• International audience.
  •  233
    Rage in America: Why Is this Happening?
    Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 12 (1): 46-60. 2023.
    The extreme incidence and prevalence of rage-driven aggression and destructiveness in the United States is without parallel in any other industrialized country in the world. During 2022 alone, there were 647 mass shootings in the U.S. (in each, at least four victims were killed). Unfortunately these many killings comprise only one form of widespread rage in America. This paper seeks to answer why this is happening.
  •  144
    The Human Refusal to Look in the Mirror
    Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 11 (9): 46-55. 2022.
    This paper, published in 2022 in the Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective (SERRC), offers a philosopher-psychologist’s explanation of our species’ deeply rooted resistance to self-knowledge. The article focuses on limitations that come about when people do not possess a group of cognitive and psychological skills and competencies which the author has called “epistemological intelligence.” ¶¶¶¶¶ The paper develops the idea of “one-way concepts,” concepts that can appropriately and inf…Read more
  •  270
    Starting with Kant’s undeveloped proposal of a “negative science,” the author describes how philosophy may be developed and strengthened by means of a systematic approach that seeks to identify and eliminate a widespread but seldom recognized form of systemic and propagating conceptual error. ¶¶¶¶¶ The paper builds upon the author’s book, CRITIQUE OF IMPURE REASON: HORIZONS OF POSSIBILITY AND MEANING (Studies in Theory and Behavior, 2021). ¶¶¶¶¶ The author’s purpose is twofold: first, to enabl…Read more
  •  531
    This is a second Philpapers record for this book which links only to HAL's downloadable copies of the work. Please refer to the main Philpapers entry for this book which can be found by searching under the book's title. ●●●●● PLEASE NOTE: This is the corrected 2nd eBook edition, 2021. ●●●●● _Critique of Impure Reason_ has now also been published in a printed edition. To reduce the otherwise high price of this scholarly, technical book of nearly 900 pages and make it more widely available beyond…Read more
  •  317
    A Primer on Bartlett's CRITIQUE OF IMPURE REASON
    Willamette Univesity Faculty Research Website. 2021.
    This is a primer on Steven James Bartlett's book CRITIQUE OF IMPURE REASON: HORIZONS OF POSSIBILITY AND MEANING. ●●●●● Some books are long and complex. The Critique of Impure Reason is such a book. It is long enough and complex enough so that it may be a service to some readers to offer a primer to introduce and partially summarize the book’s objectives and method. Here, the author of Critique of Impure Reason: Horizons of Possibility and Meaning provides such a guide, a vade mecum to accompany …Read more
  •  378
    Elizabeth Bartlett and Paul Alexander Bartlett: Two Portraits
    Willamette University Faculty Research Website. 2021.
    The author shares philosophical and biographical reflections, accompanied by photographs, on the lives of his well-known literary parents, poet Elizabeth Bartlett and writer/artist Paul Alexander Bartlett.
  •  1540
    PLEASE NOTE: This is the corrected 2nd eBook edition, 2021. ●●●●● _Critique of Impure Reason_ has now also been published in a printed edition. To reduce the otherwise high price of this scholarly, technical book of nearly 900 pages and make it more widely available beyond university libraries to individual readers, the non-profit publisher and the author have agreed to issue the printed edition at cost. ●●●●● The printed edition was released on Septemb…Read more
  •  894
    Varieties of Self-reference
    In Steven James Bartlett & Peter Suber (eds.), Self-reference: Reflections on Reflexivity, Martinus Nijhoff; Now Published By Springer Science. pp. 5-28. 1987.
    This is the introduction to Self-reference: Reflections on Reflexivity, edited by Steven James Bartlett and Peter Suber. The introduction identifies and describes a wide range of varieties of self-reference, some which have become important topics of investigation in philosophy, and others which are of significance in other disciplines. /// The anthology is the first published collection of essays to give a sense of depth and breadth of current work on this fascinating and important set of issue…Read more
  •  283
    Cognitive Skills in Philosophy
    Aitia 6 (3): 12-21. 1978-1979.
