C i lewis, regarding himself as a pragmatist, repeatedly attempts to identify truth with verification. it is here argued, however, that a correspondence or semantic theory is required by (1) lewis's interpretation of objective judgments in terms of "possible experience" and of possible experience in terms of counterfactual conditions; (2) his distinction between the justification of knowledge and the truth of knowledge; and (3) his logical analysis of truth in terms of the extension (known or unknown) of propositions. it is (...) then argued that verification determines knowledge but reality determines truth, and that lewis himself emphasizes "the transcendence by reality of our present knowledge of it.". (shrink)

In an attempt to extract a coherent and still relevant structure of thought from its obsolete encumbrances, some of the recent interpretations of Kant have been needlessly hampered by neglect of the important concept of ‘possible experience’. Failure to make the full use of this concept that Kant himself made has inevitably been damaging to the Kantian doctrine of phenomenal objectivity; and any version of Kant that is so damaged falls drastically short of the original. I should like, therefore, after (...) making the problem a little clearer, to examine the concept of possible experience as Kant presents it; to attempt a clarification of difficulties in his presentation that may have contributed to the tendency to neglect the concept; and finally to indicate briefly the unfortunate consequences of this neglect in some recent instances. (shrink)

THE problem of religious knowledge may be stated very simply. If there is a real God, how can we find out that fact? The present discussion assumes that this is just what we must find out, if there is to be any possibility of a philosophically valid religion; for the essential element in religion is God, and consequently the essential philosophical question in regard to religion is that of the reality of God.

In his well-known Discourse on Metaphysics , Leibniz puts individual substance at the basis of metaphysical building. In so doing, he connects himself to a venerable tradition. His theory of individual concept, however, breaks with another idea of the same tradition, that no account of the individual as such can be given. Contrary to what has been commonly accepted, Leibniz’s intuitions are not the mere result of the transcription of subject-predicate logic, nor of the uncritical persistence of some old metaphysical (...) assumptions. They grow, instead, from an unprejudiced inquiry about our basic ontological framework, where logic of truth, linguistic analysis, and phenomenological experience of the mind’s life are tightly interwoven. Leibniz’s struggle for a concept capable of grasping concrete individuals as such is pursued in an age of great paradigm changes – from the Scholastic background to Hobbes’s nominalism to the Cartesian ‘way of ideas’ or Spinoza’s substance metaphysics – when the relationships among words, ideas and things are intensively discussed and wholly reshaped. This is the context where the genesis and significance of Leibniz’s theory of ‘complete being’ and its concept are reconstrued. The result is a fresh look at some of the most perplexing issues in Leibniz scholarship, like his ideas about individual identity and the thesis that all its properties are essential to an individual. The questions Leibniz faces, and to which his theory of individual substance aims to answer, are yet, to a large extent, those of contemporary metaphysics: how to trace a categorial framework? How to distinguish concrete and abstract items? What is the metaphysical basis of linguistic predication? How is trans-temporal sameness assured? How to make sense of essential attributions? In this ontological framework Leibniz’s further questions about the destiny of human individuals and their history are spelt out. Maybe his answers also have something to tell us. This book is aimed at all who are interested in Leibniz’s philosophy, history of early modern philosophy and metaphysical issues in their historical development. (shrink)

Research on sleep loss and vigilance both focus on declines in cognitive performance, but theoretical accounts have developed largely in parallel in these two areas. In addition, computational instantiations of theoretical accounts are rare. The current work uses computational modeling to explore whether the same mechanisms can account for the effects of both sleep loss and time on task on performance. A classic task used in the sleep deprivation literature, the Psychomotor Vigilance Test, was extended from the typical 10-min duration (...) to 35 min, to make the task similar in duration to traditional vigilance tasks. A computational cognitive model demonstrated that the effects of time on task in the PVT were equivalent to those observed with sleep loss. Subsequently, the same mechanisms were applied to a more traditional vigilance task—the Mackworth Clock Task—providing a good fit to existing data. This supports the hypothesis that these different types of fatigue may produce functionally equivalent declines in performance. (shrink)

We are in the midst of a reevaluation of Richard Rorty’s pragmatism. The last few years have seen a spate of new books on Rorty. This year alone two critical anthologies already are out and two more are in preparation. A new volume of previously unpublished philosophical papers by Rorty will be released in a few months (see Rorty 2020). The intensification of interest since his passing in 2007 spans the globe and shows no signs of abating. Spurred in part (...) by a new generation of readers of Ame... (shrink)

Richard Rorty has long been perceived and interpreted as a provocative and groundbreaking philosopher. However, an approach that he calls ‘eirenic’ emerges in his writings. This eirenism should not be confused with a form of sophisticated relativism, but rather it should be understood as a consequence of the profound anti-foundational conviction and anti-authoritarian sentiment that feeds his thought, as well as his reading of the relations of science and ethics. In this article, I focus on Rorty’s recovery of pragmatism and (...) “pragmatist hermeneutics” by considering his understanding of science and ethics as deeply interlaced. Rorty’s perspective on this issue is inspired by Dewey’s and James’s conception of a holistic-syncretic pragmatism. His project takes into account not only the main cultural trends of logical empiricism and continental philosophy, but also the existential needs they conveyed – that is, the search for objectivity and the meaning of life, respectively. The Rortyan proposal of an anti-ideological, historicist or post-positivist reformulation of the conception of scientific rationality as not opposed to ethics aligns with Jamesian efforts to confront scientific dogmatism by questioning the key notion of truth. Within a naturalistic hermeneutical framework, Rorty contests the ontological need for necessary connections or disconnections between moral and scientific discourse. In this sense, the conception of ethics as having to do with what is personal, historical and “irrational” contrasts with the notion of scientific rationality elaborated in modernity as something that, unlike morality, is able to escape human finitude and contingency. Appreciating the Jamesian (and Deweyan) element in Rorty’s pragmatist hermeneutics may contribute to renovating the current lines of debate around Rorty and pragmatism, especially by reevaluating Rorty’s strong cultural connection to the American philosophical tradition and his commitment to making this pluralistic voice relevant again to contemporary conversations. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to examine Aristotle’s treatment of the relationship between the accentuated mobility and the overwhelming imagination of melancholics. I begin by retracing the main lines of Aristotle’s reflection on the psychological and ethical implications of the propensity of melancholics to be guided by φαντασία. With specific regard, then, to the connection between certain peculiar psycho-somatic conditions – such as, among others, that deriving from an overabundance of μέλαινα χολή – and the capacity of foreseeing the (...) future by oneiric φαντάσματα, I analyse some crucial passages from the De divinatione per somnum and the Eudemian Ethics, as well as some fragments of the dialogues Eudemus and On Philosophy. Finally, I put forward the hypothesis that the focus on psycho-somatic conditions constitutes the fil rouge of the Aristotelian conception of dream divination, and argue – contrary to what is mostly claimed by scholars – its substantial unity. (shrink)

Nel leggere il recentissimo lavoro di Rosa Calcaterra, una selezione di saggi pubblicati tra il 2003 e il 2016, rivisti o integrati in vista di questa nuova pubblicazione, emerge a chiare note la forza della sua interpretazione dell’unità programmatica dei pragmatisti vecchi e nuovi, o meglio del pragmatismo in quanto “stile di pensiero calibrato su precisi obiettivi teoretico-metodo-logici” (Calcaterra 2024: 7). Anticipatrice rispetto al mainstream odierno che il suo lavoro ha senza dubbio...

Cissexist perception involves a prejudicial judgment and an unmediated affective response, such as that of disgust, directed at the gendered aspects of another person. In this paper, I advance a view of how cissexist perception harms disabled people. On this view, there at least two morally problematic aspects of cissexist perception: that it has painful effects, and that it restricts bodily agency. I defend this claim through an analysis of a double bind faced by people subjected to cissexist perception: on (...) the one hand, such individuals are pressured into avoiding certain environments to dodge dangerous predicaments that can arise on behalf of looking different from others; this constitutes unfair exclusion from an environment and under some conditions causes pain. On the other hand, to avoid dangerous predicaments, targets of cissexist perception are pressured into concealing their gender non-conformity to fit into certain environments; concealing frustrates their bodily agency. I conclude with remarks about how trans-affirming artwork may have the capacity to interrupt cissexist perception. (shrink)

