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Dirk Hartmann

University of Duisburg-Essen
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Phillips University
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1992
Homepage
Areas of Specialization
Epistemology
Logic and Philosophy of Logic
General Philosophy of Science
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics and Epistemology
Philosophy, Misc
Other Academic Areas

My Survey Responses

Survey Prompt Response
Main Questions
A priori knowledge Accept: yes
Abstract objects Accept: nominalism
Aesthetic value Lean towards: objective
Aim of philosophy Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept goodness/justice
  • Neutral towards happiness
  • Accept truth/knowledge
  • Accept understanding
  • Neutral towards wisdom
Analytic-synthetic distinction Accept: yes
Arguments for theism Accept an alternative view: Hermeneutical: Analyze the term "god" (adequately) in such a way that the main religious tenets come out true.
Eating animals and animal products Accept a combination of answers:
  • Lean towards omnivorism (yes and yes)
  • Accept Omnivorism in principle, but as animals still have rights which would restrict an "unconditioned" omnivorism in many ways.
Epistemic justification Accept: internalism
Experience machine Accept: no
External world Accept: idealism
Footbridge Accept: don't push
Free will Accept: libertarianism
Gender Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept social
  • Reject unreal
  • Accept psychological
  • Accept biological
God Accept an alternative view: Depends on which meaning is assigned to the expression "god"
Hard problem of consciousness Accept: no
Interlevel metaphysics Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept realization
  • Accept supervenience
  • Reject identity
  • Lean towards grounding
Kant Accept: two worlds
Knowledge Accept: rationalism
Knowledge claims Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept invariantism
  • Neutral towards contextualism
  • Accept If the meaning of the sentence expressing the to be known fact is fixed, then invariantism, contextualism otherwise
Laws of nature Accept: non-Humean
Logic Accept: non-classical
Meaning of life Accept a combination of answers:
  • Reject nonexistent
  • Accept objective
  • Accept subjective
Mental content Accept: internalism
Meta-ethics Accept an alternative view: Instead of the term "realism" I would prefer "moral objectivism" or "moral universalism"
Metaphilosophy Accept: non-naturalism
Method in history of philosophy Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept combine these views
Mind Accept: non-physicalism
Moral judgment Accept: cognitivism
Moral motivation Accept: internalism
Newcomb's problem There is no fact of the matter
Normative ethics Accept: deontology
Ought implies can Accept: yes
Perceptual experience The question is too unclear to answer
Personal identity Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept biological and psychological view both state necessary conditions which only in combination are sufficient for personal identity
Philosophical methods Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept conceptual engineering
  • Accept conceptual analysis
  • Reject empirical philosophy
  • Reject intuition-based philosophy
  • Accept formal philosophy
  • Accept linguistic philosophy
  • Reject experimental philosophy
Philosophical progress Accept: a lot
Political philosophy Accept an alternative view: We need a synthesis of those three
Possible worlds Accept: abstract
Proper names The question is too unclear to answer
Propositional attitudes Accept: dispositional
Propositions Accept a combination of answers:
  • Neutral towards sets
  • Lean towards acts
  • Reject nonexistent
  • Accept structured entities
  • Reject simple entities
  • Accept abstract objects abstracted from semantically equivalent statements
Race Accept: unreal
Science Accept an alternative view: Premises: Substitutional view of quantification and principle of knowability. On this background (directly) unobservable objects can be said to exist (and instrumentalism rejected).
Teletransporter Accept: death
Time Accept an alternative view: Both, but for this to be true the future must be "open" i.e. the B-series is never "complete"
Trolley problem Accept: don't switch
True contradictions Accept: impossible
Truth Accept: epistemic
Vagueness Accept: semantic
Zombies Accept: inconceivable
Survey Prompt Response
Additional Questions
Abortion Accept an alternative view: Permissible in the first trimester. Impermissible once it has sensations/feelings of its own (probably 20 weeks in). Law should err on the side of caution, though.
Aesthetic experience Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept pleasure
  • Accept perception
  • Accept sui generis
  • Accept a combination of all three
Analysis of knowledge Accept an alternative view: Justified true belief, but "justified" must be understood in way that avoids Gettier
Capital punishment Accept: impermissible
Chinese room The question is too unclear to answer
Continuum hypothesis Accept: indeterminate
Cosmological fine-tuning Accept an alternative view: Some version of anthropic principle
Foundations of mathematics Accept: constructivism/intuitionism
Hume Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept skeptic
  • Accept naturalist
Immortality Accept: no
Law Accept: legal non-positivism
Metaontology Accept an alternative view: anti-realism, but in the specific sense of the principle of knowability
Mind uploading Accept: death
Moral principles Accept: moral generalism
Morality The question is too unclear to answer
Other minds The question is too unclear to answer
Philosophical knowledge Accept: a lot
Politics Accept an alternative view: social market economy as a synthesis of both
Practical reason Accept: Kantian
Principle of sufficient reason Accept an alternative view: Depends on what it is supposed to say. If "reason"="cause", then false. "Reason" must be understood in a wider sense for the principle to be true.
Properties Accept: immanent universals
Quantum mechanics Accept an alternative view: I accept a version of the Kopenhagen interpretation
Race categories Accept: eliminate
Rational disagreement The question is too unclear to answer
Response to external-world skepticism Accept an alternative view: transcendental combined with principle of knowability
Spacetime Accept: relationism
Statue and lump Accept: two things
Time travel Accept: metaphysically impossible
Units of selection Accept: organisms
Values in science Accept: can be either
Wittgenstein Accept an alternative view: Much more late because "meaning is use", but there's many valid insights in early W. too