Assertion: The Constitutive Norms View

2019 ◽  
pp. 57-73
Author(s):  
Mona Simion ◽  
Christoph Kelp
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Knowledge Norm ◽  
Knowledge Account ◽  
Timothy Williamson ◽  
Constitutive Norms ◽  
Constitutive Norm ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Philosophical Questions ◽  
Better Than

Two important philosophical questions about assertion concern its nature and normativity. This article defends the optimism about the constitutive norm account of assertion and sets out a constitutivity thesis that is much more modest than that proposed by Timothy Williamson. It starts by looking at the extant objections to Williamson’s Knowledge Account of Assertion (KAA) and argues that they fail to hit their target in virtue of imposing implausible conditions on engaging in norm-constituted activities. Second, it makes a similar proposal and shows how it does better than the competition. It suggests that Knowledge Norm of Assertion (KNA) is not constitutive of the speech act of assertion in the same way in which rules of games are constitutive, and thus KAA comes out as too strong. The final section embarks on a rescue mission on behalf of KAA; it puts forth a weaker, functionalist constitutivity thesis. On this view, KNA is etiologically constitutively associated with the speech act of assertion, in virtue of its function of generating knowledge in hearers.

An Epistemic Defense of Democracy: David Estlund's Democratic Authority

Episteme ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Public Reason ◽  
Legitimate Authority ◽  
Epistemic Values ◽  
The Public ◽  
Democratic Authority ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Better Than

ABSTRACTIn Democratic Authority, David Estlund (2008) presents a major new defense of democracy, called epistemic proceduralism. The theory claims that democracy exercises legitimate authority in virtue of possessing a modest epistemic power: its decisions are the product of procedures that tend to produce just laws at a better than chance rate, and better than any other type of government that is justifiable within the terms of public reason. The balance Estlund strikes between epistemic and non-epistemic justifications of democracy is open to question, both for its neglect of the roles of non-epistemic values of equality and collective autonomy in democracy, and for the ways his use of the public reason standard overshadows empirically based epistemic arguments for democracy. Nevertheless, Estlund presents telling critiques of rival theories and develops a sophisticated alternative that illuminates some central normative features of democracy.

On reading God the author

2001 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
MEROLD WESTPHAL
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Speech ◽  
Political Implications

The first part of the essay explore's three features of Wolterstorff's account of God as a performer of speech acts: (1) the claim that God literally speaks, suggesting that this claim needs something like a Thomistic theory of analogy as an alternative to univocity and mere metaphor; (2) the claim that speaking is not reducible to revealing; and (3) the political implications of these claims, especially in relation to Habermasian theory. The second part focuses on the theory of double discourse, which seeks to make sense of the notion that God speaks to us through the human voices of prophets, apostles, and especially of Scripture, and seeks to show that a fuller account of the speech act by which God deputizes or appropriates human speech is needed. The final section suggests that Ricoeur and Derrida are not the threat to his theory that Wolterstorff takes them to be and that their emphasis on the text, rather than the author, makes sense in contexts where we have only the text to consult.

Performative Force, Convention, and Discursive Injustice

Hypatia ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 440-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Kukla
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Social Disadvantage ◽  
Social Position ◽  
Social Agency ◽  
Specific Kind ◽  
Complete Control ◽  
Disadvantaged Group ◽  
In Virtue Of

AbstractI explore how gender can shape the pragmatics of speech. In some circumstances, when a woman deploys standard discursive conventions in order to produce a speech act with a specific performative force, her utterance can turn out, in virtue of its uptake, to have a quite different force—a less empowering force—than it would have if performed by a man. When members of a disadvantaged group face a systematic inability to produce a specific kind of speech act that they are entitled to perform—and in particular when their attempts result in their actually producing a different kind of speech act that further compromises their social position and agency—then they are victims of what I call discursive injustice. I examine three examples of discursive injustice. I contrast my account with Langton and Hornsby's account of illocutionary silencing. I argue that lack of complete control over the performative force of our speech acts is universal, and not a special marker of social disadvantage. However, women and other relatively disempowered speakers are sometimes subject to a distinctive distortion of the path from speaking to uptake, which undercuts their social agency in ways that track and enhance existing social disadvantages.

scholarly journals Rozliczenie kredytu mieszkaniowego z niedozwolonymi walutowymi klauzulami indeksacyjnymi

