blog.kennypearce.net: Historical Thinkers Archives

Descartes, Cudworth, and God

Ren. Cartefius, (though otherwise an Acute Philosopher) was here no less Childish, in affirming, that all things whatsoever, even the Natures of Good and Evil, and all Truth and Falsehood, do so depend upon the Arbitrary Will and Power of God, as that if he had pleased, Twice Two should not have been Four, nor the Three Angles of a Plain Triangle, Equal to Two Right ones, and the like...Than which, no Paradox of any old Philosopher, was ever more Absurd and Irrational: and certainly if any one did desire, to perswade the World, that Cartesius, notwithstanding all his pretences...
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Topic(s): Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Sīnā , Divine Attributes , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Ralph Cudworth , Rene Descartes
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Some Confusions about Early Modern Deism

Today, 'deism' is often characterized in terms of an image of God as an absent watchmaker—a designer, usually conceived in fairly anthropomorphic terms, who set the world going and walked away, not only never intervening in history but also not caring about us and how we live our lives. This conception often informs discussions about religion in the American founding, the French Revolution, etc., as well as discussions in philosophy. However, this is not how deism was understood in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the first place, the definition of 'deism' is, in a slogan, the sufficiency of natural...
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Topic(s): Anthony Collins , Deism , Historical Thinkers , John Toland , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , The Church
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Xunzi and Le Guin on Ritual and Social Structure

The fate of man lies with Heaven; the fate of the nation lies in ritual. Xunzi, "A Discussion of Heaven," tr. Watson "Solitude" is my favorite of all of Ursula Le Guin's works (mild spoilers to follow), and I have often assigned it to students together with Xunzi and Wittgenstein on ritual. The story is about an anthropological investigation into the planet Eleven-Soro. The investigation is stymied by the local system of taboos, which includes a taboo on adults teaching one another. One anthropologist, a woman named Leaf, decides that the only solution is to move in with her son,...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Religious Practice , Ursula Le Guin , Xunzi
Posted by Kenny at 9:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Apophaticism and Religious Pluralism

Many world religions include some tendency toward, or tradition of, apophaticism, the view that the divine (or ultimate, or absolute, the object of our religious devotion) defies description in human language, and we must therefore restrict ourselves to saying what the divine is not. However, most of these religions are also committed to texts or traditions which appear to describe the divine in various positive ways. Puzzles arise when we attempt to combine these traditions of negative (or apophatic) theology and positive (or kataphatic) theology. If we can speak truly of God only by negation, what are we to make...
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Topic(s): "Dionysius" , Anthony Collins , Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , John Hick , Moses Maimonides , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Religious Language , Thomas Aquinas
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A Brief Reflection on the History of Apophaticism

Apophaticism is the view that affirmative statements about God cannot be both literal and univocal. 'Literal' is here opposed to 'metaphorical'. (How precisely to spell out that opposition is a rather difficult question that I won't pursue here—I will just assume we have some kind of grasp of the concept of metaphor.) 'Univocal' means that the word has the same meaning when applied to God as in its other uses. So, for instance, to say that 'wise' is used univocally in 'God is wise' would be to say that it has the same meaning in this sentence as in the...
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Topic(s): Baruch Spinoza , Divine Attributes , Historical Thinkers , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy of Religion , Religious Language , Thomas Hobbes
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Reflections on the Science Fiction of Poul Anderson

Poul Anderson's science fiction is, in my opinion, not so uniformly excellent as Theodore Sturgeon or Ursula Le Guin. However, he produced some real masterpieces (the 1972 novelette "Goat Song"—a futuristic retelling of the myth of Orpheus, with a computer in the role of the god—being my favorite) and he pioneered several major tropes of the 'space opera' sub-genre, as well as the "Time Police" trope. The majority of his stories are simply fun adventures. One of the most striking and interesting things about Anderson's work for me is the way his image of the future differs from many other...
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Topic(s): Edmund Burke , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Poul Anderson , Science-Fiction
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Cavendish, Hooke, and the Fall of Man

But I perceive Man has a great spleen against self-moving corporeal Nature, although himself is part of her, and the reason is his Ambition; for he would fain be supreme, and above all other Creatures, as more towards a divine nature; he would be a God, if arguments could make him such, at least God-like, as is evident by his fall, which came merely from an ambitious mind of being like God. Margaret Cavendish, Observations upon Experimental Philosophy, 2nd ed. (1668), ch. 2.7, p. 280 One of Cavendish's key theses is that a human being is merely an ordinary...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , Evolution , Historical Thinkers , History of Science , Margaret Cavendish , Philosophy , Philosophy of Science , Robert Hooke , Science
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Cavendish and Plato on Parts of the Mind

some rational Parts, may in one composed figure, have opposite actions; As for example, the Mind of man may be divided, so as to hate one person, and love another: nay, hate and love one and the same person, for several things, at the same time: as also, rejoice and grieve at the same time. For example; A Man has two Sons, one is kill'd in the Warrs, and the other comes home with victory and honour; the Father grieves for the slain Son, and rejoices for the victorious Son: for, the Mind being material, is dividable as well as...
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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , Margaret Cavendish , Metaphysics , Panpsychism , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Plato
Posted by Kenny at 6:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley on the Phenomenology of Mathematics

Nor do I think [abstract ideas] are a whit more needfull for enlargment of Knowlege, than for Communication. For tho' it be a point much insisted on in the Schools, that all Knowlege is about Universals, yet I can by no means See the necessity of this Doctrine. It is acknowledg'd that nothing has a fairer title to the Name of Knowlege or Science than Geometry. Now I appeal to any mans thoughts, whether upon the entrance into that Study, the first thing to be done is to try to conceive a Circle that is neither great nor small, nor...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Immanuel Kant , Philosophy , Philosophy of Math , Rene Descartes
Posted by Kenny at 10:13 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Hume's Polemic against Tillotson (and Friends) in "Of Miracles"

Interpreters of Hume's "Of Miracles" (section 10 of the Enquiry concerning Human Understanding) have often been puzzled about the purpose of Part 2 of the essay. It appears to many interpreters that Hume's argument in Part 1, if it works at all, must establish that it is impossible in principle for any testimony to yield rational belief in miracles. (For defense of this interpretation of Part 1, see, e.g., Robert Larmer.) The announced purpose of Part 2, however, is to argue that actually existing testimony of miracles is of poor quality. If Part 1 has established that no matter how...
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Topic(s): Anglican Communion , Authoritativeness , David Hume , Epistemology , Faith , Historical Thinkers , John Tillotson , Miracles , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Protestantism , Roman Catholic Church , The 'Reformed' Tradition , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 7:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"The Sacred Law of Fashion": Masham on Religious (Non-)Conformity

The 'occasion' for Damaris Cudworth Masham's 1705 Occasional Thoughts was, she tell us, a discussion among several women about "ladies' conduct books" and, in particular, Francois Aubignac's Les Conseils d'Ariste a Celimene, sur les Moyens de Conserver sa Reputation (Occasional Thoughts, p. 9).* These conduct books were intended to teach young ladies how to behave properly in the society circles in which they would move. This particular book was likely chosen because its very title illustrates the point Masham wants to make about this genre. The book purports to be advice from a man to a young woman on how...
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Topic(s): Anglican Communion , Bible , Damaris Cudworth Masham , Deism and Freethinking , Divine Revelation , Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Protestantism , The Church , Theology , Virtue Ethics
Posted by Kenny at 5:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Space Aliens and Skeptical Theism

Early modern philosophers, like 21st century theistic philosophers, often employ a strategy known as 'skeptical theism'. The basic idea is that we can't make empirical arguments against the existence of God because we don't know enough to make any judgment about whether our observations are consistent with the kind of universe God would or would not create. Here's one kind of consideration a skeptical theist can appeal to: there's probably intelligent life on other planets (otherwise, as Carl Sagan famously observed, it'd be an awful lot of wasted space). We have no idea what conditions are like for these beings,...
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Topic(s): Damaris Cudworth Masham , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Science-Fiction , Skeptical Theism , The Problem of Evil
Posted by Kenny at 3:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

An Argument that Divine Knowledge Must be Active

Among the basic assumptions of classical philosophical theology are God's aseity and impassibility. The former is God's attribute of being a se (literally, from Godself) in such a way that God is in no way derived from or dependent on anything else. The latter is God's attribute of being incapable of being acted upon (nothing can do anything to God). In humans, when we know something we believe it because its true, and in the typical case this 'because' is at least partly causal. (This raises notorious problems for, e.g., mathematical knowledge, but never mind that.) If, however, God is...
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Topic(s): Aristotle , Contemporary Thinkers , Divine Attributes , Graham Oppy , Historical Thinkers , Lucretius , Mental Representation , Metaphysics , Omniscience , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Ralph Cudworth , Thomas Aquinas
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Making (Non)Sense of Apophatic Theology

Recently, I've been trying to sort out the historical context of Berkeley's remarks on the divine attributes—and particularly the doctrine of analogy—in Alciphron 4. As this text shows, early modern philosophers were much more knowledgeable about, and influenced by, medieval philosophy than is often assumed. So I've been reading up on medieval understandings of analogy and apophaticism. Unrelatedly, I've also been reading through Plantinga's Warranted Christian Belief. This is a hugely influential book, and I'd read—and even taught—the crucial central portion of the book but (I must admit) this is my first time reading it cover to cover. In part...
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Topic(s): Alvin Plantinga , Anthony Collins , Contemporary Thinkers , Divine Attributes , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Moses Maimonides , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Religious Language , Thomas Aquinas , William King
Posted by Kenny at 11:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Aquinas on the Meaning of 'God'

In the recent analytic philosophy literature on the meaning of the word/name 'God', it is common to begin by distinguishing two positions. In the first place, we might think of 'God' as abbreviating a definite description like 'the being than which none greater can be conceived' or 'the being which is worthy of worship' or 'the omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good creator of the universe'. Some philosophers stipulate that they are using the word this way, but this kind of account is unsatisfactory as a description of how the word 'God' is used in English (or how its translations are...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Meghan Sullivan , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Religious Language , Thomas Aquinas
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Al-Ghazali on Skepticism

I'm currently reading Al-Ghazali's spiritual/philosophical autobiography for the first time. The translation I found in the library gives the title as Freedom and Fulfillment, but the book is better known in English as Deliverance From Error. I'm sure this has been noticed before, but the discussion of skepticism near the beginning of the book can be interestingly compared with some of the well-known discussions of skepticism in European philosophy. Here's a quick outline. Al-Ghazali states that he is looking for a kind of "certain knowledge" that will guarantee "safety from error" (§8). He recognizes that "the dicta of authority" (i.e.,...
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Topic(s): Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali , Contemporary Thinkers , Epistemology , Hilary Putnam , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Rene Descartes , Skepticism , Thomas Reid
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Moderate Divine Simplicity

According to the weak doctrine of divine simplicity—endorsed by nearly all theists—God has no proper parts. That is, there is no literal composition in God. According to the strong doctrine of divine simplicity—rooted in Neoplatonism and given classical expression by philosophers such as ibn Sina, Maimonides, and Aquinas—there is in God no metaphysically real complexity of any kind. For instance, in a human judge mercy and justice are two different traits of character that could come into conflict, but God's mercy just is God's justice which just is God. Further, according to the strong doctrine, God's essence just is God's...
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Topic(s): Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Sīnā , Divine Attributes , Divine Simplicity , Grounding , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Moses Maimonides , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Thomas Aquinas
Posted by Kenny at 11:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Latitudinarian vs High-Church Philosophy: Two Contrasts

Religious and political historians of 17th/18th century Britain and Ireland are well aware of the long-running conflict between the 'latitudinarian' and 'high-church' factions in the Anglican Communion. However, many historians of philosophy are entirely unfamiliar with these terms. To historians of philosophy, religious debate in Britain and Ireland in this period is a conflict between Christians and deists/atheists, in which differences among Christians are either entirely invisible or of secondary importance. This is unfortunate, first, because this internal Anglican conflict can shed light on some familiar philosophical texts and debates and, second, because there is a lot of interesting philosophy...
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Topic(s): Authoritativeness , Authority , Epistemology , Ethics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , John Locke , Mary Astell , Peter Browne , Philosophy
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Pruss and Rasmussen on the Gödelian Ontological Argument

Pruss and Rasmussen's eighth chapter focuses on the Gödelian ontological argument, which is so-called because it is based on some unpublished notes by the mathematician Kurt Gödel. Pruss has already written extensively on this argument, and it is safe to say that he is recognized as its foremost proponent today. The argument here (in contrast to Pruss's previous treatments, and also to the original Gödel notes, and the influential treatment by Sobel) is presented with the bare minimum of technical apparatus and should be accessible to anyone familiar with the basics of sentential logic. Along the way, the chapter includes...
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Topic(s): Alexander R. Pruss , Contemporary Thinkers , Divine Attributes , Existence of God , Historical Thinkers , Joshua L. Rasmussen , Kurt Gödel , Metaphysics , Modality , Ontological Argument , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
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Pruss and Rasmussen on the Argument from Necessary Abstracta

Pruss and Rasmussen's seventh chapter puts forward an argument for the existence of a necessary concrete being from the existence of necessary abstracta. They connect this strategy with an argument of Leibniz's. The Leibnizian argument, usually known as the 'argument from necessary truths', is to some extent known in the contemporary literature, but it has not become part of the standard list of arguments for the existence of God. (For instance, it is not discussed in Jordan Howard Sobel's Logic and Theism or Graham Oppy's Arguing About Gods.) Leibniz himself always seems to run through this argument very fast, and...
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Topic(s): Abstract Objects , Alexander R. Pruss , Contemporary Thinkers , Existence of God , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Joshua L. Rasmussen , Metaphysics , Modality , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Truth
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Berkeley on Divine and Human Spirits

It is pretty widely accepted, among those scholars who have considered the matter, that Berkeley endorses a univocal account of theological language. That is, Berkeley holds—contrary to traditional philosophical theology—that the word 'wise' is applied to God and to Socrates in the same sense, although with an infinite difference of degree. Philosophers who hold such a view are often said to anthropomorphize God (see, e.g., O'Higgins). However, comparing Berkeley's account with the prior tradition, it would be more accurate to say that Berkeley divinizes the human being than that he anthropomorphizes God. The strongest indication in this direction is found...
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Topic(s): Divine Attributes , Divine Simplicity , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Religious Language
Posted by Kenny at 11:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Leibnizian Supercomprehension

In a recent paper, Juan Garcia has argued that Leibniz is, in an important sense, "a friend of Molinism."1 For those who are familiar with contemporary versions of Molinism (e.g., Flint), this suggestion is rather surprising, since Leibniz is clearly a theological determinist: he holds that God chooses every detail of the actual world. Further, a key feature of Molinism (particularly as it is understood in recent analytic philosophy) is the idea that God's options for creation are limited by contingent but prevolitional counterfactuals of creaturely freedom. The contrary assumption, that God could have actualized any possible world, was dubbed...
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Topic(s): Alvin Plantinga , Antoine Arnauld , Conditionals , Contemporary Thinkers , Divine Attributes , Free Will , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Molinism , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Mind , Providence and Sovereignty , Thomas P. Flint
Posted by Kenny at 3:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Browne and Berkeley on the Influence of Words

At the beginning of the final (and by far the longest) chapter of his 1733 Divine Analogy, Peter Browne reports that "JUST as this Treatise was finished and sent away to the Press, I was very accidentaly surprised with a threatning Appearance of a powerful Attack upon the Doctrine of Divine Analogy, from an anonymous Author under the Disguise of a Minute Philosopher" (p. 374). The reference is, of course, to Berkeley's 1732 Alciphron: or, the Minute Philosopher. Browne proceeds to offer a lengthy critique of the account of religious language found in Berkeley's fourth and seventh dialogues. Browne correctly...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Toland , Peter Browne , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Religious Language
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Ibn Sīnā and Descartes on the Nature of Body

Thus, a body is such an entity that, if one posits a longitude on it, another longitude will be found intersecting it at a right angle, and a third longitude of these two lengths will stand as a perpendicular on the point of the previous intersection. Whatever can be placed under these three magnitudes in the aforesaid manner and is also a substance is called a body ... But that which is in a body, such as length, width, and depth, is known to exist not in the form of the body, but as an accident to it. For instance,...
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Topic(s): Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Sīnā , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Rene Descartes
Posted by Kenny at 10:09 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Chillingworth on Strange Extractions in Chymistry and Logick

In your sixt parag. I let all passe saving only this, That a perswasion that men of different Religions ... may be saved, is a most pernitious heresy, and even a ground of Atheisme. What strange extractions Chymistry can make I know not, but sure I am, he that by reason would inferre this conclusion, That there is no God, from this ground, That God will save men in different Religions, must have a higher strain in Logick, then you or I have hitherto made shew of. In my apprehension, the other part of the contradiction, That there is a...
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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , Logic , Philosophy , William Chillingworth
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"Berkeley's Theory of Language"

I've posted a new draft to my writings page, "Berkeley's Theory of Language". This is an invited contribution to The Oxford Handbook of Berkeley, edited by Samuel Rickless. The abstract is as follows: In the Introduction to the Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Berkeley attacks the “received opinion that language has no other end but the communicating our ideas, and that every significant name stands for an idea” (PHK, Intro §19). How far does Berkeley go in rejecting this ‘received opinion’? Does he offer a general theory of language to replace it? If so, what is the nature...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language
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"William King on Free Will"

A preprint of my paper "William King on Free Will" is now available on my writings page. This paper was in fact accepted by Philosophers' Imprint in July. Since the journal is open access and has usually been very fast in my previous experience, I hadn't bothered to post a preprint in advance. However, it seems that staff turnover has resulted in substantial publication delay at the journal, so I've decided to post the preprint after all. Here is the abstract: William King's De Origine Mali (1702) contains an interesting, sophisticated, and original account of free will. King finds 'necessitarian'...
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Topic(s): Ethics , Free Will , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , William King
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Catharine Trotter Cockburn on Berkeley's Immaterialism

I rather think we have that idea [of space] before we have any of extension in general, or are capable of abstracting: Nor does the mind frame it to itself; it is an idea early obtruded upon by the senses, and unavoidably perceived by it, as something without itself. This is all the proof we have, that matter is any thing really existing without the mind; and if the translator [Edmund Law, translator of William King's Essay on the Origin of Evil] will not admit of this evidence in behalf of space, but require some other proof, that it is...
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Topic(s): Catharine Trotter Cockburn , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Materialism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy
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Two Varieties of Occasionalism

As Elisabeth of Bohemia famously pointed out, Descartes appears to be committed to the following inconsistent triad: In every instance of causation, there is an a priori conceptual connection between cause and effect. There are no conceptual connections between mind and body. Mind and body interact causally. The most common response to this problem among Descartes's 17th century followers was occasionalism, the view that bodily phenomena do not genuinely cause mental phenomena but are merely reliably correlated with them, and vice versa, so that bodily phenomena may be called occasions of mental phenomena and mental phenomena may be called occasions...
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Topic(s): Antoine Arnauld , Causation , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Nicolas Malebranche , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Rene Descartes , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 6:05 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

What is 'Acausal Thomism'?

In yesterday's post I discussed a view I called 'acausal Thomism'. I think I got the name from Tom Flint's article on divine providence in the Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology, but I don't have the book with me now and the Google and Amazon previews are being uncooperative. In any event, in the comments on yesterday's post, both Mike Almeida and Brandon Watson suggested that this view was in need of clarification. I employed it in yesterday's argument, and I also said that I lean toward endorsing the view. So here I'll try to clarify exactly what I mean...
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Topic(s): Creation and Conservation , Divine Attributes , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Molinism , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Providence and Sovereignty , Thomas Aquinas , Thomism
Posted by Kenny at 8:59 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Philosophy and Trust in the Senses, from Montaigne to Berkeley

I want to begin this post with a longer sequence of quotations than is usual. The reason is that simply juxtaposing the quotations goes a long way toward telling the story I want to tell. Here, then, is a sequence of comments on philosophy and trust in the senses, ranging in date from 1580 to 1713: We want to find out by reason whether fire is hot, whether snow is white, whether anything within our knowledge is hard or soft. There are ancient stories of the replies made to the man who doubted whether heat exists—they told him to jump...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , Galileo Galilei , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Michel de Montaigne , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Rene Descartes , Sense Perception , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 9:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Hooker, Hobbes, and Locke on Absolute Monarchy

Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre; and such a warre, as is of every man, against every man ... in such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth;...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Eric Schliesser , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Richard Hooker , Social Contract Theory , The State of Nature , Thomas Hobbes
Posted by Kenny at 1:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Richard Hooker's Influence on Locke's Epistemology

The influence of 'the judicious Hooker' (1554-1600) on Locke's political philosophy is impossible to miss: Hooker is cited by name 13 times in Locke's Second Treatise of Government, which is not a very long book and contains very few other explicit citations. However, Hooker is rarely mentioned in discussions of Locke's epistemology. I suggest that he should be. Recognizing this fact helps to strengthen the case for the unity of Locke's thought (epistemological, scientific, religious, and political) which has been made by John Rogers, Nicholas Jolley, and others. Hooker's general epistemology looks most like Locke's in this passage from book...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , Faith , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Political Philosophy , Richard Hooker
Posted by Kenny at 1:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley's Manuscript Introduction on Google Arts and Culture

A digital exhibition on Berkeley's Manuscript Introduction is now live on Google Arts and Culture. The exhibition provides an introduction to Berkeley's life and his connection to Trinity College, followed by a brief overview of some of the most interesting portions of the manuscript. I thank the TCD library staff (especially Greg Sheaf) for a great deal of assistance in curating this exhibition.
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers
Posted by Kenny at 9:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley and Lokayata

Berkeley famously argues that "what is said of the absolute existence of unthinking things without any relation to their being perceived ... [is] perfectly unintelligible. Their esse is percipi, nor is it possible they should have any existence, out of the minds or thinking things which perceive them" (Principles, sect. 3). He aims to demonstrate this principle, he says, "In opposition to sceptics and atheists" (Three Dialogues, subtitle). As Berkeley saw it, human knowledge and traditional religion were under attack from 'freethinkers' and the root of this attack was the doctrine that real physical things must be something beyond or...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Lokayata School , Materialism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 2:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Locke's Experimental Philosophy of Ideas

A post I've written on the methodology of Locke's Essay, based on a portion of my "Ideas and Explanation" paper, is now live on the Early Modern Experimental Philosophy blog.
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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Meta-Philosophy , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Philosophy of Science , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 8:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

God's Solidarity with the Oppressed: Biblical Reflections for Good Friday

In a post on this blog that I am surprised to discover is now more than five years old, I proposed an approach to (religious/devotional) reading of the Bible which I called the Bible as dialogue. The central question motivating this approach is, why is the Bible written from diverse human perspectives? That is, what are we to make of the fact that the Bible does not present itself as direct divine discourse, the way the Quran does? My proposal, in brief, was that we are not meant passively to ingest the contents of this book, but to 'think along...
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Topic(s): Bible , Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Jesus of Nazareth , Liturgical Calendar , Peter Enns , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 11:17 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

"Ideas and Explanation in Early Modern Philosophy"

I have posted a new draft, "Ideas and Explanation in Early Modern Philosophy," to my writings page. Abstract: Malebranche argues that ideas are representative beings existing in God. He defends this thesis by an inference to the best explanation of human perception. It is well-known that Malebranche's theory of vision in God was forcefully rejected by philosophers such as Arnauld, Locke, and Berkeley. However, the notion that ideas exist in God was not the only controversial aspect of Malebranche's approach. Another controversy centered around Malebranche's view that ideas are to be understood as posits in an explanatory theory. Opponents of...
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Topic(s): Antoine Arnauld , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Metaphysics , Nicolas Malebranche , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 5:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Locke's Populist Logic

Again, your lordship [Stillingfleet] charges me, that I do not place certainty in syllogism; I crave leave to ask again, and does your lordship? ... And if you do, I know nothing so requisite, as that you should advise all people, women and all, to betake themselves immediately to the universities, and to the learning of logic, to put themselves out of the dangerous state of scepticism: for there young lads, by being taught syllogism, arrive at certainty; whereas, without mode and figure, the world is in perfect ignorance and uncertainty, and is sure of nothing. The merchant cannot be...
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Topic(s): Antoine Arnauld , Edward Stillingfleet , Epistemology , Externalism about Justification , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Logic , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 5:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Stillingfleet on the "Fundamental Mistake" of the Way of Ideas

