Robbins Library Notes

Good morning, readers!

Here are the February 2009 reviews from Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews:

Philosophy of Law

• Peter Goodrich, Florian Hoffmann, Michel Rosenfeld, Cornelia Vismann (eds.), Derrida and Legal Philosophy, Reviewed by Douglas Litowitz, Magnetar Capital LLC

Moral & Political Philosophy

• Kelvin Knight, Aristotelian Philosophy: Ethics and Politics from Aristotle to MacIntyre, Reviewed by Peter C. Meilaender, Houghton College
• Charles Larmore, The Autonomy of Morality, Reviewed by Richard Kraut, Northwestern University
• Jennifer S. Hawkins, Ezekiel J. Emanuel (eds.), Exploitation and Developing Countries: The Ethics of Clinical Research, Reviewed by David DeGrazia, George Washington University
• Christopher Woodard, Reasons, Patterns, and Cooperation, Reviewed by Rob Lawlor, University of Leeds
• Hilde Lindemann, Marian Verkerk, Margaret Urban Walker (eds.), Naturalized Bioethics: Toward Responsible Knowing and Practice, Reviewed by Rosemarie Tong, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• Jon Miller, Rahul Kumar (eds.), Reparations: Interdisciplinary Inquiries, Reviewed by Bernard Boxill, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Christopher Bennett, The Apology Ritual: A Philosophical Theory of Punishment, Reviewed by Gabriel S. Mendlow, Yale, Law School and Department of Philosophy
• Bob Brecher, Torture and the Ticking Bomb, Reviewed by C.A.J. Coady, University of Melbourne
• Michael J. Murray, Nature Red in Tooth and Claw: Theism and the Problem of Animal Suffering, Reviewed by Mylan Engel Jr., Northern Illinois University
• Michael Thompson, Life and Action: Elementary Structures of Practice and Practical Thought, Reviewed by Paul Hurley, Claremont McKenna College

Philosophers and History of Philosophy

• Penelope Deutscher, The Philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir: Ambiguity, Conversion, Resistance, Reviewed by Gail Weiss, The George Washington University
• Michael Della Rocca, Spinoza, Reviewed by Michael LeBuffe, Texas A&M University
• Daniel Garber, Béatrice Longuenesse (eds.), Kant and the Early Moderns, Reviewed by Andrew Janiak, Duke University
• Katherin Rogers, Anselm on Freedom, Reviewed by Thomas Williams, University of South Florida
• John Preston (ed.), Wittgenstein and Reason, Reviewed by Daniel D. Hutto, University of Hertfordshire
• Robert Mayhew, Plato: Laws 10, Reviewed by Nathan Powers, The University at Albany (SUNY)
• Elizabeth S. Radcliffe (ed.), A Companion to Hume, Reviewed by James A. Harris, University of St. Andrews
• Stewart Candlish, The Russell/Bradley Dispute and its Significance for Twentieth-Century Philosophy, Reviewed by James Levine, Trinity College, Dublin
• Diane Perpich, The Ethics of Emmanuel Levinas, Reviewed by Lisa Guenther, Vanderbilt University
• Frederick C. Beiser (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hegel and Nineteenth-Century Philosophy, Reviewed by Robert M. Wallace, www.robertmwallace.com
• Henry E. Allison, Custom and Reason in Hume: A Kantian Reading of the First Book of the Treatise, Reviewed by Karl Schafer, University of Pittsburgh
• Todd May, The Political Thought of Jacques Rancière: Creating Equality, Reviewed by Miguel Vatter, Universidad Diego Portales
• Maria Rosa Antognazza, Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography, Reviewed by Gregory Brown, University of Houston

Critical Theory

• Nikolas Kompridis, Critique and Disclosure: Critical Theory between Past and Future, Reviewed by Fred Dallmayr, University of Notre Dame

Philosophy of Language

• Clive Cazeaux. Metaphor and Continental Philosophy: From Kant to Derrida, Reviewed by Jeffrey Powell, Marshall University
• Jerry A. Fodor, LOT 2: The Language of Thought Revisited, Reviewed by Mark Wilson, University of Pittsburgh

Aesthetics

• Yuriko Saito, Everyday Aesthetics, Reviewed by Tom Leddy, San José State University
• Scott Walden (ed.), Photography and Philosophy: Essays on the Pencil of Nature, Reviewed by John Andrew Fisher, University of Colorado at Boulder

Perception

• Paul Coates. The Metaphysics of Perception: Wilfrid Sellars, Critical Realism and the Nature of Experience, Reviewed by Matthew Burstein, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown

Personal Identity

• Simon J. Evnine, Epistemic Dimensions of Personhood, Reviewed by Krista Lawlor, Stanford University
• David Shoemaker, Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction, Reviewed by Amy Kind, Claremont McKenna College
• Neil Feit, Belief about the Self: A Defense of the Property Theory of Content, Reviewed by Cara Spencer, Howard University

Philosophy of Religion

• Michael Ayers (ed.), Rationalism, Platonism and God, Reviewed by Yitzhak Y. Melamed, Johns Hopkins University

Logic

• Douglas Walton, Chris Reed, Fabrizio Macagno, Argumentation Schemes, Reviewed by Leo Groarke, Wilfrid Laurier University

Good morning, readers!

Here are the November 2008 reviews from Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.  Are any worth acquiring for Robbins?

Dean Moyar, Michael Quante (eds.), Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit: A Critical Guide
Reviewed by Jeffrey Church, Duke University

Nathan Widder, Reflections on Time and Politics
Reviewed by Dorothea Olkowski, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

Heather Dyke, Metaphysics and the Representational Fallacy
Reviewed by Matti Eklund, Cornell University

Hans Bernhard Schmid, Katinka Schulte-Ostermann, Nikos Psarros (eds.), Concepts of Sharedness: Essays on Collective Intentionality
Reviewed by Peter Tramel, USMA, West Point

W.J. Waluchow, A Common Law Theory of Judicial Review: The Living Tree
Reviewed by Jeffrey Brand-Ballard, George Washington University

Douglas Walton, Witness Testimony Evidence: Argumentation, Artificial Intelligence, and Law
Reviewed by Michael S. Pardo, University of Alabama

Lewis R. Gordon, An Introduction to Africana Philosophy
Reviewed by Jacoby Adeshei Carter, CUNY: John Jay College

James Griffin, On Human Rights
Reviewed by William J. Talbott, University of Washington

Michael Allen Gillespie, The Theological Origins of Modernity
Reviewed by David Burrell, C.S.C., University of Notre Dame/Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi

Stewart Goetz, Charles Taliaferro, Naturalism
Reviewed by Paul Draper, Purdue University

Robert Audi, Moral Value and Human Diversity
Reviewed by Diane Jeske, University of Iowa

Maria Cristina Amoretti, Nicla Vassallo (eds.), Knowledge, Language, and Interpretation: On the Philosophy of Donald Davidson
Reviewed by Daniel Laurier, University of Montreal

Hanno Birken-Bertsch, Subreption und Dialektik bei Kant: Der Begriff des Fehlers der Erschleichung in der Philosophie des 18. Jahrhunderts
Reviewed by Riccardo Pozzo, Universitä di Verona

Larry May (ed.). War: Essays in Political Philosophy
Reviewed by Helen Frowe, University of Sheffield

Diane Jeske, Rationality and Moral Theory: How Intimacy Generates Reasons
Reviewed by Simon Keller, University of Melbourne

Paul Weingartner, Omniscience: From a Logical Point of View
Reviewed by Daniel J. Hill, University of Liverpool

John T. Lysaker, Emerson and Self-Culture
Reviewed by Corey McCall, Elmira College

Michele Marsonet, Idealism and Praxis: The Philosophy of Nicholas Rescher
Reviewed by Don Ihde, Stony Brook University

Good morning, readers!

Arrived last week: the latest issue of Philosophy & Phenomenological Research — Philosophy & Phenomenological Research 77(3) November 2008.

Here’s the Table of Contents:

Articles

• The Causal Theory of Properties and the Causal Theory of Reference, or How to Name Properties and Why It Matters, Robert D. Rupert
• Yet Another Paper on the Supervenience Argument Against Coincident Entities, Theodore Sider
• Forgiving Someone for Who They Are (and Not Just What They’ve Done), Macalester Bell
• Divine Hoorays: Some Parallels between Expressivism and Religious Ethics, Nicholas Unwin
• Flattery, Yuval Eylon, David Heyd
• Locke’s Problem Concerning Perceptual Error, Antonia Lolordo
• Epistemic Goals and Epistemic Values, Stephen R. Grimm

Discussions

• The Determinists Have Run Out of Luck—For a Good Reason, Storrs McCall, E.J. Lowe
• Bad Luck Once Again, Neil Levy

Special Symposium

• Understanding Simulation, Susan Hurley
• Hurley on Simulation, Alvin I. Goldman

