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The God of Spinoza: A Philosophical Study. By Richard Mason (review)The European Legacy 7 (1): 115-115. 2002.
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4Hume on Testimony Concerning MiraclesIn Peter Millican (ed.), Reading Hume on Human Understanding: Essays on the First Enquiry, Oxford University Press. 2001.
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4Encyclopedia of empiricism (edited book)Greenwood Press. 1997.Featuring more than 150 articles by more than 70 leading scholars, this is the first encyclopedia devoted to empiricism. The _Encyclopedia of Empiricism_ serves four main purposes. First, it provides a convenient source for scholars and students seeking information on particular figures, topics, or doctrines, specifically in their relation to empiricism as an historical movement or to empiricism as a broader tendency of thought. Because each entry contains a brief bibliography of primary and sec…Read more
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1Hey, What's the Big Idea? Berkeley and Hume on Extension, Local Conjunction, and the Immateriality of the SoulIn Stefan Storrie (ed.), Berkeley's Three Dialogues: New Essays, Oxford University Press. pp. 191-204. 2018.
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2Teleology in Spinoza and Early Modern RationalismIn Rocco J. Gennaro & Charles Huenemann (eds.), New essays on the rationalists, Oxford University Press. 1999.This chapter seeks to establish that Spinoza accepts the legitimacy of many teleological explanations; that in two important respects, Leibniz's view of teleology is not more, and perhaps even less, Aristotleian than Descartes's; and that among Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, it is Spinoza who holds the view of teleology closest to that of Aristotle. The arguments for derive from examinations of Spinoza's doctrine of conatus, critical analysis of Jonathan Bennett's proposed grounds for interpre…Read more
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A Small Tincture of PyrrhonismIn Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (ed.), Pyrrhonian skepticism, Oxford University Press. 2004.This essay distinguishes varieties of skepticism along six dimensions. It argues that Hume is unmitigated in his rational support skepticism and in his prescriptive skepticism about certain “high and distant enquiries”, but mitigated in his general practising skepticism and in his general epistemic merit skepticism. Hume’s skepticism must be seen as mitigated in these ways in order to solve four central puzzles for Hume scholars.
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Spinoza's Conatus ArgumentIn Olli Koistinen & John Ivan Biro (eds.), Spinoza: Metaphysical Themes, Oup Usa. 2002.This essay contends that Spinoza’s argument for the conatus doctrine does not commit any of the five fallacies of equivocation. The key to a better understanding of his argument lies in a Spinoza’s “theory of inherence” — that is, his theory of what it is to be “in” something. Spinoza’s conatus argument is a valid demonstration from Spinozistic premises about inherence, conception, causation, and related matters. These premises reflect his deep commitment to a rigorous Principle of Sufficient Re…Read more
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Reason, Normativity, and Hume’s “Title Principle”In Paul Russell (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of David Hume, Oxford University Press. 2016.David Hume’s “Title Principle,” as it has come to be called, is a specification of the normative scope of reason: “Where reason is lively, and mixes itself with some propensity, it ought to be assented to. Where it does not, it never can have any title to operate on us.” This chapter seeks to answer four central questions about the principle. First, what does Hume mean by “reason” in it? Second, what particular kinds of beliefs does it mandate or disallow? Third, what kind of normativity is expr…Read more
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1Part of Nature: Self-Knowledge in Spinoza's "Ethics" (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 34 (2): 299-301. 1996.BOOK REVIEWS ~99 edge of Hebrew and Hebrew texts, from encounters with Iberian Jews, and from polemical Christian concerns. The changing situation within German Christendom greatly influenced the way Jews, their history, and their customs were seen. Arthur Williamson, an expert in Scottish intellectual history, treats a somewhat amazing phenomenon: the Scots from the Reformation onward saw themselves as Jews, and developed a Judaized political history. From sometime in the late Middle Ages, the …Read more
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5Mind and Morality (review)Philosophical Review 110 (1): 132-134. 2001.In the introduction to his Mind and Morality: An Examination of Hume’s Moral Psychology, John Bricke traces the remarkable lack of agreement among commentators concerning the nature of Hume’s moral philosophy to two main failings: insufficient attention to “the foundations, in his philosophy of mind, on which Hume builds when constructing his theory of morality” and “the practice of taking his theory of morality as a patchwork of severally brilliant and provocative, but essentially unintegrated …Read more
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1Truth, method, and correspondence in Spinoza and LeibnizStudia Spinozana: An International and Interdisciplinary Series 6 (n/a): 13. 1990.