The Rules established in the Schools ... seem to lay the foundation of all other Knowledge in these Maxims ... [but in fact] where our Ideas are determined in our Minds, and have annexed to them by us known and steady, Names under those settled Determinations, there is little need, or no use at all of these Maxims ... he that needs any proof to make him certain, and give his Assent to this Proposition, that Two are equal to two, will also have need of proof to make him admit that What is, is. John Locke, An Essay concerning...
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Topic(s): Edward Stillingfleet , Epistemology , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , The Way of Ideas , Thomas Reid
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Stillingfleet's Target

I have now, I say, the satisfaction to see how I lay directly in your lordship's [Stillingfleet's] way, in opposing these gentlemen, who lay all foundation of certainty, as to matters of faith, upon clear and distinct ideas; i.e. the Unitarians, the gentlemen of this new way of reasoning; so dangerous to the doctrine of the Trinity. For the author of Christianity not mysterious [Toland] agreeing with them in some things, and with me in others; he being joined to them on one side by an account of reason, that supposes clear and distinct ideas necessary to certainty; and to...
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Topic(s): Edward Stillingfleet , Epistemology , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , John Locke , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 3:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley and Toland on the Homoousion

EUPHRANOR. There is, if I mistake not, a practical faith, or assent, which sheweth itself in the will and actions of a man, although his understanding may not be furnished with those abstract, precise, distinct ideas, which, whatever a philosopher may pretend, are acknowledged to be above the talents of common men; among whom, nevertheless, may be found, even according to your own concession, many instances of such practical faith, in other matters which do not concern religion. What should hinder, therefore, but that doctrines relating to heavenly mysteries might be taught, in this saving sense, to vulgar minds, which...
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Topic(s): Anthony Collins , Deism , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Toland , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Religious Language , The Church
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Toland's Rhetorical Use of Cyril and Hypatia

No, no, they were no Christians that kill'd Hypatia; nor are any Christian Clergymen now to be attack'd through the Sides of her Murderers, but those that resemble them; by substituting precarious Traditions, scholastick Fictions, and an usurped Dominion, to the salutiferous Institution of the holy Jesus. John Toland, HYPATIA: OR, THE HISTORY OF A Most beautiful, most vertuous, most learned, and every way accomplish'd LADY; WHO was torn to Pieces by the CLERGY of Alexandria, to gratify the Pride, Emulation, and Cruelty of their ARCHBISHOP, commonly but undeservedly stiled St. CYRIL (1720), ch. 21 There is some controversy regarding...
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Topic(s): Authoritativeness , Cyril of Alexandria , Deism , Epistemology , Historical Thinkers , Hypatia of Alexandria , John Toland , Philosophy , The Church
Posted by Kenny at 10:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Two Observations upon Observations upon Experimental Philosophy

I am currently re-reading Margaret Cavendish's Observations upon Experimental Philosophy, as I will be teaching it in the near future. There are two features of the text that have struck me this time through, to which I was perhaps less attuned on my last read: I am struck by the extent to which Cavendish's reasons for panpsychism match the reasons given in more recent discussions (e.g., Nagel, Chalmers). The basic line of argument seems to be: human beings are made of ordinary matter, just like everything else. But human beings have sensitive/rational capacities that can't be explained mechanically. So there...
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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , Margaret Cavendish , Metaphysics , Panpsychism , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind
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Descartes and the Rise of the 'New Philosophy'

Earlier this year, Christia Mercer published a fascinating article on the influence of Teresa of Avila on Descartes. Mercer shows (in my view convincingly) that the structure of Descartes's Meditations is patterned after Teresa's The Interior Castle, an extremely popular text at the time, especially in Jesuit circles such as the college where Descartes was educated. This line of influence has been missed by scholars because philosophers are dismissive of women and of religious mystics, and Teresa was both. (I hasten to add: scholars are often quick to forget that certain male philosophers such as Plotinus and Augustine were undeniably...
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Topic(s): Christia Mercer , Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Philosophy , Rene Descartes
Posted by Kenny at 11:17 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

George Berkeley and the Power of Words

Today the OUP Author Blog features a post by me highlighting one of the main lines of argument from my book, Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World. The title is, "George Berkeley and the Power of Words."
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language
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Newton and Berkeley on the Scope of Natural Philosophy

In the first two editions of the Principia, Newton makes two pronouncements about the scope of natural philosophy that appear to be in tension with one another. In the first (1687) edition Preface to the Reader, Newton writes, "the basic problem of [natural] philosophy seems to be to discover the forces of nature from the phenomena of motions and then to demonstrate the other phenomena from these forces" (Janiak 60). In the famous General Scholium added to the second (1713) edition, Newton writes, "to treat of God from the phenomena is certainly a part of natural philosophy" (Janiak 113). We...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Isaac Newton , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Science
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Newton's Rationalism

One of the problems for the traditional 'Rationalists and Empiricists' story of early modern philosophy is that it is surprisingly difficult to define 'rationalism' and 'empiricism' appropriately (see here for a previous discussion). One traditional way of drawing the distinction, derived from Locke, is over the existence of innate ideas. This distinction, however, does not capture what is of importance to many other early modern philosophers, and oddly excludes Malebranche and his followers from the rationalist camp. (Since Malebranche holds that no ideas are ever in the human mind—they are all in God—he holds that no ideas are innate to...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Isaac Newton , Philosophy , Philosophy of Science
Posted by Kenny at 11:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Idealism and Christian Theology: Concluding Thoughts and Table of Posts

Having finished commenting on every chapter of Idealism and Christian Theology, allow me here to offer some concluding thoughts on the book and its aims and scope. First, some comments regarding scope. The title 'idealism and Christian theology' allows for a very wide scope. In the design of a volume like this, a judgment must be made about how broadly or narrowly the title is to be interpreted. Here, the title bears a relatively narrow interpretation in two respects, only one of which is explicit in the introduction. The explicit restriction of scope is that the volume considers only Berkeleian...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Jonathan Edwards , Joshua Farris , Mark Hamilton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 3:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Airaksinen on Berkeley's Theological Ethics

The 11th and final chapter of Idealism and Christian Theology is "Idealistic Ethics and Berkeley's Good God" by Timo Airaksinen. This is a rich, complex, and careful treatment of Berkeley's ethical thought. It is the only essay in the volume that pays careful attention to Berkeley's own theological commitments. Further, by specific attention to the theological context of Berkeley's ethical thought Airaksinen is able to show that Berkeley's thought in this area is richer and more complex than philosophers have often supposed. The discussion is focused around Berkeley's Alciphron. Surprisingly little attention is paid to Passive Obedience, though good use...
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Topic(s): Divine Command Theory , Ethics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Joshua Farris , Mark Hamilton , Philosophy , Theology , Timo Airaksinen , Utilitarianism
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Tan on Edwards' Christology

Chapter 9 of Idealism and Christian Theology is "Jonathan Edwards Dynamic Idealism and Cosmic Christology" by Seng-Kong Tan. The article addresses the relevance of Edwards' idealism to his accounts of the two central mysteries of the Christian faith, the Trinity and the Incarnation. Whereas most of the articles in this volume are primarily philosophical and deal with Christian theological commitments only at a rather basic level, this essay dives deep into the theology. Anyone not steeped in the history of these doctrines is likely to find it difficult to follow. I found it quite challenging myself, and will here only...
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Topic(s): Augustine , Christology , Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Jonathan Edwards , Joshua Farris , Mark Hamilton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Seng-Kong Tan , The Trinity , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 12:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Crisp on Edwards on the Incarnation

Chapter 8 of Idealism and Christian Theology is "Jonathan Edwards, Idealism, and Christology" by Oliver Crisp. This is the second of the two previously published essays, having appeared in another edited volume in 2011. The first part of the essay provides an admirably clear overview of Edwards' distinctive metaphysical views, particularly as they relate to God and creation. Crisp then goes on to draw out some consequences for Christology and defend the orthodoxy of Edwards' position. Crisp enumerates 11 Edwardsian positions he takes to be relevant, but it seems to me that there are really just three that are of...
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Topic(s): Christology , Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Jonathan Edwards , Joshua Farris , Mark Hamilton , Metaphysics , Oliver Crisp , Ontology , Philosophy , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cortez on Edwards on the Resurrection

Chapter 7 of Idealism and Christian Theology is "Idealism and the Resurrection" by Marc Cortez. Like the preceding article by Hamilton, this is an excellent piece of work directly addressed to the central issues of this volume. Cortez begins by noting that idealism, from the perspective of Christian theology, faces the problem of explaining the reality and importance of the body, and a particular example of this is the claim that there will be a bodily resurrection in the eschaton. In this respect, Cortez observes, Jonathan Edwards is a particularly interesting case since he is an idealist but also places...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Eschatology , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Jonathan Edwards , Joshua Farris , Marc Cortez , Mark Hamilton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 10:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Mark Hamilton on Idealism and Fallenness

Chapter 6 of Idealism and Christian Theology is "On the Corruption of the Body: A Theological Argument for Metaphysical Idealism" by S. Mark Hamilton. This is easily the best essay in the collection so far, and the most directly focused on the central issues the volume purports to address. Hamilton provides a carefully documented account of the ways in which mind-body dualism is presupposed by theologies of our post-lapsarian state of corruption in Reformed dogmatics from Calvin to the early 20th century. Jonathan Edwards, he shows, is an outlier with respect to this tradition. Hamilton enumerates a number of theological...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Jaegwon Kim , Jonathan Edwards , Mark Hamilton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Original Sin , Philosophy , Protestantism , The 'Reformed' Tradition , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 10:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Farris on Edwards on the Imago Dei

Chapter 5 of Idealism and Christian Theology is "Edwardsian Idealism, Imago Dei, and Contemporary Theology" by Joshua Farris. This is an interesting article that directly and constructively addresses one of the central theological issues raised by metaphysical idealism of the Berkeley/Edwards variety. However, I was left with some confusion about what the paper's overall lesson was meant to be. Farris frames the central question here as how, given Edwards' idealism, he can understand the imago dei doctrine in a way that does not devalue the body. Edwards is said to be drawing on but 'reconceiving' the prior tradition of Reformed...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Creation and Conservation , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Jonathan Edwards , Joshua Farris , Ontology , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 10:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Yandell on Berkeley and Creation

The fourth chapter of Idealism and Christian Theology is "Berkeley, Realism, Idealism, and Creation" by Keith Yandell. This is an interesting paper on Berkeley which, unless I missed something, did not turn out to be about Christian theology at all. I say purposely that it did not turn out to be about Christian theology, because it sounds at the beginning as if it is going to be. Yandell begins by noting that Berkeley's position is rare among Christian thinkers (p. 73), and discussing a particular threat to Christianity from those who take the creation of matter to be impossible (p....
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Joshua Farris , Keith Yandell , Mark Hamilton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 4:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Recent and Forthcoming Publications and Lecture

There's been a lot of exciting stuff going on recently! Here are a few things: The official UK release of Language and Structure was yesterday! This means that if you are in Europe and ordered direct from OUP, your copy should be on the way. Also, it means that e-book versions are now available from Amazon UK, Amazon US, Google, and Barnes and Noble. The paper book will be available in the rest of the world in May. "How Berkeley's Gardener Knows his Cherry Tree" will appear in Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. "Berkeley on Unperceived Objects and the Publicity of Language"...
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Topic(s): Deism , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , My Life , The Church
Posted by Kenny at 8:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Wessling on 'Idealistic Panentheism'

The third essay in Idealism and Christian Theology is "Idealistic Panentheism: Reflections on Jonathan Edwards's Account of the God-World Relation" by Jordan Wessling. The essay is avowedly not interpretive, but rather aims at an evaluation of a certain view in philosophical theology, dubbed 'idealistic panentheism,' which has been attributed to Edwards. This view takes the whole created world—including human minds—to be ideas in the mind of God. It is idealistic insofar as it takes reality to be fundamentally mental. It is panentheistic in a literal and straightforward sense: the created world exists in God's mind. However, it is not pantheistic...
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Topic(s): Baruch Spinoza , Contemporary Thinkers , Creation and Conservation , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Jonathan Edwards , Jordan Wessling , Joshua Farris , Mark Hamilton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 7:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Wainwright on Berkeley and Edwards

The second essay in Idealism and Christian Theology is "Berkeley, Edwards, Idealism, and the Knowledge of God" by William J. Wainwright. The aim of this article is to explore and explain similarities between Berkeley and Edwards in terms of the religious and cultural context in which they wrote, particularly the threat of deism and freethinking to these (relatively) traditional religious thinkers. This is an extremely interesting project, and it is for the most part well-executed, though the brevity of a single paper necessitates glossing over certain details, leaving some points underdeveloped, and so forth. Wainwright's central contention, I take it,...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Jonathan Edwards , Joshua Farris , Mark Hamilton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Theology , William Wainwright
Posted by Kenny at 10:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Spiegel on Berkeley and Orthodoxy

The first paper in Idealism and Christian Theology is James Spiegel's "The Theological Orthodoxy of Berkeley's Immaterialism." This piece was originally published in Faith and Philosophy in 1996, though I must confess that I had not read it before today. I found the essay rather odd, partly because I have some confusion about the nature of its project. Contrary to my expectations, it does not really address any of the questions I outlined in my last post. On the whole, I think the essay makes problematic unexamined assumptions about Berkeley's religion, and it relies on a controversial characterization of Berkeley's...
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Topic(s): Anglican Communion , Bible , Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , James Spiegel , Joshua Farris , Mark Hamilton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Protestantism , Scripture and Tradition , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 6:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Idealism and Christian Theology: Introduction

I have been asked to review Joshua Farris and Mark Hamilton's Idealism and Christian Theology for Faith and Philosophy. In accord with a previous practice I have found useful, I will be blogging through the book, one post per chapter, in preparation to write the review. This post will be not so much a discussion of the book's introduction as my own way of framing and approaching the issues in the book. The fundamental paradox of theological anthropology in the Abrahamic tradition is the understanding of the human being as the breath of God dwelling in the dust of the...
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Topic(s): Christology , Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Jonathan Edwards , Joshua Farris , Mark Hamilton , Materialism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , The Eucharist , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 1:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (5)

"Locke, Arnauld, and Abstract Ideas"

I've posted a new draft to my writings page, "Locke, Arnauld, and Abstract Ideas". Current work in the history of philosophy mostly treats Arnauld as a footnote to other philosophers, but the fact that he's needed as a footnote in discussions of Descartes, Malebranche, Leibniz, and Locke suggests that his historical importance is greater than his 'footnote' status suggests. Further, what little English-language secondary literature on Arnauld exists is mostly divided into three categories: work on the Port-Royal Logic and Grammar (including, especially, the influence of these works on Locke), work on the controversy with Malebranche (and the direct realism...
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Topic(s): Antoine Arnauld , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 3:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley and Hobbes

From a certain point of view (or perhaps several points of view), one might think that no two early modern philosophers are more opposed than Berkeley and Hobbes. True, both are empiricists, and the disagreement between rationalists and empiricists is often treated as the 'main event' of early modern philosophy. However, a comparison between Berkeley and Hobbes might well be regarded as a vivid and compelling illustration of the failings of the traditional rationalist-empiricist narrative. Note, for starters, that the ontologies of Berkeley and Hobbes are disjoint: Hobbes believes only in material substances, Berkeley believes only in spiritual (immaterial) substances....
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Religion , Thomas Hobbes
Posted by Kenny at 2:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley's Manuscript Introduction Digitized

This morning the digitization team at the Trinity College Library provided me with scans of the manuscript version of the Introduction to Berkeley's Principles. The manuscript is significantly longer than the published version and contains some important material, as I discuss at some length in my book. However, it has been widely known for some time that the transcription of the manuscript in the Luce and Jessop edition of Berkeley's Works is unreliable. The excellent diplomatic edition prepared by Bertil Belfrage was printed in a run of only 500 copies in 1987, and hence is not widely available. In the coming months, I will be working to prepare a permanent online home for the manuscript. In the meantime, I am pleased to make it available here.
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers
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Princess Elisabeth's Refutation of Descartes

I also find that the senses show me that the soul moves the body, but they teach me nothing (no more than do the understanding and the imagination) of the way in which it does so. For this reason, I think that there are some properties of the soul, which are unknown to us, which could perhaps overturn what your Metaphysical Meditations persuaded me of by such good reasoning: the nonextendedness of the soul. This doubt seems to be founded on the rule that you give there, in speaking of the true and the false, that all error comes to...
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Topic(s): Elisabeth of Bohemia , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Rene Descartes
Posted by Kenny at 11:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Language and Structure Available for Pre-Order!

I am most pleased to announce that Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World is now available for pre-order through Amazon UK or direct from Oxford University Press! It has not yet appeared on the US Amazon site. UK release is scheduled for March; US release for May. In addition to the information available on the Amazon and OUP sites, a detailed abstract can be found here.
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language
Posted by Kenny at 8:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Becoming a Political Kantian

This morning I've decided to take a break from contemplating the fact that my country is seriously considering giving the nuclear codes to a narcissistic, incompetent, hateful, con artist orangutang to contemplate politics in a more theoretical fashion, without reference to the present election. I've always had strongly deontological moral intuitions—that is, I find it most natural to think of ethics as primarily involving rules we have to follow rather than outcomes we have to promote. Further, before I started studying philosophy, I had broadly libertarian political views. It's not surprising, then, that when I first encountered Nozick's Kantian defense...
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Topic(s): Civil Rights , Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , John Locke , Libertarianism , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Private Property , Robert Nozick , The State of Nature
Posted by Kenny at 11:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"Berkeley on Unperceived Objects and the Publicity of Language"

Completing my summer research goals (only slightly late!), I've posted another new draft to my writings page, "Berkeley on Unperceived Objects and the Publicity of Language". The paper argues that when Berkeley's language of nature theory is interpreted in light of his own philosophy of language it produces a solution to the notorious problem of the existence of objects presently unperceived by humans.
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Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 12:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Teaching Like Socrates?

The Daily Nous heap of links today contained the image to the right (click for a larger view) which appears to be a letter to the editor of some newspaper by Simon Blackburn. I found the letter interesting and amusing, and it has something of a point, but it would be a big mistake to use this point to exempt philosophy departments from broader university conversations about pedagogy. The fact is, first, although the central pedagogical idea most associated with Socrates—that we teach by raising questions that cause students to re-examine their views—is certainly sound, this is really only the...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Simon Blackburn , Socrates
Posted by Kenny at 4:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"What Descartes Doubted, Berkeley Denied, and Kant Endorsed"

I've posted a new draft, "What Descartes Doubted, Berkeley Denied, and Kant Endorsed," to my writings page. This is actually a rewrite of a much older paper; the original idea pre-dates my dissertation. In it, I argue (among other things) that Kant's fundamental complaint against Berkeley is that Berkeley's empiricism leaves him with cognitive resources too sparse for the construction of a genuine world. In particular, Kant targets Berkeley's rejection of the application of the concept of substance to perceived objects. Of course, in Language and Structure I argue that Berkeley is aware of these sorts of problems and develops...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Immanuel Kant , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Rene Descartes , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 6:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Two Definitions of 'Empiricism'

In traditional tellings of the history of early modern philosophy, the school of British empiricists - the Locke-Berkeley-Hume triumvirate - is seen as according foundational status to the Aristotelian principle, "nothing in the intellect which was not first in the senses." This is, of course, given new formulations in terms of the modern 'Way of Ideas'. Their philosophical systems, so the story goes, are built on this foundation. However, there is another meaning of 'empiricism' that is more common in the early modern period. This notion goes back to the ancient 'empirics,' a school of physicians who eschewed theorizing in...
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Topic(s): David Hume , Epistemology , Francis Bacon , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , John Locke , Philosophy , Philosophy of Science , Robert Boyle , Thomas Hobbes , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 11:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Quote of the Day: Materialist Poetry

as for my opinion of Atoms, their figures and motions, (if any such things there be) I will refer you to my Book of Poems, out of which give me leave to repeat these following lines, containing the ground of my opinion of Atomes: All Creatures, howsoe're they may be nam'd Are of long, square, flat, or sharp Atomes fram'd Thus several figures several tempers make, But what is mixt, doth of the four partake. The onely cause, why things do live and die, 'S according as the mixed Atomes lie. Thus life, and death, and young, and old, Are...
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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , Margaret Cavendish , Materialism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 1:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Cavendish on Philosophical Disagreement

I have not contradicted those Authors [modern philosophers] in any thing, but what concerns and is opposite to my opinions; neither do I any thing, but what they have done themselves, as being common amongst them to contradict each other: which may as well be allowable, as for Lawyers to plead at the Barr in opposite Causes. For as Lawyers are not Enemies to each other, but great Friends, all agreeing from the Barr, although not at the Barr: so it is with Philosophers who make their Opinions as their Clients, not for Wealth, but for Fame, and therefore have...
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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , Margaret Cavendish , Meta-Philosophy , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 3:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"Arnauld's Verbal Distinction" in History and Philosophy of Logic

I've just heard that "Arnauld's Verbal Distinction between Ideas and Perceptions" will appear in History and Philosophy of Logic. It is unfortunate that Arnauld doesn't get more attention; I'm trying to do something about that!
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Topic(s): Antoine Arnauld , Historical Thinkers , Mental Representation , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Sense Perception , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 11:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Trinity College Dublin

I am most pleased to announce that, beginning in the fall, I will be Ussher Assistant Professor in Berkeley Studies (Early Modern Philosophy) at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. I do believe I will be the only professor of Berkeley Studies in the world (fittingly at Trinity: Berkeley's alma mater.
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , My Life
Posted by Kenny at 10:37 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Language and Structure to be Published by OUP

I am most pleased to announce that I today received a contract from Oxford University Press for my monograph, Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World. I've agreed to deliver the final version by mid-October (at the latest), so I am hopeful that the book will appear sometime in 2017. A detailed abstract is available here.
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language
Posted by Kenny at 6:09 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

REP Article on Port-Royal

My article on Port-Royal for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy is now available here. (Unfortunately, a subscription is required to see the complete article; only the opening summary is freely available.) The article focuses primarily on the theory of mind and language in the Port-Royal Grammar (1660) and Logic (1662).
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Topic(s): Antoine Arnauld , Historical Thinkers , Mental Representation , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 1:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Deism, Anthropomorphism, and Religion

I'm just beginning to think about a reference article on deism that I'm writing for the Ian Ramsey Centre's Special Divine Action Project and it has me thinking about a rather curious phenomenon in early modern philosophy and religion: the complex interplay between deism and theological anthropomorphism. Presently, the term 'deism' is associated with the 'absent watchmaker' picture of God: a highly anthropomorphic conception of a divine engineer whose prime concern is the elegant mechanical design of the universe rather than moral qualities. This is a conception shaped by 18th century Anglophone deists. However, in his large and extremely carefully...
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Topic(s): Anthony Collins , Baruch Spinoza , Contemporary Thinkers , Deism , Deism and Freethinking , Divine Attributes , Divine Revelation , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Jonathan Israel , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , The Church , Theology , William King
Posted by Kenny at 4:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"Leibniz and the Veridicality of Body Perceptions" in Philosophers' Imprint!

I've just received word that my paper, "Leibniz and the Veridicality of Body Perceptions," will be appearing in the (open access) journal Philosophers' Imprint!
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Topic(s): Familiar Objects , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 9:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"Foundational Grounding and the Argument from Contingency"

I've posted a new draft, "Foundational Grounding and the Argument from Contingency," to my writings page. As always, comments are welcome.
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Topic(s): Cosmological Argument , Existence of God , Explanation , Fictional Objects , G. W. Leibniz , Grounding , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Thomas Aquinas
Posted by Kenny at 12:32 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Mencius on Border Police

In antiquity, a border station was set up as a precaution against violence. Today it is set up to perpetrate violence.

