Philosopher's Digest » Philosophical Studies

“Means-End Coherence, Stringency, and Subjective Reasons” Mark Schroeder

Errol Lord — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:16:16 +0000

Main authors discussed: Michael Bratman, John Broome, A.C. Ewing, Kieran Setiya

Schroeder’s main goal is to begin to develop an interesting view of the coherence requirements of rationality. He focuses on two coherence requirements, the first of which is the instrumental…

“Imagination and Other Scripts” Eric Funkhouser and Shannon Spaulding

Amy Kind — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:00:59 +0000

Main authors discussed: Gregory Currie, Ian Ravenscroft, David Velleman, Shaun Nichols, Stephen Stich

Some philosophers (e.g., Currie and Ravenscroft, Velleman) have recently argued that pretense provides a counterexample to the standard Humean Theory of Motivation (HTM). Pretense behavior is a novel kind of…

“Single Premise Deduction and Risk” Maria Lasonen-Aarnio

Leo Iacono — Wed, 06 May 2009 12:00:48 +0000

Lasonen-Aarnio argues that a problem that might seem to affect only multi-premise closure (MPC), having to do with the accumulation of risk, is also a problem for single premise closure (SPC).

Here are the epistemic closure principles in question, as formulated…

“Empathy, Social Psychology, and Global Helping Traits” Christian Miller

Kevin Timpe — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:02:38 +0000

Main authors discussed: Gilbert Harman, John Doris, C. Daniel Batson

Recent work by both philosophers and social psychologists suggests that agents lack a moral character comprised of robust, global moral dispositions. According to situationists like Harman and Doris, most individuals overestimate…