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

Philosophers and History of Philosophy

Critical Theory

Philosophy of Language

Aesthetics

Perception

Personal Identity

Philosophy of Religion

Logic

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

Food, Wine, Beer and Philosophy

January 21st, 2009

Image at left taken from here.

Good morning, readers!

Last year, I wrote a post about pop culture and philosophy, talking about an editorial that used Batman v. the Joker to show how popular culture can be used to explore and discuss (charged) philosophical topics.

In the same spirit, I will review, today, three books which I’ve recently read.  The books, from the same Philosophy and Pop Culture series as Batman and Philosophy, are:

Now, before you hold your nose and pass on today’s reading, declaring them unfit for general philosophical consumption, let me rise to their defense and say that the books in this trilogy are well worth your time to read and ponder.

For one thing, there are some fascinating discussions of philosophy of language, aesthetics, ethics, and epistemology in this book.  For instance:

  • Why do we limit artistic and aesthetic pleasure to sight and sound alone, but not to taste, touch, or smell?
  • Just what is it that we are describing when we describe a bottle of wine?  Or in a glass of beer?  Are we using metaphor alone?  Or are we describing objective, measurable features of the wine or beer?
  • How do we account for things like taste?  Is taste purely subjective?  Or is there an objective component to it?
  • What sort of legal and Constitutional issues are involved in the prohibition of shipping alcohol across state lines? In limitations on homebrewing?  How do laws in regards to these differ in Canada as opposed to in the United States?
  • In regards to food: what do our cultural dietary consumption patterns reveal about us as a people? As individuals?
  • What are the arguments for and against hunting?
  • What does it mean to say that certain food experiences are both delicious and disgusting at the same time?

These are but some of the many questions discussed in the trilogy, covering a wide range of topics of interest to philosophers.

Another reason that I liked this trilogy is that many of the essays are simply hilarious even as they explicate some serious philosophical points.

For example, Steven Hales’ essay, “Mill v. Miller, or Higher and Lower Pleasures,” in Beer and Philosophy is a witty examination of what exactly goes into performing a hedonistic calculus according to John Stuart Mill, through the example of determining which beer (a greater amount of lower-quality, less pleasurable beer v. a lesser amount of higher-quality, more pleasurable beer) should be purchased with a limited sum of money.

Likewise, Glenn Kuehn’s “Food Fetishes and Sin-Aesthetics: Professor Dewey, Please Save Me From Myself,” in Food and Philosophy, examines why we have such guilt over food in American culture, with references to Kant, Dewey, and Indiana Jones.

Finally, as pedagogical tools, the essays in these books may help to illuminate questions of perception, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics for students who may need a concrete example or two, to see how a theory might be applied in practice.

In short, I definitely recommend these books.  You will, I think, find them not only insightful, but amusing and helpful as well.

Good morning, all!

Late last year, I received an e-mail from Christian Beenfeldt, an Oxford DPhil-student and a member of the board of directors of the Danish Society for Philosophy and Psychology. It read:

Dear librarian,

I am an Oxford DPhil-student and a member of the board of directors of the Danish Society for Philosophy and Psychology.

A year ago, I was a main organizer of the ‘Concepts–Content and Constitution’ conference, which took place at the University of Copenhagen. About 130 graduate students and scholars from the fields of philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, neuroscience, biology, and media studies participated in the conference.

As speakers, we had secured some of the most famous and influential contemporary philosophers of mind and cognitive scientists, including Daniel C. Dennett and Ruth G. Millikan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Dennett
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Millikan

The event attracted national attention in Denmark, and generated coverage by national television, radio and newspapers.

In addition to organizing the conference, I directed a small film crew during the event, and conducted filmed interviews with all six speakers. I managed the postproduction of the more than 50 hours of raw material, and have now finished a 120-minute cognitive science DVD based on the lectures and interviews made during the event.

500 copies of the DVD have been printed for distribution to the world’s leading research libraries–to help undergraduate students in philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics and so on, gain a perspective on how leading contemporary cognitive scientists view the mental phenomenon of concepts.

I have acquired a copy of this DVD for Robbins, though it is not yet cataloged.

In addition to Dennett and Millikan, the DVD also contains interviews with José Luis Bermúdez, Gregory Ashby, Peter Gärdenfors, and Jesse Prinz. The topics discussed include:

  • “The nature of concepts
  • Conceptual space
  • Conceptual vs. nonconceptual content
  • Varieties of content
  • The perceptual constitution of concepts

And much more”

I have not had a chance to review this DVD, but I’m hoping to do so over this coming weekend.  Once I have watched the DVD, I will let you know what I think of it.

Readers: I’ve just received word that the Department’s own Susanna Siegel will be delivering a Neuphi talk this coming Thursday, 11 December 2008.  Here’s the information:

Susanna Siegel, Harvard University

“What Do We See?”

4-6 pm 5-7 pm: PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE

Room 525

745 Commonwealth Avenue

Boston, MA 02215

Click here to see map of 745 Commonwealth Avenue

Enjoy!

Good morning, readers!

Arrived last week: the latest issue of Philosophy & Phenomenological ResearchPhilosophy & 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 NoûsNoûs 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 PhilosophyEuropean 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!

Magic and Perception

August 5th, 2008

Good morning, readers!

Recently, I came across two fascinating articles about research which explores how some recent empirical research on magic illuminates the workings of human perception.  Both of these articles may be of great interest to those who study epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophical psychology, and perception.

The first, “Magicians Know More Than Scientists,” by Jeanna Bryner, begins by stating:

Magicians are way ahead of psychologists when it comes to understanding and exploiting the human mind and our perceptual quirks.

A new study, detailed in the current online issue of the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, reveals how elements of human cognition, such as awareness and perception, could be explained by the success of some techniques commonly used by magicians….

“Although a few attempts have been made in the past to draw links between magic and human cognition, the knowledge obtained by magicians has been largely ignored by modern psychology,” said researcher Ronald Rensink, who specializes in vision and cognition at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

The remainder of the article discusses how empirical studies of magic and what magicians do is opening up insights into human perception and how it works.

The second article, “How magicians control your mind,” by Drake Bennett, covers similar ground, though Bennett includes information studies not referenced in the first article.  (A hat-tip to Bookforum.com for this article.)  Bennett writes:

At a major conference last year in Las Vegas, in a scientific paper published last week and another due out this week, psychologists have argued that magicians, in their age-old quest for better ways to fool people, have been engaging in cutting-edge, if informal, research into how we see and comprehend the world around us. Just as studying the mechanisms of disease reveals the workings of our body’s defenses, these psychologists believe that studying the ways a talented magician can short-circuit our perceptual system will allow us to better grasp how the system is put together.

“I think magicians and cognitive neuroscientists are getting at similar questions, but while neuroscientists have been looking at this for a few decades, magicians have been looking at this for centuries, millennia probably,” says Susana Martinez-Conde, a neuroscientist at the Barrow Neurological Institute and coauthor of one of the studies, published online last week in Nature Reviews Neuroscience. “What magicians do is light-years ahead in terms of sophistication and the power of these techniques.”

As magicians have long known and neuroscientists are increasingly discovering, human perception is a jury-rigged apparatus, full of gaps and easily manipulated. The collaboration between science and magic is still young, and the findings preliminary, but interest among scholars is only growing: the New York Academy of Science has invited the magician Apollo Robbins to give a presentation in January on the science of vision, and a team of magicians is scheduled to speak at next year’s annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, the world’s largest organization of brain researchers.

And in a world where concentration is a scarce resource, a better understanding of how to channel it would have myriad uses, from safer dashboard displays to more alluring advertisements – and even, perhaps, to better magic.

What do you think, readers?

And now, to complete our magic theme and entertain you, here is the band, America, singing “Magic”:


Good morning, readers!

Here is the list of the June 2008 reviews from Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.  Do you think any of these should be in the Robbins collection?

Stephen H. Daniel (ed.)
New Interpretations of Berkeley’s Thought
Reviewed by Marc A. Hight, Hampden-Sydney College

Rachel Cooper
Psychiatry and Philosophy of Science
Reviewed by Grant Gillett, University of Otago

Christopher Janaway
Beyond Selflessness: Reading Nietzsche’s Genealogy
Reviewed by Brian Leiter, University of Texas, Austin

Brian J. Braman
Meaning and Authenticity: Bernard Lonergan and Charles Taylor on the Drama of Authentic Human Existence
Reviewed by David Burrell, C.S.C., University of Notre Dame/Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi

Peter Hylton
Quine
Reviewed by Guido Bonino, Università di Torino

James W. Felt
Aims: A Brief Metaphysics for Today
Reviewed by Oliva Blanchette, Boston College

Cécile Laborde, John Maynor (eds.)
Republicanism and Political Theory
Reviewed by Hans Oberdiek, Swarthmore College

Lambert Zuidervaart
Social Philosophy after Adorno
Reviewed by Hauke Brunkhorst, Universität Flensburg

Theodore Scaltsas, Andrew S. Mason (eds.)
The Philosophy of Epictetus
Reviewed by Brad Inwood, University of Toronto

Julie K. Ward
Aristotle on Homonymy: Dialectic and Science
Reviewed by David Evans, Queen’s University Belfast

Jay F. Rosenberg
Wilfrid Sellars: Fusing the Images
Reviewed by Willem A. deVries, University of New Hampshire

A. C. Grayling
Truth, Meaning and Realism: Essays in the Philosophy of Thought
Reviewed by Alexander Miller, University of Birmingham

Eric Christian Barnes
The Paradox of Predictivism
Reviewed by Clark Glymour, Carnegie Mellon

Thomas Baldwin (ed.)
Reading Merleau-Ponty: On Phenomenology of Perception
Reviewed by Taylor Carman, Barnard College

James R. Hamilton
The Art of Theater
Reviewed by Brian Soucek, University of Chicago

Andrew Bowie
Music, Philosophy, and Modernity
Reviewed by James Currie, University at Buffalo

Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne, Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.)
Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics
Reviewed by Alan Sidelle, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Alexander Bird
Nature’s Metaphysics: Laws and Properties
Reviewed by John W. Carroll, North Carolina State University

Charles L. Griswold
Forgiveness: A Philosophical Exploration
Reviewed by Ernesto V. Garcia, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Robert Young
Medically Assisted Death
Reviewed by John Keown, Georgetown University

Raimo Tuomela
The Philosophy of Sociality: The Shared Point of View
Reviewed by Kenneth Shockley, University at Buffalo, SUNY

Bernd Prien, David P. Schweikard (eds.)
Robert Brandom: Analytic Pragmatist
Reviewed by Bernhard Weiss, University of Cape Town

Terence Cuneo,
The Normative Web: An Argument for Moral Realism
Reviewed by James Lenman, University of Sheffield

Sarah Broadie
Aristotle and Beyond: Essays on Metaphysics and Ethics
Reviewed by Jacob Rosen, New York University

Vincent F. Hendricks, Duncan Pritchard (eds.)
New Waves in Epistemology
Reviewed by Dennis Whitcomb, Western Washington University

Christian Beyer, and Alex Burri (eds.)
Philosophical Knowledge: Its Possibility and Scope
Reviewed by Duncan Pritchard, University of Edinburgh

David L. Hull, Michael Ruse (eds.)
The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Biology
Reviewed by David Depew, University of Iowa

David Lay Williams
Rousseau’s Platonic Enlightenment
Reviewed by Neven Leddy, Magdalen College, Oxford

Jesse Prinz
The Emotional Construction of Morals
Reviewed by Ronald de Sousa, University of Toronto

Immanuel Kant, Günter Zöller (ed.), Robert Louden (ed.)
Anthropology, History and Education
Reviewed by Amelie Rorty, Boston University

Katherine J. Morris
Sartre
Reviewed by William L. McBride, Purdue University

Timothy O’Connor
Theism and Ultimate Explanation: The Necessary Shape of Contingency
Reviewed by Graham Oppy, Monash University

David Luban
Legal Ethics and Human Dignity
Reviewed by Charles Silver, University of Texas at Austin

Igor Primoratz (ed.)
Civilian Immunity in War
Reviewed by Steven P. Lee, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Giorgio Agamben
Profanations
Reviewed by Jeffery Geller, University of North Carolina, Pembroke

Savas L. Tsohatzidis (ed.)
John Searle’s Philosophy of Language: Force, Meaning and Mind
Reviewed by Jesse R. Steinberg, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Martin Carrier, Don Howard, Janet Kourany (eds.)
The Challenge of the Social and the Pressure of Practice: Science and Values Revisited
Reviewed by Miriam Solomon, Temple University

Ginia Schönbaumsfeld
A Confusion of the Spheres: Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein on Philosophy and Religion
Reviewed by Wayne Proudfoot, Columbia University

C. A. J. Coady
Morality and Political Violence
Reviewed by Christine Chwaszcza, European University Institute, San Domenico di Fiesole, Florence

Megan Laverty
Iris Murdoch’s Ethics: A Consideration of her Romantic Vision
Reviewed by Christopher Cordner, University of Melbourne

P.M.S. Hacker
Human Nature: The Categorial Framework
Reviewed by Michael Quante, Universität zu Köln

Allen W. Wood
Kantian Ethics
Reviewed by Noell Birondo, Pomona College

Hello, readers, and happy Friday!

Yesterday, we received the latest issue of Philosophy and Phenomenological Research — Vol. 76 (3) May 2008.

For those interested in epistemology, psychology, philosophy of mind, and perception, this issue may catch your fancy. Articles include:

  • Erik J. Olsson, “Klein on the Unity of Cartesian and Contemporary Skepticism”
  • Henry E. Allison, “‘Whatever Begins to Exist Must Have a Cause of Existence’: Hume’s Analysis and Kant’s Response”
  • David Enoch and Joshua Schechter, “How are Basic Belief-Forming Methods Justified?”
  • Peter Baumann, “Contextualism and the Factivity Problem”
  • Todd Buras, “Three Grades of Immediate Perception: Thomas Reid’s Distinctions
  • Adina L. Roskies, “A New Argument for Nonconceptual Content”

Additionally, there are two book symposia.

  • The first covers Alva Noë’s Action in Perception, with responses by John Campbell, M.G.F. Martin, and Sean Kelly, and a reply by Noë.
  • The second covers Jesse Prinz’s Gut Reactions, with responses by Justin D’Arms and David Hills, and a reply by Prinz.

The issue is not currently available in electronic format, but will likely be so at some point. You will be able to find it via the database, Synergy. (For information on how to use Synergy, please see my earlier post.) You’ll need your PIN and ID to access the journal.

Book Reviews Galore

May 1st, 2008

April has been a busy month at Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. I’ve listed some of the more relevant and interesting books below, sorted out into my own categories. (Obviously, a few books can be placed in more than category.)

Do any strike you as needing to be in the Robbins collection?

Historical Figures & Periods

Gregory Landini
Wittgenstein’s Apprenticeship with Russell
Reviewed by Nicholas Griffin, McMaster University

Judith Chelius Stark (ed.)
Feminist Interpretations of Augustine
Reviewed by Colleen McCluskey, Saint Louis University

Mark Dooley, Liam Kavanagh
The Philosophy of Derrida
Reviewed by Matthew C. Halteman, Calvin College

Robert B. Louden
The World We Want: How and Why the Ideals of the Enlightenment Still Elude Us
Reviewed by Beatrix Himmelmann, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Bret W. Davis
Heidegger and the Will: On the Way to Gelassenheit
Reviewed by Frank Schalow, University of New Orleans

Aaron Preston
Analytic Philosophy: The History of an Illusion
Reviewed by William Larkin, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Paul Redding
Analytic Philosophy and the Return of Hegelian Thought
Reviewed by Willem A. deVries, University of New Hampshire

Brad Inwood
Seneca: Selected Philosophical Letters
Reviewed by Katja Maria Vogt, Columbia University

Songsuk Susan Hahn
Contradiction in Motion: Hegel’s Organic Conception of Life and Value
Reviewed by Richard Velkley, Tulane University

Epistemology & Perception

Mary Margaret McCabe, Mark Textor (eds.)
Perspectives on Perception
Reviewed by José Luis Bermúdez, Washington University in St. Louis

Jaakko Hintikka
Socratic Epistemology: Explorations of Knowledge-Seeking by Questioning

Reviewed by Vincent F. Hendricks, Roskilde University, Denmark

David Reisman
Sartre’s Phenomenology
Reviewed by Katherine Morris, Mansfield College, University of Oxford

Russell T. Hurlburt, Eric Schwitzgebel
Describing Inner Experience? Proponent Meets Skeptic
Reviewed by Gualtiero Piccinini, University of Missouri, St. Louis

Metaphysics

Christian Kanzian, Muhammad Legenhausen (eds.)
Substance and Attribute: Western and Islamic Traditions in Dialogue
Reviewed by Sajjad Rizvi, University of Exeter

Christian Kanzian (ed.)
Persistence
Reviewed by Thomas Sattig, Washington University

Moral & Political Philosophy, Ethics

Jens Timmermann
Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A Commentary
Reviewed by Sean P. Walsh, University of Minnesota, Duluth

David Copp
Morality in a Natural World: Selected Essays in Metaethics
Reviewed by Eric Gampel, California State University, Chico

Christopher J. Finlay
Hume’s Social Philosophy: Human Nature and Commercial Sociability in A Treatise of Human Nature
Reviewed by Lorraine Besser-Jones, University of Waterloo

Michael W. Austin
Conceptions of Parenthood: Ethics and the Family
Reviewed by Joseph Millum, National Institutes of Health

Pedro Alexis Tabensky
Judging and Understanding: Essays on Free Will, Narrative, Meaning and the Ethical Limits of Condemnation
Reviewed by Meghan Griffith, Davidson College

Simon Keller
The Limits of Loyalty
Reviewed by John Kleinig, John Jay College, CUNY; and Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, CSU

Philosophy of Science

Steven Horst
Beyond Reduction: Philosophy of Mind and Post-Reductionist Philosophy of Science
Reviewed by D. Gene Witmer, University of Florida

Aesthetics

Paul Crowther
Defining Art, Creating the Canon: Artistic Value in an Era of Doubt
Reviewed by Ingvild Torsen, Florida International University

Philosophy of Religion

Sandra Menssen, Thomas D. Sullivan
The Agnostic Inquirer: Revelation from a Philosophical Standpoint
Reviewed by Keith M. Parsons, University of Houston, Clear Lake

Miscellaneous

Barry C. Smith (ed.), Fritz Allhoff (ed.)
Questions of Taste: The Philosophy of Wine; and, Wine and Philosophy: A Symposium on Thinking and Drinking
Reviewed by Peter Machamer, University of Pittsburgh