- Mencius (4th cent. BCE), sect. 7B8, tr. Lau

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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , Mencius , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Politics , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 9:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Sets and Possible Worlds

This semester I'm directing an independent study on modal logic with a couple of students with strong math background. Yesterday some questions about sets and possible worlds came up, so I wrote up some notes for my students on the subject. This blog post is adapted from those notes. Introduction The development of axiomatic set theory was launched by consideration of Russell's Paradox: let A be the set of all sets that do not contain themselves. Does A contain itself or not? (This was on Existential Comics just yesterday!) The collection of axioms mathematicians developed to avoid paradox has the...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Kurt Gödel , Logic , Metaphysics , Modality , Patrick Grim , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 9:53 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Between Incredulity and Superstition

A little essay on pedagogy I wrote is going out in the upcoming Lilly Network Communique. The essay takes off from the Berkeley quote that's been in the header of this blog for some time, so I thought I'd make it available here too. Between Incredulity and Superstition A Pedagogy of Uncertainty "Religion," George Berkeley once remarked, "is the virtuous mean between incredulity and superstition"(Alciphron, §5.6). In the context of Berkeley's Alciphron, this is little more than a throwaway line, but to me it suggests a promising account of an important intellectual virtue. I believe that growth in this virtue...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Ludwig Wittgenstein , Peter Browne , Philosophy , Rene Descartes
Posted by Kenny at 4:38 PM

Understanding Sentences: Port-Royal, Locke, and Berkeley

According to the Port-Royal Logic, "words are distinct and articulated sounds that people have made into signs to indicate what takes place in the mind" (Buroker 74). Similarly, according to Locke, the use of language requires that one ``be able to use [articulate] Sounds, as Signs of internal Conceptions; and to make them stand as marks for the Ideas within his own Mind, whereby they might be made known to others, and the Thoughts of Men's Minds be conveyed from one to another" (EHU 3.1.2). Passages like these support Berkeley's interpretation of his predecessors as holding that, in the proper...
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Topic(s): Antoine Arnauld , Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Jennifer Smalligan Marušić , John Locke , Mental Representation , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Mind , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 1:04 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Future Contingents and the Grounding Objection to Molinism

In chapter 5 of Divine Providence: The Molinist Account (1998), Thomas Flint defends a response to the grounding objection which he attributes to Alfred Freddoso. According to the Flint-Freddoso line, there are difficulties about future contingents which are exactly parallel to the difficulties about counterfactuals of creaturely freedom, and solutions to the problems about future contingents can be adapted to provide equally plausible solutions to the problems about counterfactuals of creaturely freedom. This claim is false. The exact formulation of the grounding objection is a little tricky. Some philosophers take it to be based on the (questionable) assumption of some...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Divine Attributes , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Molinism , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Providence and Sovereignty , Thomas P. Flint
Posted by Kenny at 11:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"Matter, God, and Nonsense: Berkeley's Polemic Against the Freethinkers in the Three Dialogues"

I have posted a new draft to my writings page, "Matter, God, and Nonsense: Berkeley's Polemic Against the Freethinkers in the Three Dialogues". The final version of the paper is expected to appear in Berkeley's Three Dialogues: New Essays, ed. Stefan Storrie (Oxford University Press). In the meantime, comments are welcome.
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Topic(s): Deism and Freethinking , Existence of God , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Religion , Religious Language , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 10:17 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

"How Berkeley's Gardener Knows his Cherry Tree"

I have posted a new draft, "How Berkeley's Gardener Knows his Cherry Tree" to my writings page. As always, comments and criticisms are welcome.
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Topic(s): 'Common Sense'/Intuition , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 12:45 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

"Arnauld's Verbal Distinction Between Ideas and Perceptions"

I have posted a new draft, "Arnauld's Verbal Distinction Between Ideas and Perceptions" to my writings page. Comments are welcome!
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Topic(s): Antoine Arnauld , Historical Thinkers , Mental Representation , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Sense Perception , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 7:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Regarding All Those Possible Arnaulds

One of the main topics of the Leibniz-Arnauld correspondence is the question how, on Leibniz's theory, it can be true that Arnauld might have had children and been a physician rather than being a celibate theologian (see Arnauld's letter of May 13, 1686). One of the curious things that happens in this discussion is that both Leibniz and Arnauld start talking about the many Adams and many Judases and many Arnaulds in the various possible worlds, with Leibniz insisting that none of them is identical to the actual Adam/Judas/Arnauld. In that May 13 letter, Arnauld even speaks of 'several mes',...
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Topic(s): Antoine Arnauld , Essentialism , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Identity , Metaphysics , Modality , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language
Posted by Kenny at 4:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Hudson on Skeptical Theism and Divine Deception

The forthcoming Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion is full of interesting stuff! So far, I specially recommend Bishop and Perszyk on alternative conceptions of God and Dougherty and Pruss on apparently unjustified evils as 'anomalies' (in the philosophy of science sense). I have not yet read the last four articles. Here, I want to comment on Hud Hudson's "The Father of Lies?" (This post got longer than I intended, so I've added sub-headings. If you get bored in the middle, please skip to the end. I've also bolded important parts to make for easier skimming.) Hudson's Argument Hudson's central...
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Topic(s): Alexander R. Pruss , Divine Revelation , Epistemology , Faith , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Hud Hudson , John Locke , Lara Buchak , Miracles , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Skeptical Theism , The Problem of Evil
Posted by Kenny at 10:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"Leibniz and the Veridicality of Body Perceptions"

A new draft, "Leibniz on Phenomenalism, Mechanism, and the Great Chain of Being", has been posted to my writings page. Comments are welcome, as always!
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Topic(s): Familiar Objects , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Science
Posted by Kenny at 8:11 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Bayle on the Skeptical Consequences of Multi-Location

[If multi-location is possible] it follows that neither you nor I can be certain whether we are distinct from other men, or whether we are at this moment in the seraglio of Constantinople, in Canada, in Japan, and in every city of the world, under different conditions in each place. Since God does nothing in vain, would he create many men when one, created in various places and possessing different qualities according to the places, would suffice?

- Pierre Bayle, Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697), tr. Popkin, s.v. "Pyrrho," note B

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Topic(s): Epistemology , Familiar Objects , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Pierre Bayle , Quote of the Day , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 3:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Kotzen on the Improbability of Nothing

When someone asks 'why p rather than q?', it is sometimes a good answer to say, 'p is far more probable than q.' When someone asks, 'why is p more probable than q?', it is sometimes a good answer to say, 'there are many more ways for p to be true than for q to be true.' According to a well-known paper by Peter Van Inwagen, the question 'why is there something rather than nothing?' can be answered in just this fashion: something is far more probable than nothing, because there are infinitely many ways for there to be something,...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Cosmological Argument , Existence of God , Explanation , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Matthew Kotzen , Metaphysics , Modality , Peter van Inwagen , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Richard Swinburne , Tyron Goldschmidt
Posted by Kenny at 4:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World (Doctoral Dissertation)

The final draft of my doctoral dissertation, Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World is now complete, and available here. The defense is scheduled for March 21.
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , My Life , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language
Posted by Kenny at 5:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Why Do We Ask Why?

Several of the essays in The Puzzle of Existence argue, in one way or another, that no non-trivial answer can be given to those who ask why there is something rather than nothing. This may be because the question is somehow confused or mistaken, as in the case of Ross who argues that there is no such entity as everything (the totality of contingent concrete things, the Cosmos, etc.), and hence there can be no explaining the existence of everything. Or it may be because the Principle of Sufficient Reason is false, and so not every legitimate why question has...
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Topic(s): Aristotle , Contemporary Thinkers , Cosmological Argument , Elizabeth Anscombe , Existence of God , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Jacob Ross , John Heil , Laws of Nature , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Shieva Kleinschmidt , Tyron Goldschmidt
Posted by Kenny at 5:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

How to Determine Whether there Might Have Been Nothing

Even those of us who think that necessary truths often need (and have) non-trivial explanations generally think that these explanations tend to look different from the explanations of contingent truths. Furthermore, one might well think that showing that p is necessary explains why p, even if one thinks that it is possible to show that necessarily p without explaining why necessarily p. Additionally, of course, there are those who hold that once one has shown a certain proposition to be a necessary truth, there are no further 'why' questions to be asked. Thus if one wants to know whether the...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , David Efird , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Modality , Philosophy , Tom Stoneham , Tyron Goldschmidt
Posted by Kenny at 5:13 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Conee on the Ontological Argument

According to Leibniz, any answer to the question 'why is there something rather than nothing?' must bottom out in "a necessary being, which carries the reason for its existence within itself, otherwise we still would not have a sufficient reason at which we can stop" (Principles of Nature and Grace, sect. 8, tr. Woolhouse and Francks). The coherence of such a being has, however, been questioned. What would it be for a being to 'carry the reason for its existence within itself?' What kind of impossibility could there be in the supposition that some particular being does not exist? Earl...
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Topic(s): Anselm , Contemporary Thinkers , David Hume , Earl Conee , Existence of God , Fictional Objects , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Mental Representation , Metaphysics , Ontological Argument , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Mind , Philosophy of Religion , Tyron Goldschmidt
Posted by Kenny at 5:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Thought for Christmas

The King of the Universe born in a stable can mean nothing less than the total subversion of the established social order. As I was contemplating this point this morning, I was reminded of a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: as King Arthur rides by, one peasant says to another, "look! It must be a king." When the second peasant asks, "how do you know?" the first responds, "he's the only one who hasn't got [dung] all over him." The image of the king is of the clean, the privileged, the wealthy, the insider. But the story...
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Topic(s): Bible , Evangelicalism , Historical Thinkers , Jesus of Nazareth , Liturgical Calendar , Protestantism , The Church , The Gospels , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 6:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jacob Ross on the PSR

Leibniz famously claimed that, once we have endorsed the Principle of Sufficient Reason, "the first questions we will be entitled to put will be - Why does something exist rather than nothing?" The answer to this question, he further claimed, "must needs be outside the sequence of contingent things and must be in a substance which is the cause of this sequence, or which is a necessary being, bearing in itself the reason for its own existence, otherwise we should not yet have a sufficient reason with which to stop" ("Principles of Nature and Grace," sects. 7-8, tr. Latta). In...
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Topic(s): Alexander R. Pruss , Contemporary Thinkers , Cosmological Argument , Existence of God , Explanation , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Jacob Ross , Metaphysics , Modality , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Tyron Goldschmidt
Posted by Kenny at 7:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)

Some Historical Context to Locke on Faith and Reason

Most debates about faith and reason in the Western tradition carry the background assumption that 'faith' is or involves believing the teachings of the Bible. This gives rise to a rather obvious strategy for resolving any apparent conflicts between faith and reason: reinterpret the Bible. Much of what Locke says in "Of Faith and Reason, and their distinct Provinces" (EHU 4.18) depends crucially on this assumption, and this is why, in the 4th edition, Locke saw fit to add a chapter "Of Enthusiasm" (4.19) against those who claimed a direct revelation from God not mediated by language. In this post,...
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Topic(s): Baruch Spinoza , Bible , Contemporary Thinkers , Divine Revelation , Epistemology , Faith , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Lodewijk Meijer , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Steven M. Nadler , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 9:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley's Second-Order Anti-Skepticism

Consider the following parallel passages from Berkeley's Principles and Dialogues: so long as men thought that real things subsisted without the mind, and that their knowledge was only so far forth real as it was conformable to real things, it follows, they could not be certain that they had any real knowledge at all. For how can it be known that the things which are perceived, are conformable to those which are not perceived or exist without the mind? (PHK sect. 86) It is your opinion, the ideas we perceive by our senses are not real things but images or...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Epistemology , Externalism about Justification , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , James Van Cleve , Philosophy , Skepticism , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 6:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Margaret Cavendish on Rational Animals

That all other animals, besides man, want reason, [Descartes] endeavours to prove in his discourse on method, where his chief argument is, that other animals cannot express their mind, thoughts or conceptions, either by speech or any other signs, as man can do: For, says he, it is not for want of organs belonging to the framing of words, as we may observe in parrots and 'pies, which are apt enough to express words they are taught, but understand nothing of them. My answer is, that one man expressing his mind by speech or words to another, doth not declare...
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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , Margaret Cavendish , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Quote of the Day , Rene Descartes
Posted by Kenny at 9:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Substances, Events, and Causes

Irreducible agent causation is quite a slippery notion. Many philosophers hold that it is not merely slippery, but unintelligible or incoherent. I take it that these philosophers have stated genuine problems which a proponent of irreducible agent causation needs to answer. However, in pressing objections to agent causation, philosophers sometimes make what seem to me to be pretty serious mistakes. First, sometimes they fail to include (explicitly) the qualifier 'irreducible.'* Second, they sometimes claim that the problem (or one of the problems) with agent causation is that it's a species of substance causation, and substance causation is unintelligible or bad...
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Topic(s): Agent Causation , Causation , Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Randolph Clarke , Richard Swinburne , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 1:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

That's Not How We Do Things in the Kingdom of Ends...

The Russian news agency Ria Novosti is reporting (via the LA Times) that an individual in the Russian city of Rostov-On-Don put an end to an argument about Kant by shooting his opponent. (The opponent's injuries are not critical; that means it's ok to laugh, right?) I love the last paragraph of the article: The attacker now faces up to a decade in prison for intentional infliction of serious bodily harm, police said. That sentence would give him time to more thoroughly study the works of Kant, who contemplated a universal law of morality. If our friend spends a little...
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Topic(s): Deontologism , Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 10:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"Berkeley's Meta-Ontology: Bodies, Forces, and the Semantics of 'Exists'"

I've posted a new draft to my (recently reorganized) writings page, "Berkeley's Meta-Ontology: Bodies, Forces, and the Semantics of 'Exists'." This paper defends, in a relatively short space, some of the central conclusions which I defend at much greater length in my dissertation, Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World. Here is the abstract of the paper: To the great puzzlement of his readers, Berkeley begins by arguing that nothing exists other than minds and ideas, but concludes by claiming to have defended the existence of bodies. How can Berkeley's idealism amount to such a defense? I introduce resources from...
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Topic(s): Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Science
Posted by Kenny at 10:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Vision : Touch :: Written Words : Spoken Words?

In a very interesting, if rather bizarre, paper called "Berkeley's Metaphysical Grammar," Colin Turbayne develops an interpretation of Berkeley's 'language of nature' theory which takes extremely seriously Berkeley's remark, in the New Theory of Vision, "that visible figures represent tangible figures much after the same manner that written words do sounds" (sect. 143). The relation of vision to touch is, in other words, the same as the relation of written English to spoken English. A particular visible idea signifies a particular tangible idea not in the way a word signifies its referent, but rather in the way a written word...
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Topic(s): Colin Turbayne , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 12:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: D. Z. Phillips on the Christian 'Image'

Consider the following example. There is a gentleman who appears advertising cigars on television. No sooner does this immaculate man light up cigars than women come from all quarters to gather round him. We can imagine people reacting in certain moods by saying, 'What a man!' Here, 'man' is clearly not a purely descriptive term. They are extolling, praising, wondering. A cluster of images influence their attitude: success, flair, charm, panache, the great seducer, etc., etc. At the heart of Christianity is a very different event. It is that of a torn body on a cross. Here, too, it was...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , D. Z. Phillips , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Ludwig Wittgenstein , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Quote of the Day , Religious Language
Posted by Kenny at 11:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Omnipotence and the 'Delimiter of Possibilities' View

Aquinas notes that some analyses of omnipotence have a serious problem: they reduce the apparently substantive claim "God is omnipotent" to the trivial claim that God "can do all that He is able to do." Now, perhaps it is true that to be omnipotent is to be able to do everything God is able to do (or at least that omnipotence entails this), but this is hardly an illuminating analysis. In several places in his Anselmian Explorations, Thomas Morris defends the view that the Anselmian God is the 'delimiter of possibilities.' This view has been endorsed by other Anselmians, and...
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Topic(s): Alexander R. Pruss , Alfred J. Freddoso , Alvin Plantinga , Contemporary Thinkers , Divine Attributes , Divine Necessity , Historical Thinkers , James F. Ross , Metaphysics , Modality , Omnipotence , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Thomas Aquinas , Thomas P. Flint , Thomas V. Morris
Posted by Kenny at 7:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Does Religious Experience Have an Expiration Date?

A fairly common position in philosophy of religion is that religious experience can provide justification for religious belief of a sort that cannot be transmitted by testimony. (We here use the term 'religious experience' non-factively; that is, we leave open the possibility that these experiences might provide misleading evidence.) This is not necessarily to deny that testimony of religious experience can provide evidence in favor of religious belief; it is just to say that, no matter how credible the testimony, this won't provide the same sort of justification as actually having the experience oneself. Often it is thought that at...
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Topic(s): Alvin Plantinga , Contemporary Thinkers , Epistemology , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Religious Experience , Theoretical Rationality , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 5:51 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley, Analogy, Matter, and God

On May 15, 1709 William King, archbishop of Dublin, preached a famous sermon (it was really more of a lecture in philosophical theology with a Scripture quotation at the beginning, but this was not too unusual in the Anglican Communion at the time) entitled "Divine Predestination and Fore-knowledg, consistent with the Freedom of Man's Will." The sermon was published shortly thereafter in both Dublin and London and is therefore now available on Google books. (I have written about King before.) King considers three atheistic arguments: the argument from the inconsistency of divine foreknowledge with human freedom, the argument from the...
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Topic(s): Anthony Collins , Divine Attributes , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Religious Language , William King
Posted by Kenny at 4:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

A Theistic Argument for Compatibilism

One often hears it asserted that most theists are metaphysical libertarians. This seems to be supported, at least in the case of theistic philosophers, by the PhilPapers survey where target faculty specializing in philosophy of religion, who were overwhelmingly more likely to be theists than their peers in other specializations (72.3% for religion specialists vs. 14.6% overall), were also overwhelmingly more likely to be libertarians (57.4% vs. 13.7%). (Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to compare theists to non-theists across the board, so we just have this correlation among religion specialists.) Now, I suppose there are some reasons...
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Topic(s): Agent Causation , Causation , Divine Attributes , Divine Freedom , Divine Necessity , Free Will , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Thomas Aquinas
Posted by Kenny at 2:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

A Hypothesis about the History of the Concept of Voluntariness

In Aristotelian physics, natural objects are characterized by their teleology, i.e. their tending toward certain ends. According to St. Thomas, what makes an event a voluntary action is that the subject of the event has knowledge of the end toward which the action is directed. Post-Galileo, physics is not about teleology in this way. Instead, physics is about laws, rules according to which events unfold. Accordingly, many early modern philosophers hold that a voluntary action is an event which unfolds according to a rule which has been adopted by the subject of the event. The clearest statement of this idea...
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Topic(s): Action Theory , G. W. Leibniz , Galileo Galilei , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Laws of Nature , Metaphysics , Nicolas Malebranche , Philosophy , Samuel Clarke , Thomas Aquinas , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 12:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Bible as Dialogue?

Over the holiday, I read Peter Enns' Inspiration and Incarnation. (Enns also writes an excellent blog.) I have also been reading Brevard Childs' commentary on Isaiah. These two books have set me off on an interesting train of reflections. I'll first summarize the relevant points from each book, then proceed with my own reflections. The central point of Enns book is a familiar but important one: the Bible simply isn't the sort of book the fundamentalists want it to be. That is, fundamentalists (and, interestingly, certain atheist polemicists) have a certain a priori conception of what a revelation from God...
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Topic(s): Bible , Brevard S. Childs , Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Peter Enns , Plato , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 11:59 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Divine Power, Alternate Possibilities, and Necessary Frankfurt Cases

Much of the difficulty in analyzing the notion of power comes from the various limitations of creaturely power: our powers come and go, and they are not infallible (sometimes we have the power or ability to do something, and nevertheless fail to do it when we try). These are the sorts of cases which derailed conditional analyses of power. However, an omnipotent being would have none of these limitations. In our paper, Alexander Pruss and I exploited this fact to develop an analysis of omnipotence, or unlimited power, without the need for a prior analysis of power. This approach has...
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Topic(s): Abilities , Alexander R. Pruss , Contemporary Thinkers , Divine Attributes , Harry Frankfurt , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Modality , Omnipotence , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Thomas Reid
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Quote of the Day: Swift on Lawyers

There [is] a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving, by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are slaves. For example, if my neighbour has a mind to my cow, he has a lawyer to prove that he ought to have my cow from me. I must then hire another to defend my right, it being against all rules of law that any man should be allowed to speak for himself....
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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , Jonathan Swift , Politics , Quote of the Day , Rule of Law
Posted by Kenny at 8:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Linguistic Argument for Immaterialism

I think Berkeley would endorse the following argument: The rules governing a bit of language cannot tell agents to perform or refrain from actions in certain circumstances unless the agents can recognize the obtaining or not obtaining of those circumstances prior to the introduction of that bit of language. A word refers to an object only if the rules governing that word tell the agent to behave differently with respect to the use of that word depending on whether that object is present. (E.g. a necessary condition of 'rabbit' referring to rabbits is that the rules governing 'rabbit' specify that...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , W.V.O. Quine
Posted by Kenny at 6:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

"Berkeley's Philosophy of Religion"

I have posted a new paper, "Berkeley's Philosophy of Religion," which is my contribution to The Continuum Companion to Berkeley, ed. Richard Brook and Bertil Belfrage. This is an early draft, so comments and suggestions are welcome.
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
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Quote of the Day: Augustine on Philosophy

Many things certainly do I muse upon in this earthly tabernacle, because the one thing which is true among the many, or beyond the many, I cannot find.
- Augustine, City of God, tr. Dods, 12.15

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Topic(s): Augustine , Historical Thinkers , Meta-Philosophy , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 9:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Leibniz, Lewis, and Freedom to Break Laws/Divine Decrees

In his classic paper, "Are We Free to Break the Laws?", David Lewis argued that although we are not free to break the laws of nature, we are free to perform certain actions such that, if we performed them, a law would have been broken. This is supposed to allow compatibilists to secure alternate possibilities: it's true that in order for me to raise my arm right now, either the past or the laws of nature would have to have been different, but it's not true that if I raised my arm right now I would thereby alter the past...
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Topic(s): Abilities , Contemporary Thinkers , David Lewis , Free Will , G. W. Leibniz , Grace/Predestination , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Philosophy of Religion , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 3:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Rule Utilitarianism and Divine Command Theory in Berkeley's Passive Obedience

Berkeley's 1712 Passive Obedience is the closest thing to a systematic work of moral theory he ever wrote, and it isn't very close. The overarching argument can be paraphrased as follows: We have a negative moral duty of passive obedience to government. No negative moral duty admits of any exceptions - i.e. we are morally obligated to fulfill our negative duty in absolutely all cases. Therefore, We are morally obligated passively to obey the government in all cases. The work is concerned primarily with the defense of (1) and (2). (A few terminological clarifications. A negative duty is just a...
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Topic(s): Divine Command Theory , Ethics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Utilitarianism
Posted by Kenny at 6:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)

"Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology" in JHI

My paper, "Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology" has been accepted to Journal of the History of Ideas. This is a direct descendent of the paper I presented at the International Berkeley Conference in Zurich last summer. The paper examines Berkeley's relationship to Locke's conservative religious critics, with focus on Edward Stillingfleet, John Sergeant, and Peter Browne, and argues that, on the questions about faith and reason which exercised these critics, Berkeley self-consciously and intentionally sides with Locke. In accordance with the journal's self-archiving policy, I have made my final draft of the paper available here.
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Topic(s): Edward Stillingfleet , Faith , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , John Sergeant , John Toland , Peter Browne , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 10:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Augustine on Bad Science and Bad Biblical Interpretation

In fact, it often happens that even a non-Christian has views based on very conclusive reasons or observations about the earth, heaven, the other elements of this world, the motion and revolutions or the size and distance of the stars, the eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of years and epochs, the nature of animals, of plants, of rocks, and similar things. Now, it is very scandalous, as well as harmful and to be avoided at all costs, that any infidel should hear a Christian speak about these things as if he were doing so in accordance with...
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Topic(s): Augustine , Bible , Galileo Galilei , Historical Thinkers , Intelligent Design , Philosophy , Quote of the Day , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 10:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

On the Controversy Surrounding Berkeley's Ordination

In George Berkeley: Idealism and the Man, David Berman amasses considerable circumstantial evidence to the effect that Berkeley's movement away from Locke's theory of language may have been touched off by an in-person encounter with Archbishop William King and Provost Peter Browne (later Bishop of Cork and Ross) at a meeting of the Dublin Philosophical Society, November 19, 1707, where Berkeley read a brief paper entitle 'Of Infinities' (included in Luce and Jessop, volume 4; see Berman 11-20). I think Berman's overall picture is quite likely correct. In fact, in a paper called "Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology" which I am...
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Topic(s): Anglican Communion , Contemporary Thinkers , David Berman , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Peter Browne , Protestantism , The Church , William King
Posted by Kenny at 10:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Quote of the Day: What is a Soul?

