Good morning, readers!

The September 2009 book reviews from Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews are available.

The reviewed books cover Hannah Arendt, Aristotle, St. Augustine, Ernst Cassirer, David Kaplan, Rene Descartes, David Hume, Socrates, Stephen Stich, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Topics covered include aesthetics, Asian philosophy, ancient philosophy, moral & political philosophy, and time, among others.

Are any worth considering for the Robbins collection?

Good morning, readers!

For your reading pleasure this week:

The new May 2009 reviews from Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews are now available.   There’s quite a variety of philosophers and topics covered this month — Hegel, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, al-Kindi, Simplicius, Epictetus, the liar paradox, the will, aesthetics, and more.  Are any of these worth considering for the Robbins collection?

I came across this article, “The Case for Working With Your Hands,” by Matthew Crawford, several days ago, via Brian Leiter and a few friends posting it on Facebook.  It’s a very thoughtful and profound essay, on work, education, and where our culture places its priorities.

Next week, we’re back to our regular Friday posting schedule.  See you then!

Good morning, readers!

Here are the March 2009 Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews:

Moral & Political Philosophy

Metaphysics

Epistemology

Aesthetics

Philosophers & History of Philosophy

Philosophy of Science

Philosophy of Literature

Asian Philosophy

Philosophy of Religion

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

Jim Holt reviews Alexander Waugh’s The House of Wittgenstein for the New York Times.

Holt does make an interesting observation:

My only serious complaint about the book concerns Waugh’s glancing treatment of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philo­sophical work. He dismisses it as “incomprehensible” and attributes Wittgenstein’s influence to his “striking looks, manner and extraordinarily persuasive personality.” His view of Wittgenstein is substantially the same as the one taken in Derek Jarman’s 1993 film, “Wittgenstein,” to which Terry Eagleton contributed the script. In both cases, Wittgenstein is depicted as a gurulike source of gnomic utterances. Jarman’s attitude toward this caricature is solemnly reverential, whereas Waugh’s is mocking and somewhat philistine. But Ludwig Wittgenstein was not a guru; he was a supremely rigorous thinker who, by paying minute attention to the structure and limits of language, sought to clear away the conceptual confusions that plague philosophy. Waugh is not obliged to give the reader an understanding of his accomplishment — there are plenty of books that do that pretty well — but he should not be positively misleading.

So, those looking for a guide to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophical work will probably want to look elsewhere, e.g., Ray Monk’s How to Read Wittgenstein. UPDATE: Please see the comments section below — a reader offers a different take on Waugh’s presentation of Wittgenstein.

A hat-tip to Brian Leiter for this link.


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!

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

Epistemology

History of Philosophy

Individual Philosophers

Metaphysics

    Moral & Political Philosophy

    Philosophy of Mathematics

    Philosophy of Physics

    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!

    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

    Happy Monday, readers!

    Just arrived in Robbins last Friday: the latest issues of Inquiry and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.  Here are the Tables of Contents for the respective journals:

    Inquiry 51(3) June 2008

    • “Wittgenstein, Ethics and Basic Moral Certainty,” Nigel Pleasants
    • “Fichte’s Fictions Revisited,” Benjamin D. Crowe
    • “Personal Identity as a Task,” Sophia Vasalou
    • “The Myth of the Metaphysical Circle: An Analysis of the Contemporary Crisis of the Critique of Metaphysics,” Herbert De Vriese

    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 77(1) July 2008

    Articles

    • “The Virtue of Practical Rationality,” Sigrún Svavarsdóttir
    • “Internalist Foundationalism and the Problem of the Epistemic Regress,” José L. Zalabardo
    • “A Functionalist Theory of Properties,” Ann Whittle
    • “Is Locke’s Theory of Knowledge Inconsistent?,” Samuel C. Rickless
    • “Why Be an Anti-Individualist?,” Laura Schroeter

    Discussions

    • “A Hard-line Reply to Pereboom’s Four-Case Manipulation Argument,” Michael McKenna
    • “A Hard-line Reply to the Multiple-Case Manipulation Argument,” Derk Pereboom
    • “Comments on Woodward, Making Things Happen,” Michael Strevens
    • “Response to Strevens,” Jim Woodward

    Book Symposium
    The Evolution of Morality

    • “Preçis of The Evolution of Morality,” Richard Joyce
    • “Acquired Moral Truths,” Jesse Prinz
    • “Some Questions About The Evolution of Morality,” Stephen Stich
    • “Evolution and the Possibility of Moral Realism,” Peter Carruthers, Scott M. James
    • “Replies,” Richard Joyce

    Review Essay

    • “Review Essay on Sami Pihlström’s Solipsism: History, Critique, and Relevance,” Richard Schantz

    Critical Notices

    • Epistemic Luck, reviewed by Jonathan Kvanvig
    • The Affirmation of Life: Nietzsche On Overcoming Nihilism, reviewed by Robert Pippin
    • Against Coherence: Truth, Probability, and Justification, reviewed by Tomoji Shogenji