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46Williams, Pragmatism, and the LawRes Publica 27 (2): 155-170. 2020.This paper views Bernard Williams through the lens of the pragmatist tradition. The central insight of pragmatism is that philosophy must start with human practice, in contrast to high theory or metaphysics. Williams was one of the twentieth century’s most able proponents of this insight, especially when considering the topics of ethics and the law. Williams never saw himself as a pragmatist, because he took Richard Rorty’s radical relativism to be the exemplar of the position. But I shall sugge…Read more
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18Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of PowersOxford University Press. 2020.Frank Ramsey was a brilliant Cambridge philosopher, mathematician, and economist who died in 1930 at 26 having made landmark contributions to decision theory, game theory, mathematics, logic, semantics, philosophy of science, and the theory of truth. This rich biography tells the story of his extraordinary life and intellectual achievement.
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16Making Disagreement MatterIn Robert B. Talisse & Scott F. Aikin (eds.), The Pragmatism Reader: From Peirce Through the Present, Princeton University Press. pp. 471-484. 2011.
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24Steven Methven, Frank Ramsey and the Realistic SpiritJournal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 7 (6). 2019.Reviewed by Cheryl Misak.
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19Medically Inappropriate or Futile Treatment: Deliberation and JustificationJournal of Medicine and Philosophy. 2015.
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35Ramsey, Pragmatism, and the Vienna CircleEuropean Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 11 (1). 2019.Frank Ramsey (1903-1930) is usually taken to be sympathetic to the Vienna Circle’s project. I will argue that this is not right. Ramsey was a pragmatist, and he put pragmatist objections to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, objections which also had the Vienna Circle as their target. Ramsey thought the Circle’s position (like Wittgenstein’s) was mistaken in that, instead of starting with human inquiry, it tried to construct the world out of elementary particulars and logic, and resulted in an unacceptab…Read more
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30On the Genealogy of Universals: The Metaphysical Origins of Analytic Philosophy by Fraser MacBrideJournal of the History of Philosophy 57 (2): 356-357. 2019.In the preface to this excellent book, Fraser MacBride says he decided to write it because he had "become convinced that there is far more to find out and far more to learn from the history of early analytic philosophy". He is right; the history of early analytic philosophy holds insights for us today, and most of them lie outside of what MacBride calls our "cartoon histories." In punchy prose, he mines gems from what one of his heroes, Frank Ramsey, called "that great muddle the theory of unive…Read more
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538Charles Sanders Peirce on NecessityIn Adriane Rini, Edwin Mares & Max Cresswell (eds.), Logical Modalities from Aristotle to Carnap: The Story of Necessity, Cambridge University Press. pp. 256-278. 2016.Necessity is a touchstone issue in the thought of Charles Peirce, not least because his pragmatist account of meaning relies upon modal terms. We here offer an overview of Peirce’s highly original and multi-faceted take on the matter. We begin by considering how a self-avowed pragmatist and fallibilist can even talk about necessary truth. We then outline the source of Peirce’s theory of representation in his three categories of Firstness, Secondness and Thirdness, (monadic, dyadic and triadic r…Read more
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38There Can Be No Difference Anywhere that Doesn't Make a Difference ElsewhereTransactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 54 (3): 417. 2018.My title is of course drawn from William James's Pragmatism: A New Name for some Old Ways of Thinking. The five excellent critics of Cambridge Pragmatism: From Peirce and James to Ramsey and Wittgenstein have zeroed in on the profound questions at the heart of pragmatism. All of us working in the tradition should thank them, and I happily do so. In what follows, I will explore the supposed differences between their views and my own. I hope to persuade my critics that sometimes there is no differ…Read more
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12Criterialism versus DeliberativismPerspectives in Biology and Medicine 60 (3): 408-414. 2018.I was one of the group that produced “An Official ATS/AACN/ACCP/ESICM/SCCM Policy Statement: Responding to Requests for Futile and Potentially Inappropriate Treatments in Intensive Care Units”. I do not write on that group’s behalf, but rather from two distinct perspectives which converge onto one view. First, I am a philosopher who thinks about our most pressing questions, such as how to make treatment decisions when a life is coming to an end. From that perspective, three of us from the group …Read more
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33Truth and the End of Inquiry: A Peircean Account of TruthPhilosophical Review 102 (1): 110. 1993.