In my last post, I discussed a variety of conceptions of the soul in the history of Christian thought and of Western philosophy more generally. One of the points I was making is that, for an ancient Greek (or Latin) writer, talking about a 'soul' (Gr. psuche, Lat. anima) does not automatically mean believing in something immaterial. Today (while reading Antoine Arnauld's On True and False Ideas, ch. 24), I came across a passage from Augustine which makes this quite clear. Augustine is arguing that the soul is immaterial, i.e. he's defending substance dualism. Here's how he describes his opponents'...
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Topic(s): Augustine , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind
Posted by Kenny at 10:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Brief History of Christian Conceptions of the 'Soul'

It is sometimes said that Christianity presupposes the existence of a soul, that, due to the progress of science, this view is no longer credible, and that, therefore, Christianity can no longer be taken seriously. It is very probable that there are some combinations of views, widely held among self-identified 'Christians', which can be effectively criticized along these lines. However, there are several puzzling features about this line of thought. The first is that it is not clear what the relevant 'progress of science' is supposed to be. Neuroscience is indeed advancing, but it can hardly be considered so advanced...
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Topic(s): Aristotle , Augustine , Historical Thinkers , John of Damascus , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Philosophy of Religion , Plato , Rene Descartes , The Church , Thomas Aquinas
Posted by Kenny at 10:47 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

The Pseudo-Voltaire Principle

Voltaire famously didn't say, "I disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it." There is, however, something quite important in the sentiment, which Voltaire of course endorsed, and it can be generalized beyond the case of speech. Call the following the Pseudo-Voltaire Principle: It often happens that there is an agent S and domain of action A such that: (a) S has the exclusive right to make decisions with respect to A, so that it would be morally wrong for anyone to attempt to interfere with S's implementation of her decisions with...
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Topic(s): Ethics , Free Speech , Freedom of Religion , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Politics , Voltaire
Posted by Kenny at 9:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day For Good Friday

The body of the Word, then, being a real human body, in spite of its having been uniquely formed from a virgin, was of itself mortal and, like other bodies, liable to death. But the indwelling of the Word loosed it from this natural liability, so that corruption could not touch it. Thus it happened that two opposite marvels took place at once: the death of all was consummated in the Lord's body; yet, because the Word was in it, death and corruption were in the same act utterly abolished. Death there had to be, and death for all, so...
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Topic(s): Athanasius , Atonement , Christology , Historical Thinkers , Liturgical Calendar , Quote of the Day , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 9:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"Reid on Character" Now Online!

For those who are subscribed (or affiliated with institutions that are subscribed), my "Thomas Reid on Character and Freedom" is now available online from History of Philosophy Quarterly.
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Topic(s): Abilities , Action Theory , Free Will , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 1:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Dropping My Tagline

For several years, this blog has been labeled with the tagline "The Evangelical libertarian philosopher." For some time now, I've been dissatisfied with this label, both as a description of my views and as a description of what this blog is about. I've hesitated to drop it primarily because I think that blogs of non-famous people, such as myself, should have some kind of descriptive name or tagline rather than just the author's name, and I couldn't think of another short, catchy, descriptive phrase that would nicely fill that bit of screen space. (I toyed with: "Berkeley's metaphysics, Nozick's politics,...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Environmental Policy , Evangelicalism , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Libertarianism , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Politics , Protestantism , Robert Nozick , The Church , The Web , Theology , This Web-Site
Posted by Kenny at 6:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)

Quote of the Day: Kant on the Task of Moral Philosophy

A reviewer who wanted to say something censuring [The Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals] hit the mark better than he himself may have intended when he said that no new principle of morality is set forth in it but only a new formula. But who would even want to introduce a new principle of all morality and, as it were, first invent it? Just as if, before him, the world had been ignorant of what duty is or in thoroughgoing error about it. But whoever knows what a formula means to a mathematician, which determines quite precisely what is...
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Topic(s): Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 10:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Would Berkeley Endorse the Deflationary Theory of Truth?

In several place, most notably Alciphron 7, Berkeley seems to think that the meanings of many, if not all, terms are given by the rules for correctly applying them. He doesn't seem to mean the conditions under which they are true. Rather, he seems to mean the rules actual speakers apply in deciding to use the word. We're not talking about mere disquotation; we have to give conditions that speakers can actually use when deciding whether to utter sentences. So, to use one of Berkeley's favorite examples, the meaning of the symbol 'i' in algebra is given by the formula...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Truth
Posted by Kenny at 6:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Mod Squad

Lewis Powell has announced the formation of The Mod Squad, a group blog devoted to the history of modern philosophy. My first post over there, King's Theory of Election has just gone live. In the future, I will cross-post everything here as I have been doing with my Prosblogion posts, but for now I will just encourage readers to check things out over there.
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Topic(s): Free Will , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , The Web , William King
Posted by Kenny at 7:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley and Motivational Internalism

Motivational internalism is a view about moral language or evaluative language in general and its relation to motivation. According to motivational internalism, if someone says 'x is good' but is not in the least motivated to pursue x, then that person is either insincere or not a competent user of the language. This is not supposed to be a fact about human psychology (that all humans pursue the good), but rather a claim about how the word 'good' works: something good is something which is to be pursued, so if you call something 'good' without taking it to be something...
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Topic(s): Ethics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Meta-ethics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Pragmatics
Posted by Kenny at 11:05 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Christmas in Platonic Context

The important cultural background to the rise of Christianity includes both the Hebrew context of the Old Testament and the context of the Greek culture which was dominant in the Eastern Roman Empire at the time. From the Christian perspective, Athens has quite a lot to do with Jerusalem. I believe there is adequate evidence for this (admittedly controversial) claim in the New Testament; if one is sufficiently traditional to allow the testimony of the Greek Fathers of the early church, then the matter should be beyond any doubt. Christmas is the celebration of the Incarnation, of God becoming man...
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Topic(s): Bible , Christology , Historical Thinkers , Liturgical Calendar , Philosophy , Plato , The Church , The Gospels , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 10:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley's 'Master Argument' and the Theory of Mental Representation

I apologize for the very light posting; I have been busy stressing about my upcoming qualifying exam. But I thought I would break my silence today for some thoughts about (as usual) Berkeley. The following passage from Berkeley's Dialogues (L&J p. 200) is rather notorious: Phil. ... I am content to put the whole [debate] upon this issue. If you can conceive it possible for any mixture or combination of qualities, or any sensible object whatever, to exist without the mind, then I will grant it actually to be so. Hyl. If it comes to that, the point will soon...
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Topic(s): Conceivability , Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Kenneth P. Winkler , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Sense Perception , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 3:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley on Miracles and Transubstantiation

It was the custom among 17th and 18th century English philosophers to take as many potshots at the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation as possible. Sometimes it almost seems that a desideratum for a theory of metaphysics is that it should be inconsistent with that doctrine. This desideratum is, of course, easily satisfied: most theories of metaphysics are inconsistent with transubstantiation. All versions of the doctrine require that it be metaphysically possible for flesh to exist under the 'species' of bread, and a conservative interpretation of the doctrine popular in the early modern period further required that numerically the same...
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Topic(s): Anglican Communion , G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Miracles , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Protestantism , Roman Catholic Church , The Church , The Eucharist , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 12:36 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Locke and Berkeley on Cartesian Skepticism

Descartes's First Meditation is one of the most striking texts in the history of philosophy. As anyone who has taught the text can attest, students are immediately gripped by the problem, and often despair of a way out. John Locke was evidently not such a student, for he responds to these doubts primarily with ridicule: If any one say, a Dream may do the same thing [as sense perception], and all these Ideas may be produced in us, without any external Objects, he may please to dream that I make him this Answer, 1. That 'tis no great matter, whether...
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Topic(s): 'Common Sense'/Intuition , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Philosophy , Rene Descartes , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 6:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Reid on Character in HPQ!

I have just officially received word that my paper, "Thomas Reid on Character and Freedom," will appear in the April 2012 issue of History of Philosophy Quarterly! Unfortunately, the journal has a moderately restrictive archival policy, so I have had to take down the online copy of the paper for now. (If I understand correctly, I can upload it to archives like philpapers and academia.edu after one year, and post it to my own web-site after three.) I'll post a link to the official version when it comes out, so that if you are subscribed, or your university is, you can get to it.
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Topic(s): Free Will , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , My Life , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Berkeley, Commonsense, and Surprising Discoveries

Suppose (as happens often) that scientists, or philosophers, or explorers, or whoever, make some sort of surprising discovery, one that appears to be at odds with our commonsense view of the world. How should we react? It seems that there are three possible courses: either one rejects commonsense, or one rejects the alleged discovery, or one attempts to revise and/or reinterpret things to synthesize the two perspectives. An example: periodically results come out in neuroscience which purport to show that some brain event, of which the subject is unconscious, occurs significantly before a subject makes a supposedly free conscious choice,...
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Topic(s): 'Common Sense'/Intuition , Free Will , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 10:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Berkeley and Sergeant

John Sergeant was a late seventeenth century English proponent of Roman Catholicism and Aristotelian philosophy. He is now mostly forgotten, though he is occasionally mentioned as a critic of Locke, partially because Locke and Stillingfleet discuss Sergeant's criticisms of Locke in their famous dispute. (Stillingfleet disowns Sergeant's criticisms; Stillingfleet and Sergeant had earlier been embroiled in a theological dispute about the rule of faith.) I mentioned a while ago that I think the Locke-Stillingfleet debate was an important influence on Berkeley. It looks like Sergeant may have been an important influence as well. First, in section 12 of the preface...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , Historical Thinkers , John Sergeant , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Skepticism , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 10:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Hume on Space Travel

I've just returned from watching the last space shuttle launch. We also got to spend several days looking through the excellent museum exhibits at Kennedy Space Center, which I highly recommend. Anyway, all this time spent considering the history of American space flight, its effects on the individuals involved, and the effect it had on international politics, put me in mind of this quote from Hume: In general, it may be affirm'd, that there is no such passion in human minds, as the love of mankind, merely as such, independent of personal qualities, of services, or of relation to ourself...
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Topic(s): David Hume , Historical Thinkers , Quote of the Day , Science
Posted by Kenny at 8:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"Thomas Reid on Character and Freedom"

I have posted a new draft to my workbench, "Thomas Reid on Character and Freedom". As always, comments are welcome.
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Topic(s): Action Theory , Agent Causation , Causation , Free Will , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 6:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Short Story About Berkeley's Theory of Vision

On the plane back from Zurich last week I read a very interesting story, "He Who Shapes," by Roger Zelazny. This work won the Nebula for best novella in 1965. The story centers around essentially the same piece of technology depicted in the recent movie Inception: a device that allows two people to share a dream, with one of them, the 'shaper', in control of the dream world. However, unlike Inception, in which the technology is used primarily for corporate espionage, in "He Who Shapes" the device is used for psychotherapy. This would be interesting enough, but it gets better:...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Science-Fiction , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 11:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Omnipotence and Failure

The famous Stone Paradox asks, 'can an omnipotent being make a stone so heavy he can't lift it?' A simpler question, and one which I think makes the issues clearer, is, 'can an omnipotent being fail?' If a being can fail, then there is something that being doesn't have the power to do, namely, whatever it is it can fail to do. If a being can't fail, then there is something it doesn't have the power to do, namely, to fail. Now, we sometimes have chancy powers/abilities, as, for instance, in J. L. Austin's famous example, the power to sink...
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Topic(s): Divine Attributes , Historical Thinkers , J. L. Austin , Omnipotence , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 1:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

What Version of Locke's Essay Did Berkeley Read?

Locke's Essay went through several revisions in the author's lifetime, some of them quite substantive philosophically. The first edition was 1689, Locke died in 1704 and the posthumous fifth edition appeared in 1706. Locke seems to have had at least some hand in the revisions made between editions 4 and 5. Because some of the changes are substantive, I've sometimes wondered what version of the Essay Berkeley was working from. We know that it was required reading when Berkeley was studying for his BA at Trinity between 1700 and 1704. Today I was reading Berman's George Berkeley: Idealism and the...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , David Berman , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 8:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

2011 International Berkeley Conference

The program for the 2011 International Berkeley Conference, to be held in Zurich a few weeks from now, is now up. I'll be presenting a paper called "Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology," and there are a number of other interesting talks on the schedule from several well-known and less well-known Berkeley scholars. The organizers solicited abstracts from the speakers for the web-site, so I'm sure those will appear shortly.
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 3:46 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Miracles and Competence

I'm currently thinking about miracles and laws of nature, because I am working on revising this paper on the subject. Also on my mind is a paper of mine called "Divine Language, Unperceived Objects, and Berkeley's Response to Skepticism" which I will be presenting at the International Berkeley Society group session at the Eastern APA in December. It occurred to me that these two subjects of thought interact in an interesting way. In the Berkeley paper, I argue that we should take quite seriously Berkeley's claim that the laws of nature form the grammar of a language (PHK 108-110), and...
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Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Laws of Nature , Metaphysics , Miracles , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 9:46 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

True and Immutable Natures in Descartes's Ontological Argument

In the Fifth Meditation, Descartes argues that "from the fact that I cannot think of God except as existing, it follows that existence is inseparable from God, and hence that he really exists" (CSM 2:46). Caterus famously replied with the 'existing lion' objection (parallel to Gaunilo's 'Lost Island'): we can't think of anything as an existing lion without thinking of it as existing, so the existing lion must exist (CSM 2:72). In fact, Caterus didn't need to add 'existing' at all: existence is a necessary condition for the exemplification of any property whatsoever. Nothing can be red, blue, five feet...
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Topic(s): Anselm , Existence of God , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Modality , Ontological Argument , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Rene Descartes
Posted by Kenny at 12:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Berkeley and Stillingfleet

I'm increasingly convinced that the debate between Locke and Stillingfleet is important background to Berkeley. Berkeley, like Stillingfleet, thinks that Locke's philosophy leads to 'Socinian scruples' (PHK 95). Furthermore, even in the early works, Berkeley seems to be attacking the 'free-thinkers' (DHP, Pref.), but the only writer he quotes is Locke. This was the behavior Locke complained about in Stillingfleet. Stillingfleet was attacking 'the gentlemen of the new way of reasoning', who, according to Stillingfleet, denied the Trinity (the main target was John Toland), but only Locke is ever quoted. In addition to the fact that the Locke-Stillingfleet correspondence was...
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Topic(s): Edward Stillingfleet , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , John Toland , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 12:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)

Phenomenalisms, De Re and De Dicto

'Phenomenalism' is the name given to Berkeley's doctrine that the being (existence) of material objects consists in their being perceived (their esse is percipi - PHK 3). This formula is, however, several ways ambiguous. Here I just want to point out one of them. (I have been thinking about these issues in connection with a paper I am writing on the question of whether Leibniz was a phenomenalist, and, if so, of what sort.) The ambiguity I am concerned with here is a de re/de dicto ambiguity. De re is Latin for 'concerning the thing', and de dicto is Latin...
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Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 1:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Confuting and Convincing

I think that as the proper end of our conference ought to be supposed the discovery and defence of truth, so truth may be justified, not only by persuading its adversaries, but, where that cannot be done, by shewing them to be unreasonable. Arguments, therefore, which carry light have their effect, even against an opponent who shuts his eyes, because they shew him to be obstinate and prejudiced. (Berkeley, Alciphron 4.2) This thought comes back at the end of the book, where Dion observes, "how unaccountable it [is] that men so easy to confute should yet be so difficult to...
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Topic(s): Dialectic , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 9:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Two Bad Footnotes

I found two rather bad footnotes in student editions of early modern texts this week. Both texts are from the Oxford Philosophical Texts (OPT) series. The first makes a rather contentious historical/interpretive claim, and doesn't seem to recognize that it is doing so; the second is an outright error. The first footnote is in the OPT edition of Hume's first Enquiry. In the course of a critique of occasionalism, Hume writes, It argues more wisdom to contrive at first the fabric of the world with such perfect foresight that, of itself, and by its proper operation, it may serve all...
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Topic(s): David Hume , Deism , Divine Attributes , Divine Necessity , Existence of God , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Ontological Argument , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , The Church
Posted by Kenny at 2:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Sobel on Pascalian Wagers

In the 13th and final chapter of his book, Sobel discusses Pascalian wagers. According to Sobel, there need not be anything wrong with the practical reasoning involved in a Pascalian wager. In addition to defending this controversial claim, Sobel must explain how, if the Pascalian reasoning is correct, he can be justified in holding on to his atheism. As the chapter unfolds, both contentions are defended as a package. In general, for reasons to be explained below, I disagree with Sobel's approach here. However, I do agree with him on one thing: religious faith is more a matter of practical...
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Topic(s): Blaise Pascal , Contemporary Thinkers , Epistemology , Historical Thinkers , Jordan Howard Sobel , Pascalian Wagers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Practical Rationality , Theoretical Rationality
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Berkeley and Leibniz Should be Friends

In his 1733 Theory of Vision Vindicated, commenting on the prevalence of the deist and free-thinking movements in England and Ireland, and justifying his association of these views with outright atheism, Berkeley writes: That atheistical principles have taken deeper root, and are farther spread than most people are apt to imagine, will be plain to whoever considers that pantheism, materialism, fatalism are nothing but atheism a little disguised; that the notions of Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibnitz [sic], and Bayle are relished and applauded; that as they who deny the freedom and immortality of the soul in effect deny its being, even...
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Topic(s): Baruch Spinoza , Contemporary Thinkers , Free Will , G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Grace/Predestination , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Philipp van Limborch , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Pierre Bayle , Theology , Thomas Hobbes , Vere Chappell
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The Target of Leibniz's "Comments on the Book Concerning 'The Origin of Evil'"

Toward the end of his Theodicy, Leibniz included a section which in the Huggard translation has the title "Observations on the Book Concerning 'The Origin of Evil' Published Recently in London." The French title is: "Remarques sur le Livre de L'Origine du Mal, Publie depuis peu en Angleterre." (Note that, unless there is a disagreement between different French printings, 'London' is a mistake for 'England' in the title, but in the first paragraph Leibniz does identify London specifically as the place of publication.) I just spent a considerable amount of time trying to identify the book in question, so I...
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Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , The Problem of Evil , William King
Posted by Kenny at 5:27 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Sometimes It's Rational to Act Arbitrarily

In the middle sections of his 12th chapter, Sobel goes through a series of adjustments to his deductive argument from evil designed to get around various versions of the Free Will Defense and other tactics attempted by theists. For reasons mentioned earlier, I am not happy with Sobel's formal treatment of these arguments, so I'm going to reconstruct the substance of the argument somewhat differently. Consider the following: If there were a perfect being, it would take a best course of action available to it in creating the world If a perfect being took the best course of action available...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Jordan Howard Sobel , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Practical Rationality , The Problem of Evil
Posted by Kenny at 7:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

Malebranche and Robert Adams on Creating the Best

Leibniz famously argued that the actual world must be the best of all possible worlds (BPW). His argument, which he repeated in several places, went something like this: The actual world was created by an omnipotent and perfectly good being. An omnipotent being can actualize any possible world. A perfectly good being always chooses the best outcome from among its choices. Therefore, The actual world is the BPW. Most people have found the conclusion of this argument incredible, and sought ways to escape it. The logical problem of evil is essentially an argument to the effect that the only premise...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Deontologism , Divine Attributes , Ethics , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Nicolas Malebranche , Omnipotence , Perfect Goodness , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Robert Merrihew Adams , The Problem of Evil , Utilitarianism , Virtue Ethics
Posted by Kenny at 3:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Skeptical Theism and the 'Beforehand-Switch'

I return now from my hiatus to blog through the last three chapters of Sobel's Logic and Theism. There are two chapters on arguments against the existence of God, mostly focused on arguments from evil, and one on Pascalian wagers. In chapter 11, section 4, Sobel presents what he takes to be Hume's evidential argument from evil, and discusses skeptical theist responses to it. Now, in general, the dialectic between the evidential arguer from evil and the skeptical theist goes something like this: the evidential arguer from evil says, a perfect being would probably create a world with very little...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , David Hume , Historical Thinkers , Jordan Howard Sobel , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Skeptical Theism , The Problem of Evil
Posted by Kenny at 9:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Nature of the Visible Space in Berkeley's New Theory of Vision

One of the main aims of Berkeley's Essay Toward a New Theory of Vision is to argue that the application of spatial vocabulary ('far', 'near', 'big', 'small', 'right', 'left', etc.) to how things look ("visible objects") is derived from the primary meaning of that vocabulary as applying to how things feel ("tangible objects"). A big object is one you can't fit your arms around. An object looks big when the way it looks makes you think that you probably wouldn't be able to fit your arms around it. It is only by experience that we learn that objects we can't...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Sense Perception , William James
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Leibniz's Short Proof of Classical Theism

In a single paragraph near the beginning of the Theodicy, Leibniz gives a very compressed version of an argument a contingentia mundi (from the contingency of the world) from which he purports to derive not just the existence of God, but several of the most important traditional divine attributes (from which, Leibniz seems to think, the other divine attributes follow). In this post, I'll try to unpack Leibniz's reasoning. I'm not going to do too much evaluation of the arguments, since this post will be long enough without that; I'll just lay out the arguments as I see them and...
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Topic(s): Cosmological Argument , Divine Attributes , Existence of God , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Omnipotence , Perfect Goodness , Perfect Wisdom , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 10:13 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (1)

Quote of the Day: Leibniz on True Religion

One cannot love God without knowing his perfections, and this knowledge contains the principles of true piety. The purpose of religion should be to imprint these principles upon our souls: but in some strange way it has happened all too often that men, that teachers of religion[,] have strayed far from this purpose. Contrary to the intention of our divine Master, devotion has been reduced to ceremonies and doctrine has been cumbered with formulae. All too often the ceremonies have not been well fitted to maintain the exercise of virtue, and the formulae sometimes have not been lucid. Can one...
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Topic(s): Divine Attributes , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Quote of the Day , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 2:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Abilities and Tryings

I am trying to write a seminar paper about the ability to try (or perhaps the ability to will, or the ability to choose). It seems to me that commonsense recognizes, in at least certain situations, a non-trivial question about whether an agent has the ability to try to perform an action. However, given the close connection between the concepts of ability and trying, there is reason to believe that the question might be trivial, or even incoherent, after all. This is the issue I am investigating, and I'm going to try to do some blogging on the subject in...
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Topic(s): Abilities , Action Theory , Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Jennifer Hornsby , Kadri Vihvelin , Ludwig Wittgenstein , Metaphysics , Michael Fara , Paul Grice , Philosophy , Richard Taylor , Trying
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Leibniz and Frankfurt on Freedom

The history of the debate on free will is sometimes narrated as follows: first, we have the 'classic compatibilists', starting from Hobbes, through Locke, Hume, and the positivists. At first these fellows square off against libertarians like Bramhall and Reid, who are (so the story goes) deservedly obscure. The debate is terribly unsophisticated: the compatibilists hold that freedom just is the ability to do what you want to do, the absence of any sort of external constraints. The libertarians require some kind of magic 'contra-causal' agent causation they can't explain. They slowly die out as English language philosophy is purified...
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Topic(s): Augustine , Contemporary Thinkers , David Hume , Ethics , Free Will , G. W. Leibniz , Harry Frankfurt , Historical Thinkers , John Bramhall , John Locke , Martin Luther , Metaphysics , Moral Psychology , Peter van Inwagen , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Roderick Chisholm , Thomas Hobbes , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 5:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

John Locke, Ron Paul, and Airport Security

It has been rather a long time since I wrote on politics. As you can probably imagine, I'm pretty worked up about this whole body scanner business. As recently announced in a post on Homeland Stupidity, Ron Paul and two co-sponsors have introduced a bill in the House which would remove immunity from airport screeners and other federal employees who engage in certain sorts of behavior associated with airport screening. That is, it ensures that the screeners at airports are subject to the same laws regarding battery, sexual assault, child pornography, etc., as everyone else. I think there is something...
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Topic(s): Big Brother is Watching , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Legitimacy , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Politics , Privacy , Technology , Terrorism
Posted by Kenny at 10:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Leibniz Against Fine-Tuning

It appears that I'm going to be getting a bit behind on my Sobel series due to other commitments. Here is some Leibniz to make up for it. One of the problems with those forms of teleological (design) arguments that posit necessary 'gaps' in naturalistic explanation is that they are revisionary with respect to scientific practice: that is, it is a principle of scientific methodology to keep looking for naturalistic explanations no matter what. Now, most philosophers think that taking a revisionary attitude toward scientific practice is bad since the track record of science, on its current methodology, is stellar...
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Topic(s): Albert Einstein , Christian Huygens , Contemporary Thinkers , Del Ratzsch , Existence of God , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Isaac Newton , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Philosophy of Science , Science , Teleological Argument , Tim Maudlin
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A Lame Response to the Problem of Evil

I very rarely say anything negative about Leibniz, especially when it comes to philosophy of religion and philosophical theology. This, however, is just ridiculous: [T]he world is not only the most wonderful machine, but also in regard to minds it is the best commonwealth, by whose means there is bestowed on minds the greatest possible amount of felicity or joyfulness; and it is in this that their physical perfection consists. But, you will say, we find in the world the very opposite of this. Often the worst sufferings fall upon the best men; the innocent (I speak not only of...
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Topic(s): David Hume , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Skeptical Theism , The Problem of Evil
Posted by Kenny at 9:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Modern Cosmology and Theology

At the end of his discussion of fine-tuning arguments, Sobel briefly, and somewhat indirectly, discusses issues arising from attempts to combine theism with modern cosmology (pp. 285-287). In particular, many cosmologists now believe that the fundamental constants of nature were set by quantum fluctuations in the early universe. Stephen Hawking has suggested that such fluctuations might be very likely to produce a world like ours. If correct, the thought goes, this would undermine the fine-tuning argument. However, it would also do something more: if the laws of nature make it very likely, but not certain, that a world like ours,...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , David Hume , Existence of God , Historical Thinkers , Jordan Howard Sobel , Laws of Nature , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Philosophy of Science , Quentin Smith , Science
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Kant, Strawson, and Conditionals

P. F. Strawson is not one of Kant's more sympathetic interpreters: Kant's faculty psychology, he thinks, is no more than a historical curiosity. The account of logic is likewise a mess. Above all, transcendental idealism is sheer nonsense. Also, of course, Kant's arguments notoriously rely on the claim that Euclidean geometry is known a priori to be the geometry of the sensible world, whereas we now know that this claim is not only not known a priori, but is actually false. (James Van Cleve has argued, however, that Kant needs only the existence of some a priori geometrical knowledge, and...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , James Van Cleve , Logic , P. F. Strawson , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 1:15 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Evolution and Teleological Arguments

Much of Sobel's chapter on teleological (design) arguments is devoted to Hume interpretation and to explaining Bayesianism. The latter seems to be one of several places where Sobel has not decided whether he is writing a textbook or a monograph. As for the former, the 'analogical' version of the teleological argument is, I think, not the strongest version and, although I haven't conducted a survey of the various treatments, I would be surprised if Hume's version turned out to be the best. After all, Hume is at most a half-hearted supporter of the argument; even he doesn't think his argument...
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Topic(s): Christine Overall , Contemporary Thinkers , David Hume , Evolution , Existence of God , Historical Thinkers , Intelligent Design , Jordan Howard Sobel , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Science , Teleological Argument
Posted by Kenny at 9:41 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Explanatory Principles and Infinite Propositions

In the course of his discussion of cosmological arguments, Sobel argues against the Principle of Sufficient Reason and similar strong explanatory principles. In particular, he argues that even a weak principle like "there is a deductive explanation that has only true premises for every contingent truth" will result in modal collapse (p. 218). In Sobel's terminology, an argument 'deductively explains' its conclusion iff (1) the argument is sound, and (2) the conclusion does not entail the premises (p. 219; condition (2) applies to contingent conclusions only). Sobel now introduces the following two premises: (3) If there is any true contingent...
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Topic(s): Abstract Objects , Contemporary Thinkers , Cosmological Argument , Existence of God , Explanation , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Jordan Howard Sobel , Logic , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Propositions
Posted by Kenny at 10:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

"Leibnizian Miracles" in Pomona

I have just officially accepted an invitation to present "A Leibnizian Theory of Miracles" at the Southern California Philosophy Conference, to be held in Pomona Saturday, November 6.
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Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Miracles , My Life , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 12:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Leibnizian Cosmological Argument

Sobel's sixth chapter is devoted to, as he says, "proofs a contingentia mundi" (from the contingency of the world). The chief exponent here is Leibniz, though Sobel also considers Hume's Demea and his probable source, Samuel Clarke. Sobel argues that Leibniz's argument is valid ... by contradiction explosion. That is, he argues that Leibniz's premises are inconsistent. In this post, I show how to fix the argument using Leibnizian resources. In the next post, I will give another version of the argument which uses premises which I consider to be anti-Leibnizian, but which I think are more widely held than...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Cosmological Argument , Existence of God , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Jordan Howard Sobel , Logic , Metaphysics , Modality , Ontological Argument , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 10:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

What is Supposed to be Proved in Aquinas's Five Ways?

I'm not a Medieval scholar, so I don't really know what I'm talking about, but that's ok. Sobel's fifth chapter is concerned with Aquinas's Second Way, one of the classic texts for the cosmological argument. Sobel raises some concerns about the premises, but for the most part he finds them plausible (though he may ultimately reject one or more of them). His main concern is that, as he schematizes the argument, a fallacy of equivocation occurs at the very end. Sobel reads the 'good' part of the argument as (perhaps) justifying the 'Preliminary Conclusion'...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Cosmological Argument , Existence of God , Historical Thinkers , James F. Ross , Jordan Howard Sobel , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Thomas Aquinas
Posted by Kenny at 11:11 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Would a Being With All Positive Properties Be God?

Sobel's final objection to ontological arguments is that, even if they are sound, their conclusion does not mean that God exists. That is, according to Sobel, a necessarily existing 'being than which none greater can be conceived' or 'being with all perfections' or 'being with all positive properties' would not be God. His argument for this is rather confusing and depends (1) on a controversial modal intuition, and (2) on an odd definition of 'worshipfulness'. As far as I can tell, the argument goes like this: it is clear (so Sobel claims) that such properties as consciousness, knowledge, power, love,...
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Topic(s): 'Worshipfulness' , Contemporary Thinkers , Existence of God , Historical Thinkers , J. N. Findlay , Jordan Howard Sobel , Kurt Gödel , Ontological Argument , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Plato
Posted by Kenny at 9:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Modal Collapse: Sobel's Objection to Gödel's Ontological Argument

The last ontological argument Sobel discusses is the Leibniz-inspired argument put forward by the famous logician Kurt Gödel. Gödel sets up a formal system in third-order quantified modal logic with equality and abstraction (!) and proves within that system the theorem: □∃xG(x) Where the predicate G is defined as follows: Gx ↔ ∀φ[P(φ) → φ(x)] Where P is primitive. (Sobel includes the complete source texts for Gödel's proof on pp. 144-146.) Now, unsurprisingly, given that the proof was originated by Gödel, everyone agrees that the proof is valid in the formal system. The question is whether there are any interpretations...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Dana Scott , Existence of God , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Jordan Howard Sobel , Kurt Gödel , Metaphysics , Modality , Ontological Argument , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 11:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

The Dialectical Appropriateness of Ontological Arguments

After, for some reason or other, spending some 30 dense pages of Logic and Theism on the laughable ontological arguments of Descartes and Spinoza, Sobel moves on to the more interesting argument advanced by Anselm. (The next chapter deals with versions of the argument set in modern modal logic, such as those of Hartshorne and Plantinga.) In my view, the Descartes and Spinoza arguments don't even look good; the Anselm version at least produces puzzlement, insofar as the reasoning looks valid, yet it seems, intuitively, that no such strong conclusion could ever be derived from such weak premises. Sobel (fairly uncontroversially...
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Topic(s): Alvin Plantinga , Anselm , Contemporary Thinkers , Dialectic , Existence of God , Gaunilon , Historical Thinkers , Jordan Howard Sobel , Logic , Ontological Argument , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 10:46 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

Normative Skepticism and the Existence of God

As I discussed in my last post, Sobel argues that the main requirement anything has to fulfill in order to count as a god is that it must be deserving of worship. However, as Sobel argues on pp. 24-25 of Logic and Theism, this requires that it makes sense to talk about something being worthy or unworthy of worship. An error theory of the normative (a view that questioned whether statements about 'worthiness' and other such things were ever correct), such as the view espoused by J. L. Mackie, would have the result that no matter what might exist in...
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Topic(s): 'Worshipfulness' , Contemporary Thinkers , Ethics , Existence of God , Historical Thinkers , J. L. Mackie , Jordan Howard Sobel , Meta-ethics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 10:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Lockean Proviso and Federally Managed Lands

On my recent vacation, I visited a number of national parks (specifically: Crater Lake, Redwood, and Yosemite). This got me thinking about the moral and political aspects of federal land management, including the National Park System. Libertarians are often skeptical of government ownership of anything. However, in this post I want to argue that the Lockean Proviso actually demands such a system of government land management, and so such a system should be supported by libertarians of the Nozickian/Neo-Lockean sort, such as myself. Let's start at the beginning. Locke holds that initially all of earth's natural resources were held in...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Environmental Policy , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Libertarianism , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Politics , Private Property , Robert Nozick , The State of Nature
Posted by Kenny at 11:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)

Implicature and the Interpretation of Foreign Language Texts

I've just read Grice's "Logic and Conversation" (ch. 2 in Studies in the Way of Words) for (I'll admit) the first time. Something that struck me while reading it, which Grice does not explicitly recognize, is that his model helps to explain a phenomenon that causes a lot of trouble when one tries to interpret texts (or speech) in a language in which one is not fully fluent. Grice's basic model works like this: sometimes a speaker says something which, taken in its perfectly straightforward sense, seems quite odd. The oddness (at least in the cases in which Grice is...
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Topic(s): Bible , Historical Thinkers , Paul Grice , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Pragmatics , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 2:54 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Theological Warfare

Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things and through whom He made the universe. He is the radiance of His glory, the exact expression of His nature, and He sustains all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. - Hebrews 1:1-3, HCSB When therefore [the author of Hebrews] would show that [the Son] is...
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Topic(s): Christology , Historical Thinkers , John Chrysostom , Quote of the Day , The Trinity , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 8:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Locke on the Arbitrariness of Ideas of Mixed Modes and Substances

In Locke's discussion of names of mixed modes and names of substances in EHU 3.5-6, he seems to suggest that the ideas of mixed modes are in some way more arbitrary than the ideas of substances. Some commentators, such as Nicholas Jolley (Locke: His Philosophical Thought, 155-161), have found this claim problematic for, according to Locke, ideas of substances are 'the workmanship of the understanding'; they are not given to us by nature. I think, however, that considerations from book two are sufficient to answer this worry. Locke defines mixed modes as "such Combinations of simple Ideas, as are not...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Empiricism , Epistemology , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Metaphysics , Natural Kinds , Nicholas Jolley , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language
Posted by Kenny at 5:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

What is the Problem with Empiricism, Realism, and the Way of Ideas?

After discussing my last post offline with Lewis yesterday, I wanted to clarify this claim: "The argument points to serious problems with the combination of empiricism, realism, and the 'way of ideas.'" The problems I have in mind are difficulties with being justified in believing in, or perhaps even capable of expressing, realism. That is, there are certain views that seem natural if one accepts empiricism and the way of ideas which lead to the denial of realism. Here is, I think, the best example. Empiricism is an explanatory program for philosophy of mind which systematically favors explanations of the...
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Topic(s): Empiricism , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Realism , Sense Perception , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 12:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Can Immediate Perception Save Realism? (Hint: No)

As I mentioned in my last post, now that the term is over I am catching up on some stuff I've been meaning to read. Another item on that list is Georges Dicker's "Anti-Berkeley" which appeared in British Journal for the History of Philosophy in 2008. Dicker's aim is to show that many of Berkeley's arguments are good, but immaterialism, nevertheless, does not follow. Dicker thinks that Berkeley's arguments are best seen as showing us how to formulate a better version of materialism than the one common in Berkeley's day. So, for instance, Dicker thinks that Berkeley successfully refutes the...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Georges Dicker , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Realism , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 2:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Three Substances, One Property-Instance: A Trinitarian Speculation

I've been using the beginning of my summer to make some progress on some theology books that have been awaiting my attention on my bookshelf. So far, in honor of Pentecost, I read St. Basil On the Holy Spirit, and I am also making some progress through St. John of Damascus' Concise Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. The latter is pretty dense and technical (that comes from being 'concise'); I started it quite some time ago and my progress has been slow. Anyway, as a result of this reading, and also the always interesting discussions on Dale Tuggy's Trinities Blog,...
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Topic(s): Basil the Great , Historical Thinkers , John of Damascus , Metaphysics , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , The Trinity , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 12:04 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

"In Defense of Ignorant Assertions"

I have posted a new draft to my workbench, "In Defense of Ignorant Assertions." This very short (~7 pages) paper argues, against Timothy Williamson and Keith DeRose, that knowledge is not a norm on assertion, and provides an alternative explanation for the "modified Moore's Paradox" ('p, but I don't know that p'). Check it out, and come back here to let me know what you think in the comments.
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Epistemology , G. E. Moore , Historical Thinkers , Keith DeRose , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Timothy Williamson
Posted by Kenny at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Leibniz + Adams = Calvinist Theodicy

As I have said before, it is my belief that revealed theology cannot resolve the Calvinist-Arminian debate. Both views (at least in their moderate forms) are both plausible and orthodox; any reason to prefer one to the other will be a philosophical reason, a conclusion of fallible human reason. With this understanding of revealed theology in mind, I reject Calvinism on philosophical grounds, one of which is that I think Calvinism has an extremely difficult time with the problem of evil. In a recent post, The Problem of Evil 101, at Reason From Scripture, Nathanael Taylor presents a 'Reformed' response...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , G. W. Leibniz , Grace/Predestination , Historical Thinkers , John Calvin , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Robert Merrihew Adams , The Problem of Evil , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 2:26 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)

Quotes of the Day: Berkeley and Hume on Unconvincing Arguments

But that all his [Berkeley's] arguments, though otherwise intended, are, in reality, merely sceptical, appears from this, that they admit no answer and produce no conviction. Their only effect is to cause that momentary amazement and irresolution and confusion, which is the result of scepticism. (David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748): sect. 12.1.15) I am not to be persuaded by metaphysical arguments [for the existence of God] ... as they are not suited to my way of thinking they may perhaps puzzle but never will convince me. (Alciphron, the free-thinker, in Berkeley 1732 work by that name, sect....
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Topic(s): David Hume , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Quote of the Day , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 10:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Turbayne on Alleged Refutations of Berkeley

The argument [for idealism] achieves [a proof of the external world] in a most ingenious yet simple way, by accepting the sceptical conclusion of one such as Hylas, that all we can ever know of the external world is certain ideas or appearances, and then admitting, as any consistent empiricist must, that these appearances are real. After all, it is a jest to hold, as do the philosophers, that the things we see and touch are mere illusions.[18] [18] This final step illuminates the irony inherent in Dr. Johnson's notorious ostensive refutation of Berkeley's 'ingenious sophistry', by exclaiming while 'striking...
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Topic(s): Colin Turbayne , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Immanuel Kant , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Quote of the Day , Realism
Posted by Kenny at 9:42 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Kantian Ethics Simplified

It is probably a safe bet that no view which has ever been successfully explained in a blog post can correctly be attributed to Kant. I won't try to falsify that claim in this post. What I will try to do is to present a sketch of a simple (probably too simple) moral theory that shows why I find Kantian ethics attractive. The fundamental principle of this ethical theory is the following definition: Wrongness =df. the property an action has iff it is the direct result of a practical judgment whereby the agent is committed to a practical contradiction. An...
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Topic(s): Deontologism , Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Philosophy , Practical Rationality
Posted by Kenny at 9:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Morality as a System of Assertoric Imperatives

I recently read Philippa Foot's paper "Morality as a System of Hypothetical Imperatives" for an ethics class. The paper, as the name suggests, puts forward the view (which Foot has since rejected) that the imperatives of morality are merely hypothetical and not, as Kant had argued, categorical. What this means is that morality tells us how we should act if we want certain things, such as justice and the general happiness of humanity. As Foot recognizes, an untoward consequence of this view is that, if it is true, we can't sensibly tell people that they should want justice or the...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Philippa Foot , Philosophy , Practical Rationality , Thomas Hobbes
Posted by Kenny at 6:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Quote of the Day for Good Friday

In honor of Good Friday, I offer the following original translation of some excerpts from the Gospel of John: In the beginning Reason was - Reason was directed toward God, and Reason was God. He was directed toward God in the beginning. All things came about through Him, and none of the things that came about came about apart from Him. In Him was life, and the life was the light of human beings. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not grasp it. ... [Reason] was the true light, which, coming into the world, enlightens every...
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Topic(s): Bible , Historical Thinkers , Jesus of Nazareth , Liturgical Calendar , Quote of the Day , The Church , The Gospels , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 9:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

How Reductive Theories of Mental Representation Lead to Phenomenalism

It seems initially plausible to suppose that mental representation can be reduced to phenomenal character. That is, we all know that when we think about things we get into certain states of mind, and there is such a thing as what it's like to be in that state of mind. Now, when we think about things, we are representing the world as being in certain ways. It is tempting to suppose that this representing can be explained entirely in terms of the what-it's-like (phenomenal character). According to naive forms of representative realism, this is because that phenomenal experience resembles the...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Realism , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 12:37 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Locke and Leibniz on Armchair Teleology

[I]f we may conclude that God hath done for men all that men shall judge is best for them, because it is suitable to his goodness so to do, it will prove not only that God has imprinted on the minds of men an idea of himself, but that he hath plainly stamped there, in fair characters, all that men ought to know or believe of him, all that they ought to do in obedience to his will, and that he hath given them a will and affections conformable to it. This, no doubt, everyone will think it better for...
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Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Philosophy of Science , Plato , Teleology
Posted by Kenny at 2:02 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Biblical Literalism as Hyper-Perspicuity

Last night I was at a lecture on science and religion at USC's Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies. (Evidently, we have an Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies. Who knew?) In the course of a lecture with which I otherwise mostly agreed, Fr. Paul Heft connected radical Biblical literalism with the Reformers. This is, of course, strictly false: the Reformers were not literalists in anything like the sense in which twentieth century fundamentalists were. However, it got me thinking about what connection the doctrine of perspicuity, which I was recently discussing on Called to Communion, might have to radical literalism...
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Topic(s): Bible , Church Dogmatics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Hyper-Reformation Theology , Perspicuity , Protestantism , Roman Catholic Church , Scripture and Tradition , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 11:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Simple Argument for Idealism

One of Berkeley's key arguments for his idealism (his positive view that the only fundamental entities are minds and ideas) is something like the following: (1)The gardener is justifiably certain that he waters the cherry tree daily. (2)One can be justifiably certain only of facts about one's own mind and its ideas. Therefore, (3)The gardener's belief that he waters the cherry tree daily is a belief about his own mind and/or its ideas. (1) is a 'common sense' premise, which Berkeley thinks we ought to preserve. (2) is supposed to have been shown by the skeptical considerations of Descartes and...
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Topic(s): David Hume , Epistemology , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 12:08 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Soteriological Inclusivism

Jeremy has an interesting discussion of soteriological inclusivism up on his blog. He argues, without necessarily endorsing inclusivism, that this view can be best accommodated by a Calvinist understanding of salvation. I want here to first clarify how we should understand inclusivism and why we should take it seriously, and then challenge the assumption that Calvinism is the best way to accommodate the view within a Christian framework. Soteriological inclusivism, as I understand it, is an attempt to endorse both of the following claims: (1) There is only one way of salvation. (2) Some who do not explicitly/consciously/intentionally follow this...
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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , John Calvin , Soteriology , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 4:30 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: G. E. Moore on Philosophical Arguments

It may be thought that my contention is unimportant, but that is no ground for thinking that I am not in the right. What I am concerned with is knowledge only - that we should think correctly and so far arrive at some truth, however unimportant: I do not say that such knowledge will make us more useful members of society. If any one does not care for knowledge for its own sake, then I have nothing to say to him; only it should not be though that a lack of interest in what I have to say is any ground for holding it untrue (G. E. Moore, Principia Ethica, sect. 37).

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Topic(s): G. E. Moore , Historical Thinkers , Meta-Philosophy , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 7:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Philosophers' Carnival 103

The 103rd Philosophers' Carnival is now up at Philosophy, etc. with a link to my post on seeing the world through teleology-colored glasses. Also of interest in the new philosophers' carnival is Chris Hallquist's discussion of reformed epistemology and moral realism. In the course of his discussion, Chris gives a narrative of the history of early modern philosophy which is similar to my Berkeley-centric narrative (despite not mentioning Berkeley): Descartes sets up an impossible program, Hume shows that either Cartesian or classical empiricist assumptions lead inevitably to skepticism, and this motivates a 'Reidian' program...
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Topic(s): Alvin Plantinga , Blog Carnivals , Contemporary Thinkers , David Hume , G. E. Moore , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Philosophy , Rene Descartes , The Web , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 4:21 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

A Berkeley-Centric Narrative

Continuing the discussion of the historiography of modern philosophy, I want to consider an alternative narrative. The standard narrative is Kant-centric: the rationalists and empiricists spend a century squabbling, then Kant comes along and figures out what's right and what's wrong with each view, resulting in the Critical Philosophy. The key figures, apart from Kant, are Descartes, the great founder of the rationalists; Locke, the great founder of the empiricists; and Hume who called attention to the severe failings of both schools. (When I took intro to modern at Penn, this is exactly the way it went: these were the...
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Topic(s): Alvin Plantinga , Contemporary Thinkers , David Hume , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Immanuel Kant , John Locke , Nicolas Malebranche , Philosophy , Rene Descartes , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 11:30 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (2)

Alternative Groupings of Early Modern Philosophers

Last month, there was some blog discussion about historiography and teaching methods in early modern philosophy. The standard story is evidently due to Hegel, and continues to be standard despite being unpopular among specialists in history of modern. It groups modern philosophers before Kant as follows:

Rationalists
Descartes
Spinoza
Leibniz

Empiricists
Locke
Berkeley
Hume

Dana McCourt, blogging at The Edge of the American West...
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Topic(s): Baruch Spinoza , Contemporary Thinkers , David Hume , G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , John Locke , Nicolas Malebranche , Penelope Maddy , Philosophy , Rene Descartes , Thomas Hobbes
Posted by Kenny at 1:12 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (1)

Doing What You Believe to be Right vs. Doing What Is Right

Many, perhaps most, people disagree with the majority of my moral beliefs. When I find myself in a situation to advise such people, I often try to persuade them to adopt my moral beliefs, but if this fails I generally advise people to follow their own considered beliefs, rather than mine. Similarly, where there are disagreements on matters of fact, I take it that it is most important to persuade people to believe according to their own considered evaluation of the evidence available to them. Attempts to show that the evidence best supports my own position are secondary. The reason...
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Topic(s): Ethics , Henry Sidgwick , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 2:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

The Mystery of the Incarnation

As we are nearing the end of Advent, I hope that we (Christians) have all been pondering the mystery of the Incarnation. For myself, I have been doing some speculating, connecting the Chalcedonian Definition with some issues I have been studying in Greek philosophy. I mean, in particular, the argument which some scholars have made to the effect that Greek ontology is primarily concerned with the 'is' of predication (see section I of "The Homonymy of Predicative Being"). I have been considering this for some time but have not been confident enough to post it. However, I have just finished...
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Topic(s): "Dionysius" , Aristotle , Christology , Cyril of Alexandria , Historical Thinkers , Nestorius , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Plato , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 11:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: A Science Fiction Thought Experiment in Aristotle

Therefore, however many things appear to come about in different types of material, for instance, a circle in bronze and stone and wood, it seems clear that neither bronze nor stone is part of the substance of a circle, since they can be separated. But even for things that are not observed to be separated, there is no reason why the same results should not follow, just as even if all circles that were seen were bronze, nonetheless bronze would be no part of the form, but it would be difficult to separate them in thought. For instance, the form human is always observed in flesh and bones and these sorts of parts. Are these parts therefore part of the form and the definition [of human]? ...
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Topic(s): Aristotle , Essentialism , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Modality , Philosophy , Quote of the Day , Science-Fiction
Posted by Kenny at 3:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Aristotle on Parmenides

Parmenides seems to speak with rather more insight: for not considering, aside from being, anything that is not worthy to be, he thinks that from necessity it - that is, being - is one, and nothing else ... But being compelled to follow the phenomena, he supposes that it is one according to reason [or: in account], but many according to sense perception (Aristotle, Metaphysics 986b27-33, my translation, after Ross). The surviving fragments of Parmenides speak of a 'path of persuasion' and a 'way of mortal opinion.' These seem to have been two sections of his original poem. In the former, he denies the reality of plurality or change. Puzzlingly...
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Topic(s): Aristotle , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Ontology , Parmenides , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 4:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Best Recent Books For and Against Religious Belief

Right now there are two very active comment threads on this blog: the first discussing whether or not I should read The God Delusion and the second listing philosophical science fiction stories. As such, I thought I would combine the religious discussion with the successful attempt at blog bibliography by asking readers to list the best recent books for an against religious belief. I will admit that I actually haven't read any of the books below all the way through; I list them because they are commonly excerpted in philosophy of religion readers (I have read excerpts of most of...
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Topic(s): Alvin Plantinga , Contemporary Thinkers , Existence of God , Historical Thinkers , J. L. Mackie , Jordan Howard Sobel , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , William P. Alston
Posted by Kenny at 9:14 AM | Comments (16) | TrackBack (0)

What Caused God?

