The Necessity of Idealism

Author(s):  
Aaron Segal ◽  
Tyron Goldschmidt

This chapter formulates a version of idealism and argues for it. Sections 2 and 3 explicate this version of idealism: the world is mental through-and-through. Section 2 spells this out precisely and contrasts it with rival views. Section 3 draws a consequence from this formulation of idealism: idealism is necessarily true if true at all. Sections 4 and 5 make the case for idealism. Section 4 is defensive: it draws from the conclusion of section 3 to reply to a central, perhaps the central, anti-idealist argument. Section 5 is on the offense: it develops a new argument for idealism based on the contemporary debate in philosophy of mind. The contemporary debate in philosophy of mind has been dominated by physicalism and dualism, with idealism almost totally neglected. This chapter rectifies this situation.

2003 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 251-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Jackson

Much of the contemporary debate in the philosophy of mind is concerned with the clash between certain strongly held intuitions and what science tells us about the mind and its relation to the world. What science tells us about the mind points strongly towards some version or other of physicalism. The intuitions, in one way or another, suggest that there is something seriously incomplete about any purely physical story about the mind.


Author(s):  
Tatiani De Azevedo Lobo ◽  
Marli M. Moraes Da Costa

Resumo: O presente ensaio busca apresentar e fomentar algumas questões pertinentes ao debate contemporâneo sobre a pobreza, demonstrando a importância do tema no cenário mundial. Para tanto, inicialmente discorre-se sobre a construção histórico-social da pobreza e suas características contemporâneas. Com efeito, aponta-se a limitação dos fatores tradicionalmente apresentados como causadores da pobreza, como cultura, genética, geografia etc. Além disso, apresentam-se as formas atuais de monitorar o fenômeno, como o coeficiente de Gini e o IDH. Posteriormente, aborda-se a distribuição mundial da pobreza. Nesse ponto, colaciona-se que a pobreza é um problema mundial. No entanto, é perceptível que o Sul ainda concentra maior número de indivíduos pobres do que o Norte. Na esteira dos últimos dados da pesquisa realizada pelas Nações Unidas, houve uma nítida ascensão do Sul, especialmente nos indicadores sociais ligados à educação. A seguir, trata-se do capital social e da Teoria das Capacidades, apresentando-se novas abordagens da pobreza. Assim, o capital social trata de uma ideia utilizada para verificar a rede de relacionamento dos indivíduos. Já a Teoria das Capacidades está ligada com a ideia de oportunidade da liberdade. Por fim, estuda-se as políticas públicas, bem como seu aspecto fragmentário. Conclui-se, assim, sobre a necessidade de implementação de políticas públicas elaboradas sob a égide de novos paradigmas, a fim de possibilitar o tratamento específico do fenômeno da pobreza, conforme as peculiaridades de cada local. Para tanto foi utilizado neste trabalho o método de abordagem hipotético-dedutivo, o método de procedimento monográfico e a técnica de pesquisa, operacionalizados por meio do emprego de vasta pesquisa bibliográfica. Abstract: This essay seeks to provide and foster some relevant to the contemporary debate on poverty issues, demonstrating the importance of the issue on the world stage. For this purpose, initially spoke about the historical and social construction of poverty and its contemporary features. Indeed, he pointed out the limitation of the factors traditionally presented as the cause of poverty, as a culture, genetics, geography, etc. Furthermore, we presented the current ways of monitoring the phenomenon, such as the Gini coefficient and the HDI. Subsequently addressed the global distribution of poverty. At this point, if collated that poverty is a worldwide problem. However, it is apparent that the South still more concentrated than the poor North individuals. In the wake of recent data from research conducted by the United Nations, there was a sharp rise in the South, especially in social indicators related to education. Next, we treated the capital and the Theory of Capabilities, presenting new approaches to poverty. Thus, social capital is an idea used to verify the relationship network of individuals. Already Capabilities Theory is linked with the idea of freedom of opportunity. Finally, we studied public policy, as well as its fragmentary appearance. Thus, it is concluded on the need to implement public policies prepared under the aegis of new paradigms to enable specific treatment of the phenomenon of poverty, according to the peculiarities of each site. For that was used in this work the method of hypothetical-deductive approach, the method of procedure and the monographic research technique, operationalized through the use of extensive academic research.


Author(s):  
Ruth Garrett Millikan

This book weaves together themes from natural ontology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language and information, areas of inquiry that have not recently been treated together. The sprawling topic is Kant’s how is knowledge possible? but viewed from a contemporary naturalist standpoint. The assumption is that we are evolved creatures that use cognition as a guide in dealing with the natural world, and that the natural world is roughly as natural science has tried to describe it. Very unlike Kant, then, we must begin with ontology, with a rough understanding of what the world is like prior to cognition, only later developing theories about the nature of cognition within that world and how it manages to reflect the rest of nature. And in trying to get from ontology to cognition we must traverse another non-Kantian domain: questions about the transmission of information both through natural signs and through purposeful signs including, especially, language. Novelties are the introduction of unitrackers and unicepts whose job is to recognize the same again as manifested through the jargon of experience, a direct reference theory for common nouns and other extensional terms, a naturalist sketch of uniceptual—roughly conceptual— development, a theory of natural information and of language function that shows how properly functioning language carries natural information, a novel description of the semantics/pragmatics distinction, a discussion of perception as translation from natural informational signs, new descriptions of indexicals and demonstratives and of intensional contexts and a new analysis of the reference of incomplete descriptions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianni Del Panta

AbstractWhilst much of the contemporary debate on regime change remains concentrated on transitions to and from democracy, this paper focuses on autocracy-to-autocracy transitions, a relatively understudied but particularly relevant phenomenon. Building on an updated typology of non-democratic regimes and through a qualitative case-by-case assessment, the present paper identifies 21 transitions from one dictatorship to another, out of 32 cases of autocratic breakdown during the 2000–15 period. Hence, after the fall of a dictatorship, the installation of a new authoritarian regime was almost twice as likely as democratization. Accordingly, the paper focuses on the 21 recorded autocracy-to-autocracy transitions and examines in which non-democratic regimes a transition from an autocracy to another is more likely to occur, which peculiar forms of authoritarian rule tend to be installed, and the specific ways in which the dismantling of the previous existing authoritarian rule is achieved.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. e58704
Author(s):  
Alice Castelani de Oliveira

A soberania representa uma das articulações políticas mais importantes da Modernidade, a qual convencionou a separação entre as políticas interna e externa. Posto isso, entendemos que para compreender o mundo em que vivemos é necessário pensar essa categoria à luz do contexto contemporâneo, então, com o objetivo de contribuir para o estudo desse conceito, no presente artigo apresentaremos uma revisão do debate atual sobre a categoria de soberania. Para esse fim, nos apoiaremos em um exame da literatura ocidental de Relações Internacionais (RI), com foco em autores americanos, considerando que a produção de conhecimento dos Estados Unidos (EUA) é preponderante dentro deste campo. Esclarecemos que o debate na esfera destacada pode ser dividido em duas linhas de pesquisa que serão exploradas neste texto. A primeira aborda o aprofundamento da globalização e os efeitos desse processo sobre soberania e a segunda discute como são socialmente construídos os discursos sobre essa categoria.Palavras-Chave: Teoria; Relações Internacionais; Soberania.ABSTRACTSovereignty represents one of the most important political articulations of Modernity, which established the separation between internal and external policies. That said, we understand that in order to understand the world in which we live, it is necessary to think about this category in the light of the contemporary context, so, in order to contribute to the study of this concept, in this article we’ll present a review of the current debate on the category of sovereignty. To that end, we’ll rely on an examination of the Western International Relations (IR) literature, focusing on American authors, considering that the production of knowledge from the United States (USA) is predominant within this field. We clarify that the debate in the highlighted sphere can be divided into two lines of research that will be explored in this text. The first addresses the deepening of globalization and the effects of this process on sovereignty and the second discusses how the speeches about this category are socially constructed.Keywords: Theory; International Relations; Sovereignty. Recebido em: 27/03/2021 | Aceito em: 18/05/2021. 


