the nature of logic, and intentional relations between subjects and objects.
Wallace Matson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199812691
- eISBN:
- 9780199919420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812691.003.0015
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals, a patron of Greek culture, founded in Alexandria, capital of his Egyptian empire, the Library, the greatest depository of Greek literature, and the Museum, a ...
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Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals, a patron of Greek culture, founded in Alexandria, capital of his Egyptian empire, the Library, the greatest depository of Greek literature, and the Museum, a research institute. Science made great advances in the Museum. The Library produced great scholars but little new literature. The principal philosophical innovation of the period was the rise of Skepticism, which utterly rejected high beliefs, whether tethered or not. Greek Skepticism is the ancestor of modern Positivism and Pragmatism, not of Cartesian skepticism. It was quite correct for its time, but it is a good thing that it did not prevail, for it would have eliminated the element of imagination that is essential to science.Less
Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals, a patron of Greek culture, founded in Alexandria, capital of his Egyptian empire, the Library, the greatest depository of Greek literature, and the Museum, a research institute. Science made great advances in the Museum. The Library produced great scholars but little new literature. The principal philosophical innovation of the period was the rise of Skepticism, which utterly rejected high beliefs, whether tethered or not. Greek Skepticism is the ancestor of modern Positivism and Pragmatism, not of Cartesian skepticism. It was quite correct for its time, but it is a good thing that it did not prevail, for it would have eliminated the element of imagination that is essential to science.
Mary Briody Mahowald
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195176179
- eISBN:
- 9780199786558
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195176170.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
After critiquing principle-based and case-based approaches to bioethics, this chapter develops and defends a conception of gender justice, as central to analyses of issues in women’s health care. ...
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After critiquing principle-based and case-based approaches to bioethics, this chapter develops and defends a conception of gender justice, as central to analyses of issues in women’s health care. Autonomy, rights, and justice are among the key concepts that it considers. Classical pragmatists and feminist standpoint theorists are enlisted in support of epistemological and ethical reasons for attributing “privileged status” to women’s decisions about their health.Less
After critiquing principle-based and case-based approaches to bioethics, this chapter develops and defends a conception of gender justice, as central to analyses of issues in women’s health care. Autonomy, rights, and justice are among the key concepts that it considers. Classical pragmatists and feminist standpoint theorists are enlisted in support of epistemological and ethical reasons for attributing “privileged status” to women’s decisions about their health.
Margaret D. Kamitsuka
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195311624
- eISBN:
- 9780199785643
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311624.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter addresses one of the most contested issues in feminist theology today: solidarity. Three important contemporary approaches to this issue (by white feminists Sharon Welch and Sheila ...
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This chapter addresses one of the most contested issues in feminist theology today: solidarity. Three important contemporary approaches to this issue (by white feminists Sharon Welch and Sheila Greeve Davaney and womanist M. Shawn Copeland) are examined. In critical conversation with Welch's views on communicative action, Davaney's pragmatism, and Copeland's appeal to eucharistic unity, the chapter proposes some conditions under which feminists might continue rethinking the notion of solidarity. This is followed by discussion of how a metaphor borrowed somewhat eclectically from the field of dance improvisation theory can help us look anew (though still very skeptically) at solidarity in light of inescapable and determinative differences in women's experience.Less
This chapter addresses one of the most contested issues in feminist theology today: solidarity. Three important contemporary approaches to this issue (by white feminists Sharon Welch and Sheila Greeve Davaney and womanist M. Shawn Copeland) are examined. In critical conversation with Welch's views on communicative action, Davaney's pragmatism, and Copeland's appeal to eucharistic unity, the chapter proposes some conditions under which feminists might continue rethinking the notion of solidarity. This is followed by discussion of how a metaphor borrowed somewhat eclectically from the field of dance improvisation theory can help us look anew (though still very skeptically) at solidarity in light of inescapable and determinative differences in women's experience.
Graham Priest
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199263288
- eISBN:
- 9780191603631
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199263280.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics
This chapter surveys standard theories of truth, and argues that they are all compatible with dialetheism.
This chapter surveys standard theories of truth, and argues that they are all compatible with dialetheism.
Christopher Hookway
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199256587
- eISBN:
- 9780191597718
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199256586.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Charles Peirce's pragmatist philosophy contains important ideas for understanding the nature of epistemic rationality and rational self‐control. After a discussion of his views about the different ...
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Charles Peirce's pragmatist philosophy contains important ideas for understanding the nature of epistemic rationality and rational self‐control. After a discussion of his views about the different demands of theory and practice, the book explains his account of truth, before comparing it with the correspondence theory of truth and tracing its relations to his theory of indexical reference. This is followed by an investigation of his defence of a system of ‘scientific metaphysics’ and its role in rational inquiry. We then turn to a consideration of how his pragmatism and his account of rationality rest upon his acceptance of a modified version of the common‐sense philosophy. This theme in his thought leads him to emphasize the role of sentiments and emotions in epistemic evaluation, and this lies behind his distinctive views about doubt and about why we should not take scepticism seriously. The final two chapters of the book explore Peirce's argument for the reality of God and begin to address the question of how he thought his pragmatist philosophy could be proved.Less
Charles Peirce's pragmatist philosophy contains important ideas for understanding the nature of epistemic rationality and rational self‐control. After a discussion of his views about the different demands of theory and practice, the book explains his account of truth, before comparing it with the correspondence theory of truth and tracing its relations to his theory of indexical reference. This is followed by an investigation of his defence of a system of ‘scientific metaphysics’ and its role in rational inquiry. We then turn to a consideration of how his pragmatism and his account of rationality rest upon his acceptance of a modified version of the common‐sense philosophy. This theme in his thought leads him to emphasize the role of sentiments and emotions in epistemic evaluation, and this lies behind his distinctive views about doubt and about why we should not take scepticism seriously. The final two chapters of the book explore Peirce's argument for the reality of God and begin to address the question of how he thought his pragmatist philosophy could be proved.
Bas. C. van Fraassen
- Published in print:
- 1980
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198244271
- eISBN:
- 9780191597473
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198244274.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
This book presents an empiricist alternative (‘constructive empiricism’) to both logical positivism and scientific realism. Against the former, it insists on a literal understanding of the language ...
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This book presents an empiricist alternative (‘constructive empiricism’) to both logical positivism and scientific realism. Against the former, it insists on a literal understanding of the language of science and on an irreducibly pragmatic dimension of theory acceptance. Against scientific realism, it insists that the central aim of science is empirical adequacy (‘saving the phenomena’) and that even unqualified acceptance of a theory involves no more belief than that this goal is met. Beginning with a critique of the metaphysical arguments that typically accompany scientific realism, a new characterization of empirical adequacy is presented, together with an interpretation of probability in both modern and contemporary physics and a pragmatic theory of explanation.Less
This book presents an empiricist alternative (‘constructive empiricism’) to both logical positivism and scientific realism. Against the former, it insists on a literal understanding of the language of science and on an irreducibly pragmatic dimension of theory acceptance. Against scientific realism, it insists that the central aim of science is empirical adequacy (‘saving the phenomena’) and that even unqualified acceptance of a theory involves no more belief than that this goal is met. Beginning with a critique of the metaphysical arguments that typically accompany scientific realism, a new characterization of empirical adequacy is presented, together with an interpretation of probability in both modern and contemporary physics and a pragmatic theory of explanation.
Alan Thomas
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780198250173
- eISBN:
- 9780191604072
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198250177.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter argues that contextualism should be adopted as the best epistemological theory on the grounds that it represents the most satisfactory response to philosophical scepticism. It sets out ...
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This chapter argues that contextualism should be adopted as the best epistemological theory on the grounds that it represents the most satisfactory response to philosophical scepticism. It sets out distinctive advantages that contextualism has over alternative models of knowledge. It also characterizes the key elements in a contextual model of justification.Less
This chapter argues that contextualism should be adopted as the best epistemological theory on the grounds that it represents the most satisfactory response to philosophical scepticism. It sets out distinctive advantages that contextualism has over alternative models of knowledge. It also characterizes the key elements in a contextual model of justification.
Michael D. Resnik
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198250142
- eISBN:
- 9780191598296
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198250142.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics
Mathematics is regarded as our most developed science, and yet philosophical troubles surface as soon as we inquire about its subject matter partly because mathematics itself says nothing about the ...