In comments to my post on Dawkins and the Philosophers, atheist blogger Jonathan West has been pushing back against Michael Ruse's claim that Dawkins' prominent use of the "what caused God?" question is, as Jonathan puts it, 'fatuous.' Jonathan has also pushed this point in a recent blog post which considers this question in light of Swinburne's 'necessary being' arguments in The Existence of God. I will first make a few remarks about Swinburne's work in this area, and then proceed to show why the "what caused God?" question is indeed confused. To be fair, I admit...
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Topic(s): Abstract Objects , Alvin Plantinga , Contemporary Thinkers , Cosmological Argument , David Lewis , Existence of God , Historical Thinkers , James F. Ross , Modality , Ontological Argument , Ontology , Peter Unger , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Plato , Richard Dawkins , Richard Swinburne , Sydney Shoemaker , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 10:20 AM | Comments (19) | TrackBack (2)

Subjunctive Phenomenalism and Logical Construction Idealism

Within the last week, I have seen the same mistake in two different recent books on the philosophy of perception: According to phenomenalism, objects are (in John Stuart Mill's excellent phrase) "permanent possibilities of sensation"; they are, in a more recent idiom, "logical constructions" of sense data. (Alva Noë, Action in Perception, 79) Berkeley observed that the philosophical conception that the objects of direct awareness are sense-data (or, in Berkeley's terminology, "ideas") is perfectly compatible with the commonsense conception that the objects of direct awareness are ordinary things (e.g., tomatoes). We can accept both, Berkeley argued, if we recognize the...
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Topic(s): Alva Noë , Anil Gupta , Bertrand Russell , C. I. Lewis , Contemporary Thinkers , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Kenneth P. Winkler , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 4:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Dawkins and the Philosophers

I am periodically asked by my fellow Christians how Christians should respond to Richard Dawkins. I confess to being puzzled by the question of how I personally should respond to Dawkins. This is because a great many non-philosophical atheists take his word as Gospel, and a great many Christians are troubled by his arguments and assertions, but the fact of the matter is that, on the intellectual merits, Dawkins is simply not worth the effort of refuting. In philosophy, it is our practice, in arguing against positions, to target the best version of the view. This is why, for instance,...
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Topic(s): Ayn Rand , Contemporary Thinkers , David Hume , Historical Thinkers , J. L. Mackie , Michael Ruse , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Richard Dawkins
Posted by Kenny at 5:54 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack (1)

"A Leibnizian Theory of Miracles"

I have posted a new paper draft to my writings page entitled "A Leibnizian Theory of Miracles". The aim of the paper is to defend a conception of miracles on which no violation, suspension, or circumvention of the laws of nature is required. Comments are welcome.
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Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Miracles , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 11:10 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (3)

Miraculous Early Modern Blogging!

As previously mentioned, I am currently working on a paper entitled "A Leibnizian Theory of Miracles". After a few more rounds of edits, I will post a draft, so stay tuned. In the meantime allow me to point you to a few miraculous instances of early modern blogging (both posted today, incidentally)...
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Topic(s): David Hume , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Miracles , Nicolas Malebranche , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 8:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Does 'The Desk is Black' Express a Proposition?

According to standard versions of subjunctive phenomenalism, such as the version developed by C. I. Lewis, sentences purporting to be about physical objects can be analyzed into long conjunctions of subjunctive conditionals having to do only with sense data and voluntary actions. It's very difficult to actually state these conditionals, but they are supposed to say things like 'if I'm in such and such a condition, and I do X, I will experience Y'. Alva Noë is not a phenomenalist, but he expresses some similar ideas about the nature of perception. Specifically, Noë argues that perception does not involve the...
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Topic(s): Alva Noë , C. I. Lewis , Contemporary Thinkers , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Mind , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 5:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Leibniz's Theistic Case Against Humean Miracles

Most of the recent philosophical literature on miracles focuses on Hume's argument against belief in miracles in EHU 10. There, Hume asserts that all miracles are "violation[s] of the laws of nature" (10.12) and argues that we could never be justified in believing in such events. Call these Law-Breaking Events (LBEs). As Hume recognizes, being an LBE cannot be sufficient for being a miracle; miracles must have the right kind of theological/religious significance. Hume thus gives in a footnote a more precise definition: "A miracle may be accurately defined, a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , David Hume , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , James D. Madden , Miracles , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 5:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)

Quote of the Day: Robert Adams on Contextualist History of Philosophy as Philosophy

I believe that historical accuracy and careful attention to the historical context are important to the philosophical as well as the historical value of work in the history of philosophy and, conversely, that philosophical argument and critique are important for historical understanding of philosophy. One reason for the philosophical importance of patient and careful attention to the actual meaning of Leibniz's writings in their historical context is that he was indeed a great philosopher, great enough that an arbitrary interpretation of his work, more relevant to our historical context than to his, is unlikely to be as interesting philosophically in...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Quote of the Day , Robert Merrihew Adams
Posted by Kenny at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Leibniz Against Hyper-Calvinism

If there are people who believe that election and reprobation are accomplished on God's part by a despotic and absolute power, not only without any apparent reason but actually without any reason, even a concealed one, they maintain an opinion that destroys alike the nature of things and the divine perfections. Such an absolutely absolute decree (so to speak) would be without doubt insupportable. But Luther and Calvin were far from such a belief: the former hopes that the life to come will make us comprehend the just reasons of God's choice; and the latter protests explicitly that these reasons...
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Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , Grace/Predestination , Historical Thinkers , John Calvin , Martin Luther , Quote of the Day , Soteriology , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 5:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)

Quote of the Day: A Source in Descartes for Berkeley's Visual Language Theory?

We must take care not to assume - as our philosophers [i.e. the scholastics] commonly do - that in order to have sensory awareness the soul must contemplate certain images [i.e. the species] transmitted by objects to the brain; or at any rate we must conceive the nature of these images in an entirely different manner from that of the philosophers. For since their conception of the images is confined to the requirement that they should resemble the objects they represent, the philosophers cannot possibly show us how the images can be formed by the objects, or how they can...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Mind , Quote of the Day , Rene Descartes , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 4:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Berkeley on Combining Ideas Into Objects

One of the big questions in Berkeley interpretation is how and by whom ideas or experiences get put together to form objects. (See, for instance, the end of Margaret Atherton's recent paper "'The Books Are in the Study as Before': Berkeley's Claims About Real Physical Objects".) I've just noticed an interesting passage in Berkeley that ought to be really important to this discussion, though I don't think I've seen it quoted in this connection: [I]t ought to be considered that number (however some may reckon it amongst the primary qualities) is nothing fixed and settled, really existing in things themselves....
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Margaret Atherton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 10:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The New Cambridge Berkeley Volume

A brief review of George Berkeley, Philosophical Writings, ed. Desmond M. Clarke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008). ISBN: 978-0-521-70762-6. 338 pp. $29.99 on Amazon. I recently acquired a copy of the new Berkeley volume in the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, edited by Desmond M. Clarke. Clarke's selection of texts is quite good. As far as I know, this is the only collection of its kind to include excerpts from Alciphron and Siris, and the excerpts are well chosen. From Alciphron, we have the Dialogue IV's divine language argument for the existence of God, and Dialogue VII's theory...
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Topic(s): Desmond M. Clarke , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 12:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Quotes of the Day: Berkeley and 'Functional Role Semantics'

The second approach [to intentionality on the computational model of cognition] is known as functionalism (actually, "functional role semantics" in discussions of meaning) in philosophy, and as procedural semantics in cognitive psychology and computer science. Functionalism says that what gives internal symbols (and external symbols too) their meanings is how they function ... This picture can be bolstered by a consideration of what happens when one first learns Newtonian mechanics. In my own case, I heard a large number of unfamiliar terms more or less all at once: "mass", "force", "energy", and the like. I never was told definitions of...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Ned Block , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 8:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Nadler on Arnauld on the Church's Authoritativeness

I have recently been involved in an interesting discussion on the authority/authoritativeness of the Church over at Called to Communion. In light of this, I thought I would post a selection I came across today on the position of Antoine Arnauld, the French Jansenist theologian and Cartesian philosopher, on this question: Like all Jansenists, [Arnauld] was accused of Calvinism and political subversion. In 1656 he was excluded from the faculty of the Sorbonne for his refusal to submit to the Church on the issue of five propositions condemned as heretical in the encyclical Cum occasione (1653), and which the Pope...
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Topic(s): Antoine Arnauld , Contemporary Thinkers , Ecclesiology , Historical Thinkers , Protestantism , Roman Catholic Church , Steven M. Nadler , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 5:15 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Reductivism, Eliminativism, and Berkeley's Theory of Physical Objects

In present-day metaphysical discussions it is common to distinguish between 'reductivism' and 'eliminativism' with respect to some class of objects, C. These can be thought of as two different ways of denying the (fundamental, metaphysical) existence/reality of the objects in C. Examples of classes discussed by philosophers in this way include minds, conscious experiences, and macrophysical objects. The two views may be given a linguistic formulation as follows: Linguistic Reductivism (LR): Sentences which appear to assume the existence of the putative objects in C are strictly and literally true, although, in metaphysical rigor, the putative objects do not exist. (The...
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Topic(s): Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 11:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

External Coherence and the Reality of The Matrix

David Chalmers writes: I think that even if I am in a matrix [i.e. any computer simulation similar to the one depicted in The Matrix], my world is perfectly real. A brain in a vat is not massively deluded (at least if it has always been in a vat) ... Philosophers have held this sort of view before. The 18th-century Irish philosopher George Berkeley held, in effect, that appearance is reality ... If this is right, then the world perceived by envatted beings is perfectly real: they have all the right appearances and appearance is reality ("The Matrix as Metaphysics"...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , David Chalmers , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 4:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

The Biblical Origin of Hobbes's State of Nature Theory

Thomas Hobbes is famous for his pessimistic state of nature theory. According to Hobbes, the 'state of nature' (i.e. anarchy) is a "warre of every man against every man" (Leviathan, p. 63 of the 1651 'Head' edition). The concepts of justice or injustice are, according to Hobbes, not applicable in this state of war. This is because injustice is defined as "the not Performance of Covenant" (p. 71). However, "If a Covenant be made, wherein neither of the parties performe presently, but trust one another; in the condition of meer nature ... upon any reasonable suspicion, it is Voyd"...
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Topic(s): Bible , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Prophets , The State of Nature , Theology , Thomas Hobbes
Posted by Kenny at 2:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

On Pop Philosophers

What exactly is a pop philosopher, and what distinguishes a pop philosopher from a philosopher simpliciter? This question has been on my mind due to trying to explain to people why certain very good pop philosophers, such as C.S. Lewis, are nevertheless not very good philosophers. I will try here to explain what I take the difference to be. It should first be noted that both 'philosopher' and 'pop philosopher' are agency nouns. As such, they are attributed accidentally (inessentially) to a person in virtue of her involvement in certain activities: one person is called a 'butcher' in virtue of...
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Topic(s): Ayn Rand , C.S. Lewis , Contemporary Thinkers , Daniel Dennett , Harry Frankfurt , Historical Thinkers , Meta-Philosophy , Philosophy , William Lane Craig
Posted by Kenny at 11:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Master Zombie Argument

Berkeley's so-called 'Master Argument' and Chalmers' 'Zombie Argument' are two famous arguments that turn on the relationship between conceivability and possibility. I have been thinking for some time about an amusing (and perhaps somewhat troubling) way of putting the two together. First, let me give simplified versions of the two arguments. The Master Argument (MA): (MA1) Whatever is conceived is conceived by some mind. (MA2) Whatever is conceived by a mind is in that mind. Therefore, (MA3) Nothing can be conceived that is not in a mind. (MA4) Whatever is inconceivable is impossible. Therefore, (MA5) It is impossible for anything...
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Topic(s): Conceivability , Contemporary Thinkers , David Chalmers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Modality , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 12:11 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

"Kant's 'Bad' Examples"

I have posted another paper to my workbench, entitled "Kant's 'Bad' Examples". This is the paper I was working on when we were discussing Kant on sexuality (follow-ups here, here, and here). Many contemporary 'Kantian' ethicists ignore or even malign Kant's applied ethics. I argue that this is misguided: when Kant's theory is properly understood, it can be shown that many of his supposedly objectionable conclusions are well supported by it. I consider five of Kant's applications and argue that each of them can be supported by means of his theory of personality and the role it plays...
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Topic(s): Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 6:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"The Homonymy of Predicative Being"

I have just posted to my workbench a paper entitled "The Homonymy of Predicative Being." Here is the abstract: Aristotle famously claimed that "being is said in many ways." This has traditionally been understood as a claim about existence. However, the interpretation of Aristotle's theory of being under this assumption has proven problematic. In this paper, I argue for an alternative reading which identifies the core uses of 'being' as copula uses with primary substances as subjects. Comments and criticisms are welcome below....
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Topic(s): Aristotle , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language
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Quote of the Day: If the Septuagint was Good Enough for Abraham, It's Good Enough For Me!

I'm fond of reminding people that long before there was KJV Only-ism there was LXX Only-ism: a great many early Christian writers (though probably not a majority) not only thought that the LXX was inspired, but that the Hebrew texts had been subsequently corrupted. (LXX, the Roman numeral for 70, is the abbreviation used for the Septuagint, and ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament made a few centuries before Christ.) A few even went so far as to claim that they had been intentionally corrupted by a Jewish conspiracy. Really, nothing is new under the sun. An example which...
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Topic(s): "Barnabas" , Bible , Historical Thinkers , Quote of the Day , Theology
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Intelligent Design and Scientific Instrumentalism

John Beaudoin's recent paper "Sober on Intelligent Design Theory and the Intelligent Designer" contains the following fascinating remark in a footnote: [William] Dembski has suggested that the designer referred to in ID theory need not be real: it could in principle be treated by design theorists as a mere useful fiction, if that should better fit with a particular design theorist's philosophy of science. Beaudoin cites Dembski's No Free Lunch, p. 15, and The Design Revolution, p. 65. I haven't bothered to read too much on the whole ID thing because it is not closely related to my main philosophical interests and from a theological/religious perspective seems like a mere distraction. Furthermore, most ID types seem to me to exaggerate the problems of 'orthodox' evolutionary biology...
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Topic(s): Bas van Fraassen , Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Instrumentalism , Intelligent Design , John Beaudoin , Penelope Maddy , Philosophy , Philosophy of Science , Science , William Dembski
Posted by Kenny at 9:08 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

Kant, Libertarianism, and the Limits of Contract Right

By 'libertarianism' here (and in my tagline) I mean the family of broadly Lockean political theories, mostly articulated in the 20th century, which take private property to be the most fundamental concept for political theory. (Locke himself writes, "'Where there is no property, there is no injustice,' is a proposition as certain as any demonstration in Euclid: For the idea of property being a right to any thing, and the idea to which the name injustice is given, being the invasion or violation of that right; it is evident, that these ideas, being thus established, and these names annexed to...
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Topic(s): Contract Rights , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Philosophy , Political Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 5:39 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

A Semantic Argument for Phenomenalism

I believe an argument similar to the following can be attributed to Berkeley, but I have too much real work to do to go find the texts to justify it right now. (Which is why we have blogs, where we don't have to adequately justify our assertions!) The meaning of a word is exhausted by the correct conditions of its application. Any speaker S on any given occasion determines whether to utter a given word based entirely on S's subjective state (i.e. factors internal to S). Speakers consistently and non-accidentally use 'plain language' correctly (i.e. 'common sense' is correct). Therefore,...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Semantic Externalism
Posted by Kenny at 11:55 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Stillingfleet on the Natural Immortality of the Soul

You [Locke] say, That all the ends of Religion and Morality are secured barely by the Immortality of the Soul without a necessary Supposition that the Soul is Immaterial. I am of the opinion that the great ends of Religion and Morality are best secured by the Proofs of the Immortality of the Soul from its Nature and Properties; and which I think can prove it Immaterial. I do not question whether God can give Immortality to a Material Substance; but I say it takes off very much from the evidence of Immortality, if it depend wholly on God's giving...
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Topic(s): Edward Stillingfleet , G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Quote of the Day , Theology
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Quote of the Day: Leibniz on Survival of Death

One of the quandaries I ran into in writing my paper on Berkeley on resurrection is the question of what the 'revealed' Christian doctrine is supposed to be. In particular, there is the question of natural versus miraculous immortality of the soul. Some writers who seek to defend the Christian doctrine of survival of death assume that it is part of the doctrine that this survival is miraculous. (For a recent example, see Lynne Rudder Bakker's "Persons and the Metaphysics of Resurrection" which appeared in Religious Studies in 2007; James Ross also brought this up in his criticisms of my...
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Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Quote of the Day , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 6:19 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Locke, Berkeley, and 'Common Sense'

John Locke is often portrayed as a 'philosopher of common sense' (or, 'tempered common sense', some say), and George Berkeley as a proponent of a bizarre and novel metaphysics which is radically discontinuous with common sense. However, it is Berkeley, much more than Locke, who is constantly appealing to 'common sense' in support of his views. Why is this? And how is it that Berkeley, with his radical metaphysical claims, purports to be a defender of common sense? The answer, I believe, is that the philosophies of Locke and Berkeley are related to our ordinary beliefs in radically different ways...
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Topic(s): 'Common Sense'/Intuition , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Philosophy
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Quote of the Day: Aristotle on the Law of Contradiction

The most certain principle of all [is one] it is impossible to be mistaken about ... A [principle] one must have in order to understand any being whatsoever - this is not a [mere] hypothesis! ... Next we will state what this principle is: it is impossible for the same thing at the same time to exist and not to exist in the same [subject] and in the same respect (and however many other [qualifications] we [previously] defined, let them be defined [here] on account of the logical difficulties). ... But we now have accepted that it is impossible for a being to be and not be at the same time, and we showed that this was the most certain of all principles. In fact, some people, because [they are] uneducated, think that even this ought to be proven. [Someone who] doesn't know that it is necessary to prove some things and not others is uneducated...
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Topic(s): Aristotle , Historical Thinkers , Logic , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
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Quote of the Day: Athanasius on the Destruction of Death

A very strong proof of this destruction of death and its conquest by the cross is supplied by a present fact, namely this. All the disciples of Christ despise death; they take the offensive against it and, instead of fearing it, by the sign of the cross and by faith in Christ trample on it as on something dead. Before the divine sojourn of the Savior, even the holiest of men were afraid of death, and mourned the dead as those who perish. But now that the Saviour has raised His body, death is no longer terrible, but all those...
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Topic(s): Athanasius , Historical Thinkers , Quote of the Day , Soteriology , The Church , Theology
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Kant's Argument for Monogamy

In my previous post on The Problem of Sex in Kant's Ethics, I ended with Kant's argument for monogamy, on which I declined to offer any commentary. I am going to offer a brief reconstruction here (go back to the previous post for the original text).

The argument can be understood as follows:

Sex involves the use of the other's 'sexual attribute' as a means
It is impermissible (contrary to right) to use what one has no right to
One cannot have a right to the sexual attribute of another without having a right to the whole person...

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Topic(s): Contract Rights , Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Philosophy , Political Philosophy
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(Self-)Quote of the Day: A Controversial Claim for Your Consideration

Hobbes's normative theory implicitly commits him to the belief that a constitutionally limited government of the sort that would later be described by John Locke would be a paradise if only it could be achieved and maintained.
- Kenneth L. Pearce, "Deposing Leviathan: Hobbes and Locke on Grievances Against the State" (working draft)

This is the last sentence of a paper that I just finished my first draft of. (I'm running a little late - it's due tomorrow evening!) As I'm editing, I'll be taking a closer look to try to see whether I've really established a claim this strong...
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Topic(s): Constitutionalism , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Quote of the Day , Thomas Hobbes
Posted by Kenny at 6:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Hobbes, Locke, and Grievances Against the State

It is a fact of life that people frequently come into conflict in various ways: conflicts both about whether a certain action took place, and about whether that sort of action is acceptable. Thomas Hobbes calls the first of these "a question Of Fact" and the second "a question Of Right" (Leviathan ch. 15). Both Hobbes, the notorious proponent of absolute sovereignty, and John Locke, the great proponent of limited government (can you tell whose side I'm on?), agree that one of the chief reasons for forming governments is to prevent these disputes from leading to violence...
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Topic(s): Constitutionalism , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Politics , Rule of Law , Thomas Hobbes
Posted by Kenny at 12:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Kant Against the Objectification of Women

Kant has something of a reputation as a misogynist. This reputation is not entirely undeserved. However, in his 1775-1780 Lectures on Ethics, Kant gives voice to a line of reasoning which, at least in its general outline, will be familiar to most readers from certain strains of 20th century feminism: There is no way in which a human being can be made an Object of indulgence for another except through sexual impulse ... it is an appetite for another human being ... Because sexuality is not an inclination which one human being has for another as such, but is an...
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Topic(s): Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 12:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Dude, Where's My Teleology?

In introducing duties to the self considered as an animal being in the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant writes: There are impulses of nature having to do with man's animality. Through them, nature aims at (a) his self-preservation, (b) the preservation of the species, and (c) the preservation of his capacity to enjoy life, though still at the animal level only. - The vices that are here opposed to his duty to himself are murdering himself, the unnatural use of his sexual inclination, and such excessive consumption of food and drink as weakens his capacity for making purposive use of his...
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Topic(s): Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Philosophy
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Quote of the Day: Why Write Political Theory?

I may be asked whether I am a prince or a legislator that I should be writing about politics. I answer no: and indeed that that is my reason for doing so. If I were a prince or a legislator I should not waste my time saying what ought to be done; I should do it and keep silent.

