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157What is radical interpretation? Davidson, Fodor, and the naturalization of philosophyInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 45 (2): 161-184. 2002.Jerry Fodor and Ernest Lepore have recently criticized Davidson's methodology of radical interpretation because of its apparent failure to reflect how actual interpretation is achieved. Responding to such complaints, Davidson claims that he is not interested in the empirical issues surrounding actual interpretation but instead focuses on the question of what conditions make interpretation possible. It is argued that this exchange between Fodor and Lepore on one side, and Davidson on the other, c…Read more
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126Quine and Conceptual PragmatismTransactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 48 (3): 335-355. 2012.In comparing his conception of empiricism with that of other like-minded philosophers at the end of his 'Two Dogmas of Empiricism,' W. V. Quine famously emphasized the broader scope of his pragmatist commitment in these terms:Carnap, Lewis, and others take a pragmatic stand on the question of choosing between language forms, scientific frameworks; but their pragmatism leaves off at the imagined boundary between the analytic and the synthetic. In repudiating such a boundary I espouse a more thoro…Read more
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104Naturalism and Normativity By Mario De Caro and David Macarthur, editorsTransactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 47 (4): 531. 2011.Recent trends in philosophical naturalism have their chief source in Quine's influential call to 'naturalize' epistemology, which recommended that philosophical concerns be seen as simply one part of a scientifically informed attempt to understand the natural world. The result is the view described as 'scientific naturalism' where philosophy now must defer to science when addressing questions of knowledge, meaning and existence. This naturalist turn is sometimes portrayed as a novel and radical …Read more
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99Quine's Naturalized Epistemology and the Third Dogma of EmpiricismSouthern Journal of Philosophy 45 (3): 455-472. 2007.This essay reconsiders Davidson's critical attribution of the scheme‐content distinction to Quine's naturalized epistemology. It focuses on Davidson's complaint that the presence of this distinction leads Quine to mistakenly construe neural input as evidence. While committed to this distinction, Quine's epistemology does not attempt to locate a justificatory foundation in sensory experience and does not then equate neural intake with evidence. Quine's central epistemological task is an explanato…Read more
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95Why Quine is Not an ExternalistJournal of Philosophical Research 34 279-304. 2009.This essay reconsiders the place of meaning within Quine’s naturalism. It takes as its point of departure Davidson’s claim that Quine’s linguistic behaviorism entails a form of semantic externalism. It then further locates this claim within the Davidson-Quine debate concerning whether the proximal or distal stimulus is the relevant determinant of semantic content. An interpretation of Quine’s developing views on translation and epistemology is defended that rejects Davidson’s view that Quine be …Read more
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64The philosophical significance of triangulation: Locating Davidson's non-reductive naturalismMetaphilosophy 36 (5): 708-728. 2005.Donald Davidson has emphasized the importance of what he calls “triangulation” for clarifying the conditions that make thought possible. Various critics have questioned whether this triangular causal interaction between two individuals and a shared environment can provide necessary conditions for the emergence of thought. I argue that these critical responses all suffer from a lack of appreciation for the way triangulation is responsive to the philosophical commitments of Davidson's naturalism. …Read more
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33"Quine in Historical Context" Critical Notice of Peter Hylton, QuinePhilosophical Inquiry 30 (3-4): 185-192. 2008.
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32Murray G. Murphey , The Development of Quine's Philosophy . Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 33 (3). 2013.
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32Becoming John Dewey: Dilemmas of a Philosopher and Naturalist Thomas C. Dalton Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2002, xi + 377 pp. $45.00 (review)Dialogue 44 (1): 176-. 2005.
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29Pragmatism and scientific philosophy in Carnap and QuineBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 1-8. forthcoming.Critical Review of The Philosophical Project of Carnap and Quine, edited by Sean Morris, Cambridge University Press, 2023.Scholarly opinion concerning the Carnap–Quine relationship and their centra...
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27Review of Quentin Kammer, Jean-Philippe Narboux and Henri Wagner: C.I. Lewis: the a priori and the given (review)Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 12 (1): 315-319. 2022.
