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Overcoming epistemologyIn Brian Leiter & Michael Rosen (eds.), The Oxford handbook of continental philosophy, Oxford University Press. 2007.
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Heidegger : the question of beingIn Robin Le Poidevin, Simons Peter, McGonigal Andrew & Ross P. Cameron (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics, Routledge. 2009.
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8Evidential Objections to TheismIn Graham Oppy (ed.), A Companion to Atheism and Philosophy, Wiley. 2019.This chapter starts with a definition of theism, and distinguishes two ways in which empirical evidence might be relevant to its truth. Seven evidential objections to theism are spelled out. They rely on many different empirical facts, such as so‐called divine hiddenness, features of our universe, biological evolution, the occurrence of gratuitous natural evil, and the elimination of religious explanations during scientific progress. Finally, it is argued that a purely secular explanation of all…Read more
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24Reason and Religion: Evaluating and Explaining Belief in GodsCambridge University Press. 2022.Religion is relevant to all of us, whether we are believers or not. This book concerns two interrelated topics. First, how probable is God's existence? Should we not conclude that all divinities are human inventions? Second, what are the mental and social functions of endorsing religious beliefs? The answers to these questions are interdependent. If a religious belief were true, the fact that humans hold it might be explained by describing how its truth was discovered. If all religious beliefs a…Read more
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18Précis of The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the SoulPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 58 (4): 859-863. 1998.
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73What is a natural conception of the world?International Journal of Philosophical Studies 9 (3). 2001.Continental philosophers such as Heidegger and Nicolai Hartmann and analytic philosophers such as Ryle, Strawson, and Jennifer Hornsby may be interpreted as using competing intellectual strategies within the framework of one and the same research programme, the programme of developing a natural conception of the world. They all argue that the Manifest Image of the world (to use Sellars's terminology) is compatible with, or even more fundamental than, the Scientific Image. A comparative examinati…Read more
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6Praesidium libertatis: lezingen gehouden op de Filosofiedag 1985 te Leiden (edited book)Eburon. 1985.
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1263The Real Conflict Between Science and Religion: Alvin Plantinga’s Ignoratio ElenchiEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Religion 5 (2): 87--110. 2013.By focussing on the logical relations between scientific theories and religious beliefs in his book Where the Conflict Really Lies, Alvin Plantinga overlooks the real conflict between science and religion. This conflict exists whenever religious believers endorse positive factual claims to truth concerning the supernatural. They thereby violate an important rule of scientific method and of common sense, according to which factual claims should be endorsed as true only if they result from validat…Read more
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Zekerheid in wetenschap en leven. Een analyse van het begrip zekerheid in de ethiek van DescartesTijdschrift Voor Filosofie 51 (1): 166-166. 1989.
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26The Incompatibility of Science and Religion: An Argument for AtheismIn William Desmond, John Steffen & Koen Decoster (eds.), Beyond conflict and reduction: between philosophy, science, and religion, Leuven University Press. pp. 117--134. 2001.
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8The Phenomenological MovementIn Thomas Baldwin (ed.), The Cambridge History of Philosophy, 1870-1945, Cambridge University Press. pp. 477--496. 2003.
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99The Concept of IntentionalityPhilosophy Research Archives 12 293-328. 1986.In this paper an attempt is made to reconstruct the development of Husserl’s conception of intentionality from 1891 up to 1900/01. It is argued that Husserl’s concept of intentionality in the Logical Investigations took shape under the influence of problems originating in two different fields: the philosophy of perception and philosophical semantics. This multiple origin of the concept of intentionality of 1900/01 is then adduced as an explanation of tensions within the text of the Investigation…Read more
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40Transcendental idealismIn Barry Smith & David Woodruff Smith (eds.), The Cambridge companion to Husserl, Cambridge University Press. pp. 239-322. 1995.
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34The problem of occasional expressions in Edmund Husserl's Logical InvestigationsJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology 13 (2): 168-185. 1982.
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32The Concept of IntentionalityPhilosophy Research Archives 12 293-328. 1986.In this paper an attempt is made to reconstruct the development of Husserl’s conception of intentionality from 1891 up to 1900/01. It is argued that Husserl’s concept of intentionality in the Logical Investigations took shape under the influence of problems originating in two different fields: the philosophy of perception and philosophical semantics. This multiple origin of the concept of intentionality of 1900/01 is then adduced as an explanation of tensions within the text of the Investigation…Read more
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22The Irrationality of Religion. A Plea for Atheism (Invited Lecture)In Berit Brogaard & Barry Smith (eds.), Rationality and Irrationality: Proceeedings of the 23rd International Wittgenstein Symposium, 13-19 August 2000, Kirchberg am Wechsel, Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society. pp. 267--272. 2001.
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69The end of plasticityInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 40 (3): 291-306. 1997.Paul Churchland has become famous for holding three controversial and interrelated doctrines which he put forward in early papers and in his first book. Scientific Realism and the Plasticity of Mind (1979): eliminative materialism, the doctrine of the plasticity of perception, and a general network theory of language. In his latest book, The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul (1995), Churchland aims to make some results of connectionist neuroscience available to the general public and explor…Read more
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78The absolute network theory of language and traditional epistemology: On the philosophical foundations of Paul Churchland's scientific realismInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 33 (2). 1990.Paul Churchland's philosophical work enjoys an increasing popularity. His imaginative papers on cognitive science and the philosophy of psychology are widely discussed. Scientific Realism and the Plasticity of Mind (1979), his major book, is an important contribution to the debate on realism. Churchland provides us with the intellectual tools for constructing a unified scientific Weltanschauung. His network theory of language implies a provocative view of the relation between science and common …Read more
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56Should we be Kantians? A defence of empiricism (part one)Ratio 13 (3). 2000.In his book Mind and World (1994), John McDowell defends the Kantian position that the content of experience is conceptual. Without this Kantian assumption, he argues, it would be impossible to understand how experience may rationally constrain thought. But McDowell's Kantianism is either false or empty, and his view of the relation between mind and world cannot be stated without transcending the bounds of sense. McDowell's arguments supporting the Kantian thesis, which are very different from K…Read more
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56Should we be Kantians? A defence of empricism (part two)Ratio 14 (1). 2001.In his book Mind and World (1994), John McDowell defends the Kantian position that the content of experience is conceptual. Without this Kantian assumption, he argues, it would be impossible to understand how experience may rationally constrain thought. But McDowell's Kantianism is either false or empty, and his view of the relation between mind and world cannot be stated without transcending the bounds of sense. McDowell's arguments supporting the Kantian thesis, which are very different from K…Read more
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15Should we be Kantians? A Defence of EmpricismRatio 14 (1): 33-55. 2001.In his book Mind and World (1994), John McDowell defends the Kantian position that the content of experience is conceptual. Without this Kantian assumption, he argues, it would be impossible to understand how experience may rationally constrain thought. But McDowell's Kantianism is either false or empty, and his view of the relation between mind and world cannot be stated without transcending the bounds of sense. McDowell's arguments supporting the Kantian thesis, which are very different from K…Read more
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35Reviews issues in the philosophy of religion . By Nicholas Rescher. Heusenstamm: Ontos verlag, germany, 2007. XII + 117pp (review)Philosophy 84 (1): 151-156. 2009.