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Emotions as evidence for evaluationsIn Kevin McCain, Scott Stapleford & Matthias Steup (eds.), Seemings: New Arguments, New Angles, Routledge. 2023.
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65Riddles of Existence: A Guided Tour of Metaphysics (second edition)Oxford University Press. 2014.This is an introduction to metaphysics for students and non-philosophers. (Philosophers: it's supposed to be the kind of book you can give to your friends and family, when they ask what you do for a living.) Contents: personal identity, fatalism, time, God, why not nothing?, free will, constitution, universals, necessity and possibility, what is metaphysics, meta-metaphysics, the metaphysics of ethics.
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37Hedonistic utilitarianismPhilosophical Review 110 (3): 428-430. 2001.This is a wide-ranging defense of a distinctive version of hedonistic act utilitarianism. It is plainly written, forthright, and stimulating. Also, it is replete with disputable assertions and arguments. I shall pursue one issue here, after sketching the project of each substantial chapter.
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32Explanatory justification, seeming truth, humility, question‐begging, and evidence from intuitionsMetaphilosophy 53 (5): 583-592. 2022.William Lycan's On Evidence in Philosophy makes noteworthy contributions to many important philosophical topics. The topics discussed here are epistemic justification by explanatory coherence, seeming truths as sources of initial justification, the extent of our philosophical ignorance, the fault in begging the question, the nature of intuitions, and the evidence that intuitions supply. For each topic, an attempt is made to employ work done in the book to advance the philosophical issues.
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497Riddles of Existence: A Guided Tour of Metaphysics: New EditionOxford University Press. 2005.This is an introduction to metaphysics for students and non-philosophers. (Philosophers: it's supposed to be the kind of book you can give to your friends and family, when they ask what you do for a living.) Contents: personal identity, fatalism, time, God, why not nothing?, free will, constitution, universals, necessity and possibility, what is metaphysics? (There is a second edition, which adds chapters on meta-metaphysics and the metaphysics of ethics.)
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29Things dreamt: a response to Berislav MarusicPhilosophical Studies 179 (8): 2419-2427. 2022.Skeptical arguments from dreaming deny that we can know that we are awake. This denial lacks initial credibility to many of us. Often it seems easy to know. A brief reflection seems sufficient. How might the reflection enable us to know? Berislav Marusic offers a plausible answer. The answer is that we can take note of certain phenomenal qualities that are present only when we are awake. The present work argues that there are no such qualities. The final section gives a different account of the …Read more
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105Evidential support and best explanationsPhilosophical Issues 30 (1): 71-85. 2020.The essay seeks the best combination of internal and external factors in the evidential support that we can have for a proposition. After identifying the combination, the essay criticizes views according to which our evidence supports propositions in virtue of the propositions explaining the evidence to us.
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18Utilitarianism and Co-operation by Donald Reagan (review)Journal of Philosophy 80 (7): 415-424. 1983.
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17The Nature of Mind and Other EssaysPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 42 (4): 622-625. 1982.
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Between Belief and DisbeliefIn McCain Kevin (ed.), Believing in Accordance with the Evidence: New Essays on Evidentialism, Springer Verlag. 2018.
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39Factual Evidence without KnowledgePacific Philosophical Quarterly 98 (S1): 536-552. 2017.The essay argues that some factual propositions are both clearly true and not known. The essays argues that those propositions are evidence for anyone to whom they are clearly true.
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30Vindicating the Absent Qualia ObjectionRatio 31 (S1): 19-34. 2017.Metaphysical functionalism holds that the nature of the mental is its functional role. Proponents of the absent qualia objection to functionalism assert that mental states with essential phenomenal qualities might have had functional duplicates without qualia. Michael Tye has argued that this purported possibility is incoherent. Robert van Gulick has criticized Tye's argument. It is contended here that although van Gulick's criticism does not refute the argument, Tye's argument is unsuccessful. …Read more
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22The Comforts of HomePhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 70 (2): 444-451. 2007.Tim defines a "luminous" condition as one that we are always in a position to know that we are in, whenever we are in it. To explain the idea of being in a position to know, Tim tells us that we are in a position to know a proposition when it states a fact that is open to our view, unhidden, and with no obstacle to our knowing it. He also tells us that if we are in a position to know a proposition, and we do what we are in a position to do toward knowing whether or not it is true, then we know i…Read more
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24Pleasure and Intrinsic GoodnessDissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst. 1980.The Appendix considers whether instrumental value of any sort depends upon intrinsic goodness. It is argued that most familiar sorts do not so depend, but one can be shown to do so by a kind of First Cause argument. ;Chapter IV begins with an attempt to give a clear and complete formulation of hedonism--the theory according to which only pleasure is intrinsically good. The formulation builds upon the efforts of Warren Quinn and Edward Oldfield. Then an argument against hedonism by Brentano is cr…Read more
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41The Analysis of Knowledge in the Second Edition of Theory of KnowledgeCanadian Journal of Philosophy 10 (2). 1980.Roderick Chisholm has offered a new attempt to define knowledge in the second edition of Theory of Knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to present an objection to that definiton.Here is the proposed definition :D6.4 h is known by 5 =df h is accepted by S; h is true; and h is nondefectively evident for 5.To understand D6.4 we need to know what it is for a proposition to be nondefectively evident for a person. That has the following definition:D6.3 h is nondefectively evident for S=df Either h …Read more
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187Evidentialism: essays in epistemologyOxford University Press. 2004.Evidentialism is a view about the conditions under which a person is epistemically justified in having a particular doxastic attitude toward a proposition. Evidentialism holds that the justified attitudes are determined entirely by the person's evidence. This is the traditional view of justification. It is now widely opposed. The essays included in this volume develop and defend the tradition. Evidentialism has many assets. In addition to providing an intuitively plausible account of epistemic j…Read more
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9Contextualism ContestedIn Matthias Steup & John Turri (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, Blackwell. pp. 47-56. 2013.
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7The Moral Value in PromisesPhilosophical Review 109 (3): 411. 2000.Holly Smith poses a challenging moral problem. She offers examples that appear to show that the moral significance of promising can be nefariously exploited. Her leading example is this
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2A Mysterious Case of Missing ValuePhilosophic Exchange 45 (1): 1-22. 2016.Sometimes there are conflicts about what we ought to do according to differing evaluative dimensions, like morality and self-interest. After sketching an interpretation of "ought" claims of all sorts, it is argued that there is no overriding evaluation that authoritatively resolves the conflicts. It is further argued that this is not altogether disappointing.
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144Seeing the truthPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 58 (4): 847-857. 1998.Some propositions are obvious in their own right. We can `just see' that they are true. So there is some such epistemic phenomenon as seeing the truth of a proposition. This paper investigates the nature of this phenomenon. The aptness of the visual metaphor is explained. Accounts of the phenomenon requiring qualia by which the truth is apprehended are disputed. A limited theory is developed and applied
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123Good to knowPhilosophical Studies 174 (2): 311-331. 2017.Our curiosity has us interested in finding out the truth. Knowing the fact of the matter fulfills the interest. This fulfillment is something satisfying about knowledge. Additionally, knowledge is a good way for a person to relate to a proposition. Knowing is good because of what knowledge is. In other words, knowledge is intrinsically good. The credibility of these assessments calls for some explanation. A traditional view is that knowledge is justified true belief with no Gettier accidents. Th…Read more
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51Epistemology and the Psychology of Human JudgmentPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 77 (3): 837-840. 2008.
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