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, tr. Maurice Cranston, Introduction to Book I

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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , Jean-Jacques Rousseau , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Quote of the Day
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The Problem of Sex in Kant's Ethics

According to Kant, "Sexual union (commercium sexuale) is the reciprocal use that one human being makes of the sexual organs and capacities of another." (The Metaphysics of Morals, tr. Mary Gregor, p. 61) A thing that is used is generally used for something, and, indeed, in this section Kant mentions two purposes for which "the sexual organs and capacities of another" are used in "sexual union" (he does not say that these are exhaustive): "begetting and bringing up children" is said to be "an end of nature, for which it implanted the inclinations of the sexes for each other," but...
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Topic(s): Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 7:34 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack (1)

Quote of the Day: Kant Smacks Down Eudaimonism With Some Greek Word Play

If this distinction [between 'pathological pleasure' and 'moral pleasure'] is not observed, if eudaimonism (the principle of happiness) is set up as the basic principle instead of eleutheronomy (the principle of the freedom of internal lawgiving), the result is the euthanasia (easy death) of all morals. (Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals, tr. Mary Gregor, p. 143)

For the record, I think that, whether accidentally or intentionally, Kant radically distorts ancient eudaimonism. Eudaimonia doesn't mean 'happiness' in the English sense of that word, which comes from 'hap', meaning 'luck' (as in 'perhaps')...
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Topic(s): Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
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Kant on Copyright

Regular readers are no doubt aware that I don't believe in intellectual property. That is, I don't believe that you can have property rights in ideas or, generally, in intangibles. I have, however, noted that I support anti-plagiarism laws, and even suspect that they are capable of doing most of the good that so-called 'intellectual property' laws do. (Our current copyright and patent laws, in my opinion, do more harm than good.) Kant, however, has an interesting argument (which is even more or less comprehensible - a rare find in a Kant text!) against the unauthorized publishing of books. The section is fairly short so I will publish the whole thing without authorization...
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Topic(s): Copyright/Patent Law , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Intellectual Property , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Politics
Posted by Kenny at 4:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

How Putnam Defeats Descartes' Demon

A little while back, I wrote a post describing Cartesian demon skepticism as a form of 'adversarial epistemology'. The idea is that Descartes' thought experiment can be conceived of as a game with two players: the meditator and the demon. The meditator selects a process for forming beliefs from perceptual experiences, and the demon knows what process the meditator has selected, and controls all of the perceptual experiences. If the meditator ends up with mostly true beliefs, she wins. Otherwise, the demon wins. Now, I mentioned at the bottom of that post that this way of framing the problem is helpful...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Epistemology , Hilary Putnam , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Rene Descartes , Semantic Externalism , Skepticism
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The Limits of Religious Toleration

In a very sad case out of Wisconsin, the parents of 11 year old Kara Neumann are being prosecuted for reckless endangerment after their daughter died of diabetes. They refused medical care for their daughter on account of their religious beliefs. (They do not belong to the Church of Christ, Scientist, which I believe is the largest religious organization which forbids its adherents from seeking medical care; rather, it appears that they are followers of some internet group by the name of "Unleavened Bread Ministries".) The Neumanns originally entered a constitutional challenge to their prosecution. The judge ruled that...
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Topic(s): Freedom of Religion , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Politics
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Topics of Thought for This Quarter

Although I only very rarely post life updates to this blog, it is my custom here to list the subjects I am studying each term because it generally has some bearing on what interesting philosophy I will be blogging about. This quarter I am taking courses on the following topics: Early Modern Social Contract Theory. Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. I am already considering a paper topic: grievances against the state. (A timely subject.) Hobbes seems to say that you can't sue a sovereign (whether sovereignty is held by an individual or a group) unless he/she/they intentionally set up a process...
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Topic(s): Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Jean-Jacques Rousseau , John Locke , My Life , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Thomas Hobbes
Posted by Kenny at 5:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Alex Byrne on Contemporary Debate About the Existence of God

The latest edition of the Boston Review is running an article by MIT philosopher Alex Byrne on the state of philosophical debate about the existence of God. For a popular article, it is in many ways quite good. It focuses on the ontological argument and the teleological argument (although it doesn't consider versions of the latter like the one I advocate), which are probably the two most interesting of the traditional arguments, and it has interesting things to say about each of them. I do, however, have a few complaints. First, early in the article we find this colorful phrase...
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Topic(s): Alex Byrne , Alvin Plantinga , Contemporary Thinkers , Dean Zimmerman , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , William Paley
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Quote of the Day: A Summary of Berkeley's Mature Doctrine of Signs

Although the details are sketchy, Berkeley's basic point is clear: A sign may be significant not because it marks an idea, or even because it can be traced to something with which we are immediately acquainted, but because it is a working part of a system of signs that makes a genuine difference to our lives - to our thoughts, actions, and emotions. (Kenneth P. Winkler, "Berkeley and the Doctrine of Signs" in Winkler, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Berkeley, p. 151) This is Winkler's summary of Berkeley's mature "doctrine of signs" as developed in Alciphron 7. By the way,...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Kenneth P. Winkler , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 4:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

'Contemning the Shame'

I was reading Hobbes today, and came across a word I'm not sure I've ever seen before. At Leviathan 1.6 (p. 24 of the original edition), Hobbes writes: Those things which we neither Desire, nor Hate, we are said to Contemne: CONTEMPT being nothing else but an immobility, or contumacy of the Heart, in resisting the action of certain things; and proceeding from that the Heart is already moved otherwise, by other more potent objects; or from want of experience of them. The word I am talking about, 'contemne' (which was later spelled 'contemn' - I will use this spelling...
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Topic(s): Bible , General Epistles , Historical Thinkers , Theology , Thomas Hobbes
Posted by Kenny at 1:40 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Valicella on Private and Public Morality

Bill Valicella of The Maverick Philosopher has an interesting discussion on the distinction between private and public morality. Valicella supposes that there is an inherent tension between any Socratic, Platonic, or Christian ethics and the requirements of a stable state. A couple years ago, in my post on rights, obligations, and abortion (which continues to be one of the most popular posts on this blog) I argued that there was no inherent contradiction, or even tension, between the idea that I have a libertarian right to retaliate for an offense against me, but an obligation of private morality not to exercise that right...
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Topic(s): Bible , Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Jesus of Nazareth , Philosophy , Plato , Political Philosophy , Socrates , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 8:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cartesian Demon Skepticism as 'Adversarial Epistemology'

In one of my computer science classes in undergrad, we discussed a particular way of thinking about the efficiency of an algorithm, which the professor called 'adversarial upper bounds'. The idea was to suppose that someone knows the 'guts' of your algorithm - exactly how it works - and that person is trying to make your algorithm take as many steps to complete as possible. The upshot was that sometimes with this kind of system inserting some randomness will give you a better expectation value. For instance, suppose I am trying to find a route (just any route) from A...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Donald Davidson , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Hilary Putnam , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Rene Descartes , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 1:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Reason for Berkeley's Anti-Abstractionism

In my post, Does Philosophy 'Trickle Down', I noted that "Berkeley thinks he has discovered two philosophical doctrines which are indeed 'the Chief Causes of Error and Difficulty in the Sciences' and also 'the Grounds of Scepticism, Atheism, and Irreligion.' These are the epistemic/linguistic doctrine of abstraction, and the metaphysical doctrine of corporeal substance." In this post I want to examine how the doctrine of abstract ideas is supposed, according to Berkeley, to lead to "Error and Difficulty in the Sciences ... [and] ... Scepticism, Atheism, and Irreligion."...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 11:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

What Is Composition?

I am currently doing research for a term paper in which I will argue that composition requires a 'principle of unity'. That is (to a first approximation), that given some objects, the xs, there cannot be any y which has all and only the xs as parts unless there is some feature of the world which bestows some degree of unity or oneness on y. I hope to argue that this is a conceptual truth - that is, that it flows from what we mean by composition. I haven't finished reading up on the subject yet, so there may already...
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Topic(s): Aristotle , Contemporary Thinkers , Familiar Objects , Historical Thinkers , Mereology , Metaphysics , Ontology , Peter van Inwagen , Philosophy , Trenton Merricks , W.V.O. Quine
Posted by Kenny at 3:03 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (1)

Three Varieties of Certainty

'Certainty,' whatever that is supposed to be, would certainly (!) seem to be important in epistemology. Like a lot of important words, it frequently gets thrown around without definition. I know of at least three totally distinct ways of using this term, and the only thing they all seem to have in common is 'very high epistemic status' - i.e. something is certain if we really know it, in some way that is 'better' (more certain!) than ordinary knowledge. I'm going to outline here these three different varieties of certainty. Cartesian Certainty (also called 'demon-proof certainty') is attributed to a...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , G. E. Moore , Historical Thinkers , Ludwig Wittgenstein , Philosophy , Rene Descartes
Posted by Kenny at 6:06 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Does Philosophy 'Trickle Down'?

One of the interesting things about George Berkeley as a historical figure is that he labors under the peculiar belief that he is writing philosophy out of pastoral concerns. I like to illustrate Berkeley's purposes by reference to the subtitles he gave to his works. The Treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge is subtitled, "wherein the Chief Causes of Error and Difficulty in the Sciences, with the Grounds of Scepticism, Atheism, and Irreligion, are inquired into." Berkeley thinks he has discovered two philosophical doctrines which are indeed "the Chief Causes of Error and Difficulty in the Sciences" and also "the Grounds of Scepticism, Atheism, and Irreligion." These are the epistemic/linguistic doctrine of abstraction, and the metaphysical doctrine of corporeal substance...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Meta-Philosophy , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Science
Posted by Kenny at 5:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Berkeley's Own Summary of the Argument from Representational Realism to Skepticism

In a previous post, I summarized Berkeley's argument against representational realism. I just came across a very good passage in the Dialogues where Berkeley himself gives a summary of his argument that representational realism leads to unpalatable skeptical consequences: It is your opinion, the ideas we perceive by our senses are not real things, but images, or copies of them. Our knowledge therefore is no farther real, than our ideas are the true representations of those originals. But as these supposed originals are themselves unknown it is impossible to know how far our ideas resemble them; or whether they resemble...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Quote of the Day , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 12:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Simplicity of Berkeley's Argument Against Representative Realism

A passage in T.E. Jessop's introduction to the Siris reminded me today of how simple Berkeley's argument against representative realism is. Jessop writes, "Such archetypes - material things as understood by the Cartesians and Locke - [Berkeley] rejected on the epistemological ground that they require a representative theory of perception, which logically entails scepticism, since it excludes the possibility of comparing the sensed object and the supposed 'real object'." (Berkeley, Works, ed. Luce and Jessop, vol. 5 p. 17) The argument, in all its simplicity, goes like this: Representative realism holds that, for each object of our experience, there exist...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 3:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

"Can Berkeley's God Raise the Same Body, Transformed?'

My paper "Can Berkeley's God Raise the Same Body, Transformed?", which is to be presented at the Society of Christian Philosophers, Pacific Division conference next week is now available on the conference web-site. I would greatly appreciate any comments or criticisms.
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Topic(s): Church Dogmatics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Identity , Metaphysics , My Life , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 10:43 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Why do Relativists Write Books?

The sophist Protagoras of Abdera (c. 490-420 BC) wrote a book entitled Truth (which does not survive) in which he argued that 'man is the measure of all things;' an early form of relativism. In Plato's Theaetetus, Socrates gives the following review of Protagoras' book: Well, I was delighted with his general statement of the theory that a thing is for any individual what it seems to him to be; but I was astonished at the way he began. I was astonished that he did not state at the beginning of the Truth that 'Pig is the measure of all things'...
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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Plato , Protagoras , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 12:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Baber on the Real Presence

Some of the papers to be presented at the Society of Christian Philosophers, Pacific Division Conference have now been posted. Mine isn't up yet, but I will provide a link when it is. For now, I want to point readers to a paper by the University of San Diego's Harriet Baber which she has entitled simply "The Real Presence". We have previously discussed here the difference between transubstantiation and real presence. Baber describes this quite nicely in her introduction...
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Topic(s): Church Dogmatics , Contemporary Thinkers , Harriet Baber , Historical Thinkers , Huldrych Zwingli , John Calvin , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Protestantism , Roman Catholic Church , The Church , The Eucharist , Theology , Thomas Aquinas
Posted by Kenny at 12:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Appearances and Judgments About Appearances

And when we question whether the underlying object is such as it appears, we grant the fact that it appears, and our doubt does not concern the appearance itself but the account given of that appearance, - and that is a different thing from questioning the appearance itself. For example, honey appears to us to be sweet (and this we grant, for we perceive sweetness through the senses), but whether it is also sweet in its essence is for us a matter of doubt, since this is not an appearance, but a judgement regarding the appearance. (Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Quote of the Day , Sextus Empiricus , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 11:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Plato on Opinion and Knowledge

Following up on the last post, I thought it would be helpful to go back to Plato to provide another view on the subject. Socrates and Meno are discussing the nature of virtue, whether it is a form of knowledge, and whether it can be taught: SOCRATES: So true opinion is in no way a worse guide to correct action than knowledge. It is this that we omitted in our investigation of the nature of virtue, when we said that only knowledge can lead to correct action, for true opinion can do so also. ... MENO: That appears to be...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Edmund Gettier , Epistemology , Gettierology , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Plato , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 11:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Society of Christian Philosophers, Pacific Division Conference

A paper of mine entitled "Can Berkeley's God Raise the Same Body, Transformed?" has been accepted to the Society Christian Philosophers, Pacific Division Conference on "Mind, Body, and Free Will" at UC Riverside Oct. 30 - Nov. 1. The conference organizers plan to post papers online, and I will provide a link when they do. In the meantime, I've discussed some of the material in the paper here and here. My official abstract is as follows: Orthodox Christianity affirms a bodily resurrection of the dead. That is, Christians believe that at some point in the eschatological future, possibly after a period of (conscious or unconscious) disembodied existence, we will once again live and animate our own bodies...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 9:16 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Elsewhere on the Web

I'd like to draw all of your attention to a couple of sites. The first is Houyhnhnm Land (no, I don't have any idea how to pronounce 'Houyhnhnm' or what it means), a resource for the study of early modern thought created by Brandon Watson (of Siris fame). I have just finished my first post to the Houyhnhnm Land guest blog, "Berkeley and Ordinary Objects". In the future, I plan to cross-post everything, but for now I am going to tell all of you to click on over there and explore the site. Secondly, Logical Space, the brain child of Lewis Powell...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , The Web
Posted by Kenny at 7:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

"Streams of Living Water"

«ἐάν τις διψᾷ, ἐρχέσθω πρός με καὶ πινέτω. ὁ πιστεύων εἰς ἐμέ, καθὼς εἶπεν ἡ γραφή, ποταμοὶ ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας αὐτοῦ ῥεύσουσιν ὕδατος ζῶντος.» - John 7:37b-38

"If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink! The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him." - John 7:37b-38, HCSB

"But where hath the Scripture said that 'rivers of living water shall flow from his belly'? Nowhere. What then meaneth, 'He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture saith'? Here we must place a stop, so that the, 'rivers shall flow from his belly,' may be an assertion of Christ." - St. John Chrysostom (tr. Philip Schaff), Homily on John 7:37-44

I just read this in Chrysostom, and I don't think I've ever seen this resolution anywhere...
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Topic(s): Bible , Historical Thinkers , John Chrysostom , The Gospels , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 6:14 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Representative Realism, Phenomenalism, and "Physical-Talk"

When I wrote a while back about the idealist strategy, I said that the second step was to "argue that our physical statements - both ordinary statements about physical objects and statements about the discipline of physics - are best construed as talking about perception." What I want to do here is to unpack this statement. First, let's examine what the argument is supposed to do and then we'll look at the argument as it appears in a brief section of Berkeley's Three Dialogues. This piece of the argument is a reductio against representative realism...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Saul Kripke
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Quote of the Day: Plato on Knowing that You Don't Know

THEAETETUS: Well, do you see what we're looking for?
VISITOR: I think I see a large, difficult type of ignorance marked off from the others and overshadowing all of them.
THEAETETUS: What's it like?
VISITOR: Not knowing, but thinking that you know. That's what probably causes all the mistakes we make when we think.
THEAETETUS: That's true.
VISITOR: And furthermore it's the only kind of ignorance that's called lack of learning.
THEAETETUS: Certainly.
VISITOR: Well then, what should we call the part of teaching that gets rid of it?
THEAETETUS: The other part consists in the teaching of crafts, I think, but here in Athens we call this one education...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Plato , Quote of the Day
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Language and the Metaphysics of the Material World

Let me begin with a reminder: be sure to get your posts in for the 67th Philosophers' Carnival by tomorrow (Saturday) midnight (Eastern time), and remember that the theme is idealism. I've received many good posts already (probably more than I'll be able to include), but only a handful are idealism-themed. Having said that, let me begin my own idealism-themed post. In my paper "The Semantics of Sense Perception in Berkeley" (which I never tire of linking to, because it is much better thought out, developed, and argued than the mostly half-baked stuff I post on this blog), I spend...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Laws of Nature , Mereology , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Properties
Posted by Kenny at 9:07 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley: Phenomenalist or Platonist?

Commentators have long recognized the existence of two distinct strains of thought in Berkeley's discussions of how our perceptions give rise to something that is properly called a world. According to the phenomenalist strain, the world is quite simply composed of perception and it becomes a world, rather than simply an unrelated collection of perceptions, by means of the orderliness with which God causes perceptions. According to the Platonist strain, the world (and each object in it) has an archetype in the divine mind and our perceptions are perceptions of the world because what we perceive is an "ectype" of that archetype...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Gregory of Nyssa , Historical Thinkers , John Foster , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Stephen H. Daniel
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Berkeley's Theory of Reference and the Critique of Matter

George Berkeley is well known for his critique of matter. By "matter" he means Locke's "material substratum." At the end of the Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous he actually does acknowledge that one might use the word "matter" simply to mean "the stuff of the physical world" (that's not a direct quote) and he doesn't object to this, so he actually isn't opposed to the way the word was used in your physics or chemistry classes, but only to the way it was used in early modern metaphysics. The critique of matter is tied up in the critique of...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 2:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

Quote of the Day: Chrysostom on Private Scripture Reading

I desire to ask one favor of you all, before I touch on the words of the Gospel; do not you refuse my request, for I ask nothing heavy or burdensome, nor, if granted, will it be useful only to me who receive, but also to you who grant it, and perhaps far more to you. What then is it that I require of you? That each of you take in hand that section of the Gospels which is to be read among you on the first day of the week, or even on the Sabbath, and before the day...
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Topic(s): Bible , Historical Thinkers , John Chrysostom , Quote of the Day , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 2:44 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack (1)

A Moderate and Plausible Arminianism, Based on John 6:40 and Romans 8:29

My position on the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism is that the more moderate forms of each are both plausible and orthodox. Hyper-Calvinism can slide into the heresy of fatalism, or the denial that God loves all people; hyper-Arminianism slides, of course, into Pelagianism. It is only the moderate forms of each which are, I say, plausible and orthodox. These moderate forms, I hold, represent two different man-made philosophical and theological systems designed to uphold the same doctrines revealed in Scripture. I believe that when the disagreement actually reaches all the way down to Biblical hermeneutics, rather than staying in...
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Topic(s): Bible , Church Dogmatics , Grace/Predestination , Historical Thinkers , John Wesley , Pauline Epistles , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , The Gospels , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 10:10 AM | Comments (24) | TrackBack (1)

Quote of the Day: Schopenhauer on the Absurdity of Materialism

The objective method [i.e. the method of philosophy which starts from the object and proceeds to the subject] can be developed most consistently and carried farthest when it appears as materialism proper. It regards matter, and with it time and space, as existing absolutely, and passes over the relation to the subject in which alone all this exists. Further, it lays hold of the law of causality as the guiding line on which it tries to progress, taking it to be a self-existing order or arrangement of things, veritas aeterna, and consequently passing over the understanding, in which and for...
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Topic(s): Arthur Schopenhauer , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Science , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 10:22 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

The Idealist Strategy

There is a particular strategy of argument generally employed by idealists in their arguments against materialism/physicalism/scientific realism and/or substance dualism. The strategy originates primarily with Berkeley. Some of the Parmenides fragments sound similar, but, absent context, it is not possible to determine exactly what he intended. Hume and Kant developed their metaphysical systems largely in response to it, and it is similar to the arguments of the so-called "modern Idealists" which Moore set out to refute. Finally, the strategy is, in recent literature, explicitly adopted in John Foster's The Case for Idealism, which I am currently reading. The strategy goes like this...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , G. E. Moore , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Foster , Metaphysics , Ontology , Parmenides , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 12:07 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (3)

Aristotle and Transubstantiation (Some More)

Tim Troutman (formerly known as "The God Fearin' Fiddler") of The God Fearin' Forum has responded to my latest discussion of Eucharistic theology and Aristotle. Perhaps I have not been very clear. Whatever the case, Tim persistently misunderstands both my claim and my argument for it. I am going to try to make what I am claiming very clear here:

The doctrine of transubstantiation, as expounded by Trent, is rendered incoherent by any system of metaphysics sufficiently different from Aristotle's.

This should not be confused with any of the following claims, which I do not make...
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Topic(s): Aristotle , Augustine , Church Dogmatics , Divine Revelation , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Plato , Roman Catholic Church , The Church , The Eucharist , Theology , Thomas Aquinas
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Quote of the Day: Schopenhauer on The History of Idealism

Now as, notwithstanding the transitory, isolated nature of our representations with respect to their immediate presence in our consciousness, the Subject nevertheless retains the representation of an all-comprehensive complex of reality, as described above, by means of the function of the Understanding; representations have, on the strength of this antithesis, been viewed, as something quite different when belonging to that complex than when considered with reference to their immediate presence in our consciousness ... This view of matter, which is the ordinary one, is known under the name Realism. On the appearance of modern philosophy, Idealism opposed itself to this...
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Topic(s): Arthur Schopenhauer , G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Nicolas Malebranche , Ontology , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
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Patristic Carnival V

Patristic Carnival V is up at The God Fearin' Forum, with a link to my post on "Dionysius". It is a truly ecumenical venture, and I recommend that you all check it out. Notable posts include: A collection of quotes on the Eucharist at The Byzantine Anglo-Catholic...
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Topic(s): "Dionysius" , Blog Carnivals , Historical Thinkers , The Church , The Web , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 6:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Transubstantiation vs. Real Presence

The God Fearin' Fiddler has a post up on the historical significance of transubstantiation which has led to some interesting discussions. The principle problem with this post and the discussion that follows it, however, is that no one seems to understand the difference between transubstantiation and the Real Presence. Unfortunately, I'm not an expert on this either, but I do think I know enough to clear up some historical and metaphysical confusion. I am going to use two principal sources - session 13 of the Council of Trent, and the relevant article from the Catholic Encyclopedia - to explain the historical development and specific content of the doctrine of transubstantiation, and then attempt to show two things...
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Topic(s): Aristotle , Augustine , Church Dogmatics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Jesus of Nazareth , Metaphysics , Nicolas Malebranche , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Plato , Roman Catholic Church , The Church , The Eucharist , Theology , Thomas Aquinas
Posted by Kenny at 6:09 PM | Comments (21) | TrackBack (2)

Berkeley, Computers, and Time

I read a very interesting paper by James Van Cleve today, regarding a pair of arguments originally made by Jorge Luis Borges to the effect that either Berkeley's idealism or Leibniz's principle of the identity of indiscernables could be used to prove the unreality of time. The paper is "Time, Idealism, and the Identity of Indiscernables," Philosophical Perspectives 16 (2002): 379-393. Van Cleve identifies three "axioms of time order" which Borges' arguments are designed to undermine...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , James Van Cleve , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Technology , Time
Posted by Kenny at 5:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"The Semantics of Sense Perception in Berkeley"

My paper "The Semantics of Sense Perception in Berkeley" is now available on my writings page. An earlier version of this paper served as my undergraduate honors thesis, and a somewhat reduced version of it has been accepted for publication by Religious Studies. I haven't heard anything about what issue it will appear in. This paper discusses Berkeley's theory that our sense perceptions (especially visual perceptions) form a language by which God communicates with us, and asks how we are to interpret this language. In particular, it argues...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Religion , The Web , This Web-Site
Posted by Kenny at 7:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (2)

"Dionysius" on God-Talk

A collection of writings have come down to us under the name "Dionysius the Aereopagite" (after Acts 17:34) which effectively form the foundation of the tradition of Christian mysticism. Most scholars today believe the writer lived in Syria, c. 500 AD. The general consensus is that he couldn't have written earlier than this because he seems to have been influenced by 5th century Neo-Platonists. All this by way of background; I don't have any particular opinion as to when the writer lived or by whom he was influenced. The principle work of "Dionysius" is only a few pages long and...
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Topic(s): "Dionysius" , Epistemology , Historical Thinkers , Mysticism , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Religion , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 9:28 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

"The Ontological Status of Dreams in Berkeleian Metaphysics"

The Dualist 13 (2006) is finally available online, including my paper "The Ontological Status of Dreams in Berkeleian Metaphysics". Unfortunately, the main index site is still badly broken. Hopefully it will soon be fixed. In the meantime, the direct link to my paper works. There are some typesetting errors in the PDF (most importantly: footnote numbering is messed up, and some logical symbols are boxed out), and I haven't seen the print version to know if it contains these errors as well. I was never shown any proofs and I also found some spelling errors, and at least one place where a sentence is missing a word. Such is life. But the content is, I hope more interesting than the form...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , David Lewis , G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , W.V.O. Quine
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Armstrong on Berkeley

