The Taming of Philosophy

2020 ◽  
pp. 260-290
Author(s):  
Michael Della Rocca
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Reflective Equilibrium ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Method Of Intuition

The biggest source of resistance to the Parmenidean Ascent is the implausibility of its radically monistic conclusions. Philosophers have been taught to avoid at almost any cost any such implausible or counterintuitive results. Thus, to complete the defense of the Parmenidean Ascent, it is necessary to weaken the hold of the method of intuition and the related reliance on common sense. This chapter outlines various forms of the method of intuition to be found in thinkers as diverse as Bealer, Lewis, Sider, and also Rawls with his method of reflective equilibrium. The method of intuition is shown to be both unduly conservative and also arbitrary with regard to which opinions are favored. The chapter then explores the historical factors behind the rise of the method of intuition. Here the focus is on the reaction against Bradley by the early analytical philosophers, Moore and Russell, who question-beggingly reject Bradley’s commitment to the PSR.

Meaning, the History of Philosophy, and Analytical Philosophy

2020 ◽  
pp. 182-196
Author(s):  
Michael Della Rocca
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Analytical Philosophy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Method Of Intuition

Chapter 7 considers the consequences of the Parmenidean Ascent with regard to meaning for the alleged distinction between philosophy and the study of its history. The argument that any such distinction is unintelligible focuses on the disregard of the history of philosophy in certain quarters of analytical philosophy. The argument identifies three pillars or struts of analytical philosophy: realism, the method of intuition or common sense, and discreteness in metaphysics. The chapter then shows how each of these three struts is implicated in the disdain for or ignoring of the history of philosophy. Rejecting an isolationist response to this analytical forgetfulness—a response that separates the study of the history of philosophy from philosophy itself—the chapter goes on to challenge the struts of analytical philosophy and to make a Parmenidean Ascent with regard to the distinction between philosophy and the study of its history.

On Evidence in Philosophy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
William G. Lycan
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Reflective Equilibrium ◽  
Philosophical Method ◽  
Deductive Argument ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Restricted Sense

This book offers an epistemology of philosophy itself, a partial method for philosophical inquiry. The epistemology features three ultimate sources of justified philosophical belief. First, common sense, in a carefully restricted sense of the term—the sorts of contingent propositions Moore defended against idealists and skeptics. Second, the deliverances of well confirmed science. Third, and more fundamentally, intuitions about cases, in a carefully specified sense of that term. Chapters 1–4 expound a version of Moore’s method and apply it to each of several issues. The version is shown to resist all the standard objections to Moore; most of them do not even apply. Chapters 5 and 6 argue that philosophical method is far less powerful than most have taken it to be. In particular, deductive argument can accomplish very little, and hardly ever is an opposing position refuted except by common sense or by science. Chapters 7 and 8 defend the evidential status of intuitions and the Goodmanian method of reflective equilibrium; it is argued that philosophy always and everywhere depends on them. The method is then set within a more general explanatory-coherentist epistemology, which is shown to resist standard forms of skepticism. In sum, this book advocates a picture of philosophy as a very wide explanatory reflective equilibrium incorporating common sense, science, and our firmest intuitions on any topic—and nothing more, not ever.

Law, Regulation, and Safety Crime: Exploring the Boundaries of Criminalizing Powerful Corporate Actors

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (03) ◽  
pp. 445-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Bittle ◽  
Laureen Snider
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Workplace Safety ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Legal Discourses ◽  
Unintentional Acts ◽  
Negligence Law ◽  
State Responses ◽  
Corporate Wrongdoing

AbstractThis article interrogates the laws that govern safety crimes, harmful but typically unintentional acts of negligence that occur in the production of goods and services. Acts that injure employees at work are commonly depicted in legal discourses as accidents and penalized through administrative laws, although other negligent acts such as driving offences causing injury or death are treated as potentially criminal events. Through a discourse analysis of legal and regulatory texts and documents, the authors argue that the constitution of workplace safety crime is rooted in complex historical factors that shape state responses to corporate wrongdoing. This article documents the roots of this “common sense” view of workplace crime, empirically focusing on Canadian corporate negligence law, and concludes with tentative strategies of resistance and change.

Representing Ancestor Worship as "Non-Religious": Hosoki Kazuko's Divination in the Post-Aum Era

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 32-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Dorman
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Ancestor Worship ◽  
Shared Meanings ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Widespread Belief

Hosoki Kazuko, a popular fortune-teller, is one of the most prominent figures in the Japanese media, including television, books, and magazines. She is a prodigious author whose enormous sales of divination books (uranari hon) are the basis of her success. In some of these books, Hosoki discusses ancestor worship and associated rituals in connection with her form of divination, rokusei senjutsu (six-star astrology). Despite the widespread belief that such rituals have some connection to religion, Hosoki explicitly states that ancestor worship is "non-religious." I argue that Hosoki's representations draw on shared meanings about ancestor worship in combination with other Confucianbased notions in order to present her form of divination as common sense that should come naturally to all Japanese. Hosoki's statements can be viewed in the context of historical factors behind the idea many Japanese hold that they lack religious belief (mushûûkyôô) in addition to the deteriorating image of religion in general in the post-Aum era.

scholarly journals “Ethical Minefields” and the Voice of Common Sense: A Discussion with Julian Savulescu

Conatus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Evangelos D. Protopapadakis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Reflective Equilibrium ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Practical Ethics ◽  
The Voice

Theoretical ethics includes both metaethics (the meaning of moral terms) and normative ethics (ethical theories and principles). Practical ethics involves making decisions about every day real ethical problems, like decisions about euthanasia, what we should eat, climate change, treatment of animals, and how we should live. It utilizes ethical theories, like utilitarianism and Kantianism, and principles, but more broadly a process of reflective equilibrium and consistency to decide how to act and be.

Functional significance of preserved color patterns of mollusks from the Gosport Sand (Eocene) of Alabama

1988 ◽  
Vol 62 (01) ◽  
pp. 83-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia H. Kelley ◽  
Charles T. Swann
Keyword(s):  
Functional Morphology ◽  
Functional Significance ◽  
Intraspecific Variability ◽  
Color Pattern ◽  
Color Patterns ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Life Mode ◽  
Molluscan Fauna ◽  
Excellent Preservation ◽  
Architectural Constraints

The excellent preservation of the molluscan fauna from the Gosport Sand (Eocene) at Little Stave Creek, Alabama, has made it possible to describe the preserved color patterns of 15 species. In this study the functional significance of these color patterns is tested in the context of the current adaptationist controversy. The pigment of the color pattern is thought to be a result of metabolic waste disposal. Therefore, the presence of the pigment is functional, although the patterns formed by the pigment may or may not have been adaptive. In this investigation the criteria proposed by Seilacher (1972) for testing the functionality of color patterns were applied to the Gosport fauna and the results compared with life mode as interpreted from knowledge of extant relatives and functional morphology. Using Seilacher's criteria of little ontogenetic and intraspecific variability, the color patterns appear to have been functional. However, the functional morphology studies indicate an infaunal life mode which would preclude functional color patterns. Particular color patterns are instead interpreted to be the result of historical factors, such as multiple adaptive peaks or random fixation of alleles, or of architectural constraints including possibly pleiotropy or allometry. The low variability of color patterns, which was noted within species and genera, suggests that color patterns may also serve a useful taxonomic purpose.

Common Sense Liposuction Tips

2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Nancy Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense
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