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18Verificationism: Its History and ProspectsRoutledge. 1995._Verificationism_ is the first comprehensive history of a concept that dominated philosophy and scientific methodology between the 1930s and the 1960s. The verificationist principle - the concept that a belief with no connection to experience is spurious - is the most sophisticated version of empiricism. More flexible ideas of verification are now being rehabilitated by a number of philosophers. C.J. Misak surveys the precursors, the main proponents and the rehabilitators. Unlike traditional stu…Read more
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5PragmatismCalgary : University of Calgary Press. 1999.This volume collects some of the very best recent work on pragmatism, the view that philosophical theories must be connected to practical consequences, from both self-styled pragmatists and from those whose positions merely have affinities with pragmatism. The essays, which cover both classical pragmatism and contemporary approaches, focus on epistemology and moral/political philosophy.
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57The Oxford handbook of American philosophy (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2008.Cheryl Misak presents the first collective study of the development of philosophy in North America, from the 18th century to the end of the 20th century.
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70New pragmatists (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2007.The best of Peirce, James, and Dewey has thus resurfaced in deep, interesting, and fruitful ways, explored in this volume by David Bakhurst, Arthur Fine, Ian ...
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46The Cambridge companion to Peirce (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2004.Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), the founder of pragmatism, is generally considered the most significant American philosopher. Popularized by William James and John Dewey, pragmatism advocates that our philosophical theories be linked to experience and practice. The essays in this volume reveal how Peirce developed this concept.
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104Verificationism: its history and prospectsRoutledge. 1995.Verificationism is the first comprehensive history of a concept that dominated philosophy and scientific methodology between the 1930s and 1960s,surveying the precursors,the main proponents and the rehabilitators. This title available in eBook format. Click here for more information . Visit our eBookstore at: www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk.
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6Reply to Margolis, Madelrieux and LevineEuropean Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 5 (2). 2013.Allow me to begin by thanking these three commentators for the time and energy they have put into thinking about the issues I raise in The American Pragmatists. There are some important common themes in their reading of the book and I am grateful for the opportunity to address them, and to clarify and expand on what I wrote. One thing that common to all three readers is that they see me as offering, in Stéphane Madelrieux’s words, a history of pragmatism that is both descriptive and normative...
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42Pragmatism and the Transcendental Turn in Truth and EthicsTransactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 30 (4). 1994.
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55Medically Inappropriate or Futile Treatment: Deliberation and JustificationJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 41 (1): 90-114. 2016.This paper reframes the futility debate, moving away from the question “Who decides when to end what is considered to be a medically inappropriate or futile treatment?” and toward the question “How can society make policy that will best account for the multitude of values and conflicts involved in such decision-making?” It offers a pragmatist moral epistemology that provides us with a clear justification of why it is important to take best standards, norms, and physician judgment seriously and a…Read more
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131 Charles Sanders Peirce 1839-1914)In The Cambridge companion to Peirce, Cambridge University Press. pp. 1. 2004.
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38Democratic Hope: Pragmatism and the Politics of Truth (review) (review)Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 42 (2): 279-282. 2006.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Democratic Hope: Pragmatism and the Politics of TruthCheryl MisakRobert B. Westbrook Democratic Hope: Pragmatism and the Politics of Truth Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2005. xvi + 246 pp.Robert Westbrook, who in my view is our best intellectual historian of pragmatism, has written what is sure to be a major contribution to the study of pragmatist political theory, a branch of political theory which has rec…Read more
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35A Culture of Justification: The Pragmatist’s Epistemic Argument for DemocracyEpisteme: A Journal of Social Epistemology 5 (1): 94-105. 2008.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy |
The Nature of Philosophy |
American Pragmatism |
Areas of Interest
Social and Political Philosophy |
The Nature of Philosophy |
American Pragmatism |