    Two fundamentally distinct approaches to the teaching of philosophy are contrasted: On the one hand, there is the “information-oriented” approach which has dominated classrooms and which emphasizes the understanding of historically important philosophical works. On the other hand, there is the “cognitive skills” approach. The two approaches may be distinguished under the headings of ‘knowing that’ as opposed to ‘knowing how’. This paper describes and discusses four perspectives relating to the t…Read more
  •  416
    Philosophers have not resisted temptation to transgress against the logic of their own conceptual structures. Self-undermining position-taking is an occupational hazard. Philosophy stands in need of conceptual therapy. The author describes three conceptions of philosophy: the narcissistic, disputatious, and therapeutic. (i) Narcissistic philosophy is hermetic, believing itself to contain all evidence that can possibly be relevant to it. Philosophy undertaken in this spirit has led to defensive,…Read more
  •  229
    The first learning game to be developed to help students to develop and hone skills in constructing proofs in both the propositional and first-order predicate calculi. It comprises an autotelic (self-motivating) learning approach to assist students in developing skills and strategies of proof in the propositional and predicate calculus. The text of VALIDITY consists of a general introduction that describes earlier studies made of autotelic learning games, paying particular attention to work don…Read more
  •  307
    A Metatheoretical Basis for Interpretations of Problem-solving Behavior
    Methodology and Science: Interdisciplinary Journal for the Empirical Study of the Foundations of Science and Their Methodology 11 (2): 59-85. 1978.
    The paper identifies defining characteristics of the principal models of problem-solving behavior which are useful in developing a general theory of problem-solving. An attempt is made both to make explicit those disagreements between theorists of different persuasions which have served as obstacles to an integrated approach, and to show that these disagreements have arisen from a number of conceptual confusions: The conflict between information processors and behavioral analysts has resulted fr…Read more
  •  393
    An introductory text describing the author’s approach to epistemology in terms of self-referential argumentation and self-validating proofs. The text emphasizes a skill-based, rather than content-based, approach to the study of epistemology. The book is a simply stated, basic text whose purpose is to introduce students to the technical approach to epistemology developed by the author in other publications. ●●●●● 2022 UPDATE: The approach of this book has been updated and developed further in t…Read more
  •  218
    Philosophy as Conceptual Therapy
    Educational Resources Information Center 1 (ED 224 402): 1-9. 1983.
    2022 UPDATE: The approach of this paper has been updated and developed further in the author’s 2021 book _Critique of Impure Reason: Horizons of Possibility and Meaning_. The book is available both in a printed edition (under ISBN 978-0-578-88646-6 from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and other booksellers) and an Open Access eBook edition (available through Philpapers under the book’s title and other philosophy online archives). ●●●●● The author distinguishes between the “information-oriented” approach…Read more
  •  509
    A Code of Conduct for Peer Reviewers and Editors
    Willamette University Faculty Research Website. 2019.
    In the past few decades, peer review has come to dominate virtually all professionally respectable academic and scientific publications. However, despite its near-universal acceptance, no code of conduct has been developed to which peer reviewers and their editors are encouraged to adhere. This paper proposes such a code of conduct.
  •  542
    The Case against the Conventional Publication of Academic and Scientific Books
    Willamette University Faculty Research Website. 2019.
    An essay that weighs the main factors that lead authors of academic and scientific books to consider conventional publication of their work, with realistic and practical recommendations for these authors so they may avoid the contractual “imprisonment” of their books after the period of initial active sales has passed.
  •  246
    This review article provides a brief descriptive overview of past efforts to use self-referential argumentation, distinguishing pragmatical from metalogical self-referential approaches. The reviewer claims that the pragmatical self-referential argument proposed in this book is itself metalogically self-referentially inconsistent, and directs the reader to other relevant published works by the reviewer.
  •  462
    The American system of education makes important and sometimes unjustified assumptions that were questioned and criticized nearly a hundred years ago by author and educational theorist Albert Jay Nock. This essay discusses Nock’s theory of American education and finds that certain of these assumptions stand greatly in need of the support of evidence.
