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19Structural flaws: massive modularity and the argument from designBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 59 (4): 733-743. 2008.The ‘argument from design’ plays a pivotal role in Carruthers’ recent defence of the massive modularity thesis. However, as this paper seeks to show, there are major flaws in its structure. If construed deductively, it is unsound: modular mental architecture is not necessarily the best architecture, and even if it were, this alone would not show that this architecture evolved. If construed inductively, it is not much more convincing, as it then appears to be too weak to support the kind of modul…Read more
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18What’s the Point? A Presentist Social Functionalist Account of Institutional PurposeSage Publications Inc: Philosophy of the Social Sciences 52 (1-2): 53-80. 2021.Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Volume 52, Issue 1-2, Page 53-80, January-March 2022. Although it is clear that many of the major contemporary social problems center on the extent to which social institutions do or do not function as they are meant to do, it is still unclear exactly what the function of a social institution is—and thus when this function is undermined. This paper presents and defends a novel theory of social functionalism—presentist social functionalism—to answer these questi…Read more
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18P. Hammerstein and J. R. Stevens: ‘Evolution and the Mechanisms of Decision Making’Acta Biotheoretica 62 (4): 527-530. 2014.
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16Tools of the trade: the bio-cultural evolution of the human propensity to tradeBiology and Philosophy 37 (2): 1-24. 2022.Humans are standouts in their propensity to trade. More specially, the kind of trading found in humans—featuring the exchange of many different goods and services with many different others, for the mutual benefit of all the involved parties—far exceeds anything that is found in any other creature. However, a number of important questions about this propensity remain open. First, it is not clear exactly what makes this propensity so different in the human case from that of other animals. Second,…Read more
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15Institutional CorruptionJournal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 25 (3). 2023.While corruption has long been recognized as a major social problem, only relatively recently has the importance of a specific institutional form of corruption been noted. However, despite the fact that institutional corruption has come to be seen as very important, it remains a challenge to specify exactly what makes something a case of institutional corruption. To overcome this challenge, this paper argues that institutional corruption is the result of an individual or collective agent acting …Read more
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15Externalization of moral demands does not motivate exclusion of non-cooperators: A defense of a subjectivist moral psychologyBehavioral and Brain Sciences 41. 2018.
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14In dem wilden wald Außerhöfische Sonderräume, Liminalität und mythisierendes Erzählen in den Tristan-Dichtungen: Eilhart — Béroul — GottfriedDeutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft Und Geistesgeschichte 77 (4): 515-547. 2003.
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14Idealizations and Partitions: A Defense of Robustness AnalysisEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (4): 1-15. 2021.We argue that the robustness analysis of idealized models can have confirmational power. This responds to concerns recently raised in the literature, according to which the robustness analysis of models whose idealizations are not discharged is unable to confirm the causal mechanisms underlying these models, and the robustness analysis of models whose idealizations are discharged is unnecessary. In response, we make clear that, where idealizations sweep out, in a specific way, the space of possi…Read more
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13Explaining Human Diversity: the Need to Balance Fit and ComplexityReview of Philosophy and Psychology 14 (2): 457-475. 2021.While the existence of human cognitive and behavioral diversity is now widely recognized, it is not yet well established how to explain this diversity. In particular, it is still unclear how to determine whether any given instance of human cognitive and behavioral diversity is due to a common psychology that is merely “triggered” differently in different bio-cultural environments, or whether it is due to deeply and fundamentally different psychologies. This paper suggests that, to answer this qu…Read more
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13Metonymisches ErzählenDeutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft Und Geistesgeschichte 84 (1): 3-43. 2010.
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13What’s the Point? A Presentist Social Functionalist Account of Institutional PurposePhilosophy of the Social Sciences 52 (1-2): 53-80. 2022.Although it is clear that many of the major contemporary social problems center on the extent to which social institutions do or do not function as they are meant to do, it is still unclear exactly what the function of a social institution is—and thus when this function is undermined. This paper presents and defends a novel theory of social functionalism—presentist social functionalism—to answer these questions. According to this theory, the function of social institutions is grounded in those o…Read more
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12Richard JeffreyIn Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. pp. 129. 2010.Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
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10ProbabilityIn Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. 2010.Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
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10Equilibrium modeling in economics: a design-based defenseJournal of Economic Methodology 31 (1): 36-53. 2024.Several authors have recently argued that the excessive focus on equilibrium models in mainstream economic analysis prevents economists from providing accurate representations of the complex and dynamic nature of real economic systems. In response, this paper argues the following. Many economic systems are the products of deliberate and centralized human design. People can and do build and support structures, such as social institutions, aiming to enhance the predictability of economic systems, …Read more
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9Interpretations of probabilityIn Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. pp. 81. 2010.Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
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9BayesianismIn Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. 2010.Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
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9Interpretations of probabilityIn Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. 2010.Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
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9Human Curiosity Then and Now: The Anthropology, Archaeology, and Psychology of Patent ProtectionsIn Sean Allen-Hermanson Anton Killin (ed.), Explorations in Archaeology and Philosophy. Synthese Library (Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science), Springer Verlag. pp. 67-83. 2021.Recent anthropological, archaeological, and psychological findings support the view that humans have long been driven by a deep sense of curiosity that needs little if any special external material reward. Apart from being inherently interesting, these findings also turn out to have some wide-ranging consequences for central debates in other social sciences—such as economics. In particular, it is still often thought that, without extensive patent protections, economic actors lack the incentive t…Read more
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8This book is the first systematic treatment of the philosophy of science underlying evolutionary economics. It does not advocate an evolutionary approach towards economics, but rather assesses the epistemic value of appealing to evolutionary biology in economics more generally. The author divides work in evolutionary economics into three distinct, albeit related, forms: a structural form, an evidential form, and a heuristic form. He then analyzes five examples of work in evolutionary economics f…Read more
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7Richard JeffreyIn Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic, . pp. 129. 2010.Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
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7BayesianismIn Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. pp. 27. 2010.Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
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7Probabilistic logicIn Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. pp. 57. 2010.Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
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6Probabilistic logicIn Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic. The key terms in philosophy, Continuum. pp. 57. 2010.Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
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6BayesianismIn Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic, . pp. 27. 2010.Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
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4Probabilistic logicIn Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic, . pp. 57. 2010.Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
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4Interpretations of probabilityIn Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic, . pp. 81. 2010.Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more
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1ProbabilityIn Jon Williamson & Federica Russo (eds.), Key Terms in Logic, . pp. 80. 2010.Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no p…Read more