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26Dewey, Religion, and the New AtheismContemporary Pragmatism 7 (1): 93-106. 2010.This article explores the conflict between those who find value in religious commitment and others who recommend the complete abandonment of religion. It examines John Dewey's reflections on religion in order to assess its possible resources for addressing this specific conflict. Dewey's discussion highlights deep human impulses that a secular perspective should address. But this should be accomplished not through his proposed broadening of religious life, but by promoting these impulses and the…Read more
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25Dewey and the Problem of ReligionProceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 45 321-327. 2008.This essay explores the tension between those who find value in the example of the religious life and others who take the intellectual bankruptcy of religious doctrines as recommending the complete abandonment of religion. It briefly describes John Dewey’s attempt to overcome this tension through a rethinking of the religious life and the sources of its continuing value and purpose. Dewey responds to this conflict over religion by attempting to emancipate its fundamental valuefrom the constraint…Read more
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25The themes of quine’s philosophy: Meaning, reference, and knowledgeedward Becker cambridge: Cambridge university press, 2012; 314 pp.; $96.95 (review)Dialogue 53 (2): 358-360. 2014.
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24Quentin Kammer, Jean-Philippe Narboux, and Henri Wagner, eds. C. I. Lewis: The A Priori and the Given. New York: Routledge, 2021. Pp. vii+320. $160.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-1-138-70087-1 (review)Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 12 (1): 315-319. 2022.
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22Quine on the indeterminacy of translationIn Michael Bruce & Steven Barbone (eds.), Just the Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Arguments in Western Philosophy, Wiley-blackwell. 2011.
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22Philip Kitcher, Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism. Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 36 (1): 17-19. 2016.
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21Working from within: the nature and development of Quine’s naturalism: by Sander Verhaegh, New York, Oxford University Press, 2018, pp. vii + 218, £47.99 (hb), ISBN: 978-0-19091-315-1 (review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 28 (2): 426-428. 2020.Volume 28, Issue 2, March 2020, Page 426-428.
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21C. I. Lewis: The Last Great Pragmatist. By Murray G. Murphey (review)Metaphilosophy 38 (5): 718-725. 2007.
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21Huw Price , Naturalism Without Mirrors . Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 32 (3): 222-224. 2012.
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20Replies to my criticsAsian Journal of Philosophy 2 (2): 1-13. 2023.In these replies, I respond to critics in the book symposium on my Quine, Conceptual Pragmatism, and the Analytic-Synthetic Distinction, Lexington Books, 2022.
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20Peter Olen and Carl Sachs, eds. Pragmatism in Transition: Contemporary Perspectives on C. I. Lewis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Pp. viii+222. $109.99 ; $84.99 (review)Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 9 (1): 201-205. 2019.
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20Quine, Conceptual Pragmatism, and the Analytic-Synthetic DistinctionLexington Books. 2022.This book provides an in-depth examination of C.I. Lewis's conceptual pragmatism and its influence on Quine's developing views in epistemology. The author shows how Quine's engagement with problems presented by Lewis, such as analyticity and the empirical given, contribute to the development of his conception of naturalized epistemology.
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18Kirk Ludwig , Donald Davidson, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 240 pages (review)Philosophiques 32 (1): 271-273. 2005.
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16Précis of Quine, Conceptual Pragmatism, and the Analytic-Synthetic DistinctionAsian Journal of Philosophy 2 (2): 1-7. 2023.Quine’s references to his “pragmatism” have often been seen as indicating a possible link to the American pragmatism of Peirce, James, and Dewey. In Quine, Conceptual Pragmatism, and the Analytic-Synthetic Distinction, I argue that the influence of pragmatism on Quine’s philosophy is more accurately traced to C.I. Lewis’s conceptual pragmatism. Quine’s epistemology shares many affinities with Lewis’s view, which depicts knowledge as a conceptual system pragmatically revised in light of future ex…Read more
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15Science and Sensibilia by W. V. Quine: The 1980 Immanuel Kant Lectures (edited book)Palgrave Macmillan. 2019.In this book, W. V. Quine’s Immanuel Kant Lectures entitled Science and Sensibilia are published for the first time in English. These lectures represent an important stage in the development of Quine’s later thought, where he is more explicit about the importance of physicalist constraints in his account of the steps from sensory stimulation to scientific theory, and in further using them to assess the extent to which mental vocabulary is defensible. Taken as a unit, these lectures fill an impor…Read more
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15The Philosopher: A History in Six Types. By Justin E. H. Smith. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016. Pp. xi + 272 (review)Metaphilosophy 48 (3): 370-375. 2017.