Here are two links to philosophical reviews to amuse you this week:

• The April 2009 reviews from Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
• A link to Philosopher’s Digest, a site that provides “Timely Reviews of Current Philosophy Articles”

I recently learned about a new search engine, Wolfram|Alpha, which is set to launch this month.  What exactly is Wolfram|Alpha?  According to a post on the WolframAlpha Blog,

So what is Wolfram|Alpha? To begin, we’ve named it a computational knowledge engine.

The heart of Wolfram|Alpha is a computational engine able to draw on terabytes of curated data and synthesize it into entirely new combinations and presentations. The stock of systematic, structured data in the world is vast, but finite, and the efficient processes developed for Wolfram|Alpha have allowed us to make real progress towards the goal of incorporating all of it.

Our overarching goal, the “higher purpose” of this project, is to make all computable, factual knowledge available to everyone. What Wolfram|Alpha does is compute on top of those facts—answering questions, solving equations, providing insights, projecting future behaviors, and more.

We believe the result is an extremely powerful way of harnessing the world’s knowledge and making it possible for anyone to benefit from that power.

My interest is certainly piqued, and I will be curious to use this new search engine when it is launched.

We recently received the latest issue of Inquiry — Inquiry 51(5) October 2008.  Here is the Table of Contents:

• Naturalism and Un-Naturalism Among the Cartesian Physicians, Gideon Manning
• Descartes’ Mind-Body Composites, Psychology and Naturalism, Lili Alanen
• Spinoza and the Dictates of Reason, Donald Rutherford
• Kant and the Myth of the Given, Eric Watkins
• Kant and Naturalism Reconsidered, John H. Zammito

Also arrived: Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement: 63 — Kant and Philosophy of Science Today.

• Why There are No Ready-Made Phenomena: What Philosophers of Science Should Learn From Kant, Michela Massimi
• Reduction, Unity and the Nature of Science: Kant’s Legacy?, Margaret Morrison
• Invariance Principles as Regulative Ideals: From Wigner to Hilbert, Thomas Ryckman
• Objectivity: A Kantian Perspective, Roberto Torretti
• Einstein, Kant, and the A Priori, Michael Friedman
• Contingent Transcendental Arguments for Metaphysical Principles, Hasok Chang
• Arithmetic from Kant to Frege: Numbers, Pure Units, and the Limits of Conceptual Representation, Daniel Sutherland
• Intuition and Infinity: A Kantian Theme with Echoes in the Foundations of Mathematics, Carl Posy

We received the latest issue of Ethics — Ethics 118(4) July 2008* — yesterday.  Here’s the Table of Contents:

Articles

• Moral Responsibility and Normative Ignorance: Answering a New Skeptical Challenge, by William J. FitzPatrick
• Experience, Narrative, and Ethical Deliberation, by Cheryl Misak
• The Indeterminacy of Loss, by Mark Greene
• On the Success Condition for Legitimate Self-Defense, by Daniel Statman

Symposium on Brian Barry’s Why Social Justice Matters (Continued)

• Reply to Goodin, Schmidtz, and Arneson, by Brian Barry

Discussion

• Penalizing Public Disobedience, by Kimberley Brownlee

Book Reviews

• Robert Audi, Practical Reasoning and Ethical Decision, Reviewed by Matt King
• Allen Buchanan, Justice, Legitimacy, and Self-Determination: Moral Foundations for International Law, Reviewed by Michael Blake
• Barbara Herman, Moral Literacy, Reviewed by Katja Maria Vogt
• Dale Jamieson, Ethics and the Environment: An Introduction, Reviewed by Jeremy Bendik-Keymer
• Harold Kincaid, John Dupré, and Alison Wylie, eds., Value-Free Science? Ideals and Illusions, Reviewed by Evelyn Brister
• Jan-Werner Müller, Constitutional Patriotism, Reviewed by Thomas McCarthy
• Martha C. Nussbaum, Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership, Reviewed by Margaret Urban Walker
• Henry S. Richardson, Democratic Autonomy, Reviewed by Víctor M. Muñiz-Fraticelli
• George Sher, In Praise of Blame, Reviewed by Michael McKenna and Aron Vadakin
• Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Taking Action, Saving Lives: Our Duties to Protect Environmental and Public Health, Reviewed by Hugh Lacey
• Allen W. Wood, Kantian Ethics, Reviewed by Samuel J. Kerstein
• Christopher F. Zurn, Deliberative Democracy and the Institutions of Judicial Review, Reviewed by Christian Barry

*Harvard PIN and ID required to access these articles.

Just arrived a few days ago: the latest issue of Mind & Language — Mind & Language 23(5) November 2008.  (Harvard ID and PIN required to access this journal.)  The issue is devoted to “Pretence and Imagination.”

Here is the Table of Contents:

• Pretence as Individual and Collective Intentionality, Hannes Rakoczy
• Imagination and the I, Shaun Nichols
• William James, ‘The World of Sense’ and Trust in Testimony, Paul L. Harris and Rebekah A. Richert
• Alief in Action (and Reaction), Tamar Szabó Gendler
• The Evolution of Pretence: From Intentional Availability to Intentional Non-Existence, Juan-Carlos Gómez

Also included:

• Semantic Externalism, Language Variation, and Sociolinguistic Accommodation, Daniel Lassiter

Enjoy!

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!

We’ve just received the latest issue of The Monist — Monist 91(2), April 2008 — and the general topic for this issue is “Intentionality and Phenomenal Consciousness.”

Here is the Table of Contents:

• Amie L. Thomasson, Phenomenal Consciousness and the Phenomenal World
• Joseph Levine, Secondary Qualities: Where Consciousness and Intentionality Meet
• Colin McGinn, Consciousness as Knowingness
• Adam Pautz, The Interdependence of Phenomenology and Intentionality
• Katalin Farkas, Phenomenal Intentionality Without Compromise
• Itay Shani, Against Consciousness Chauvinism
• James Tartaglia, Intentionality, Consciousness, and the Mark of the Mental: Rorty’s Challenge
• Terry Horgan & Uriah Kriegel, Phenomenal Intentionality Meets the Extended Mind

The issue should be available electronically at some point in the near future, but is not, at the moment.  (You’ll need your Harvard PIN and ID to login.)

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.

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

Yesterday, we received the latest issue of Philosophical Review and Ethics.  Here are the Tables of Contents for both journals:

Philosophical Review 117(3) July 2008

• The Egg and I: Conception, Identity, and Abortion, Eugene Mills
• Saying Good-bye to the Direct Argument the Right Way, Michael McKenna
• On Specifying Truth-Conditions, Agustín Rayo

Ethics 118(3) April 2008 — Symposium on Agency

• Introduction, Christian B. Miller
• Practical Knowledge, Kieran Setiya
• A Theory of Value, J. David Velleman
• Why Be Disposed to Be Coherent?, Niko Kolodny
• A Defense of the Traditional War Convention, Yitzhak Benbaji
• Is Goodness a Homeostatic Property Cluster?, Michael Rubin

Discussion

• Hare on De Dicto Betterness and Prospective Parents, David Wasserman

Please note that the Philosophical Review issue is not currently available electronically.

Enjoy your weekend!

Disputatio aims at publishing first-rate articles and discussion notes on all aspects of analytical philosophy, but especially those dealing with current issues in the philosophies of language, logic, and mind, and also in epistemology and metaphysics, written in English or Portuguese.

The latest issue — Vol. II, no. 23 (November 2007) — is a special issue on normativity and rationality.  The list of articles includes:

• Introduction (Teresa Marques)
• Is Rationality Normative? (John Broome)
• Belief and Normativity (Pascal Engel)
• Intentionality, Knowledge and Formal Objects (Kevin Mulligan)
• Acting Without Reasons (Josep L. Prades)
• What is Normativity? (John Skorupski)

Looking at the archives, there is a lot of good stuff in this journal that my readers might want to considering reading.  (Much of the older materials are in Portuguese, though they seem to have moved over to a mostly English-language format in recent years.)

Additionally, I’ll add the journal to the blogroll, and a link on the Electronic Resources section of the Links page on the Department of Philosophy Web site.