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4392Conspiracy Theories and the Conventional WisdomEpisteme 4 (2): 219-232. 2007.Abstract Conspiracy theories should be neither believed nor investigated - that is the conventional wisdom. I argue that it is sometimes permissible both to investigate and to believe. Hence this is a dispute in the ethics of belief. I defend epistemic “oughts” that apply in the first instance to belief-forming strategies that are partly under our control. But the beliefforming strategy of not believing conspiracy theories would be a political disaster and the epistemic equivalent of selfmutilat…Read more
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391Locke and the Scriblerians: Identity and Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century Britain (review)Philosophy and Literature 14 (1): 161-162. 1990.
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3Russell on Ethics: Selections From the Writings of Bertrand Russell (edited book)Routledge. 1999._Russell on Ethics_ presents a coherent and comprehensive collection of Russell's ethical writings, drawing on a wide range of his publications on ethical concerns, many of which have been difficult to access by students and general readers. Charles Pigden provides an accessible introduction to the papers, situating them within the field of ethics as a whole and detailed annotations on the papers themselves, analysing their arguments and exploring their relevance to current concerns. _Russell on…Read more
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266Review of The Social and Political Thought of Bertrand Russell by Philip Ironside (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 75 (2): 257-259. 1997.I take a dim view of this absurdly overpraised book, marred as it is is by errors of fact, interpretation and method and surprisingly uniformed (as it appears to be) about Russian history. It shows what can go wrong with Skinnerite intellectual history in the hands of somebody less gifted than Skinner himself.
Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
Areas of Specialization
1 more
Philosophy of Action |
Meta-Ethics |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Philosophy of Social Science |
20th Century Philosophy |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |