Robbins Library Notes

Good morning, readers!

Here are the September reviews from Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

Are any of these items which we should add to the Robbins collection?

Aesthetics

• Kendall L. Walton, Marvelous Images: On Values and the Arts, Reviewed by Scott Walden, Nassau Community College
• David Davies, Aesthetics and Literature, Reviewed by Eileen John, University of Warwick

Epistemology

• Jens Harbecke, Mental Causation: Investigating the Mind’s Powers in a Natural World, Reviewed by David Robb, Davidson College

History of Philosophy

• Paul Guyer, Knowledge, Reason, and Taste: Kant’s Response to Hume, Reviewed by Richard N. Manning, University of South Florida
• Delbert Reed. The Origins of Analytic Philosophy: Kant and Frege, Reviewed by Jeremy Heis, University of California, Irvine
• François Cusset, French Theory: How Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, & Co. Transformed the Intellectual Life of the United States, Reviewed by Ethan Kleinberg, Wesleyan University

Individual Philosophers

• Richard Creath, Michael Friedman (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Carnap, Reviewed by Gregory Lavers, Concordia University, Montreal
• Novalis, David Wood (ed., tr.), Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia: Das Allgemeine Brouillon, Reviewed by Jane Kneller, Colorado State University
• Emmanuel Bermon, La Signification et l’enseignement: Texte latin, traduction française et commentaire du De Magistro de saint Augustin, Reviewed by Roland J. Teske, S.J., Marquette University
• Marina McCoy, Plato on the Rhetoric of Philosophers and Sophists, Reviewed by Eugene Garver, Saint John’s University
• Oskari Kuusela, The Struggle Against Dogmatism: Wittgenstein and the Concept of Philosophy, Reviewed by Marie McGinn, University of York
• Dorothea Olkowski, Gail Weiss (eds.), Feminist Interpretations of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Reviewed by Gayle Salamon, Princeton University

Metaphysics

• Fred Wilson, Body, Mind and Self in Hume’s Critical Realism, Reviewed by Wade Robison, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Owen Flanagan, The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a Material World, Reviewed by Peter B. M. Vranas, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Moral & Political Philosophy

• John Kleinig, Ethics and Criminal Justice: An Introduction, Reviewed by Douglas Husak, Rutgers University
• Claudia Card, Armen T. Marsoobian (eds.), Genocide’s Aftermath: Responsibility and Repair, Reviewed by John K. Roth, Claremont McKenna College
• Tobias Hoffmann (ed.), Weakness of Will from Plato to the Present, Reviewed by Byron Williston, Wilfrid Laurier University
• Jean Hampton, The Intrinsic Worth of Persons: Contractarianism in Moral and Political Philosophy, Reviewed by Matt Matravers, University of York
• A. W. Price, Contextuality in Practical Reason, Reviewed by Tim Henning, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

Philosophy of Mathematics

• Michael Roubach, Being and Number in Heidegger’s Thought, Reviewed by Stephan Käufer, Franklin & Marshall College

Philosophy of Physics

• Robert DiSalle, Understanding Space-Time: The Philosophical Development of Physics from Newton to Einstein, Reviewed by Carl Hoefer, ICREA/Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

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

At left: Benjamin Franklin, by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1777

Human reason is a much-studied topic in philosophy.  I’ve always enjoyed this observation on the powers of human reason by Benjamin Franklin, from his Autobiography.

First, though a bit of context for the following anecdote.  The story occurs early in Franklin’s life, as he was fleeing indentured servitude and his brother in Boston on a Philadelphia-bound ship.  During the voyage, the ship was becalmed off Block Island.  Franklin spent time watching the crew supplement the food supply by fishing for cod.  At the time, Franklin was a vegetarian.  While observing the fishermen prepare the cod for supper, he has a witty insight into the powers of human reason:

I believe I have omitted mentioning that, in my first voyage from Boston, being becalm’d off Block Island, our people set about catching cod, and hauled up a great many. Hitherto I had stuck to my resolution of not eating animal food, and on this occasion consider’d, with my master Tryon, the taking every fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since none of them had, or ever could do us any injury that might justify the slaughter. All this seemed very reasonable. But I had formerly been a great lover of fish, and, when this came hot out of the frying-pan, it smelt admirably well. I balanc’d some time between principle and inclination, till I recollected that, when the fish were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs; then thought I, “If you eat one another, I don’t see why we mayn’t eat you.” So I din’d upon cod very heartily, and continued to eat with other people, returning only now and then occasionally to a vegetable diet. So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.

– Autobiography, Ch. 4

Good morning, readers, and happy Friday!