The issue of the emergence of genuinely new events in a paradigm of natural continuity has been analyzed in different fields by Pragmatists authors like Peirce, Dewey, and Mead. Another way to consider the problematic relationship between novelty and continuity is by considering William James’s understanding of causal connections. This article addresses the concept of causality that James repeatedly addressed and deeply rethought throughout his career. I believe that the concept of causality provides an excellent platform from which to view (...) the various aspects that have made James’s epistemological and metaphysical thinking so influential in the history of theories of emergence, and which is experiencing currently a major revival. (shrink)

Visual working memory is a construct hypothesized to store a small amount of accurate perceptual information that can be brought to bear on a task. Much research concerns the construct's capacity and the precision of the information stored. Two prominent theories of VWM representation have emerged: slot-based and continuous-resource mechanisms. Prior modeling work suggests that a continuous resource that varies over trials with variable capacity and a potential to make localization errors best accounts for the empirical data. Questions remain regarding (...) the variability in VWM capacity and precision. Using a novel eye-tracking paradigm, we demonstrate that VWM facilitates search and exhibits effects of fixation frequency and recency, particularly for prior targets. Whereas slot-based memory models cannot account for the human data, a novel continuous-resource model does capture the behavioral and eye tracking data, and identifies the relevant resource as item activation. (shrink)

Cissexist perception involves a prejudicial judgment and an unmediated affective response, such as that of disgust, directed at the gendered aspects of another person. In this paper, I advance a view of how cissexist perception harms disabled people. On this view, there at least two morally problematic aspects of cissexist perception: that it has painful effects, and that it restricts bodily agency. I defend this claim through an analysis of a double bind faced by people subjected to cissexist perception: on (...) the one hand, such individuals are pressured into avoiding certain environments to dodge dangerous predicaments that can arise on behalf of looking different from others; this constitutes unfair exclusion from an environment and under some conditions causes pain. On the other hand, to avoid dangerous predicaments, targets of cissexist perception are pressured into concealing their gender non-conformity to fit into certain environments; concealing frustrates their bodily agency. I conclude with remarks about how trans-affirming artwork may have the capacity to interrupt cissexist perception. (shrink)

Première traduction européenne des Principles of Psychology, celle du psychologue et psychiatre Giulio Cesare Ferrari est aussi la première traduction presque intégrale des deux volumes de l’ouvrage. Elle marque le début d’un travail intense de traduction des œuvres de James en italien, qui ne sera égalé que plusieurs années après en France et en Allemagne. Elle se situait dans un moment culturel très dynamique où le rôle scientifique et culturel de la psychologie et de la philosophie faisait l’objet de grands (...) débats en Italie. Le cadre théorique et la mentalité « antiscolastique » de la psychologie de James reflétaient une nouvelle perspective naturaliste et une attitude de rupture profonde avec la tradition philosophique et psychologique précédente. (shrink)

Nowadays philosophers as intellectuals are strongly encouraged to be more active on their cultural scene and particularly to direct their efforts towards creating or reconstructing possible bridges of communication. As is well known, some of the distances between intellectual worlds are often matters of ‘styles of writing,’ as well as socio-historical controversies which can be reconsidered in a different light at successive generational readings. In this view, both historical and theoretical...

The aim of this paper is to trace in Leibniz’s drafts the sketched outline of a conceptual framework he organized around the key concept of ‘requisite’. We are faced with the project of a semi-formal theory of conditions, whose logical skeleton can have a lot of different interpretations. In particular, it is well suited to capture some crucial relations of ontological dependence. Firstly the area of ‘mediate requisites’ is explored - where causal and temporal relations are dealt with on the (...) basis of a general theory of ‘consequence’.Then the study of ‘immediate requisites’ is taken into account - a true sample of mereological inquiry, where Leibniz strives for a unitary treatment of part-whole relation, conceptual inclusion and inherence. Far from simply conflating these relations one with another and with causality, therefore, Leibniz tried to spell them out, while at the same time understanding them within a single conceptual framework. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:...

