…by a development of my own view, the Constitution View. According to the Constitution View, you are a person in virtue of having a first-person perspective, and a postmortem person…
Those Who Fly Without Wings: Depictions of the Supreme Ideal Figure in the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi
In pre-Qin Chinese canonical texts, the supreme ideal figure with impeccable virtue and wisdom is usually referred to as the Sage (sheng 聖 or shengren 聖人). The Zhuangzi, however, is…
Scorekeeping in a Pornographic Language Game
…in the social science literature. Consider, for example, this description of an early experiment, from a time that pre-dates contemporary political debate. Keywords: Pornography, conversational score, illocutionary acts Language: English…
In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture
…and an increasingly global civilization. Combining philosophical analysis with more personal reflections, Appiah addresses the major issues in the philosophy of culture through an exploration of the contemporary African predicament….
The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy
…of Goodness has proven to be important reading for philosophers and classicists, and its non-technical style makes it accessible to any educated person interested in the difficult problems it tackles….
Torturers and the Tortured
Abstract: Patrick Lenta and Jessica Wolfendale have written two very thoughtful discussions on torture. A central question that arises in responding to these essays in terms of my recent book,…
Carving up the Social World with Generics
Summary (Diversifying Syllabi): Leslie argues that generic language has an effect on social cognition. Specifically, generic language plays a role in the way small children develop concepts related to abilities,…
Folk psychology and cognitive architecture
Abstract: It has recently been argued that the success of the connectionist program in cognitive science would threaten folk psychology. I articulate and defend a “minimalist” construal of folk psychology…
Do Newton’s Rules of Reasoning Guarantee Truth … Must They?
Abstract: Newton’s Principia introduces four rules of reasoning for natural philosophy. Although useful, there is a concern about whether Newton’s rules guarantee truth. After redirecting the discussion from truth to…
Intention
Summary: Three core problems about intention are discussed: (i) expressions of intention; (ii) the intentional or non-intentional character of action; (iii) the intention of an action, or with which it…