After all the recent fuss about the Large Hadron Collider in recent weeks, this video may amuse and enlighten you as to what exactly is going to happen there –

I offer it to pique the curiosity of those with an interest in philosophy of physics and philosophy of science.

For an interesting look at the Large Hadron Collider from the perspective of political philosophy, you may want to check out out Martin O’Neill’s piece in The New Statesman, “Politics of Proton Smashing.”

Good morning, readers.

Somehow, to me, a post today should be respectful, and remember what happened on this day seven years ago.

I won’t offer any political commentary as such, but offer U2’s “The Hands That Built America“– a reminder that the United States remains a place of ideals, hope, and freedom, built by the hands of many immigrants, even when it fails, sometimes, to live up to these dreams.

Good morning, readers!

At right: René Girard

There has been a lot of great philosophical material popping up over the last few days.

For instance: while poking around Bookforum.com yesterday, I found a link to a translation of an interview with the French anthropologist, René Girard. Titled “Intellectuals as Castrators of Meaning,” Girard offers sharp criticisms of modernity in its many forms, from post-modernism to scientism.  While Girard challenges mainly French post-modernism, he also does not spare parts of the analytic tradition as well, especially philosophy of science.

Here is one example of Girard’s critique:

Today there are three areas—nuclear weapons, terrorism, and genetic manipulation—in which man is especially placed in danger:

“The twentieth century was the century of classical nihilism. The twenty-first century will be the century of alluring nihilism. C. S. Lewis was right when he talked about the abolition of man. Michel Foucault added that the abolition of man was becoming a philosophical concept. Today, one can no longer speak of ‘man.’ When Friedrich Nietzsche announced the death of God, in fact he was announcing the death of man. Eugenics is the negation of human rationality. If one considers man as the outcome of mere chance and as crude material for the laboratory, a malleable object to be manipulated, one reaches the point of being able to do anything to man. That ends with the destruction of the fundamental rationality that belongs to the human being. But man cannot be reorganized thus and still remain man.”

The other parts of the interview are worth reading, if only as an alternative view to the modern project.  Nonetheless, I suspect that much of what Girard writes will irritate, annoy, and perhaps even anger some of my readers.

At left: Giambattista Vico (1668-1744)

Those upset by Girard’s critique might remember that he is not alone in challenging the dominant modern project’s paradigms.  Giambattista Vico, for example, offered many critiques of the modern project (and especially of Cartesian thought) in The New Science, On Humanistic Education, and On the Study Methods of Our Time.  Or Leszek Kolakowski’s essay, “Modernity on Endless Trial,” in the collection of the same title.

Sometimes, it’s a good idea to read things with which we might disagree, if only to see where the strengths and weakenesses of our own positions lie.

As for what I think of this interview, I’m not, at this point, suggesting that Girard is completely correct.  I have not read his work extensively, so I do not know how solid his critiques are.  All I will say is that his interview is provocative — to say the least! — and bears further study, nothing more.

What do you think, readers?

Good morning, readers, and welcome back after the Labor Day holiday weekend!

A short administrative update: I will be in tomorrow, as my plans have changed.

Now, for our main attraction: here are the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews from August 2008.  Should any of these be added to the Robbins collection?

Epistemology

• Jeffrey Blustein, The Moral Demands of Memory, Reviewed by Sue Campbell, Dalhousie University
• Yujin Nagasawa, God and Phenomenal Consciousness: A Novel Approach to Knowledge Arguments, Reviewed by Uwe Meixner, University of Regensburg
• Sanford C. Goldberg (ed.), Internalism and Externalism in Semantics and Epistemology, Reviewed by Hanseung Kim, University of Seoul
• Simone Gozzano, Francesco Orilia (eds.), Tropes, Universals and the Philosophy of Mind: Essays at the Boundary of Ontology and Philosophical Psychology, Reviewed by Keith Campbell, University of Sydney

History of Philosophy

• Christian Lotz, From Affectivity to Subjectivity: Husserl’s Phenomenology Revisited, Reviewed by A. D. Smith, University of Warwick
• Samantha Frost, Lessons from a Materialist Thinker: Hobbesian Reflections on Ethics and Politics, Reviewed by Stewart Duncan, University of Florida
• Johann Georg Hamann, Writings on Philosophy and Language, Reviewed by Ted Kinnaman, George Mason University
• Douglas Hedley, Sarah Hutton (eds.), Platonism at the Origins of Modernity: Studies on Platonism and Early Modern Philosophy, Reviewed by Eric Schliesser, Leiden University
• William F. Bristow, Hegel and the Transformation of Philosophical Critique, Reviewed by Paul Franks, University of Toronto
• Allen Speight, The Philosophy of Hegel, Reviewed by Mark Alznauer, Sweet Briar College
• James Hankins (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Philosophy, Reviewed by E. Jennifer Ashworth, University of Waterloo
• Keith Green, Bertrand Russell, Language and Linguistic Theory, Reviewed by Bernard Linsky, University of Alberta
• Santiago Zabala, The Hermeneutic Nature of Analytic Philosophy: A Study of Ernst Tugendhat, Reviewed by Robert Sokolowski, The Catholic University of America
• Francis J. Ambrosio, Dante and Derrida: Face to Face, Reviewed by Donald G. Marshall, Pepperdine University

