Systematic Cognitive Bias in the History of Philosophy and its Cultural Transmission: A Case Study of Thomas Reid, Religion, and Science

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
pp. 56-86
Author(s):  
Ryan Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Religion And Science ◽  
Thomas Reid ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals How to Teach History of Philosophy and Science: A Digital Based Case Study

2018 ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Andrea Reichenberger
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Practice ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Online Reading ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Foundations Of Physics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relational Concepts ◽  
The Common ◽  
Present Case Study

The following article describes a pilot study on the possible integration of digital historiography into teaching practice. It focuses on Émilie Du Châtelet’s considerations of space and time against the background of Leibniz’s program of analysis situs. Historians have characterized philosophical controversies on space and time as a dichotomy between the absolute and relational concepts of space and time. In response to this, the present case study pursues two aims: First, it shows that the common portrayal simplifies the complex pattern of change and the semantic shift from absolute-relational concepts of space and time to invariance and conservation principles. Second, against this background, I present the Online Reading Guide on Émilie Du Châtelet’s Foundations of Physics, a teaching and research project designed to help navigate Du Châtelet’s Institutions physiques (1740/42). This project makes Du Châtelet’s important text visible to a broad audience and allows for a more critical and deeper view on classical topics of the history of philosophy and science in a more accessible way than traditional introductions.

Lehrer Reading Reid

Dialogue ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 30 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 103-108
Author(s):  
D. D. Todd
Keyword(s):  
Page Number ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Thomas Reid ◽  
Monograph Series ◽  
Ideal System ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mind

Lehrer's “reason for writing this book is that the philosophy of Thomas Reid is widely unread, while the combination of soundness and creativity of his work is unexcelled.” The book contributes to the ongoing Reid revival. Chapter 1 presents an overview of Reid's life and works and the last, Chapter 15, gives Lehrer's appraisal of Reid's philosophy. Chapter 2, “Beyond Impressions and Ideas,” outlines Reid's “refutation of what he called the Ideal System” of impressions and ideas that dominated philosophy from Descartes through Hume, and summarizes Reid's theory of the mind. The remaining chapters conduct the reader through the three books Reid published during his lifetime. There are three chapters covering the Inquiry of the Human Mind (1764), five on the Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785), a chapter comparing Reid on conception and evidence in the Inquiry and the Essays, and three chapters on Essays on the Active Powers of Man (1788). The index is helpful despite occasional references to a page number larger than the number of pages. The bibliography is generally good, although, oddly, Lehrer lists the inaccessible 1937 Latin edition of Reid's important Philosophical Orations and not the English translation published by the Philosophy Research Archives in 1977 and republished by the Journal of the History of Philosophy Monograph Series early in 1989. The text is remarkably free of typographical errors, but on p. 130 Putnam's 1973 article, “Meaning and Reference,” is said to have been published in 1983.

Consciousness AND REGRESS

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEITH LEHRER
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Thomas Reid ◽  
Regress Problem ◽  
History Of

Thomas Reid has a theory of consciousness that is central to his philosophy of mind but which raises a regress problem. I have two tasks in this paper. The first is to give an account of Reid's views on consciousness and the avoidance of the regress based on textual analysis. The second is to expand the theory of consciousness Reid gives to offer a deeper explanation of how the regress is avoided that is based on Reid's philosophy of mind but goes beyond any text from Reid that I know. The distinction is important. Philosophers are inclined to attribute to a philosopher views that they have invented by studying the philosopher. Both textual analysis and invention based on a philosopher's writings are legitimate uses of the history of philosophy. When they are confused, however, arguments about what the philosopher held generate confusion. If you invent something from his or her philosophy, even something implied by it, that is your philosophy, not the philosopher's. The distinction is important for avoiding useless disputes. This first part of my paper is an attempt to remain true to the texts of Reid. The second part goes beyond the text, though it is what I extrapolate from Reid.

scholarly journals The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence as a Case Study for the Historiography of Physics

2020 ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Matt Waldschlagel
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz ◽  
History Of Physics ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Absolute Space ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
Absolute Time ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
History Of

This paper examines an important episode in the history of early modern physics – the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence of 1715-16, an exchange that occurred at the intersection of physics, metaphysics and theology – before turning to questions of interpretation in the historiography of physics.  Samuel Clarke, a disciple of Isaac Newton, engaged in a dispute over Newton’s commitment to absolute space and absolute time with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who criticized Newton’s views and advanced a rival account.  I clarify the positions at stake in the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence, define a variety of terms – absolute space, absolute time, substantivalism, and relationalism – endogenous to the exchange, and reconstruct key elements in the philosophical dimension of the dispute.  I then use the Leibniz-Clarke exchange as a springboard from which to examine interpretive considerations in the historiography of physics.  I argue that the history of physics can benefit from reassessing its historiographical commitments by borrowing or appropriating some of the intellectual resources used by philosophers working in the history of philosophy.  This historiographical reassessment, I contend, will not only shed new light on the Leibniz-Clarke exchange but may also reinvigorate the history of physics.

Augustine on Testimony

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter King ◽  
Nathan Ballantyne
Keyword(s):  
David Hume ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Thomas Reid ◽  
Augustine Of Hippo ◽  
Epistemological Question ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of

Philosophical work on testimony has flourished in recent years. Testimony roughly involves a source affirming or stating something in an attempt to transfer information to one or more persons. It is often said that the topic of testimony has been neglected throughout most of the history of philosophy, aside from contributions by David Hume (1711-1776) and Thomas Reid (1710-1796). True as this may be, Hume and Reid aren't the only ones who deserve a tip of the hat for recognizing the importance of testimony: Augustine of Hippo (354-430) affirms the place of testimony in human cognition, at least in his later writings.In what follows, we consider three questions raised by Augustine's thinking about testimony: the analytical question of what sources count as testimony (Section I); the epistemological question about the status of testimony-based belief (Section II); and the doxastic question about the circumstances in which it is appropriate to believe on the basis of testimony (Section III).

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