I was looking on half.com recently to see if I could find an affordable volume containing Berkeley's Siris last week when I came upon this 1965 collection, Berkeley's Philosophical Writings (ISBN 0020641702 according to half.com; it's apparently too old to have an ISBN printed in it) edited and with introduction by none other than D. M. Armstrong. I was unable to find any further information on the book, but, at half.com prices, decided it was worth buying just to get Armstrong's introduction (and on the off-chance that it contained Siris). Since there was no information on this book available online, and there are more copies still available, I thought I should provide some information myself...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , D.M. Armstrong , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 10:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Original Sin-Original Guilt, Christ's Righteousness-Imputation of Righteousness

Peter Kirk has posted a discussion of the Latin text Augustine was familiar with and its effect on his doctrine of original sin. The claim is, effectively, this: Augustine believed in the doctrine of original guilt because of an ambiguity introduced by an excessively literal Latin Bible which persists in the Vulgate and later theologians have a propensity to read original guilt into the text of Scripture because Augustine did. The passage in question is the end of Romans 5:12. The English translations are pretty much all the same: "in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned." But Augustine's translation says...
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Topic(s): Augustine , Bible , Church Dogmatics , Eastern Orthodox Church , Grace/Predestination , Historical Thinkers , John Wesley , Original Sin , Pauline Epistles , Protestantism , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 7:13 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack (0)

On Worship and Veneration

Some time ago, I posted on icons and discussed my attempt to understand the difference between what Catholic and Orthodox believers call "relative worship" or "veneration" and the "true worship" which belongs to God alone. I mostly failed to understand any real difference here. Today, I did something I should have done a long time ago: I read the decree of the Second Council of Nicea (the Seventh Ecumenical Council, which reinstated the veneration of icons). I found something interesting. In the Greek, the council makes a distinction between veneration and worship, as is to be expected. However, the words used are the Greek...
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Topic(s): Eastern Orthodox Church , Historical Thinkers , Sergius Bulgakov , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 1:21 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Paper #2: For Real This Time

Before I left last week, I sent in to Religious Studies the final draft of my paper "The Semantics of Sense Perception in Berkeley," which they have accepted for publication. The paper discusses the meaning of the "universal language of the Author of Nature" Berkeley argues for in the Essay Toward a New Theory of Vision and elsewhere. Essentially, the question I try to begin to answer is "if sense perception is a language by which God speaks to us, then what is he saying?" (I say "begin" because I have not developed a detailed semantic theory, but only offered...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , My Life , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 8:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote(s) of the Day: Selections From Berkeley's Letter to Sir John James

In the course of a bit of research on Berkeley's views on the epistemology of religion, I have just come across a little letter Berkeley wrote to one Sir John James, dated June 7, 1741. James was, apparently, an Anglican living in Boston who was considering converting to Roman Catholicism. While for some reason (perhaps because he was Irish) Berkeley is often mistakenly believed to have been a member of the Roman Catholic Church, he was, in fact, a member of the clergy of the Church of England, and wrote against Roman Catholicism on a number of occasions, this being...
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Topic(s): Anglican Communion , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Protestantism , Quote of the Day , Roman Catholic Church , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 3:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

The Ontological Economy of Idealism

The following is an excerpt from a draft of my metaphysics term paper, which I thought might be of interest to readers. The paper presents an idealist theory of properties under which two things are said to have a property if those two things are or would be indistinguishable under some specified conditions. I call this account, fittingly enough, the "conditional indistinguishability" analysis of properties. After presenting the conditional indistinguishability account, I discuss the ontological economy of the idealist theory from which it arises, as compared especially to the currently dominant physicalist assumptions, but also to substance dualism: The theory...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy
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"Common Sense," "Pre-Theoretical Intuitions," and Philosophy

I am presently reading Peter van Inwagen's Material Beings (I'm not sure if it's going to actually help with my very strange philosophy of religion term paper wherein I argue that idealism is compatible with a belief in the bodily resurrection of the dead, or if I'm just procrastinating). In section 10, after denying that there are, in metaphysical rigor, any artifacts (i.e. inanimate macrophysical objects, such as chairs), van Inwagen makes the following remark: Does my position not fly in the face of common sense? I do not think so. This is not because I think that my position is in accord with "common sense," but rather because I do not think that there is any such thing as the body of doctrine the philosophers call common sense...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Meta-Philosophy , Metaphysics , Peter van Inwagen , Philosophy , Susan Schneider
Posted by Kenny at 2:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Sola Scriptura in Augustine

As previously promised, this post will treat the presence of the doctrine of Sola Scriptura in Augustine. First, let me state that by Sola Scriptura I do not necessarily mean a particular formulation by Luther or Calvin or any particular church, but rather I mean to show that the cluster of doctrinal positions into which all of these fall exists in the early church. So I really mean the doctrines (plural) of Sola Scriptura, and not some particular doctrine. I define these as follows: A teaching is a Sola Scriptura doctrine if and only if it asserts that the contents of the canonical books of Scripture possess divine authority and/or sufficiency...
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Topic(s): Augustine , Bible , Church Dogmatics , Historical Thinkers , Protestantism , Scripture and Tradition , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 1:11 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack (1)

Rational Atheism Entails Rational Solipsism?

In the Fourth Dialogue of Berkeley's Alciphron, Alciphron the "Free-Thinker" challenges Berkeley's spokesman, Euphranor, to present a proof of the existence of God. Alciphron, however, lays down some quite stringent conditions: First then, let me tell you I am not persuaded by metaphysical arguments; such, for instance, as are drawn from the ideas of an all-perfect being, or the absurdity of an infinite progression of causes. This sort of arguments I have always found dry and jejune; and, as they are not suited to my way of thinking, they may perhaps puzzle, but never will convince me. Secondly, I am...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Philosophy of Religion , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 1:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Note on Middle Knowledge and Berkeleian Philosophy of Science

A thought occurred to me just now as I was reading the end of Sydney Shoemaker's "Causality and Properties" and thinking, as usual, of a Berkeleian response. What, we ask, are the truth-conditions or truth-makers for statements about natural laws and causality? Shoemaker has a story about properties being defined in terms of dispositions to act a certain way in the presence of certain other properties, and he thinks we can flesh out these statements in this way. For Berkeley, of course, the properties of physical objects can have no causal efficacy. Instead, Berkeley takes these statements to be simple...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Science , Science , Sydney Shoemaker
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Quote of the Day: Augustine on Reading the Bible in Translation

An important antidote to the ignorance of literal signs is the knowledge of languages. Users o the Latin language - and it is these that I have now undertaken to instruct - need two others, Hebrew and Greek, for an understanding of the divine scriptures, so that recourse may be had to the original versions if any uncertainty arises from the infinite variety of Latin translators ... There are certain words in particular languages which just cannot be translated into the idioms of another language. This is especially true of interjections, which signify emotion rather than an element of clearly...
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Topic(s): Augustine , Bible , Historical Thinkers , Quote of the Day , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 2:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

No Such Thing as an Ontological Free Lunch

In D.M. Armstrong's book Universals: an Opinionated Introduction, he discusses the pros and cons of a number of theories of the metaphysics of properties. Chapter three deals with "resemblance nominalism." According to resemblance nominalism, properties can be accounted for in terms of degrees of resemblance between the various objects having the property. So, for instance, on object is red if and only if it resembles some paradigmatic red objects. This theory is plagued by the "Resemblance Regress." Armstrong quotes Bertrand Russells' version as the "classical exposition" of the difficulty (p. 53): If we wish to avoid the universals...
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Topic(s): Bertrand Russell , Contemporary Thinkers , D.M. Armstrong , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Plato
Posted by Kenny at 4:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Why Idealism?

I talk a lot about Berkeley on this blog, and it has probably become clear to most regular readers that I am quite sympathetic to his position. There are a number of reasons for holding to various forms of idealism, and I have already discussed the chain of inferences which leads Berkeley to his theory. Important also is Berkeley's critique of matter, which proceeds by collapsing Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities (this collapse is almost universally viewed as successful by later philosophers), then applying Locke's arguments that secondary qualities are not actually in the objects to all perceived...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind
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Plato on Homosexuality

A month or so ago, I published a post which has been rather popular on Christianity and Homosexuality. In it, I discussed Paul's statements on homosexuality in contrast to the "received view" in Greco-Roman "polite society." I referred then to Plato's Symposium and Phaedrus, early and middle dialogs, respectively, which contain useful information on the practice of pedaresty in classical Athens. (If you are interested in interpreting Paul, it is important to note that classical Athens is some 400 years earlier...
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Topic(s): Bible , Ethics , Historical Thinkers , Pauline Epistles , Philosophy , Plato , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 7:23 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day

"For when two things are raised by one and the same exertion, the lesser quantity will invariably yield more readily and the greater (which offers more resistance) less readily, to the force applied." - Plato (tr. Donald J. Zeyl), Timaeus 63c
So what you're saying is that an object's acceleration is directly proportional the force applied and inversely proportional to its mass. Didn't some other guy get famous for saying that? Hmm...
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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Plato , Quote of the Day , Science
Posted by Kenny at 2:38 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

On Moore's Alleged Refutation of Idealism

I've just finished reading G.E. Moore's paper, "The Refutation of Idealism." The paper was originally published in Mind in October 1903 and reprinted in Moore's Philosophical Studies in 1922, but I've got the version reprinted again in Colin Turbayne's edition of Berkeley's Principles with critical essays, and I'll be citing page numbers from there. Moore's target in the essay is not Berkeley directly (it is, of course, Berkeley in whom I am most interested here), but what he calls "modern Idealism." The modern Idealism described by Moore seems to be a sort of immaterialist panpsychism; that is, Moore claims that...
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Topic(s): G. E. Moore , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 7:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

My Five Favorite Philosophers

Recently, while I was busy with finals, Clarke at Mormon Metaphysics and Johnny-Dee at Fides Quarens Intellectum posted lists of their favorite philosophers. I thought that today I would do the same. I won't get fancy with pictures and stuff, because that's not my style (as you can plainly see if you are looking at this page), but I do have a list, roughly in order...
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Topic(s): Arthur Schopenhauer , G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Parmenides , Philosophy , Plato
Posted by Kenny at 1:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Philosophical Language in Hebrews 11:1

Over at Better Bibles Blog, Wayne Leman is discussing the difficulties involved in producting coherent English from Hebrews 11:1. I want here to produce some considerations on the use of a couple of unusual (in the NT) words in this verse that will hopefully help us to produce a better translation of the word. Wayne made it clear that his post was primarily about the coherence of the English. However, I think part of the reason we have difficulty rendering this verse in English is that we're not totally clear on what we are trying to communicate...
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Topic(s): Bible , General Epistles , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Pauline Epistles , Philosophy , Plato , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 12:32 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

On Synergism

Gerald has a piece on Augustine and the synergism/monergism distinction up at Iustificare. Gerald believes that the real question is not about synergism vs. monergism, but rather about the resistability of grace. I think he is probably right about this, but I question his definition of synergism, since synergism is working together, but he seems to interpret it as simple concurrence. If I want God to do something, but have no power in myself to make it happen, it's not clear that this is synergism. However, Jesus does say "this is the work of God: that you believe in the One He has sent" (John 6:29). So let's suppose that believing or willing is a "work" (ergon) for the purpose of synergism. I have two points to make...
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Topic(s): Augustine , Free Will , Grace/Predestination , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 7:55 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day

ALCIPHRON: ... But what apology can be made for nonsense, crude nonsense? ... Look here, said he, opening a Bible, in the forty-ninth Psalm : ... "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the wickedness of my heels shall compass me about?" The iniquity of my heels! What nonsense after such a solemn introduction! EUPHRANOR: For my own part, I have naturally weak eyes, and know there are many things that I cannot see, which are nevertheless distinctly seen by others. I do not therefore conclude a thing to be absolutely invisible, because it is so to...
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Topic(s): Bible , Books of Wisdom/Poetry , Divine Revelation , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Quote of the Day , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 3:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Preserving Ambiguity in Translation

I'm studying Plato's Parmenides in a graduate seminar this semester. It is rather a baffling text, and there is a wealth of secondary literature which contains little consensus on anything. Today, as I was reading Constance Meinwald's guidebook to the dialog, I came across an issue in the translation of the text which I think is relevant to a number of discussion about Bible translation that I've had on-blog, and thought I would share. The issue is one of preserving a (probably intentional) ambiguity in the original in translation, and thus with the degree of interpretation done by translators, and the degree left up to readers of the translation.
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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , Parmenides , Philosophy , Plato
Posted by Kenny at 2:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Descartes, Berkeley, and Moore on the Existence of the Spiritual and the Physical

I have been thinking recently about Moore's argument for the existence of the physical world.
For those who may not be familiar, Moore's argument looks something like this:

Here is one hand; here is another
If there are two hands here, then two hands exist.
Hands are physical objects
Therefore, physical objects exist

This simple argument seems to be part of the reason why many contemporary analytic philosophers do not consider idealism a live issue (something that I intend to make it my business to change). However, it seems to me to have two enormous and equally simple defects:

It isn't actually an objection to Berkeley's theory, since Berkeley accepts all of the premises and the conclusion.
Most people who make this argument are physicalists but if you accept the argument then, by parity of reasoning, you must allow Descartes to prove the existence of the soul.

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Topic(s): Epistemology , G. E. Moore , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Rene Descartes
Posted by Kenny at 6:22 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (1)

My First Academic Journal Paper!

Last night I received word that a paper I wrote entitled "The Ontological Status of Dreams in Berkeleian Metaphysics" has been accepted for publication by The Dualist! The paper argues that the characteristics of dream perceptions by which we, in practice, distinguish them from waking perceptions prevent dream perceptions from functioning as a language in the way Berkeley believes waking perceptions do and thus provide a principled grounding for an ontological distinction between dreams and waking life...
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Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , My Life , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 4:08 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Why Believe the Bible?
Part 3: Jesus' Witness to the Hebrew Bible

Here, finally, is part 3 of my series on divine revelation. The story so far: part 2 argued that the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth constitute a self-revelation of God to mankind, and that the New Testament documents, and especially the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), constitute generally reliably historical sources as to the content of that revelation. These points will be assumed to have been established (but feel free to comment on the previous post if you want to contest them), and I will now argue that the entirety of the Hebrew Bible is included by reference in this revelation...
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Part 3: Jesus' Witness to the Hebrew Bible"

Topic(s): Bible , Contemporary Thinkers , Divine Revelation , Historical Thinkers , Jesus of Nazareth , John Piper , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 11:36 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack (3)

Infallible vs. Irresistable Grace

Gerald at Iustificare has written several posts on grace and free will in recent weeks. The latest post, a discussion of Augustine's treatment of the issue, introduces an interesting distinction I had not heard before: the distinction of infallible vs. irresistable grace. Gerald describes the distinction as follows: Infallible grace is �grace that always accomplishes it purpose� �nothing more or less. Infallible grace can be resisted, but is not. Infallible grace can fail, but does not...
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Topic(s): Augustine , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 6:45 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley's Taxonomy of Ideas

Since my post on Berkeley's metaphysics generated so much interesting discussion, I thought I would write a post on Berkeley's taxonomy of ideas. A particularly interesting (to me) aspect of this discussion is the way it plays into his critique of John Locke's theory of abstraction. Also of interest is the way this view (may have) influenced Immanuel Kant's epistemology of metaphysics. I'll skip lightly over that last one, because I don't understand Kant very well (who does?), but I re-read the Prolegomena recently and was thinking about this, so I'll float a few ideas by toward the end of...
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Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind
Posted by Kenny at 6:29 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (2)

Tradition Essay Posted at the Sergius Bulgakov LiveJournal

My essay "Tradition as the Platonic Form of Christian Faith and Practice", which I posted on my writings page a few months ago, was published online today at the Sergius Bulgakov LiveJournal, a blog devoted to the 20th century Russian Orthodox theologian Sergius Bulgakov, whom I cited in the essay. It looks like there are some other interesting materials up at the site as well. I reccomend checking it out. Also, this seems like a good time to remind everyone that all of my writings on this site are released under Creative Commons licenses. There are different licenses for this...
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Topic(s): Eastern Orthodox Church , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Plato , Sergius Bulgakov , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 10:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Foundational Argument of Berkeleian Metaphysics

Metaphysics (theory of reality) is notoriously difficult to get off the ground. There is very little to start from, because everything else starts from here. However, as Descartes so famously observed, I, the one reasoning about metaphysics, am, in fact, reasoning about metaphysics, and therefore must, in some sense, exist. Descartes has been challenged by Neitszche (in Beyond Good and Evil) and others, for his inference from "there is thinking going on" to "there must be a substance which does the thinking," and, as little sympathy as I have for Neitzsche in general, I think that this may be a...
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Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind
Posted by Kenny at 11:18 AM | Comments (22) | TrackBack (2)

Why Believe The Bible?
Part 2: The Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth

Welcome to part 2 of my promised series on divine revelation! My apologies for the long delay (it's been over a month since I first posted my plan of attack), but I've been very busy moving here there and everywhere, and I still don't have all my books and stuff unpacked (nor do I have a desk). According to the plan of attack, this part of the argument "will argue in a manner based heavily on Swinburne that there is good reason to suppose that the life and teachings of the historical person Jesus of Nazareth represent a revelation of...
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Part 2: The Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth"

Topic(s): Bible , Contemporary Thinkers , Divine Revelation , Historical Thinkers , Jesus of Nazareth , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Richard Swinburne , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 9:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Why Believe the Bible?
Part 1: Plan of Attack

There has been a lot floating around about the doctrine of inerrancy recently. I posted on this subject not long ago, responding to a post at World of Sven and a lengthy series at Chrisendom. Since then, there has been a second World of Sven post, and also a post from the No Kool-Aid Zone about just how important inerrancy is. This is a problem that I've been thinking seriously about for some time. Actually, I started by asking the question "just why do I believe in the Bible?" then realized that the answer to that question would have a...
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Part 1: Plan of Attack"

Topic(s): Bible , Contemporary Thinkers , Divine Revelation , Historical Thinkers , Jesus of Nazareth , John Piper , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Richard Swinburne , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 2:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)

"Three Persons, One Substance" - Paradox or Solution?

I seem to have opened quite the can of worms in my post on Church dogma the other day when I said: There seem to be some clear (to me) cases of Christian dogma that are not obviously uniquely deriveable from Scripture. For example, consider the formulation of the trinity as three persons (Greek hupostaseis and/or prosopa, Latin personae) in one substance/essence (Greek ousia, Latin essentia and/or substantia). This type of formulation is extremely common in the Christian tradition, and is derived primarily from the Chalcedonian Creed. However, I don't think we can say that it is obviously uniquely deriveable...
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Topic(s): Aristotle , Bible , Church Dogmatics , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Philosophy of Religion , The Church , The Trinity , Theology , Thomas Aquinas
Posted by Kenny at 3:46 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack (3)

"Tradition as the 'Platonic Form' of Christian Faith and Practice in Orthodoxy"

I have just posted on my writings page a new essay, "Tradition as the 'Platonic Form' of Christian Faith and Practice in Orthodoxy." This served as my mid-term essay in my class on the Greek Orthodox Church here at DIKEMES in Athens where I am studying this semester. I have attached a short preface explaining the relationship of the views presented in my essay (realizing that the essay is supposed to explain the teaching of the Orthodox Church) to my actual beliefs and my reasons for deciding to publish the essay. Please post here with any comments or objections. If...
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Topic(s): Bible , Contemporary Thinkers , Eastern Orthodox Church , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Plato , Sergius Bulgakov , The Church , Theology , Timothy Ware
Posted by Kenny at 7:49 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Blogging Parmenides

I feel the need to point to this post about Parmenides over at Mathetes simply because ... well, because I approve of blogging about Parmenides! The post gives a good overview of Parmenides' argument for the establishment of monism. To which let me add three things: This is the oldest deductively valid argument in surviving literature. It is contained in a hexameter poem (written, presumably, in imitation of Homer and Hesiod) which begins with an appeal to divine revelation (a narrative about being carried in a chariot to meet a strange goddess who promises to reveal "the way of truth"...
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Topic(s): Historical Thinkers , Logic , Metaphysics , Parmenides , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 1:59 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

"Theism and Mechanism in Leibniz"

I've just posted a new paper to my writings page, entitled "Theism and Mechanism in Leibniz." This is a topic that I've discussed quite a bit in the past few months, and this may be the end of it for a while. An earlier version served as a term paper for Professor Karen Detlefsen's undergraduate seminar on Leibniz at Penn last semester. It has undergone slight revision based on her comments. Please feel free to offer any responses or discussion you have in the comments section of this post. Any revisions made will be documented in the comments here as...
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Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Science , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 1:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Persons as Events

Over the semester break, I took some time to look at Peter van Inwagen's paper "Materialism and the Psychological-Continuity Account of Personal Identity" (Philosophical Perspectives 11 (1997): 305-319) and, as I realized that I don't have a good candidate for submission to Monday's Philosopher's Carnival, I thought this would be a good time to write down some thoughts that I had in connection with this paper and (very) broadly Lockean "psychological continuity" accounts of personal identity in general. The aim of van Inwagen's paper is to show that these kind of psychological continuity accounts require the existence of immaterial substances,...
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Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Metaphysics , Peter van Inwagen , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind
Posted by Kenny at 11:27 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (3)

Christianity and Aristotelian Metaphysics

In a recent discussion with Suzanne McCarthy, my views were compared to Aristotle's, and I pointed out that I am really more of a Platonist and am often irritated at the continuing dominance of basically Aristotelian metaphysical ideas in Christian philosophy. In this post I will discuss the nature of these Aristotelian metaphysical claims, the manner in which they have been incorporated into Christian thought, and my reasons for objecting to said incorporation. Before I start, I should note that I am not an expert on Aristotle, so I will be examining only basic points of Aristotelian metaphysics, and relying...
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Topic(s): Aristotle , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 3:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)

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Historical Thinkers Archives

April 27, 2024

Descartes, Cudworth, and God

March 4, 2024

Some Confusions about Early Modern Deism

January 30, 2024

Xunzi and Le Guin on Ritual and Social Structure

August 24, 2021

Apophaticism and Religious Pluralism

March 18, 2021

A Brief Reflection on the History of Apophaticism

February 21, 2021

Reflections on the Science Fiction of Poul Anderson

February 18, 2021

Cavendish, Hooke, and the Fall of Man

February 17, 2021

Cavendish and Plato on Parts of the Mind

February 4, 2021

Berkeley on the Phenomenology of Mathematics

October 31, 2020

Hume's Polemic against Tillotson (and Friends) in "Of Miracles"

April 28, 2020

"The Sacred Law of Fashion": Masham on Religious (Non-)Conformity

April 27, 2020

Space Aliens and Skeptical Theism

March 16, 2020

An Argument that Divine Knowledge Must be Active

February 24, 2020

Making (Non)Sense of Apophatic Theology

February 19, 2020

Aquinas on the Meaning of 'God'

February 5, 2020

Al-Ghazali on Skepticism

November 18, 2019

Moderate Divine Simplicity

July 25, 2019

Latitudinarian vs High-Church Philosophy: Two Contrasts

June 24, 2019

Pruss and Rasmussen on the Gödelian Ontological Argument

June 21, 2019

Pruss and Rasmussen on the Argument from Necessary Abstracta

May 21, 2019

Berkeley on Divine and Human Spirits

April 25, 2019

Leibnizian Supercomprehension

April 11, 2019

Browne and Berkeley on the Influence of Words

December 14, 2018

Ibn Sīnā and Descartes on the Nature of Body

December 13, 2018

Chillingworth on Strange Extractions in Chymistry and Logick

November 5, 2018

"Berkeley's Theory of Language"

November 3, 2018

"William King on Free Will"

September 15, 2018

Catharine Trotter Cockburn on Berkeley's Immaterialism

September 5, 2018

Two Varieties of Occasionalism

August 8, 2018

What is 'Acausal Thomism'?

July 6, 2018

Philosophy and Trust in the Senses, from Montaigne to Berkeley

July 2, 2018

Hooker, Hobbes, and Locke on Absolute Monarchy

June 29, 2018

Richard Hooker's Influence on Locke's Epistemology

May 22, 2018

Berkeley's Manuscript Introduction on Google Arts and Culture

May 18, 2018

Berkeley and Lokayata

May 13, 2018

Locke's Experimental Philosophy of Ideas

March 30, 2018

God's Solidarity with the Oppressed: Biblical Reflections for Good Friday

February 21, 2018

"Ideas and Explanation in Early Modern Philosophy"

January 10, 2018

Locke's Populist Logic