-
1040Performative transcendental argumentsPhilosophia 33 (1-4): 69-95. 2005.‘Performative’ transcendental arguments exploit the status of a subcategory of self-falsifying propositions in showing that some form of skepticism is unsustainable. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between performatively inconsistent propositions and transcendental arguments, and then to compare performative transcendental arguments to modest transcendental arguments that seek only to establish the indispensability of some belief or conceptual framework. Reconceptualizing …Read more
-
1115Empiricism, Time-Awareness, and Hume's Manners of DispositionJournal of Scottish Philosophy 5 (1): 47-63. 2007.The issue of time-awareness presents a critical challenge for empiricism: if temporal properties are not directly perceived, how do we become aware of them? A unique empiricist account of time-awareness suggested by Hume's comments on time in the Treatise avoids the problems characteristic of other empiricist accounts. Hume's theory, however, has some counter-intuitive consequences. The failure of empiricists to come up with a defensible theory of time-awareness lends prima facie support to a no…Read more
-
176The Aristotelian Prescription: Skepticism, Retortion, and Transcendental ArgumentsInternational Philosophical Quarterly 46 (3): 263-276. 2006.From a number of quarters have come attempts to answer some form of skepticism—about knowledge of the external world, freedom of the will, or moral reasons—by showing it to be performatively self-defeating. Examples of this strategy are subject to a number of criticisms, in particular the criticism that they fail to shift the burden of proof from the anti-skeptical position, and so fail to establish the epistemic entitlement they seek. To these approaches I contrast one way of understanding Kant…Read more
-
15Kant's refutation of idealismIn Michael Bruce & Steven Barbone (eds.), Just the Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Arguments in Western Philosophy, Wiley-blackwell. 2011.
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Metaphilosophy |
General Philosophy of Science |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |