Robbins Library Notes

Good morning, readers!

Those who check Brian Leiter’s blog on a regular basis have likely already seen this information, but for those who don’t or haven’t, the papers in the Philosopher’s Annual 2008 are now available.  As the editors note:

Our goal is to select the ten best articles published in philosophy each year—an attempt as simple to state as it is admittedly impossible to fulfill.

To whet your appetite, here are three of the winners, chosen randomly:

• Tamar Szabó Gendler (Yale), “Alief and Belief” from the Journal of Philosophy
• Penelope Maddy (UC Irvine), “How Applied Mathematics Became Pure” from the Review of Symbolic Logic
• Michael G. Titelbaum (Wisconsin), “The Relevance of Self-Locating Beliefs” from the Philosophical Review

Also of interest: the August 2009 book reviews from the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. Are any of these worth considering for acquisition for the Robbins collection?

Good morning, readers!

I came across this yesterday from a newsfeed — “Idea of Infinity Stretched Back to Third Century B.C.” — recent studies of the Archimedes Palimpest indicate that Archimedes was using the concept of actual infinity in the 3rd century B.C.  Of interest, perhaps, to those studying philosophy of mathematics.

Good morning, readers!

We will be having four visiting professors in the Department of Philosophy during Spring term 2009.  I am listing them below, with links to the courses which they will be teaching.

• Talbot M. Brewer (University of Virginia)
  • PHIL 175. Ethical Theory
  • PHIL 278x. Virtue Ethics
• Herman De Dijn (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
  • PHIL 124. Spinoza
• Matti Eklund (Cornell University)
  • PHIL 148. Philosophy of Mathematics
  • PHIL 263. Metaontology
• Mi-Kyoung Lee (University of Colorado, Boulder)
  • PHIL 7. Intro to Ancient Philosophy

A tentative syllabus has been posted for Professor De Dijn’s Spinoza course.  I’ve also listed primary texts for Professor Lee’s course, and for Professor Eklund’s Philosophy of Mathematics course.  I will post syllabi, primary texts, and other readings as they become available.

I’m posting this information now, so that Harvard students reading this blog will know about the courses in advance.

Good morning, readers!

Yesterday, I was forwarded the following announcement, which may be of great interest to those interested in Kurt Gödel and philosophy of mathematics:

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Gödel’s dialectica interpretation, dialectica has made freely available the whole issue (including papers by Ackermann, Beth, Carnap, Curry, Fraenkel, Gonseth, Goodstein, Hermes, Heyting, Kreisel, Peter, Robinson, Schmidt, Schütte, Skolem, Specker and Wang):

It also published a special issue dedicated to Gödel’s dialectica interpretation, edited by Thomas Strahm (University of Berne):

• Introduction, Thomas Strahm
• Functional Interpretations of Constructive Set Theory in All Finite Types, Justus Diller
• Lieber Herr Bernays!, Lieber Herr Gödel! Gödel on finitism, constructivity and Hilbert’s program, Solomon Feferman
• A Most Artistic Package of a Jumble of Ideas, Fernando Ferreira
• Gödel’s Functional Interpretation and its Use in Current Mathematics, Ulrich Kohlenbach
• An Analysis of Gödel’s dialectica Interpretation via Linear Logic, Paulo Oliva

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!

Here are the July reviews from Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.  Are any of these books candidates for inclusion in the Robbins collection?

Philosophy of Language

Frederik Stjernfelt
Diagrammatology: An Investigation on the Borderlines of Phenomenology, Ontology and Semiotics
Reviewed by Valeria Giardino, Institut Jean Nicod (CNRS-EHESS-ENS), Paris

François Recanati
Perspectival Thought: A Plea for (Moderate) Relativism
Reviewed by Kepa Korta, University of the Basque Country

 Epistemology

Mark Okrent
Rational Animals: The Teleological Roots of Intentionality
Reviewed by Matthew Ratcliffe, Durham University

Michael N. Forster
Kant and Skepticism
Reviewed by Anthony Brueckner, University of California, Santa Barbara

Zenon W. Pylyshyn
Things and Places: How the Mind Connects with the World
Reviewed by Christopher S. Hill, Brown University

Jennifer Lackey
Learning from Words: Testimony as a Source of Knowledge
Reviewed by Aaron Z. Zimmerman, University of California, Santa Barbara

Philosophy of Religion

Alvin Plantinga, Michael Tooley
Knowledge of God
Reviewed by William L. Rowe, Purdue University

J. L. Schellenberg
The Wisdom to Doubt: A Justification of Religious Skepticism
Reviewed by Stephen Wykstra, Calvin College and Timothy Perrine, Calvin College

Erik J. Wielenberg
God and the Reach of Reason: C.S. Lewis, David Hume, and Bertrand Russell
Reviewed by Bruce Russell, Wayne State University

Metaphysics

Robin Le Poidevin
The Images of Time: An Essay on Temporal Representation
Reviewed by Craig Callender, University of California, San Diego

John Leslie
Immortality Defended
Reviewed by Charles Taliaferro, St. Olaf College

Max Kistler, Bruno Gnassounou (eds.)
Dispositions and Causal Powers
Reviewed by Jennifer McKitrick, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Lynne Rudder Baker
The Metaphysics of Everyday Life: An Essay in Practical Realism
Reviewed by Charlotte Witt, University of New Hampshire

History of Philosophy

Terence Irwin
The Development of Ethics: A Historical and Critical Study; Volume I: From Socrates to the Reformation
Reviewed by Dimitrios Dentsoras, University of Manitoba

Iain Macdonald, Krzysztof Ziarek (eds.)
Adorno and Heidegger: Philosophical Questions
Reviewed by David Pettigrew, Southern Connecticut State University

Larry A. Hickman
Pragmatism as Post-Postmodernism: Lessons from John Dewey
Reviewed by Dennis M. Senchuk, Indiana University

P. J. E. Kail
Projection and Realism in Hume’s Philosophy
Reviewed by Angela Coventry, Portland State University

Christopher Shields
Aristotle
Reviewed by Barbara Sattler, Yale University

Andrew Haas
The Irony of Heidegger
Reviewed by Richard Polt, Xavier University

Quentin Skinner
Hobbes and Republican Liberty
Reviewed by Bernard Gert, Dartmouth College

Paul Russell
The Riddle of Hume’s Treatise: Skepticism, Naturalism, and Irreligion
Reviewed by Rico Vitz, University of North Florida

Charlie Huenemann (ed.)
Interpreting Spinoza: Critical Essays
Reviewed by Steven Barbone, San Diego State University

Philosophical Practice

Rupert Read, Laura Cook (ed.)
Applying Wittgenstein
Reviewed by Colin Johnston, Institute of Philosophy, University of London

Steve Fuller
The Knowledge Book: Key Concepts in Philosophy
Reviewed by Val Dusek, University of New Hampshire

Ethics/Moral Philosophy/Political Philosophy

Jerome Neu
Sticks and Stones: The Philosophy of Insults
Reviewed by Macalester Bell, Columbia University

J. McKenzie Alexander
The Structural Evolution of Morality
Reviewed by Herbert Gintis, University of Massachusetts

Francisco J. Benzoni
Ecological Ethics and the Human Soul: Aquinas, Whitehead, and the Metaphysics of Value
Reviewed by Christopher M. Brown, University of Tennessee at Martin

Aesthetics

Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei
The Ecstatic Quotidian: Phenomenological Sightings in Modern Art and Literature
Reviewed by K. Gover, Bennington College

Elisabeth Schellekens
Aesthetics and Morality
Reviewed by James Harold, Mount Holyoke College

Jane Kneller
Kant and the Power of Imagination
Reviewed by James Schmidt, Boston University

James O. Young
Cultural Appropriation and the Arts
Reviewed by John Rapko, San Francisco Art Institute

Stephen Davies
Philosophical Perspectives on Art
Reviewed by Christian Helmut Wenzel, National Chi Nan University, Taiwan

Philosophy of Mathematics

Marcus Giaquinto
Visual Thinking in Mathematics: An Epistemological Study
Reviewed by Sun-Joo Shin, Yale University

At left: Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio), The School of Athens (1509-1511). Plato is in the center, pointing upwards with one hand, and holding a copy of the Timaeus in the other.

“The safest general characterization of the European philosophic tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them.” — Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality (1929), p. 63

Few will contest the long shadow that Plato casts over Western philosophy, and Western culture in general. Politics, religion, aesthetics, ethics, mathematics, epistemology, language — these are but a few of the many topics that Plato covers in his dialogs.

Two recent articles — one on the philosophy of mathematics, the other on how Plato constructs philosophical practice — might pique the interest of my readers:

• Julie Rehmeyer writes “Still Debating with Plato: Where Do Mathematical Objects Live?” for ScienceNews.org.
• Will Rasmussen (King’s College London) reviews David Wolfsdorf’s Trials of Reason: Plato and the Crafting of Philosophy for Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

(For those interested in the latter article, Alexander Nehamas’ The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault, covers similar ground, and is worth reading for comparison to Wolfsdorf.)

A hat-tip to Bookforum.com for these articles.

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.