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Philosophers' Carnival 105

Welcome to the 105th Philosophers' Carnival! The Philosophers' Carnival collects some of the best philosophy blog posts all in one place. Here they are:

Metaphysics

• Aaron defends an account of the ontology of fiction which avoids commitment to possible worlds at the expense of introducing truth-value gaps, at the Florida Student Philosophy Blog.

Philosophy of Mind

• Avery Archer of The Space of Reasons criticizes motivational rationalism.


• Gualtiero Piccinini provides a critical review of Gallistel and King's Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cognitive Science Will Transform Neuroscience at Brains.

Epistemology

• Martin Cooke considers a version of the two envelope paradox at Enigmania.

Philosophy of Religion

• Jason Zarri of Philosophical Pontifications asks, "How Free is God's Will?"

Philosophy of Science

• Bob O'Hara of Deep Thoughts and Silliness remarks on some issues of scientific publishing and methodology raised by Elsevier's recent threat to shut down a controversial journal.

Ethics

• Richard Chappell of Philosophy, etc. points out that we can't differentiate hypothetical imperatives from categorical imperatives merely by their form; otherwise 'if you want to torture children, you should seek psychiatric help' would be a hypothetical imperative, which it's not (it won't help you torture children).


• My own contribution, Deontic Utilitarianism, Liberty Utilitarianism, and Deontologism, argues that deontologism cannot be formulated in terms of maximizing or equalizing any quantity. (I would have thought this was obvious, but J.J.C. Smart and Amartya Sen don't seem to think so.)

Political Theory

• Nick Ottens considers the Jeffersonian understanding of property rights at The Atlantic Sentinel.
  
• David Fryman of The Bennett Commentary asks whether unequal justice is still justice.

Philosophy of Race, Gender, and Sexuality

• Jennifer Lee Lawson discusses the proper way to think of 'American Indians' at The Florida Student Philosophy Blog.


• Jeremy Pierce of Parableman criticizes Elizabeth Myer's definition of 'heterosexism', arguing that it glosses over a number of morally significant distinctions.

That it for this time! The next carnival will be held at ttahko.net on Monday, April 5; the submission form can be found here.