This paper connects two important debates in epistemology—to wit, on the goal of inquiry and on the nature of understanding—and offers a unified knowledge-based account of both.

Die politische Philosophie der Antike erstreckt sich in ihrer Wirkung und Relevanz bis in die heutige Zeit. Der vorliegende Band versammelt Beiträge zu ihren vorsokratischen Anfängen, zu Platon und Aristoteles als den unumstrittenen Protagonisten sowie zu den hellenistischen Schulen, berücksichtigt aber genauso auch kaiserzeitliche, spätantike und frühislamische Denker. Das antike Nachsinnen über Politik wird in seiner ganzen historischen Breite und in seiner ungebrochenen Aktualität vorgestellt. Die Beiträge der Publikation gehen zurück auf Vorträge, die im Rahmen des V. internationalen Kongresses der (...) Gesellschaft für antike Philosophie (GANPH) 2016 in Zürich gehalten wurden. (shrink)

Much recent discussion in social epistemology has focussed on the question of whether peers can rationally sustain a disagreement. A growing number of social epistemologists hold that the answer is negative. We point to considerations from the history of science that favor rather the opposite answer. However, we also explain how the other position can appear intuitively attractive.

Process reliabilism -- Virtue reliabilism: justified belief -- Virtue reliabilism: knowledge -- Knowledge first virtue reliabilism -- The competition -- The safety dilemma -- Lottery cases.

Epistemic democracy aims to show, often by appeal to the Condorcet Jury Theorem, that democracy has a high chance of reaching correct decisions. It has been argued that epistemic democracy is compatible with various metaethical accounts, such as moral realism, conventionalism and majoritarianism. This paper casts doubt on that thesis and reveals the following metaethical dilemma: if we adopt moral realism, it is doubtful that voters are, on average, more than 0.5 likely to track moral facts and identify the correct (...) alternative. By contrast, if we adopt conventionalism or majoritarianism, we cannot expect that voters are both competent and sincere. Either way, the conditions for the application of Condorcet’s theorem are not met. (shrink)

Pour l'auteur, la Lettre représente un seuil décisif dans l'évolution de la théologie fondamentale moderne. Partant des trois acquis majeurs du projet blondélien , l'auteur propose une voie de réinterprétation dans une perspective culturelle nouvelle de ces acquis, notamment en raison du pluralisme qui semble d'abord s'opposer à la structure fondamentalement chrétienne du discours de Blondel, ce qui contraint à infléchir la définition blondélienne du surnaturel. Enfin, l'esquisse d'un argument apologétique valorise l'ensemble du processus circulaire de l'argument apologétique dans la (...) mesure où cet ensemble est constitué par vérité, justesse et authenticité : ce processus prend aujourd’hui son départ dans la consistance du comportement de celui qui engage l’argumentation en faveur de la foi chrétienne.For the author, the Lettre represents a decisive threshold in the evolution of fundamental modern theology. Starting with the three major accepted propositions of Blondel’s project , the author proposes a way of reinterpretation in a new cultural perspective of these propositions, notably because of a pluralism that seems at first to be opposed to the fundamentally Christian structure of Blondel’s discourse, which forces one to bend Blondel’s definition of the supernatural. Finally, the outline of an apologetical argument valorises the whole of the circular method of the apologetical argument in so far as this whole is constituted by truth, soundness, and authenticity. Today this method being with the consistency of the comportment of he who engages the argumentation in favour of the Christian faith. (shrink)

Elgin has presented an extensive defence of reflective equilibrium embedded in an epistemology which focuses on objectual understanding rather than ordinary propositional knowledge. This paper has two goals: to suggest an account of reflective equilibrium which is sympathetic to Elgin’s but includes a range of further developments, and to analyse its role in an account of understanding. We first address the structure of reflective equilibrium as a target state and argue that reflective equilibrium requires more than an equilibrium in the (...) sense of a coherent position. On the one hand, the position also needs to be stable between a ‘conservative’ pull of input commitments and a ‘progressive’ pull of epistemic goals; on the other hand, reflective equilibrium requires that enough of the resulting commitments have some credibility independent of the coherence of the position. We then turn to the dynamics of reflective equilibrium, the process of mutual adjustment of commitments and theories. Here, the most pressing internal challenges for defenders of reflective equilibrium arise: to characterize this process more exactly and to explain its status in relation to reflective equilibrium as a target state. Finally, we investigate the role of reflective equilibrium in Elgin’s account of understanding and argue that objectual understanding cannot be explained in terms of reflective equilibrium alone. An epistemic agent who understands a subject matter by means of a theory also needs to be able to use this theory and the theory needs to meet some external rightness condition. (shrink)

