• Transparency and Apperception (edited book)
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy Special Issue. 2019.
  •  32
    Qualification in Philosophy
    Acta Analytica 39 (1): 183-205. 2023.
    Qualifiers such as “insofar as” and “in itself” have always been important ingredients in key philosophical claims. Descartes, for instance, famously argues that insofar as he is a thinker, he is not made of matter, and Kant equally famously argues that we cannot know things in themselves. Neither of these claims is meant to be true without qualification. Descartes is not simply denying that humans consist of matter, and Kant is not simply denying that we know things. Therefore, we cannot even b…Read more
  •  2
    Chapter 12: Occurrents
    In Katherine Munn & Barry Smith (eds.), Applied Ontology: An Introduction, Ontos. pp. 255-284. 2008.
  •  2
    Chapter 9: The Classification of Living Beings
    with Peter Heuer
    In Katherine Munn & Barry Smith (eds.), Applied Ontology: An Introduction, Ontos. pp. 197-218. 2008.
  •  3
    Chapter 2: What is Formal Ontology?
    In Katherine Munn & Barry Smith (eds.), Applied Ontology: An Introduction, Ontos. pp. 39-56. 2008.
  •  2
    Constituent Functions
    In Christer Svennerlind, Almäng Jan & Rögnvaldur Ingthorsson (eds.), Johanssonian Investigations: Essays in Honour of Ingvar Johansson on His Seventieth Birthday, Ontos Verlag. pp. 259-274. 2013.
  •  2
    Das Segeltuchmodell
    In Sebastian Rödl & Henning Tegtmeyer (eds.), Sinnkritisches Philosophieren, De Gruyter. pp. 213-230. 2012.
    Den Begriff, unter den Sokrates in dem Satz „Sokrates ist ein Kluger“ gebracht wird, sollte man nicht als „Klugheit“ fassen, sondern als den Klugen als solchen. Der Kluge wird also von Sokrates ausgesagt. Der Kluge als solcher ist ein abstraktes Ding, keine Eigenschaft. So gesehen ist ohne weiteres klar, dass der Begriff des Klugen (= der Kluge als solcher) selbst klug ist, und zwar ebenso buchstäblich, wie Sokrates klug ist.
  •  270
    Aristoteles' Beschreibung der ethischen Tugenden
    In Jens Kertscher & Jan Müller (eds.), Lebensform und Praxisform, Mentis. 2015.
    Wenn Tugenden Praxisformen sind, dann kann man einiges über Praxisformen lernen, indem man nachsieht, was Tugenden sind. Ich werde dies im Folgenden partiell und indirekt tun, indem ich die sprachliche Form untersuche, in der Aristoteles die ethischen Tugenden beschreibt. Er tut dies im Wesentlichen dadurch, dass er den derart Tugendhaften in der dritten Person Singular beschreibt. Dann werde ich kurz auf die Grenzen von Aristoteles’ Verfahren zu sprechen kommen, indem ich auf eine den Tugenden …Read more
  •  11
    Aristotle's four causes
    Peter Lang. 2019.
    This book examines Aristotle's four causes (material, formal, efficient, and final), offering a systematic discussion of the relation between form and matter, causation, taxonomy, and teleology. The overall aim is to show that the four causes form a system, so that the form of a natural thing relates to its matter as the final cause of a natural process relates to its efficient cause. Aristotle's Four Causes reaches two novel and distinctive conclusions. The first is that the formal cause or ess…Read more
  •  164
    Aitiai as middle terms
    Journal of Ancient Philosophy 16 (2): 126-148. 2022.
    Aristotle’s aitiai are middle terms in Aristotelian syllogisms. I argue that stating the aitia of a thing therefore amounts to re-describing this same thing in an alternative and illuminating way. This, in turn, means that a thing and its aitiai really are one and the same thing under different descriptions. The purpose of this paper is to show that this view is implied by Aristotle’s account of explanation, and that it makes more sense than one might expect.