  •  57
    Normality Does Not Equal Mental Health: The Need to Look Elsewhere for Standards of Good Mental Health is the first book to question the equation of psychological normality and mental health. It is also the first book to take contemporary psychiatry and clinical psychology to task for deeply flawed thinking when they accept the diagnostic system propounded by the DSM, which reifies syndromes into alleged “mental disorders.” Where Thomas Szasz argued that “mental disorders” are myths, Bartlett ma…Read more
  •  42
    The Pathology of Man is the first comprehensive study of the psychology and epistemology of human evil, long urged by leading psychiatrists and psychologists, including Freud, Jung, Menninger, Fromm, and Peck. The book breaks new ground by offering a clear, empirically based, and theoretically sound understanding of human evil as a widespread, real, non-metaphorical pathology. With deliberate and thorough scholarship the author proposes a new framework-relative theory of disease and justifies th…Read more
  •  624
    Psychological underpinnings of philosophy
    Metaphilosophy 20 (3-4): 295-305. 1989.
    A description of the psychological profile of the philosophical personality. ●●●●● 2022 UPDATE: The approach of this paper has been updated and developed further in Chapters 1 and 2 of the author’s 2021 book _Critique of Impure Reason: Horizons of Possibility and Meaning_. The book is available both in a printed edition (under ISBN 978-0-578-88646-6 from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and other booksellers) and an Open Access eBook edition (available through Philpapers under the book’s title and other…Read more
  •  388
    Peer Review — An Insult to the Reader and to Society: Milton's View
    Willamette University Faculty Research Website. 2017.
    Pre-publication certification through peer review stands in need of philosophical examination. In this paper, philosopher-psychologist Steven James Bartlett recalls the arguments marshalled four hundred years ago by English poet John Milton against restraint of publication by the "gatekeepers of publication," AKA today's peer reviewers.
  •  476
    The use of protocol analysis in philosophy
    Metaphilosophy 9 (3-4): 324-336. 1978.
    A description of the author's application of protocol analysis in the teaching of philosophy.
  •  78
    "The Intuitive Sources of Probabilistic Thinking in Children," by E. Fischbein (review)
    Modern Schoolman 54 (4): 407-408. 1977.
    A brief review and discussion of E. Fischbein's "The Intuitive Sources of Probabilistic Thinking in Children."
  •  28
    Philosophy of Geometry from Riemann to Poincare. By Roberto Torretti (review)
    Modern Schoolman 58 (2): 136-136. 1981.
    A review of Roberto Torretti's book, "Philosophy of Geometry from Riemann to Poincare."
  •  763
    The role of reflexivity in understanding human understanding
    In Steven J. Bartlett (ed.), Reflexivity: A Source-Book in Self-Reference, Distributors For the U.s. and Canada, Elsevier Science Pub. Co.. pp. 3--18. 1992.
    The Introduction to the collection of papers, _Reflexivity: A Source-book in Self-reference_. The Introduction studies the limits of our understanding that we carry unavoidably with us. We are perpetually confined within the horizons of our conceptual structure. When this structure grows or expands, the breadth of our comprehensions enlarges, but we are forever barred from the wished-for glimpse beyond its boundaries, no matter how hard we try, no matter how much credence we invest in the subst…Read more
  •  3258
    Reflexivity: a source-book in self-reference (edited book)
    Distributors for the U.S. and Canada, Elsevier Science Pub. Co.. 1992.
    From the Editor’s Introduction: "The Internal Limitations of Human Understanding." We carry, unavoidably, the limits of our understanding with us. We are perpetually confined within the horizons of our conceptual structure. When this structure grows or expands, the breadth of our comprehensions enlarges, but we are forever barred from the wished-for glimpse beyond its boundaries, no matter how hard we try, no matter how much credence we invest in the substance of our learning and mist of specula…Read more
  •  208
    The Theory of Chaos (review)
    Methodology and Science: Interdisciplinary Journal for the Empirical Study of the Foundations of Science and Their Methodology 21 (4): 300-303. 1988.
    A review of James Glieck's _Chaos: Making a New Science_, noting how nonmonotonic functions self-referentially take on their own values and lead to complexity without randomness.
  •  26
    A review and discussion of Robert E. Butts and Jaakko Hintikka's edited collection "Historical and Philosophical Dimensions of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science."