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:American Journal of Philology 124.4 (2003) 609-612 [Access article in PDF] SARAH B. POMEROY. Spartan Women. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. xviii + 198 pp. 11 black-and-white illustrations. Paper, $19.95. This "first full-length historical study of Spartan women to be published" (vii) is a very welcome book on an inadequately understood subject. Pomeroy's scholarly expertise for this study is firmly established; her research has been fundamental to examinations of (...) women's roles in classical antiquity—and has included contributions on ancient Spartan women. As Pomeroy notes in the preface, her recent books on Xenophon and on Plutarch, whose writings provide much of our evidence for ancient Spartan women, combined with her knowledge of women's roles and issues in ancient women's history, provide her the detailed expertise required for such a book-length work on Spartan women. In this review, I will note what I consider particular strengths of the book, as well as some weaknesses.The strengths of this book are many, central being the extended, systematic presentation of Spartan women's lives in different social arenas, at different stages of their lives, and even, to the extent possible, in different social classes; as for others, the evidence for Spartan women pertains primarily to elite women, thereby limiting a complete picture. The first three chapters are organized chronologically across a woman's life, beginning with "Education" (1), next "Becoming a Wife" (2), and then "The Creation of Mothers" (3). These opening chapters present the issues important in the rearing of Spartan girls and in adult women's roles in the community. The next three chapters fill out this substantial framework by looking more specifically at "Elite Women" (4), "The Lower Classes" (5), and "Women and Religion" (6). The conclusion looks at the idea of distinctive Spartan ethnicity within the ancient Greek world through the lens of the distinctive Spartan women's gender identity. An extensive appendix critically examines the "Sources for the History of Spartan Women"; eleven black-and-white illustrations, a detailed bibliography, and an index round out the text.In presenting their roles, Pomeroy often reinforces the general scholarly perception of strong Spartan women with extensive documentary or archaeological support frequently providing new or refined interpretations of the evidence. Thus, in the section on physical education (12-27), having already established that Spartan girls went through an educational system parallel to but probably less strenuous than the boys' agoge, Pomeroy brings together documentary and art historical evidence that demonstrates that "Spartan women's intense involvement in such activities was probably unique in the Greek world," noting further that "an impressive proportion" of the works of art pertaining to [End Page 609] the lives of Spartan women is "relevant to their athletic pursuits" (12). While various Greek writers, including Alkman, Aristophanes, Euripides, Plato, Xenophon, and Theokritos, take note of Spartan women's interest in racing and other athletics, "Plutarch (Lyc. 14.2) gives a more explicit account of the physical curriculum, mentioning running, wrestling, discus throwing, and hurling the javelin" (13). Although he leaves out horsemanship, Spartan "women as well as men were actively involved with horses, riding, driving horse-drawn vehicles, and engaging in competitive equestrian events" (19). Nor is it surprising "that a Spartan was the first female star in Greek athletics"—Cynisca, her horses victorious in the 396 and 392 Olympiads (21). Athletics are important not only as part of the girls' physical preparation for motherhood, but as integral to their sense of identity as adult women, derived from the practice of athletics both for sports and for ritual purposes. Although she treats religion separately in a later chapter, Pomeroy notes here that "Considering the likelihood that attention was not paid to women's athletics anywhere but Sparta, and given the historical evidence for Spartan domination of Elis in the archaic period, it is likely that the games were established along Spartan principles" and with mostly Spartan participants (26), which provides another example of how "the education of Spartans apparently affected the social construction of their religion" (18).Central to Spartan girls' and women's athletic activities... (shrink)

Leibniz's treatment of the concept of res should be considered in the context of his semantic-ontological reflections on the relationship of language, thought and reality, profoundly shaped by a nominalistically minded deflationary approach. In this paper I consider (a) the role of res as a kind of super-category and its relationship with ens; then I pass to consider the narrower usage of res to designate a concrete item, in the sense (b) of a subject of inherence as opposed to properties, (...) and (c) of an object as opposed to a concept. (shrink)