-
181Skepticism About the External WorldOxford University Press. 1998.One of the most important and perennially debated philosophical questions is whether we can have knowledge of the external world. Butchvarov here considers whether and how skepticism with regard to such knowledge can be refuted or at least answered. He argues that only a direct realist view of perception has any hope of providing a compelling response to the skeptic and introduces the radical innovation that the direct object of perceptual, and even dreaming and hallucinatory, experience is alwa…Read more
-
157Metaphysical Realism and Logical NonrealismIn Richard M. Gale (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics, Wiley-blackwell. pp. 282. 2002.This chapter contains sections titled: I II.
-
122Epistemology dehumanizedIn Quentin Smith (ed.), Epistemology: new essays, Oxford University Press. pp. 301. 2008.Fundamental disagreements in epistemology arise from legitimate differences of interest, not genuine conflict. It is because of such differences that there are three varieties of epistemology: naturalistic, subjective, and what I shall call epistemology-as-logic. All three have been with us at least since Socrates. My chief concern will be with the third, but I must begin with the first and second, which constitute standard epistemology.
-
114The concept of knowledgeNorthwestern University Press. 1970.not analytic. This seems to be the point of Kant's claim that the concept of the sum of seven and five does not include its equality to the number twelve ...
-
76The self and perceptions; a study in Humean philosophyPhilosophical Quarterly 9 (35): 97-115. 1959.
-
71Ethics DehumanizedSouthern Journal of Philosophy 41 (s): 165-183. 2003.It is too early to judge how 20th century philosophy ended, but its beginning was remarkable. Both Moore’s Principia Ethica and Russell’s Principles of Mathematics appeared in 1903, the first volume of Husserl’s Logical Investigations in 1900-01, and four of William James’s major philosophical books in 1902-09. There was not a significant difference, except in style and temperament, between Anglo-American and European philosophers. The analytic/continental schism came much later. Both Russell an…Read more
-
70Ontological categories: Their nature and significance – Jan WesterhoffPhilosophical Quarterly 57 (227). 2007.
-
62The Untruth and the Truth of SkepticismProceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 67 (4). 1994.The skepticism I propose to discuss concerns the reality of an external world of perceivable material objects. There are three questions our skeptic may ask. The first is nonmodal and nonepistemic: Are some of the objects we perceive real? The second is also nonmodal but epistemic: Do we know, or at least have evidence, that some of the objects we perceive are real? The third is both modal and epistemic: Can we know, or at least have evidence, that some of the objects we perceive are real? By de…Read more
-
58Being Qua Being: A Theory of Identity, Existence, and PredicationPhilosophical Quarterly 30 (119): 168. 1980.Are there nonexistent things? What is the nature of informative identity statements? Are the notions of essential property and of essence intelligible, and, if so, how are they to be understood? Are individual things material substances or clusters of qualities? Can the account of the unity of a complex entity avoid vicious infinite regresses? These questions have attracted widespread attention among philosophers recently, as evidenced by a proliferation of articles in the leading philosophical …Read more
-
54Bergmann And Wittgenstein On GeneralityMetaphysica 7 (1): 121-145. 2006.General statements have been the chief subject matter of logic since Aristotle’s syllogistic. They have also been a fundamental concern of metaphysics, though only since Frege invented modern quantification theory. Indeed, logicians and even metaphysicians seldom ask what, if anything, general statements correspond to in the world. But Frege and Russell did, and the question became a major theme in Wittgenstein’s early (pre-1929) and Gustav Bergmann’s later (post- 1959) works. All four were awar…Read more
-
52A Paradigm of Existence: Onto-Theology Vindicated by William F. Vallicella (review)Philo 6 (2): 314-319. 2003.
-
50The Demand for Justification in EthicsJournal of Philosophical Research 15 1-14. 1990.The common belief that the epistemic credentials of ethics are quite questionable, and therefore in need of special justification, is an illusion made possible by the logical gap between reason and belief. This gap manifests itself sometimes even outside ethics. In ethics its manifestations are common, because of the practical nature of ethics. The attempt to cover it up takes the form of exorbitant demands for justification and often leads to espousing noncognitivism.
-
43Review of Albert Casullo, A Priori Justification (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2003 (8). 2003.
-
41Generic Statements and AntirealismLogos and Episteme 1 (1): 11-29. 2010.The standard arguments for antirealism are densely abstract, often enigmatic, and thus unpersuasive. The ubiquity and irreducibility of what linguists call generic statements provides a clear argument from a specific and readily understandable case. We think and talk about the world as necessarily subject to generalization. But the chief vehicles of generalization are generic statements, typically of the form “Fs are G,” not universal statements, typically of the form “All Fs are G.” Universal s…Read more
-
36Knowledge of Meanings and Knowledge of the WorldPhilosophy 39 (148). 1964.One of the most characteristic claims of the dominant movement in contemporary British philosophy, to which we shall refer as the philosophy of ordinary language, is that traditional philosophical discourse has usually been logically improper because it has depended upon systematic misuses of certain expressions in ordinary language and that philosophy is a legitimate cognitive discipline only if it is concerned with the description of the actual use of language. To substantiate this claim, the …Read more
-
34Being Qua Being: A Theory of Identity, Existence, and PredicationIndiana University Press. 1979.Are there nonexistent things? What is the nature of informative identity statements? Are the notions of essential property and of essence intelligible, and, if so, how are they to be understood? Are individual things material substances or clusters of qualities? Can the account of the unity of a complex entity avoid vicious infinite regresses? These questions have attracted widespread attention among philosophers recently, as evidenced by a proliferation of articles in the leading philosophical …Read more
-
33Knowledge of the External World (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 53 (2): 490-492. 1993.
-
32Being, Identity, and Truth (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 55 (2): 487-490. 1995.
-
32Experience and Theory. An Essay in the Philosophy of Science. Stephan Körner (review)Philosophy of Science 35 (3): 292-294. 1968.
-
30The Examined Life (review)Review of Metaphysics 43 (2): 406-408. 1989.This is a welcome addition to the growing literature in an ethics that is unself-consciously and unabashedly normative. It is concerned with what good lives are and how they can be achieved. At least in civilized contexts, good lives depend on self-direction, which itself depends on possessing the virtues of self-control, self-knowledge, moral sensitivity, and wisdom. These are discussed in detail and with insight. The other-regarding virtues of justice and benevolence are also acknowledged but …Read more
-
29Universals, Qualities, and Quality-Instances (review)International Studies in Philosophy 21 (3): 137-138. 1989.
-
28The Categorial Structure of the World (review)International Studies in Philosophy 19 (3): 81-82. 1987.
Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Value Theory |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Value Theory |