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12Spinoza: The Enduring Questions (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 34 (3): 460-461. 1996.460 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 34:3 JULY 1996 Graeme Hunter, editor. Spinoza: The Enduring Questions. Toronto: University of To- ronto Press, 1994. Pp. xi + 182. Cloth, $70.00. This volume of eight essays is dedicated to the memory of the late David Savan, and originated from a conference held in his honor prior to his untimely death. The lead essay is by Savan himself, and most of the other essays acknowledge the influence of his work. The first three essays address not only an "endur…Read more
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Benedict de Spinoza, Ethics (1677)In Jorge J. E. Gracia, Gregory M. Reichberg & Bernard N. Schumacher (eds.), The Classics of Western Philosophy: A Reader's Guide, Wiley-blackwell. pp. 245. 2003.
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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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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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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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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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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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9Priority and Separability in Hume’s EmpiricismArchiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 67 (3): 270-288. 1985.
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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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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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5Behind the Geometrical Method: A Reading of Spinoza's EthicsPhilosophical Review 100 (3): 512. 1991.
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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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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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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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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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6'A Small Tincture of Pyrrhonism': Skepticism and Naturalism in Hume's Science of ManIn Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (ed.), Pyrrhonian skepticism, Oxford University Press. pp. 68--98. 2004.
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6'Promising' ideas: Hobbes and contract in Spinoza's political philosophyIn Yitzhak Y. Melamed & Michael A. Rosenthal (eds.), Spinoza's 'Theological-Political Treatise': A Critical Guide, Cambridge University Press. pp. 192. 2010.
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12Millican’s “Abstract,” “Imaginative,” “Reasonable,” and “Sensible” Questions about Hume’s Theory of CognitionHume Studies 40 (2): 227-242. 2014.In a 1998 Hume Studies book symposium, Peter Millican provided excellent critical comments on my Cognition and Commitment in Hume’s Philosophy, and I am grateful that he has done the same for Hume. Many of the new or revised interpretations in the latter book result, directly or indirectly, from his extraordinary stimulus, both in his writings and in person, as a philosophical scholar and interlocutor. His comments range over much of the book, but the majority of them concern chapter 2, chapter …Read more
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4Hume's Conclusions in “Conclusion of this Book”In Saul Traiger (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to Hume’s Treatise, Blackwell. 2006.This chapter contains section titled: Some Features of Hume's Approach to the Science of Man Structure and Content of “Conclusion of this book” The Rational Justification of Belief Skepticism and Naturalism Notes References Further reading.
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34The First Motive to Justice: Hume's Circle Argument SquaredHume Studies 33 (2): 257-288. 2007.Hume argues that respect for property (“justice”) is a convention-dependent (“artificial”) virtue. He does so by appeal to a principle, derived from his virtue-based approach to ethics, which requires that, for any kind of virtuous action, there be a “first virtuous motive” that is other than a sense of moral duty. It has been objected, however, that in the case of justice (and also in a parallel argument concerning promise-keeping) Hume (i) does not, (ii) should not, and (iii) cannot recognize …Read more
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Areas of Specialization
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17th/18th Century Philosophy |
David Hume |
Anne Conway |
John Locke |
George Berkeley |
Thomas Reid |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics |
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Mind |