Studia BAS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (66) ◽  
pp. 173-193
Author(s):  
Marcin Liberadzki
Keyword(s):  
Exchange Rate ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Foreign Currency ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mortgage Loan ◽  
Currency Exchange ◽  
Currency Exchange Rate ◽  
Better Than

This paper deals with how to settle a foreign currency exchange rate indexed mortgage loan between a bank and a consumer if the court declares that the loan agreement has an abusive clause. At present, many consumers in Poland strive to void their contracts on the grounds that they contain an abusive indexation clause, mainly referred to the CHF/PLN exchange rate. The calculations are based on a CHF indexed 30 years mortgage with decreasing monthly installments, starting in 2008. The settlement amount is calculated for two most probable scenarios: 1) the contract is declared void; 2) the contract continues but without the abusive indexation clause. One cannot determine which scenario is definitely better than the other for any party. In the final section of the article the implications for Polish banks are presented.

scholarly journals Statistical Reporting Inconsistencies in Experimental Philosophy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Colombo ◽  
Georgi Duev ◽  
Michele B. Nuijten ◽  
Jan Sprenger
Keyword(s):  
Null Hypothesis ◽  
Experimental Philosophy ◽  
R Package ◽  
Experimental Methods ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Behavioral Sciences ◽  
Null Hypothesis Significance Testing ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Philosophical Questions ◽  
Better Than

Experimental philosophy (x-phi) is a young field of research in the intersection of philosophy and psychology. It aims to make progress on philosophical questions by using experimental methods traditionally associated with the psychological and behavioral sciences, such as null hypothesis significance testing (NHST). Motivated by recent discussions about a methodological crisis in the behavioral sciences, questions have been raised about the methodological standards of x-phi. Here, we focus on one aspect of this question, namely the rate of inconsistencies in statistical reporting. Previous research has examined the extent to which published articles in psychology and other behavioral sciences present statistical inconsistencies in reporting the results of NHST. In this study, we used the R package statcheck to detect statistical inconsistencies in x-phi, and compared rates of inconsistencies in psychology and philosophy. We found that rates of inconsistencies in x-phi are lower than in the psychological and behavioral sciences. From the point of view of statistical reporting consistency, x-phi seems to do no worse, and perhaps even better, than psychological science.

S5 as the Logic of Metaphysical Modality: Two Arguments for and Two Arguments against

2020 ◽  
pp. 141-148
Author(s):  
Bob Hale
Keyword(s):  
Logical Necessity ◽  
Metaphysical Modality ◽  
Absolute Necessity ◽  
Michael Dummett ◽  
Timothy Williamson ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Nathan Salmon

Two arguments for S5 being the logic of metaphysical modality are favourably discussed: one from the logic of absolute necessity, one from Timothy Williamson. Two arguments against S5 being the logic of metaphysical modality are discussed and rebuffed: one from Nathan Salmon against S4, and thereby S5, being the logical of metaphysical modality; and one from Michael Dummett against the B principle for metaphysical modality. In the Appendix, some comments are offered on the logics of ‘true in virtue of the nature of’, and its relation to logical necessity. It is argued that the logic both of ‘true in virtue of the nature of x’ and of essentialist logical necessity is S5.

Homeric Flyting and How to Read It: Performance and Intratext in Iliad 20.83-109 and 20.178-258

Ramus ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-28
Author(s):  
Jon Hesk
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Epic Tradition ◽  
Heroic Poetry ◽  
It Performance ◽  
Verbal Exchanges ◽  
Better Than

TheIliadandOdysseyare replete with single speeches or exchanges of speech which are described by the noun νεῖκος (‘quarrel’, ‘strife’) or its derived verb νεικέω. Some time ago, A.W.H. Adkins showed that νεῖκος and νεικείω are used in Homer to designate various kinds of agonistic discourse: threats, rebukes, insults, quarrels and judicial disputes. Critics often now describe νεῖκος-speeches and νεῖκος-exchanges in theIliadas examples of ‘flyting’. This term, shared by the languages of Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse and the dialect of Old Scots, is transferred to the combination of boasting, invective and threats which Homeric heroes hurl at each other. This is because Iliadic νεῖκος has affinities with the traditional and highly stylised verbal exchanges which take place in the feasting halls and battles depicted in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Germanic heroic poetry.In his bookThe Language of HeroesRichard Martin has argued persuasively that the flyting νεῖκος is a significant speech-act genre performed by Homeric characters and that its competitive mode is analogous to the Homeric poet's poetic projecttout court. Just as Homer produces a monumental epic whose focus on Achilles may well be competitive with other renderings of epic tradition and is certainly derived through the manipulation of memory, Homeric heroes and gods flyte by manipulating and contesting the resources of memory. The best Homeric flyting is creatively poetic within existing conventions or strategies and is thereby rhetorically devastating. And Martin sees Achilles as the best flyter because he rhetorically manipulates memory better than any other hero. Thus, the hero is like his poet and the poet is like his hero. Achilles' competitive way with words is unique in (and to) theIliadand is emblematic of Homer's overpowering competitive poetic achievement.