  •  19
    I argue that a tripartite analysis of simple statements such as “Bucephalus is a horse”, according to which they divide into two terms and a copula, requires the notion of a repeatable: something such that more than one particular can literally be it. I pose a familiar dilemma with respect to repeatables, and turn to Avicenna for a solution, who discusses a similar dilemma concerning quiddities. I conclude by describing how Avicenna’s quiddities relate to repeatables, and how both quiddities and…Read more
  •  19
    Avicenna on human self-intellection
    Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 32 (2): 179-199. 2022.
    RésuméJe soutiens qu'Avicenne admet au moins un cas où il est possible pour notre intellect de saisir un individu particulier en soi : chaque intellect humain peut s'appréhender comme étant numériquement lui-même sans avoir recours à une notion ou un concept général. Car l’être humain préserve son identité lorsqu'il est séparé de son corps. Nous discutons des textes où Avicenne semble affirmer et nier qu'un être humain peut s'appréhender lui-même. Nous concluons que, contrairement à la conscienc…Read more
  •  18
    Avicenna on the Ontology of Pure Quiddity
    Philosophical Quarterly 71 (4). 2021.
    Avicenna on the Ontology of Pure Quiddity. By Janos Damien.
  •  13
    Meta Logou in Plato’s Theaetetus
    Apeiron 54 (1): 109-128. 2020.
    The account of knowledge in Plato’s Theaetetus, as true belief meta logou, seems to lead to a regress, which may be avoided by defining one kind of knowledge as true belief that rests on a different kind of knowledge. I explore a specific version of this move: to define knowledge as true belief that results from a successful and proper exercise of a rational capacity (a dunamis meta logou).
  •  39
    Form and Function in Aristotle
    History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 23 (2): 317-337. 2020.
    On the one hand, Aristotle claims that the matter of a material thing is not part of its form. On the other hand, he suggests that the proper account of a natural thing must include a specification of the kind of matter in which it is realized. There are three possible strategies for dealing with this apparent tension. First, there may be two kinds of definition, so that the definition of the form of a thing does not include any specification of its matter, whereas the definition of a compound d…Read more
  •  20
    Teleonomy
    History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 14 (1): 185-202. 2011.
    The distinction between teleology and teleonomy that biologists sometimes refer to seems to be helpful in certain contexts, but it is used in several different ways and has rarely been clearly drawn. This paper discusses three prominent uses of the term “teleonomy” and traces its history back to what seems to be its first use. This use is examined in detail and then justified and refined on the basis of elements found in the philosophy of Aristotle, Kant, Anscombe and others. In the course of th…Read more
  •  39
    This is a discussion of self-knowledge in Hugh of St. Victor. It will yield the following three systematic results. First, it will be shown that there is a clear sense in which human self-knowledge is knowledge of one’s own rationality, and therefore knowledge of the proper object of one’s rational capacities (dunameis meta logou). Second, a distinction will be drawn between perfect and imperfect self-knowledge. Third, it will turn out that under conditions of perfect self-knowledge, all our rat…Read more
  •  56
    Knowledge and Truth in Plato: Stepping Past the Shadow of Socrates
    Philosophical Quarterly 69 (276): 638-641. 2019.
    Review of Catherine Rowett's Knowledge and Truth in Plato
  •  50
    Lichtenberg’s Point
    Grazer Philosophische Studien 95 (2): 265-286. 2018.
    _ Source: _Volume 95, Issue 2, pp 265 - 286 The author argues that when Lichtenberg recommends saying “It is thinking” instead of “I am thinking”, he is not suggesting that thought might be a subjectless occurrence. Lichtenberg’s point is, rather, that we are often the _passive_ subject or medium of our thoughts. The author further argues that Descartes’ _cogito_ argument is not affected by this point, because Descartes does not claim that we must be the active subject of all our thoughts. Moreo…Read more
  •  125
    How Aristotle gets by in Metaphysics Zeta
    Philosophical Quarterly 67 (266): 179-182. 2017.
    Book review.
  •  71
    Socrates and Self-Knowledge
    Philosophical Quarterly 68 (271): 421-424. 2018.
    © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Scots Philosophical Association and the University of St Andrews. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected] idea of this book is to closely examine all passages where Socrates talks about the Delphic precept, ‘Know Thyself’, and see what picture of self-knowledge emerges. Given that Socrates is a key figure in the transmission of this precept, it is very likely that such a proje…Read more
  •  26
    Schuld und Gewissen bei Abelard
    Dialektik (1): 129-143. 2003.
    In Abelards Kommentar zum Römerbrief erscheint das Handeln contra conscientiam als eines gegen das eigene Urteil über andere. Abelard bezieht sich hier vor allem auf eine frühere Stelle im selben Brief, wo Paulus schreibt, jeder werde nach dem Gesetz gerichtet, das er sich selbst gibt (Rom 2,1). Was wir an Anderen verur- teilen, erläutert er, stehe dadurch auch unserer eigenen conscientia entgegen, und nur ein Handeln gegen die conscientia sei Sünde. Damit wird die goldene Regel, auf die Abelard…Read more
  •  29
    Tugenden und Absichten
    Philosophisches Jahrbuch 115 (1): 165-182. 2008.
    Psychological experiments show that human behavior is often determined by features of the situation rather than general and persistent character traits of the agent. Therefore, it may seem naive to suppose that someone with a virtuous character will in general act virtuously. This is at least true if a character trait is taken to be a persistent characteristic or property that reliably causes certain behavior. On the basis of the conception of agency developed by Anscombe in Intention, I will ar…Read more
  •  192
    Kants Modell kausaler Verhältnisse
    Kant Studien 102 (3): 367-384. 2011.
    Eric Watkins argues that according to Kant, causation is not a relation between two events, but a relation between the “causality” of a substance and an event. It is shown that his arguments are partly based on a confusion between causation and interaction. Further, Watkins claims that for Kant, causes cannot be temporally determined. If this were true, it would follow that there can be no causal chains, and that all factors that determine the time when an effect occurs do not belong to its caus…Read more
  •  85
    The man without properties
    Synthese 194 (6). 2017.
    Contemporary philosophical logic rests on a distinction between things and properties. Properties are thought to differ from things in that their proper expression is incomplete or unsaturated. In this paper, I will argue that Aristotle did not distinguish between things and properties in this way. I will show, first, that Aristotle’s essences are not properties, and that certain passages in Aristotle make sense only if we do not take accidents to be properties either. The notion of a property i…Read more
  •  40
    Getting Causes from Powers
    Philosophical Quarterly 66 (263): 414-417. 2016.
    Book Review.
  •  17
    Constituent Functions Boris Hennig
    In Christer Svennerlind, Jan Almäng & Rögnvaldur Ingthorsson (eds.), Johanssonian Investigations. Essays in Honour of Ingvar Johansson on His Seventieth Birthday, Ontos Verlag. pp. 5--259. 2013.
    Starting from the idea that functions are formally similar to actions in that they are described and explained in a similar way, so that both admit of an accordion effect, I turn to Anscombe’s insight that the point of practical reasoning is to render explicit the relation between the different descriptions of an action generated by the accordion effect. The upshot is, roughly, that an item has a function if what it does can be accounted for by functional reasoning. Put differently, a part of a …Read more
  •  281
    Teleonomy
    History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 14. 2011.
    The distinction between teleology and teleonomy that biologists sometimes refer to seems to be helpful in certain contexts, but it is used in several different ways and has rarely been clearly drawn. This paper discusses three prominent uses of the term “teleonomy” and traces its history back to what seems to be its first use. This use is examined in detail and then justified and refined on the basis of elements found in the philosophy of Aristotle, Kant, Anscombe and others. In the course of th…Read more
  • Review of Johannes Haag, erfahrung und gegenstand (review)
    Philosophischer Literaturanzeiger (3): 209-214. 2007.
    Die Frage, mit der sich Johannes Haag in Erfahrung und Gegenstand auseinandersetzt, lautet: „Auf welchem Grunde beruht die Beziehung desjenigen, was man in uns empirische Vorstellung, d. i. Erfahrung nennt, auf den Gegenstand überhaupt?“ ...