2018 ◽  
pp. 351-376
Author(s):  
Georg Northoff

Why do we so stubbornly cling to the assumption of mind? Despite the so far presented empirical, ontological, and conceptual-logical evidence against mind, the philosopher may nevertheless reject the world-brain problem as counter-intuitive. She/he will argue that we need to approach the question for the existence and reality of mental features in terms of the mind-body problem as it is more intuitive than the world-brain problem. Our strong adherence to mind is thus, at least in part, based on what philosophers describe as “intuition”, the “intuition of mind” as I say. How can we resist and escape the pulling forces of our “intuition of mind”? The main focus in this chapter and the whole final part is on the “intuition of mind” and how we can avoid and render it impossible. I will argue that we need to exclude the mind as possible epistemic option from our knowledge, i.e., the “logical space of knowledge”, as I say. The concept of “logical space of knowledge” concerns what we can access in our knowledge, i.e., our possible epistemic options that are included in the “logical space of knowledge”, as distinguished from what remains inaccessible to us, i.e., impossible epistemic options, as they are excluded from the “logical space of knowledge”. For instance, the “logical space of knowledge” presupposed in current philosophy of mind and specifically mind-body discussion includes mind as possible epistemic option while world-brain relation is excluded as impossible epistemic option. This, as I argue, provides the basis for our “intuition of mind” and the seemingly counterintuitive nature of world-brain relation. How can we modify and change the possible and impossible epistemic options in our “logical space of knowledge”? I argue that this is possible by shifting our vantage point or viewpoint - that is paradigmatically reflected in the Copernican revolution in cosmology and physics. Copernicus shifted the “vantage point from within earth” to a “vantage point beyond earth”; this enabled him to take into view that the earth (rather than the sun) moves by itself which provided the basis for his shift from a geo- to a helio-centric view of the universe. Hence, the shift in vantage point modified his epistemic options and thus expanded the presupposed “logical space of knowledge”. I conclude that we require an analogous shift in the vantage point we currently presuppose in philosophy of mind. This will expand our “logical space of knowledge” in such way that makes possible to include world-brain relation as possible epistemic option while, at the same time, excluding mind as impossible epistemic option. That, in turn, will render the world-brain problem more intuitive while the mind-body problem will then be rather counter-intuitive. Taken together, this amounts to nothing less than a Copernican revolution in neuroscience and philosophy – that shall be the focus in next chapter.


Author(s):  
Nonny de la Peña

A new embodied digital rhetoric emerges when using nonfiction narratives built in fully immersive virtual reality systems that take advantage of the plasticity of our sensations of presence. The feeling of “being-in-the-world” as described by phenomenologists, including philosophy of mind, film, and virtual reality theorists, is part of the adaptability that humans show in their relationship to technological tools. Andy Clark's “soft selves” and our “plastic presence” merge as the high resolution graphics of the latest virtual reality goggles and robust audio captured at real events tricks our minds into having an embodied connection with the stories portrayed in these new spaces. By putting people into news or documentary pieces on scene as themselves, opportunities for persuasive and effective rhetoric arise. This chapter cites theory, psychology and virtual reality research as well as the author's specific case studies to detail the potential for this new embodied digital rhetoric that allows us to pass through the screen and become present as witnesses to a nonfiction story.


Author(s):  
Joshua Rust

John Rogers Searle (born July 31, 1932) is the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. This analytic philosopher has made major contributions to the fields of the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of language, and social ontology. He is best known for his Chinese room argument, which aims to demonstrate that the formally described systems of computer functionalism cannot give rise to intentional understanding. Searle’s early work focused on the philosophy of language, where, in Speech Acts (1969), he explores the hypothesis that speaking a language is a rule-governed form of behavior. Just as one must follow certain rules in order to be considered to be playing chess, rules determine whether a speaker is making a promise, giving a command, asking a question, making a statement, and so forth. The kind of speech act that an utterance is depends on, among other conditions, its propositional content and illocutionary force. The content depicts the world as being a certain way, and the force specifies what a speaker is trying to do with that content. For example, for an utterance to qualify as a promise a speaker must describe a future act (content) and intend that the utterance place him or herself under an obligation to do that act (force). In Intentionality (1983), Searle argues that the structure of language not only mirrors but is derivative of the structure of intentional thought, so that core elements of his analysis of speech acts can be used as the basis for a theory of intentionality. Just as we can only promise by bringing certain propositional contents under a certain illocutionary force, intentional states such as belief, desire, fear, and joy can only be about the world in virtue of a representative content and a psychological mode. A theory of intentionality does not explain how intentionality is possible, given the basic facts of the world as identified by the natural sciences. Much of Searle’s work in the philosophy of mind, as found in Minds, Brains, and Science (1984) and The Rediscovery of the Mind (1992), is dedicated to the question of how mental facts, including but not limited to intentional facts, can be reconciled with basic, natural facts. Searle’s Chinese room argument is formulated in the service of rejecting computer functionalism, a prominent attempt at such reconciliation. Searle’s positive view, which he describes as "biological naturalism," is that mental facts are both caused by and features of underlying neurophysiological processes. In Speech Acts (1969), Searle claims that using language is akin to playing chess, in that both activities are made possible by participants following what he describes as "constitutive rules," rules that must be followed in order for someone to be considered to be undertaking those activities. Other institutional facts, such as money or the U.S. presidency, are also created and maintained in virtue of our following certain constitutive rules. For example, someone can only count as a U.S. president if that person is, among other conditions, a U.S. citizen who receives a majority of electoral votes. This thought is extended and explored in Searle’s two book-length contributions to the field of social ontology, The Construction of Social Reality (1995) and Making the Social World (2010). In addition to the philosophy of language and social ontology, Searle has made book-length contributions to the philosophy of action (Rationality in Action (2001)) and the philosophy of perception (Seeing Things as They Are: A Theory of Perception (2015)). He also famously engaged Jacques Derrida’s critique of J. L. Austin’s discussion of illocutionary acts ("Reiterating the Differences: A Reply to Derrida" (1977)). Searle has summarized his various positions in Mind, Language, and Society: Philosophy in the Real World (1998) and Mind: A Brief Introduction (2004).


Author(s):  
Michael Ridge ◽  
Sebastian Köhler

Hybrid theories in metaethics hold at least one of the following theses: Moral claims express both belief-like and desire-like mental states.Moral judgments are constituted by both belief-like and desire-like components. This definition is deliberately broad and inclusive, to cover all theories that share a theoretically important aspiration: to accommodate or at least explain away both the belief-like and desire-like features of moral thought and discourse without abandoning a broadly Humean philosophy of mind. A broadly Humean philosophy of mind subscribes to two claims. First, that belief-like and desire-like states can be sharply distinguished in terms of their respective directions of fit: beliefs have a mind-to-world direction of fit (that is, beliefs aim to accurately represent the world), while desire-like states have a world-to-mind direction of fit (desires aim to have the world aligned with them). Second, that beliefs and desires are distinct existences: for any propositions p and q, believing that p and desiring that q can come apart. There are powerful arguments for this kind of view but, at the same time, moral thought and discourse have both belief-like and desire-like features. Hybrid theories take this appearance seriously and include both belief-like and desire-like elements in their theory at a basic level. In this way, they aim to accommodate or explain away the dual nature of moral judgments without abandoning a Humean philosophy of mind. Traditionally, philosophers have supposed that moral judgments either a) are just Humean beliefs, and that moral claims express precisely those beliefs (cognitivism) or b) are just Humean desire-like states, and that moral claims express precisely those desire-like states (expressivism). Hybrid theorists are keen to emphasize that this supposition rests on a false dichotomy. Perhaps moral judgments are hybrid states, being partly constituted by beliefs and partly by desire-like states. Even if moral judgments themselves just are beliefs, moral claims might still in some important sense express desire-like states. Either of these ways of breaking free of the traditional debate might better accommodate or explain away the dual nature of moral thought and discourse within a Humean framework. The introduction of hybrid theories does not, however, dissolve the traditional debate completely. There are several theoretical issues on which hybrid theories could have more in common with traditional cognitivism than with traditional expressivism and vice versa. It is therefore useful to distinguish two types of hybrid theory: hybrid cognitivism and hybrid expressivism.


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