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Mathematics is regarded as our most developed science, and yet philosophical troubles surface as soon as we inquire about its subject matter partly because mathematics itself says nothing about the metaphysical nature of its objects. Taking mathematics at face value seems to favour the Platonist view according to which mathematics concerns causally inert objects existing outside space‐time, but this view seems to preclude any account of how we acquire mathematical knowledge without using some mysterious intellectual intuition. In this book, I defend a version of mathematical realism, motivated by the indispensability of mathematics in science, according to which (1) mathematical objects exist independently of us and our constructions, (2) much of contemporary mathematics is true, and (3) mathematical truths obtain independently of our beliefs, theories, and proofs.The ontological component of my realism is a form of structuralism according to which mathematical objects are featureless, abstract positions in structures, or patterns, and like geometric points, their identities are fixed only through their relationships to each other. Structuralism is also part of my epistemology in that material objects ‘fit’ simple patterns, and in doing so, they ‘fill’ the positions of simple mathematical structures. We may perceive the arrangements of objects but we cannot perceive their positions i.e. the abstract, non‐spatiotemporal mathematical objects, and the problem then consists in explaining how we can form beliefs about them.Answering this question introduces a central notion of my epistemology, that of a posit: by representing and designing patterned objects our ancestors posited geometric objects as sui generis and started describing them by describing the patterns in which they are positions. Since positing mathematical objects, like positing new scientific entities, is an activity similar to making up a story, one might wonder how such an activity can lead to mathematical knowledge and truth, but I believe that our ancestors were justified in introducing mathematical objects and we are justified in retaining them, by pragmatic and global considerations: mathematics has proved immensely fruitful for science, technology, and practical life, and doing without it is now virtually impossible.This account of justification introduces a further problem: if our justification for believing in mathematical truths is global and pragmatic, then it might turn out that one is not justified in accepting a mathematical claim unless it is accepted by science, and this is clearly at odds with the practice of mathematics where we hardly ever invoke such global considerations in order to justify a mathematical claim. In mathematics, we usually employ a local conception of evidence made up mainly of a priori proofs. However, arguing from the perspective of a Quinean epistemic holism, I claim that this feature of the practice should not make us conclude that mathematics is an a priori science, disconnected evidentially from both observation and natural science, for observation is relevant to mathematics, and technological and scientific success forms a vital part of our justification for believing in the truth of mathematics.Less
Mathematics is regarded as our most developed science, and yet philosophical troubles surface as soon as we inquire about its subject matter partly because mathematics itself says nothing about the metaphysical nature of its objects. Taking mathematics at face value seems to favour the Platonist view according to which mathematics concerns causally inert objects existing outside space‐time, but this view seems to preclude any account of how we acquire mathematical knowledge without using some mysterious intellectual intuition. In this book, I defend a version of mathematical realism, motivated by the indispensability of mathematics in science, according to which (1) mathematical objects exist independently of us and our constructions, (2) much of contemporary mathematics is true, and (3) mathematical truths obtain independently of our beliefs, theories, and proofs.
The ontological component of my realism is a form of structuralism according to which mathematical objects are featureless, abstract positions in structures, or patterns, and like geometric points, their identities are fixed only through their relationships to each other. Structuralism is also part of my epistemology in that material objects ‘fit’ simple patterns, and in doing so, they ‘fill’ the positions of simple mathematical structures. We may perceive the arrangements of objects but we cannot perceive their positions i.e. the abstract, non‐spatiotemporal mathematical objects, and the problem then consists in explaining how we can form beliefs about them.
Answering this question introduces a central notion of my epistemology, that of a posit: by representing and designing patterned objects our ancestors posited geometric objects as sui generis and started describing them by describing the patterns in which they are positions. Since positing mathematical objects, like positing new scientific entities, is an activity similar to making up a story, one might wonder how such an activity can lead to mathematical knowledge and truth, but I believe that our ancestors were justified in introducing mathematical objects and we are justified in retaining them, by pragmatic and global considerations: mathematics has proved immensely fruitful for science, technology, and practical life, and doing without it is now virtually impossible.
This account of justification introduces a further problem: if our justification for believing in mathematical truths is global and pragmatic, then it might turn out that one is not justified in accepting a mathematical claim unless it is accepted by science, and this is clearly at odds with the practice of mathematics where we hardly ever invoke such global considerations in order to justify a mathematical claim. In mathematics, we usually employ a local conception of evidence made up mainly of a priori proofs. However, arguing from the perspective of a Quinean epistemic holism, I claim that this feature of the practice should not make us conclude that mathematics is an a priori science, disconnected evidentially from both observation and natural science, for observation is relevant to mathematics, and technological and scientific success forms a vital part of our justification for believing in the truth of mathematics.
C. J. Misak
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199270590
- eISBN:
- 9780191603174
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199270597.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This book elucidates and defends C.S. Peirce’s pragmatist account of truth. Peirce was interested in exploring truth’s connections to the practices of inquiry, belief, and assertion. This distinctly ...
