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35Conceptualism and the Objection from AnimalsIn Violetta L. Waibel, Margit Ruffing & David Wagner (eds.), Natur und Freiheit. Akten des XII. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, De Gruyter. pp. 1269-1276. 2018.
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124No Other Use than in Judgment?: Kant on Concepts and Sensible SynthesisJournal of the History of Philosophy 53 (3): 461-484. 2015.it is sometimes said that one of Kant’s decisive advances over his predecessors was to have anticipated Frege’s functional theory of concepts, along with its corollary that a concept has significance only in the context of the whole proposition.1 Kant is said to break with a tradition that held that there is a self-standing species of concept-use—called apprehensio simplex, or the conceiving of an idea—in which one represents objects by having a concept before one’s mind, independently of connec…Read more
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The Aristotelian Kant, ed. by W. Gobsch and T. Land, Cambridge University Press (edited book)Cambridge UP. forthcoming.
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153Nonconceptualist Readings of Kant and the Transcendental DeductionKantian Review 20 (1): 25-51. 2015.I give an argument against nonconceptualist readings of Kants claim that intuitions and concepts constitute two distinct kinds of representation than is assumed by proponents of nonconceptualist readings. I present such an interpretation and outline the alternative reading of the Deduction that results.
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2Moderate Conceptualism and Spatial RepresentationIn Dennis Schulting (ed.), Kantian Nonconceptualism, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 145-170. 2016.In this paper I argue that Kant’s theory of spatial representation supports a Moderate Conceptualist view of his theory of intuition, according to which Kantian intuitions depend for their objective purport on actualizations of spontaneity in a particular kind of synthesis. In making the case for this I focus on three aspects of the theory of spatial representation: the distinction Kant draws between what he calls the original representation of space and the representations of determinate spaces…Read more
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920Kantian ConceptualismIn Guenther Abel & James Conant (eds.), Rethinking Epistemology, De Gruyter. pp. 1--197. 2011.In the recent debate between conceptualists and nonconceptualists about perceptual content, Kant’s notion of intuition has been invoked on both sides. Conceptualists claim Kant as a forerunner of their position, arguing that Kantian intuitions have the same kind of content as conceptual thought. On the other hand, nonconceptualists claim Kant as a forerunner of their own position, contending that Kantian intuitions have a distinctly nonconceptual kind of content. In this paper, I argue first, th…Read more
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113Spatial representation, magnitude and the two stems of cognitionCanadian Journal of Philosophy 44 (5-6): 524-550. 2014.The aim of this paper is to show that attention to Kant's philosophy of mathematics sheds light on the doctrine that there are two stems of the cognitive capacity, which are distinct, but equally necessary for cognition. Specifically, I argue for the following four claims: The distinctive structure of outer sensible intuitions must be understood in terms of the concept of magnitude. The act of sensibly representing a magnitude involves a special act of spontaneity Kant ascribes to a capacity he …Read more
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263Epistemic agency and the self-knowledge of reason: on the contemporary relevance of Kant’s method of faculty analysisSynthese 198 (Suppl 13): 3137-3154. 2021.Each of Kant’s three Critiques offers an account of the nature of a mental faculty and arrives at this account by means of a procedure I call ‘faculty analysis’. Faculty analysis is often regarded as among the least defensible aspects of Kant’s position; as a consequence, philosophers seeking to inherit Kantian ideas tend to transpose them into a different methodological context. I argue that this is a mistake: in fact faculty analysis is a live option for philosophical inquiry today. My argumen…Read more
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169Kant’s Spontaneity ThesisPhilosophical Topics 34 (1-2): 189-220. 2006.Philosophers seeking to formulate a philosophy of mind that offers an alternative to the cur-rently dominant reductionist positions frequently appeal to the Kantian thesis that the mind is essentially spontaneous. Yet it is far from clear what the content of this thesis is, and what recommends it. In this paper, I discuss this question and propose a new answer – one that makes better philosophical and textual sense of Kant’s own claims than I believe has hitherto been offered. I do this by focus…Read more
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118Intuition and Judgment: How Not to Think about the Singularity of IntuitionIn Stefano Bacin, Alfredo Ferrarin, Claudio La Rocca & Margit Ruffing (eds.), Kant und die Philosophie in weltbürgerlicher Absicht. Akten des XI. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, De Gruyter. 2013.According to a widely held view, a Kantian intuition functions like a singular term. I argue that this view is false. Its apparent plausibility, both textual and philosophical, rests on attributing to Kant a Fregean conception of judgment. I show that Kant does not hold a Fregean conception of judgment and argue that, as a consequence, intuition cannot be understood on analogy with singular terms.
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20Comments on Gabriele Gava, Kant’s_ Critique of Pure Reason _and the Method of MetaphysicsKantian Review 29 (1): 125-133. 2024.I raise three objections for Gava’s thesis that the primary task of the Critique of Pure Reason is to develop a doctrine of method for metaphysics, understood as an account of the special kind of unity that a body of cognitions must exhibit to count as a science. First, I argue that this thesis has difficulty accommodating Kant’s concern with explaining the possibility of synthetic a priori judgements. This concern is motivated by a question that is prior to the issue of scientific unity. Second…Read more
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Spontaneity, Sensation, and the Myth of the GivenIn C.I. Lewis: The A Priori and the Given. pp. 216-239. 2021.C. I. Lewis’s conception of the given element in perceptual experience was one of the targets of Sellars’ famous charge that many such conceptions fall victim to the Myth of the Given. Yet exactly what makes a conception of the given mythical has remained unclear. Here I aim to clarify this issue by discussing Eric Watkins’ recent claim that a conception exactly like the one Lewis articulated in Mind and the World Order in fact avoids the Myth. Watkins motivates this claim in part by raising obj…Read more
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38Book ReviewsPeter Bieri,. Das Handwerk der Freiheit: Über die Entdeckung des eigenen Willens.Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2001. Pp. 446. €24.90 (review)Ethics 113 (3): 680-684. 2003.
Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Areas of Specialization
History of Western Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
Philosophy of Mind |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |