Philosopher's Digest

“Well-Being and Virtue” Daniel Haybron

Daniel Russell — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:34:06 +0000

Originally published in Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy volume 2, number 2 (2007), pages 1-27.

Main authors discussed: Daniel Haybron

In this essay, Daniel Haybron discusses what he calls “Aristotelian perfectionism,” which he takes to be a central feature of Aristotelian theories…

“Marriage Unhitched From the State: A Defense” Jeremy Garrett

Vaughn Bryan Baltzly — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:04:16 +0000

Taking his lead from Robert Nozick (who observes that “the fundamental question … one that precedes questions about how the state should be organized, is whether there should be any state at all”), Jeremy Garrett investigates, not how the institution of civil marriage should be organized, but whether there should be any such institution at all. Finding there to be a compelling prima facie case against the institution, and finding two important arguments against this prima facie case to be wanting, Garrett concludes that we should not, in fact, have the institution of civil marriage. Instead, he defends a view called Marital Contractualism (henceforth ‘MC’), a proposal for a ‘privatized’, ‘dis-established’ marriage regime.

“Constitution of No Authority: Spoonerian Reflections” Gerard Casey

James Otteson — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:59:31 +0000

Main authors discussed: Lysander Spooner, Edmund Burke, David Hume, Henry Sumner Maine.

In this brief but provocative article, Casey, a professor of philosophy at University College Dublin, revisits the radical argument Lysander Spooner made in his 1867 No Treason: The Constitution…

“Happiness, the Self, and Human Flourishing,” Daniel Haybron

Daniel Russell — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:23:41 +0000

Originally published in Utilitas volume 20, number 1 (2008), pages 21-49.

Main Authors Discussed: Daniel Haybron

This essay offers a provisional account of Haybron’s “self-fulfillment” view of well-being: well-being is the fulfillment of one’s nature as a unique individual. Haybron argues that such a view…

“The Sense of Deity and Begging the Question with Ontological and Cosmological Arguments” Daniel M. Johnson

R. Zachary Manis — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:24:15 +0000

Main authors discussed: John Calvin, Alvin Plantinga, William Rowe

Reformed epistemology often is thought to be on the opposite end of the theological spectrum from, if not outright opposed to, natural theology. Johnson, however, aims to demonstrate that Calvin’s view of…

“Kierkegaard and Natural Reason: A Catholic Encounter” Jack Mulder, Jr.

R. Zachary Manis — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:39:28 +0000

Main authors discussed: Søren Kierkegaard, Johannes Climacus, William L. Rowe, Cardinal Newman, Karl Rahner

According to the standard reading, Søren Kierkegaard is a staunch critic of natural theology. Johannes Climacus, the pseudonymous author of Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments, lampoons all attempts to…

“Warrant and Action” Mikkel Gerken

Clayton Littlejohn — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:00:12 +0000

Main authors discussed: Keith DeRose, John Hawthorne, Jason Stanley, and Timothy Williamson

Hawthorne and Stanley (2008) defend the Knowledge-Action Principle:

(KA) It is proper to treat p as a reason for action (for some p-dependent choice) iff you know p.

Mikkel Gerken defends the…

“How We Know What We’re Doing” Sarah K. Paul

Heath White — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:18:40 +0000

Main authors discussed: Anscombe, Velleman, Setiya, Davidson

Anscombe was the first philosopher in modern times to note that when we act intentionally, we know what we are doing without observation, under the description(s) on which the action is intentional. Paul calls…

“Truth and Public Reason” Joshua Cohen

Guido Pincione — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:14:06 +0000

Joshua Cohen argues that a political conception of truth plays a role in public political justification. He draws a distinction between a conception of truth, which consists in a “set of claims about truth—for example, that truth is distinct from warrant,…

“The Non-identity of the Categorical and the Dispositional” David S. Oderberg

Edward Feser — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:09:31 +0000

Analysis, Volume 69, Number 4 (October 2009), pages 677-684.

Main authors discussed: David Oderberg, Galen Strawson, Alexander Bird, Mark Heller

Oderberg’s article is a response to Galen Strawson’s “The identity of the categorical and the dispositional” (reviewed previously). Strawson, following Descartes, assumes…