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This book elucidates and defends C.S. Peirce’s pragmatist account of truth. Peirce was interested in exploring truth’s connections to the practices of inquiry, belief, and assertion. This distinctly pragmatic project resulted in the view that truth is what would be agreed upon, were inquiry to be pursued as far as it could fruitfully go. The view that a belief is true if it would be indefeasible connects truth to human practices, but which takes truth to be something to be discovered. That is, Peirce’s view of truth is much more objectivist than some currently popular brands of pragmatism. In this expanded edition, advances in the understanding of Peirce’s theory of truth are noted, and include a new chapter which shows how Peirce’s view of truth is friendly to moral judgements.Less
This book elucidates and defends C.S. Peirce’s pragmatist account of truth. Peirce was interested in exploring truth’s connections to the practices of inquiry, belief, and assertion. This distinctly pragmatic project resulted in the view that truth is what would be agreed upon, were inquiry to be pursued as far as it could fruitfully go. The view that a belief is true if it would be indefeasible connects truth to human practices, but which takes truth to be something to be discovered. That is, Peirce’s view of truth is much more objectivist than some currently popular brands of pragmatism. In this expanded edition, advances in the understanding of Peirce’s theory of truth are noted, and include a new chapter which shows how Peirce’s view of truth is friendly to moral judgements.
George P. Fletcher
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195156287
- eISBN:
- 9780199872169
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195156285.003.0012
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This concluding chapter examines the postbellum rise of the philosophical school of Pragmatism, promoted in large part by Oliver Wendell Holmes. The author argues for Pragmatism as a response to the ...
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This concluding chapter examines the postbellum rise of the philosophical school of Pragmatism, promoted in large part by Oliver Wendell Holmes. The author argues for Pragmatism as a response to the ideological extremes that spawned the Civil War, but asserts that neither path adequately describes the U.S. today. Rather, our nationhood rests in the tension between these two opposing ideals.Less
This concluding chapter examines the postbellum rise of the philosophical school of Pragmatism, promoted in large part by Oliver Wendell Holmes. The author argues for Pragmatism as a response to the ideological extremes that spawned the Civil War, but asserts that neither path adequately describes the U.S. today. Rather, our nationhood rests in the tension between these two opposing ideals.
Terryl C. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195167115
- eISBN:
- 9780199785599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167115.003.0015
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Turn of the century Mormon architecture could be daring and magnificent. World-wide growth, economic constraints, and fierce pragmatism have more recently given to modern Mormon architecture a bland ...
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Turn of the century Mormon architecture could be daring and magnificent. World-wide growth, economic constraints, and fierce pragmatism have more recently given to modern Mormon architecture a bland and uniform appearance, with occasional exceptions. Even temples have succumbed to corporate requirements, along with meethinghouses (chapels) and beautiful tabernacles have given way to the generic stake center.Less
Turn of the century Mormon architecture could be daring and magnificent. World-wide growth, economic constraints, and fierce pragmatism have more recently given to modern Mormon architecture a bland and uniform appearance, with occasional exceptions. Even temples have succumbed to corporate requirements, along with meethinghouses (chapels) and beautiful tabernacles have given way to the generic stake center.
Edward C. Luck
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199261437
- eISBN:
- 9780191599309
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199261431.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Considers how domestic political processes affect American behaviour in and towards multilateral organizations. The author first discusses the nature of American exceptionalism and looks at the ways ...
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Considers how domestic political processes affect American behaviour in and towards multilateral organizations. The author first discusses the nature of American exceptionalism and looks at the ways in which what he describes as a deeply ingrained sense of American exceptionalism coupled with pragmatism affects the country's approach to multilateral institutions. An examination is then made of the ups and downs of US policies towards UN over the course of the 1990s, the contrasting politics of the 1994 decision to join the newly created World Trade Organization (WTO), and US financial withholdings in the 1990s and the steps taken towards partial payment of the resulting arrears in 1999–2000. Far more positive attitudes are noted towards the WTO than the UN, the latter being perceived as a riskier venue for the promotion of US interests. It is concluded that, while the US is generally reluctant to defer to multilateral processes, it cannot be accused of being hostile to all forms of multilateral organization: it is pragmatic and peacekeeping case‐specific in its choice of foreign policy tools.Less
Considers how domestic political processes affect American behaviour in and towards multilateral organizations. The author first discusses the nature of American exceptionalism and looks at the ways in which what he describes as a deeply ingrained sense of American exceptionalism coupled with pragmatism affects the country's approach to multilateral institutions. An examination is then made of the ups and downs of US policies towards UN over the course of the 1990s, the contrasting politics of the 1994 decision to join the newly created World Trade Organization (WTO), and US financial withholdings in the 1990s and the steps taken towards partial payment of the resulting arrears in 1999–2000. Far more positive attitudes are noted towards the WTO than the UN, the latter being perceived as a riskier venue for the promotion of US interests. It is concluded that, while the US is generally reluctant to defer to multilateral processes, it cannot be accused of being hostile to all forms of multilateral organization: it is pragmatic and peacekeeping case‐specific in its choice of foreign policy tools.