Action and Reflection (ii)

2015 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sander Griffioen
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Basic Ingredient ◽  
Contemporary Sociology ◽  
Central Notion ◽  
Personal Agent ◽  
Better Than ◽  
As If

This is the second article in a series of two on the topic of “action” and “reflection”. The first article appeared last year in the fall issue of this journal (Vol. 79 (2), 140–171). This second article is divided into two sections. The first section deals with reflection, mainly in the form of reflexivity, a central notion in contemporary sociology and an attitude characteristic of the modern secular mind. The second section discusses second-order agency (soag), subdivided intospiritsandpowers. Most instances of (humanly engendered) spirits fall under an “as if” category: all these cases are about certain communalities expressing themselves in such a strong way that itseemsas if a supra-personal agent is at work.Zeitgeisterare a point in case. The only incidence of asoag-kind may be that ofmobs. Powers fit our model better than spirits and for that reason most of the second part of this essay is dedicated to that topic. The foremost distinction that will be made is that between incomplete and full powers. The thesis presented in the final section is that powers can only come to completion by taking a “religious turn”. The notion of “assent” as a basic ingredient of human action is what connects the first to the second part of the essay.

How Much Better than Death Is Ordinary Human Survival?

2019 ◽  
pp. 243-254
Author(s):  
Ivar R. Labukt
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Worth Living ◽  
Life Worth Living ◽  
Psychological Continuity ◽  
Policy Perspective ◽  
Human Survival ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Do So

According to common sense and a majority of philosophers, death can be bad for the person who dies. This is because it can deprive the dying person of life worth living. I accept that death can be bad in this way, but argue that most people greatly overestimate the magnitude of this form of badness. They do so because they significantly overestimate the goodness of what death deprives us of: ordinary human survival. I proceed by examining four philosophical theories of why human survival matters: (1) non-reductionism, (2) the psychological continuity view, (3) the continuity of consciousness view, and (4) the physical continuity view. I argue that all these theories fail to offer something that is both deeply egoistically important and found in ordinary human survival. In the final section, I discuss how we should think about preventing deaths from a policy perspective if death is a lesser personal evil than what is typically assumed.

Speech-act theory and biblical interpretation

2005 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brevard S. Childs
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Rule Of Faith ◽  
God's Word ◽  
Initial Focus

This essay seeks to explore speech-act theory in its relation to biblical interpretation. Its initial focus falls on the application of N. Wolterstorff whose book Divine Discourse provided the decisive catalyst for the recent debates. Building on the different kinds of action involved when speaking (locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary) Wolterstorff draws two important hermeneutical implications. First, the theory affords a way of understanding the unity of scripture in its entirety as God's book; second, it enables the reader to acknowledge the infallibility of God's Word as divine discourse without ascribing infallibility to the human words of scripture.The second part attempts to offer a critical assessment of Wolterstorff's application of his theory, especially in its failure to deal adequately with the function of the Christian canon which shaped the church's traditions in such a way as to provide a rule-of-faith for the theological guidance of subsequent generations of readers. By abandoning the hermeneutical understanding of scripture developed by Irenaeus and Calvin, Wolterstorff flounders in his inability to overcome the threat of scripture's becoming a ‘wax nose’ in which the noematic content of what God now says in divine discourse is not identical with the meaning of the biblical sentence itself.The final section examines the exegesis of the well-known scholar A. Thiselton, whose work has done much in developing a speech-act theory. The conclusion reached is that Thiselton's application of the theory is far different from that of Wolterstorff's and avoids many of the problems which plague Wolterstorff's exegesis. The implication of this analysis is to argue that speech-act theory cannot be indiscriminately lumped together, because various forms of the theory often reflect different hermeneutical theories of biblical interpretation.

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