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29Hume's self-doubts about personal identityPhilosophical Review 90 (3): 337-358. 1981.In this appendix to "a treatise of human nature", Hume expresses dissatisfaction with his own account of personal identity, Claiming that it is "inconsistent." in spite of much recent discussion of the appendix, There has been little agreement either about the reasons for hume's second thoughts or about the philosophical moral to be drawn from them. The present article argues, First, That none of the explanations for his misgivings which have been offered has succeeded in describing a problem wh…Read more
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26Spinoza's "ontological" argumentPhilosophical Review 88 (2): 198-223. 1979.I argue that spinoza's ontological argument is successful when it is understood to have two premises: (i) it is possible for god to exist, (ii) it is necessary that, if god exists, he necessarily does. the argument is valid in s5. spinoza is in a position to establish the second premise of the argument on the basis of his definitions and axioms. the first premise was assumed to be true, but, as leibniz noted, it must be established for the conclusion of the argument to be forthcoming. this is on…Read more
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1Chapter 10. Should Hume Have Been a Transcendental Idealist?In Daniel Garber & Béatrice Longuenesse (eds.), Kant and the Early Moderns, Princeton University Press. pp. 193-208. 2008.
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12Reasons to act and believe: naturalism and rational justification in Hume’s philosophical projectPhilosophical Studies 132 (1): 1-16. 2007.Is Hume a naturalist? Does he regard all or nearly all beliefs and actions as rationally unjustified? In order to settle these questions, it is necessary to examine their key terms and to understand the character-especially the normative character-of Hume's philosophical project. This paper argues that Hume is a naturalist-and, in particular, both a moral and an epistemic naturalist-in quite robust ways; and that Hume can properly regard many actions and beliefs as "rationally justified" in seve…Read more
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13The literary arts in Hume's science of the fancyKriterion: Journal of Philosophy 44 (108): 161-179. 2003.Philosophers have long disagreed about whether poetry, drama, and other literary arts are important to philosophy and among those who believe that they are important, explanations of that importance have differed greatly. This paper aims to explain and illustrate some of the reasons why Hume found literature to be an important topic for philosophy and philosophers. Philosophy, he holds, can help to explain general and specific literary phenomena, to ground the science of criticism, and to sugges…Read more
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9Priority and Separability in Hume’s EmpiricismArchiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 67 (3): 270-288. 1985.
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12The Cambridge companion to Spinoza (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 1996.Benedict (Baruch) de Spinoza (1632–1677) was one of the most systematic, inspiring, and influential philosophers of the early modern period. From a pantheistic starting point that identified God with Nature as all of reality, he sought to demonstrate an ethics of reason, virtue, and freedom while unifying religion with science and mind with body. His contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, psychology, ethics, politics, and the analysis of religion remain vital to the present day. Yet his wri…Read more
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10Hume as Man of Reason and Woman's PhilosopherIn Lilli Alanen & Charlotte Witt (eds.), Feminist Reflections on the History of Philosophy, Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 171. 2004.
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1Spinoza's Conatus ArgumentIn Olli Koistinen & John Ivan Biro (eds.), Spinoza: Metaphysical Themes, Oup Usa. pp. 127-58. 2002.
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5Behind the Geometrical Method: A Reading of Spinoza's EthicsPhilosophical Review 100 (3): 512. 1991.
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14Replies (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 62 (1). 2001.David Owen begins his contribution by setting out very clearly how my interpretation of Hume’s distinction between simple and complex perceptions helps to resolve some puzzles about apparent counterexamples to the two most fundamental principles of Hume’s cognitive psychology: the Copy Principle and the Separability Principle. His primary object of criticism is my interpretation of Hume’s famous conclusion that inductive inferences are “not determin’d by reason”. I am as grateful for Owen’s crit…Read more
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23The papers in this volume are a selection of the papers presented at the American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting of 1994. The papers were selected by the 1993-1994 Pacific Division Program Committee, whose members include: Jean Hampton (Chair) (review)Philosophical Studies 77 (193)
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14Aaron V. Garrett, Meaning in Spinoza's Method (review)Philosophical Review 118 (2): 241-244. 2009.
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6Truth, Method, and Correspondence in Spinoza and Leibniz in Spinoza and LeibnizStudia Spinozana: An International and Interdisciplinary Series 6 13-43. 1990.
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2Leibniz, God, and NecessityPhilosophical Review 123 (2): 234-238. 2014.Book Review of Leibniz, God, and Necessity by Michael Griffin
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6Spinoza on the Essence of the Human Body and the Part of the Mind that is EternalIn Olli Koistinen (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza's Ethics, Cambridge University Press. 2009.
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