Book Symposium: Moral Skepticisms

• Précis of Moral Skepticisms, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
• Coping with Moral Uncertainty, Peter Railton
• Contrastivism, Relevance Contextualism, and Meta-Skepticism, Mark Timmons
• Do We Have Any Justified Moral Beliefs?, David Copp
• Replies to Copp, Timmons, and Railton, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

Critical Notices

• Epistemology and the Psychology of Human Judgment, reviewed by Earl Conee
• Subjectivity and Selfhood: Investigating the First-Person Perspective, reviewed by Charles Siewert

Also arrived this week: the latest issue of Noûs — Noûs 42(4) December 2008 — with an article by the department’s own Jeff McDonough:

• New Foundations for Imperative Logic I: Logical Connectives, Consistency, and Quantifiers, Peter B.M. Vranas
• How Expressivists Can and Should Solve Their Problem with Negation, Mark Schroeder
• The Price of Inscrutability, J.R.G. Williams
• Deontological Restrictions and the Self/Other Symmetry, David Alm
• Leibniz’s Two Realms Revisited, Jeffrey K. McDonough
• The Standard Argument for Blame Incompatibilism, Peter A. Graham
• Problems for Testimonial Acquaintance, Michael J. Raven
• Is the Problem of the Many a Problem in Metaphysics?, Dan López de Sa
• On What it Takes for There to Be No Fact of the Matter, Jody Azzouni and Otávio Bueno
• Frankfurt’s Argument against Alternative Possibilities: Looking Beyond the Exemplars, Michael McKenna

Good morning, readers!

Last week, we received the latest issue of the European Journal of Philosophy — European Journal of Philosophy 16(3) December 2008 — which has a symposium on Joseph Raz, among other things.

Here is the Table of Contents:

Symposium on Joseph Raz

• Respecting Value, Mark Eli Kalderon
• The Myth of Practical Consistency, Niko Kolodny
  
• Rationalism about Obligation, David Owens

Article

• Rules, Regression and the ‘Background’: Dreyfus, Heidegger and McDowell, Denis McManus

Review Articles

• Nihilism and the Affirmation of Life: A Review of and Dialogue with Bernard Reginster, Ken Gemes
• Ricoeur on Recognition, Robert R. Williams

Reviews

• Recognition and Power: Axel Honneth and the Tradition of Critical Social Theory, edited by Bert van den Brink and David Owen, Robin Celikates
• Post-Analytic Tractatus, edited by Barry Stocker, Oskari Kuusela

Also arrived last week — the latest issue of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy – Canadian Journal of Philosophy 38(2) June 2008 — here is its Table of Contents:

• Two Models of Equality and Responsibility, Michael Blake, and Mathias Risse
• Material Constitution and the Many-Many Problem, Robert A. Wilson
• Husserl on Sensation, Perception, and Interpretation, Walter Hopp
• Leibniz’s Theory of Universal Expression Explicated, Ari Maunu
• Informative Identities in the Begriffsschrift and ‘On Sense and Reference’, Imogen Dickie
• Analysis, Schmanalysis, Stephen Petersen

Both issues are currently online.  As always, you’ll need your Harvard ID and PIN to access these articles.

Enjoy!

Good morning, readers!

Here are the latest podcasts from Philosophy Bites.  These podcasts were recorded from mid-August 2008 to mid-October 2008:

• Aaron Ridley on Nietzsche on Art and Truth
• M. M. McCabe on Socratic Method
• Ray Monk on Philosophy and Biography
• Barry C. Smith on Neuroscience
• Adrian Moore on Kant’s Metaphysics
• Peter Cave on Paradoxes
• Christopher Janaway on Nietzsche on Morality
• Anthony Appiah on Experiments in Ethics
• Roger Crisp on Virtue

Just a reminder that I will be out tomorrow.  See you on Monday!

Good morning, readers!

Today, I’m writing to let you know about the contents of the newly-arrived issues of The Monist – Monist 91(1) January 2008 — and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (PPR) — Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 77(2) September 2008. You can read the respective Tables of Contents for each issue by clicking on the links — please note that you’ll need your Harvard ID and PIN to access the Table of Contents for PPR

To access full-text of the articles, go to The Monist or to PPR.  You’ll need a Harvard ID and PIN to access the articles.  There appears to be a bit of a delay in getting articles from the Monist posted, so the current issue’s contents are not appearing at the moment.  I’m not sure when they will be posted, so you may want to keep checking back periodically to see if they have.

Good morning, readers, on this rainy Friday!

Just arrived in Robbins: the latest issues of American Philosophical Quarterly and Erkenntnis.  A list of the Tables of Contents follows below.

American Philosophical Quarterly 45(2) October 2008 (This is not currently available electronically.)

