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53Capital Punishment and RealismPhilosophy 66 (256). 1991.In its treatment of capital punishment Amnesty International gives a central place to the suffering of the prisoner. Two quite distinct forms of suffering are relevant here. There is the psychological anguish of the person awaiting execution; and there is the physical suffering which may be involved in the execution itself. It is suggested that if we reflect clearly on this suffering we will conclude that the death penalty involves cruelty of a kind which makes it quite unacceptable. It is to be…Read more
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60The SupernaturalReligious Studies 28 (3). 1992.The final chapter of Peter Winch's book on Simone Weil discusses Weil's idea of supernatural virtue. Weil uses this language in connection with certain exceptional actions: actions of a kind which are for most of us, most of the time, simply impossible. She is particularly struck by cases in which someone refrains from exercising a power which they have over another: in which, for example, someone refrains from killing or enslaving an enemy who has grievously harmed him and who is now at his mer…Read more
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38Rush Rhees, Wittgenstein and the possibility of discoursePhilosophical Investigations 25 (1). 2002.
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54ARCHON: A distributed artificial intelligence system for industrial applicationsIn N. Jennings & G. O'Hare (eds.), Foundations of Distributed Artificial Intelligence, Wiley. pp. 319--344. 1996.
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48Trust in ConversationNordic Wittgenstein Review 3 (1): 47-68. 2014.We may think of the notion of “trust” primarily in epistemological terms or, alternatively, primarily in ethical terms. These different ways of thinking of trust are linked with different ways of picturing language, and my relation to the words of another. While an analogy with an individual continuing an arithmetical series has had a central place in discussions of language originating from Wittgenstein, Rush Rhees suggests that conversation provides a better model for thinking about language. …Read more
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11Other Times: Philosophical Perspectives on Past, Present and FutureMind 108 (432): 761-764. 1999.
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15Memories, traces and the significance of the pastIn Christoph Hoerl & Teresa McCormack (eds.), Time and memory: issues in philosophy and psychology, Oxford University Press. 2001.
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31Tense and emotionIn Robin Le Poidevin (ed.), Questions of time and tense, Oxford University Press. pp. 77--91. 1998.
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O'HEAR, ANTHONY The Elements of Fire: Science, Art and the Human World (review)Philosophy 64 (n/a): 272. 1989.
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27In the Beginning Was the DeedPhilosophical Investigations 36 (4): 303-319. 2013.Winch's readings of Wittgenstein and Weil call for a significant rethinking of the relation between “metaphysics” and “ethics.” But there are confusions, perhaps to be found in all three of these writers, that we may slip into here. These are linked with the tendency to see idealist tendencies in Wittgenstein, and with his remark that giving grounds comes to an end, not in a kind of seeing on our part, but in our acting. The sense that we think we see in this suggestion is dependent on a distort…Read more
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14The Element of Fire: Science, Art and the Human World By Anthony O'Hear London: Routledge, 1988, 178 pp., £19.95 (review)Philosophy 64 (248): 272-. 1989.
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11Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard: Religion, Individuality and Philosophical MethodPhilosophical Books 31 (2): 82-83. 1990.
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9An introduction to the philosophy of mindPalgrave. 2001.This book differs from others by rejecting the dualist approach associated in particular with Descartes. It also casts serious doubt on the forms of materialism that now dominate English language philosophy. Drawing in particular on the work of Wittgenstein, a central place is given to the importance of the notion of a human being in our thought about ourselves and others.
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68Human beings and giant squids (on ascribing human sensations and emotions to non-human creatures)Philosophy 69 (268): 135-50. 1994.A television nature programme a year or two ago contained a striking sequence in which a giant squid was under threat from some other creature . The squid responded in a way which struck me immediately and powerfully as one of fear. Part of what was striking in this sequence was the way in which it was possible to see in the behaviour of a creature physically so very different from human beings an emotion which was so unambiguously and specifically one of fear
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19Human Relationships By Paul Gilbert Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991, 164 pp., £35.00, £10.95 paper (review)Philosophy 67 (260): 262-. 1992.
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Emotion, expression and conversationIn Ylva Gustafsson, Camilla Kronqvist & Michael McEachrane (eds.), Emotions and understanding: Wittgensteinian perspectives, Palgrave-macmillan. pp. 126. 2009.