Christopher Hookway
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199588381
- eISBN:
- 9780191745089
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588381.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1913) was the ‘founder of pragmatism’ and the most important and original American philosopher. He called himself a logician, making important contributions to the ...
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Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1913) was the ‘founder of pragmatism’ and the most important and original American philosopher. He called himself a logician, making important contributions to the development of formal logic and to the study of the normative standards we should follow in carrying out inquiries and enhancing our knowledge in science and mathematics. His range was extensive: he founded an developed the discipline of semeiotic, a systematic account of the nature of thought, language, and other kinds of signs, and, as a systematic philosopher, he worked on metaphysics. The first seven chapters explore the framework of his thought, especially his fallibilism and his rejection of scepticism, and his contributions to the pragmatist understanding of truth and reality. Like Frege and Husserl, among others, Peirce rejected psychologism and used phenomenological foundations to defend the system of categories for a system of category which made a non-psychological logic possible. The final three chapters are concerned with ‘the pragmatic maxim’, a rule for clarifying the contents of concepts and ideas. As well as exploring the content and role of this maxim, we study the different strategies Peirce employed to demonstrate the correctness of this maxim, and thus of pragmatism. As well as studying and evaluating Peirce’s views, the book discusses the relations between the views of Peirce and other pragmatist philosophers such as William James, C. I. Lewis, and Richard Rorty.Less
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1913) was the ‘founder of pragmatism’ and the most important and original American philosopher. He called himself a logician, making important contributions to the development of formal logic and to the study of the normative standards we should follow in carrying out inquiries and enhancing our knowledge in science and mathematics. His range was extensive: he founded an developed the discipline of semeiotic, a systematic account of the nature of thought, language, and other kinds of signs, and, as a systematic philosopher, he worked on metaphysics. The first seven chapters explore the framework of his thought, especially his fallibilism and his rejection of scepticism, and his contributions to the pragmatist understanding of truth and reality. Like Frege and Husserl, among others, Peirce rejected psychologism and used phenomenological foundations to defend the system of categories for a system of category which made a non-psychological logic possible. The final three chapters are concerned with ‘the pragmatic maxim’, a rule for clarifying the contents of concepts and ideas. As well as exploring the content and role of this maxim, we study the different strategies Peirce employed to demonstrate the correctness of this maxim, and thus of pragmatism. As well as studying and evaluating Peirce’s views, the book discusses the relations between the views of Peirce and other pragmatist philosophers such as William James, C. I. Lewis, and Richard Rorty.
Michael Cox
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199240975
- eISBN:
- 9780191598999
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199240973.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Explores the many facets of democracy promotion as a grand foreign policy strategy during the Clinton administration. It argues that far from being a Wilsonian idealist, Clinton viewed democracy ...
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Explores the many facets of democracy promotion as a grand foreign policy strategy during the Clinton administration. It argues that far from being a Wilsonian idealist, Clinton viewed democracy promotion as a pragmatic strategy to enhance US influence worldwide. In his integrated worldview, there was no necessary conflict between global order, market economics, and democracy promotion. All three were intimately connected and could reinforce each other.Less
Explores the many facets of democracy promotion as a grand foreign policy strategy during the Clinton administration. It argues that far from being a Wilsonian idealist, Clinton viewed democracy promotion as a pragmatic strategy to enhance US influence worldwide. In his integrated worldview, there was no necessary conflict between global order, market economics, and democracy promotion. All three were intimately connected and could reinforce each other.
Gary Herrigel
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199557738
- eISBN:
- 9780191720871
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557738.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
Manufacturing Possibilities examines adjustment dynamics in the steel, automobile and machinery industries in Germany, the U.S., and Japan since World War II. Using detailed historical ...