• Orthogonality of Phenomenality and Content, Gottfried Vosgerau, Tobias Schlicht, and Albert Newen, 309-328
• Agent-Based Virtue Ethics and the Fundamentality of Virtue, Daniel C. Russell, 329-348
• “Designer Babies” and Harm to Supernumerary Embryos, Mark Walker, 348-364
• A Unified Pyrrhonian Resolution of the Toxin Problem, the Surprise Examination, and Newcomb’s Puzzle, Laurence Goldstein and Peter Cave, 365-376
• Response-Dependence of Concepts Is Not for Properties, Eyja M. Brynjarsdóttir, 377-386
• Personal Identity Un-Locke-ed, Andrew Naylor, 387-396

Erkenntnis 69(2) September 2008 (You will need your Harvard ID and PIN to access this issue.)

• Sortals for Dummies, John E. Sarnecki, 145-164
• Must Differences in Cognitive Value be Transparent?, Sanford Goldberg, 165-187
• Contrastivism Rather than Something Else? On the Limits of Epistemic Contrastivism, Peter Baumann, 189-200
• The Causal Chain Problem, Michael Baumgartner, 201-226
• The Logical Structure of International Trade Theory, Frieder Lempp, 227-242
• Is There a Simple Argument for Higher-Order Representation Theories of Awareness Consciousness?, Mikkel Gerken, 243-259
• Too Naturalist and Not Naturalist Enough: Reply to Horsten, Luca Incurvati, 261-274
• Review of Heather Dyke, Metaphysics and the Representational Fallacy, Kevin Dewan, 275-277

Good morning, all!

Over the summer, I had the good fortune to meet Bob Doyle.*  Bob is a scientist, inventor, and philosopher with a keen interest in topics like free will and epistemology, among other things.  I’ve enjoyed meeting him several times now, to discuss philosophy and searching for philosophical research.

Bob recently began a fascinating blog, The I-Phi Blog, dedicated to information philosophy.  (I’ve added a link to the I-Phi Blog in the blogroll, under “Online Resources.”) Here’s the description of what the blog is all about:

At left: Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)

Coming from a Continental philosophy background, Edmund Husserl loomed large in my training, especially at the graduate level.  And even in the analytic tradition, there is a great deal of interest in Husserl, mainly in his phenomenological and mathematical writings.

Husserl’s work is not always easy to understand, and many worthy philosophers have struggled to comprehend him.*   Thus, readers might find this very interesting article outlining Edmund Husserl’s project — Caitlin Smith’s “Edmund Husserl and the Crisis of Europe” — to be of interest.

A hat-tip to Bookforum.com for this link.

*One of the interesting items in the Robbins collection is Josiah Royce’s copy of Husserl’s first phenomenological work, Logical Investigations.  In the interleaved note pages, Royce’s comments indicate a growing confusion with Husserl’s arguments, until, about halfway through the first volume, he writes that he cannot understand the book and is putting it aside.

At left: picture of a bust of Zeno of Elea, 490 BC – 425 BC. The original image can be found here.

Zeno of Elea was a philosopher in antiquity famous as a pupil of Parmenides and the author of a series of paradoxes — one of which is that of Achilles and the tortoise:

The [second] argument was called “Achilles,” accordingly, from the fact that Achilles was taken [as a character] in it, and the argument says that it is impossible for him to overtake the tortoise when pursuing it. For in fact it is necessary that what is to overtake [something], before overtaking [it], first reach the limit from which what is fleeing set forth. In [the time in] which what is pursuing arrives at this, what is fleeing will advance a certain interval, even if it is less than that which what is pursuing advanced … . And in the time again in which what is pursuing will traverse this [interval] which what is fleeing advanced, in this time again what is fleeing will traverse some amount … . And thus in every time in which what is pursuing will traverse the [interval] which what is fleeing, being slower, has already advanced, what is fleeing will also advance some amount.

– Simplicius, On Aristotle’s Physics, 1014.10. The text is taken from from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Zeno’s paradoxes.

This paradox, along with Zeno’s other paradoxes, have sparked discussions and attempts to solve them for over two thousand years.

Yesterday, while poking around Bookforum.com, I found a fascinating article that looks at Zeno’s paradoxes in light of a betting game:

Wagering with Zeno: A philosopher who did everything by halves may never win, but he won’t go broke, Brian Hayes, American Scientist Online, May/June 2008.

Those interested in logic and philosophy of mathematics might find the article of interest. The article also shows how philosophical topics and discussions from antiquity can still have relevance and interest in the modern day.