Philosophy of Law

• Douglas Husak, Overcriminalization: The Limits of the Criminal Law, Reviewed by John Gardner, University College, Oxford
• Douglas E. Edlin (ed.), Common Law Theory, Reviewed by W.J. Waluchow, McMaster University

Philosophy of Science

• Steve Fuller, Science v. Religion? Intelligent Design and the Problem of Evolution, Reviewed by Sahotra Sarkar, University of Texas at Austin
• Michael Ruse, Charles Darwin, Reviewed by Bruce Weber, California State University, Fullerton/Bennington College

Philosophy of Religion

• Charles Taylor, A Secular Age, Reviewed by Michael L. Morgan, Indiana University

Metaphysics

• Peter van Inwagen, Dean Zimmerman (eds.), Persons: Human and Divine, Reviewed by William R. Carter, North Carolina State University
• Laird Addis, Ontology and Explanation: Collected Papers, Reviewed by Katalin Farkas, Central European University, Budapest

Historiography

• Jonathan Gorman, Historical Judgement: The Limits of Historiographical Choice, Reviewed by Paul A. Roth, University of California, Santa Cruz

Moral & Political Philosophy

• Robert B. Talisse, A Pragmatist Philosophy of Democracy, Reviewed by David Hildebrand, University of Colorado Denver
• Larry May, Aggression and Crimes Against Peace, Reviewed by Douglas Lackey, Baruch College/Graduate Center, CUNY

Good morning, readers, and happy Friday!

A brief note: Monday is a holiday (Labor Day) and I won’t be posting.  Also, I will be out next Wednesday, 3 September, and won’t be posting then, either.

While browsing through Bookforum.com yesterday, I came across the Web site for Philosopher’s Annual. The aim of this site is as follows: “The papers on this website represent our effort to showcase ten of the best philosophy articles published in the past year.” There is a wide range of topics covered by the papers chosen for the annual, as can be seen from the offerings for 2007, though the majority of this year’s selections focus on epistemology and philosophy of mind:

• “Reflection and Disagreement,” Adam Elga, from Nous 41 (2007), 478-502
• “Why Nothing Mental is Just in the Head,” Justin Fisher, from Nous 41 (2007), 318-334
• “Socrates’ Profession of Ignorance,” Michael N. Forster, from Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 3 (2007), 1-36
• “When is a Brain Like a Planet?,” Clark Glymour, from Philosophy of Science 74 (2007), 330-347
• “But Mom, Crop Tops are Cute! Social Knowledge, Social Structure and Ideology Critique,” Sally Haslanger, from Philosophical Issues 17, The Metaphysics of Epistemology, pp. 70-91
• “Innocent Statements and their Metaphysically Loaded Counterparts,” Thomas Hofweber, from Philosophers’ Imprint 7 (2007), 1-33
• “Honest Illusion: Valuing for Nietzsche’s Free Spirits,” Nadeem Hussain from B. Leiter & N. Sinhababu, eds., Nietzsche and Morality, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, 157-191
• “Moral Responsibility and Determinism: The Cognitive Science of Folk Intuitions,” Shaun Nichols & Joshua Knobe, from Nous 41 (2007), 663-668
• “Covenants and Reputations,” Peter Vanderschraaf, from Synthese 157 (2007), 167-195
• “Epistemic Modals,” Seth Yalcin, from Mind 16 (2007), 983-1026

You will be able to link directly to the full text of all of the articles, with the exception of Haslanger’s and Vanderschraaf’s articles, for which you will need to go through HOLLIS to access, and Hussain’s article, for which permission to include an online version has not been granted yet by the publisher.

The Tables of Contents for all previous volumes are available via the link in the upper right hand corner of the home page — “Past Volumes,” which has the same URL as the home page — and full-text of many articles for more recent years is as well, though I’m finding that not all of the links work at the present time.

I will add a link to the Philosopher’s Annual in the blogroll, and also on the Links page of the Philosophy Department’s Web site.

Have a great long holiday weekend, folks!

Good morning, readers!

I realized yesterday that I haven’t posted any new podcasts from Philosophy Bites since late May. Here’s a list of the podcasts added since then:

Enjoy!