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Manufacturing Possibilities examines adjustment dynamics in the steel, automobile and machinery industries in Germany, the U.S., and Japan since World War II. Using detailed historical and interview based contemporary analysis, the book shows that as national industrial actors in each sector try to compete in global markets, they recompose firm and industry boundaries, producer strategies, stakeholder interests and governance mechanisms at all levels of their political economies. Theoretically, the book marks a departure from both neoliberal economic and historical institutionalist perspectives on change in advanced political economies. It characterizes industrial change as a creative, bottom up, process driven by reflective social actors. The alternative view consists of two distinctive claims. The first is that action is social, reflective and ultimately creative. When their interactive habits are disrupted, industrial actors seek to repair their relations by reconceiving them. Such imaginative interaction redefines interest and causes unforeseen possibilities for action to emerge, enabling actors to trump existing rules and constraints. Second, industrial change driven by creative action is recompositional. In the social process of reflection, actors rearrange, modify, reconceive and reposition inherited organizational forms and governance mechanisms as they experiment with solutions to the challenges that they face. Continuity in relations is interwoven with continuous reform and change. Most remarkably, creativity in the recomposition process makes the introduction of entirely new practices and relations possible. Ultimately, the message of Manufacturing Possibilities is that social study of change in advanced political economies should devote itself to the discovery of possibility. Preoccupation with constraint and failure to appreciate the capaciousness of reflective social action has led much of contemporary debate to misrecognize the dynamics of change. As a result, discussion of the range of adjustment possibilities has been unnecessarily limited.Less
Manufacturing Possibilities examines adjustment dynamics in the steel, automobile and machinery industries in Germany, the U.S., and Japan since World War II. Using detailed historical and interview based contemporary analysis, the book shows that as national industrial actors in each sector try to compete in global markets, they recompose firm and industry boundaries, producer strategies, stakeholder interests and governance mechanisms at all levels of their political economies. Theoretically, the book marks a departure from both neoliberal economic and historical institutionalist perspectives on change in advanced political economies. It characterizes industrial change as a creative, bottom up, process driven by reflective social actors. The alternative view consists of two distinctive claims. The first is that action is social, reflective and ultimately creative. When their interactive habits are disrupted, industrial actors seek to repair their relations by reconceiving them. Such imaginative interaction redefines interest and causes unforeseen possibilities for action to emerge, enabling actors to trump existing rules and constraints. Second, industrial change driven by creative action is recompositional. In the social process of reflection, actors rearrange, modify, reconceive and reposition inherited organizational forms and governance mechanisms as they experiment with solutions to the challenges that they face. Continuity in relations is interwoven with continuous reform and change. Most remarkably, creativity in the recomposition process makes the introduction of entirely new practices and relations possible. Ultimately, the message of Manufacturing Possibilities is that social study of change in advanced political economies should devote itself to the discovery of possibility. Preoccupation with constraint and failure to appreciate the capaciousness of reflective social action has led much of contemporary debate to misrecognize the dynamics of change. As a result, discussion of the range of adjustment possibilities has been unnecessarily limited.
Mirosław Wyrzykowski
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199244089
- eISBN:
- 9780191600364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199244081.003.0016
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
Describes the constitution‐making process in Poland. The main feature of this process was the ability to reach a compromise in a conflict‐prone political setting. The chapter analyses major stages of ...
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Describes the constitution‐making process in Poland. The main feature of this process was the ability to reach a compromise in a conflict‐prone political setting. The chapter analyses major stages of the process of democratic consolidation and the constitutionalization, and examines issues such as legitimacy, balance of power, and the role of the state. The first significant breakthrough in the process was the interim constitution of 1992. The chapter emphasizes its importance in the process of institutional engineering despite its numerous shortcomings. The chapter also points out that the adoption of the Polish Constitution by referendum did not resolve the debate on legitimacy. Finally, it shows that despite the contentious adoption of the Constitution, it has had a stabilizing effect on Polish democracy. Overall, the Polish Constitution is described as a constitution of compromise and of political pragmatism.Less
Describes the constitution‐making process in Poland. The main feature of this process was the ability to reach a compromise in a conflict‐prone political setting. The chapter analyses major stages of the process of democratic consolidation and the constitutionalization, and examines issues such as legitimacy, balance of power, and the role of the state. The first significant breakthrough in the process was the interim constitution of 1992. The chapter emphasizes its importance in the process of institutional engineering despite its numerous shortcomings. The chapter also points out that the adoption of the Polish Constitution by referendum did not resolve the debate on legitimacy. Finally, it shows that despite the contentious adoption of the Constitution, it has had a stabilizing effect on Polish democracy. Overall, the Polish Constitution is described as a constitution of compromise and of political pragmatism.