Die Entdeckung der Aristotelischen Politica muss als einschneidendes Ereignis in der Geschichte der politischen Theorien im Mittelalter verstanden werden. Gleich nach dem Erscheinen der ersten vollständigen Übersetzung wurde dieses Werk von der gelehrten Welt des Abendlandes mit grossem Interesse studiert und kommentiert. Die berühmtesten politischen Werke des späten Mittelalters, wie der Bestseller De regimine principum von Aegidius Romanus oder die äusserst kontroversen Bücher wie die Monarchia von Dante oder der Defensor pacis von Marsilius von Padua basieren weitgehend auf der mittelalterlichen (...) Rezeption der Aristotelischen Politica. Von zentraler Bedeutung für das Verständnis politischer Theorien im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert sind natürlich auch die Kommentare zu diesem Werk. Weit über hundert Kommentare sind von circa 1270 bis 1500 überliefert. Sie zeigen, wie die politische Philosophie des den mittelalterlichen Verhältnissen angepasst werden musste und auf welche Weise das erste Mal im Abendland an der Universität politische Wissenschaft gelehrt wurde. Der zweite Teilband enthält ein Verzeichnis der Kommentare zur Politica and Yconomica im genannten Zeitraum. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit wird dabei den Kommentaren in Quaestionenform gewidmet, von denen jeweils auch die Tabula quaestionum ediert wird. (shrink)

An influential thought-experiment by Derek Parfit sought to establish that people have a preference for unpleasant events to lie in the past rather than the future. In recent discussions of Parfit’s argument, this purported preference is modelled as a discounting phenomenon, as is the tensed emotion of relief, which Arthur Prior argued demonstrated that there is an objective metaphysical difference between the past and the future. Looking at recent work demonstrating some psychological past/future asymmetries that are more clearly instances of (...) discounting I argue that this existing philosophical literature fails to distinguish between what are clearly two quite different psychological phenomena. This affects recent attempts to respond to Prior’s metaphysical argument, because it is not clear that they have identified the right phenomenon to be explained. It also affects Parfit’s thought-experiment, because the purported unitary ‘preference’ may in fact be an amalgam of these two quite different psychological phenomena. (shrink)

This article investigates the role of privacy and transparency in the 4th Space and outlines their implications for the development and dissemination of conspiracy theories. We argue that privacy can be exploited by individuals and organizations to spread conspiracy theories online, while organizational transparency, intended to increase accountability and ultimately trust, can have the adverse effect and nurture conspiracy beliefs. Through the lens of the 4th Space concept, we offer suggestions on how to approach those challenges which emerge as a (...) result of the complex entanglements of both actual and virtual world across time. (shrink)

The article develops an internalist justification of welfare ethics based on empathy. It takes up Hume’s and Schopenhauer’s internalistic (but not consistently developed) justification approach via empathy, but tries to solve three of their problems: 1. the varying strength of empathy depending on the proximity to the object of empathy, 2. the unclear metaethical foundation, 3. the absence of a quantitative model of empathy strength. 1. As a solution to the first problem, the article proposes to limit the foundation of (...) welfare ethics to certain types of empathy. 2. In response to the second problem, an internalistic metaethical conception of the justification of moral principles is outlined, the result of which is: The moral value of the well-being of persons is identical to the expected extent of (positive and negative) empathy arising from this well-being. 3. The contribution to the solution of the third problem and focus of the article is an empirical model of the (subject’s) expected extent of empathy depending on (an object’s) well-being. According to this model, the extent of empathy is not proportional to the expected empathy, but follows a concave function and is therefore prioritarian. Accordingly, the article provides a sketch of an internalist justification of prioritarianism. (shrink)

Rhetoric and philosophy both constituted the main elements of literary education in the Greco-Roman world of the second century A.D. The present study deals with the relationship between both disciplines in Second Sophistic literature: Did ...

This paper aims to develop a novel account of the normativity of assertion. Its core thesis is that assertion has an etiological epistemic function, viz. to generate knowledge in hearers. In conjunction with a general account of etiological functions and their normative import, it is argued that an assertion is epistemically good if and only if it has the disposition to generate knowledge in hearers. In addition, reason is provided to believe that it makes sense to regulate the practice of (...) assertion by a speaker rule—and, more specifically, by a knowledge rule—as so regulating assertion contributes to ensuring that assertion fulfils its etiological function reliably. (shrink)

(2003). Perfecting the Individual: Wilhelm von Humboldt's concept of anthropology, Bildung and mimesis. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 241-249.

In Plato's Republic, the Analogy of the Sun famously points out that as the Idea of the Good relates to the knowable Forms so does the Sun to the visible things. Yet, no one has ever questioned whether the consequences claimed to be caused by the sun – among them especially the vital genesis of all physical things – can, based on Plato's philosophy, actually be caused by the material body of the sun. Taking this as a point of departure, (...) the present article looks into whether one can reveal more of the Analogy, just as Socrates himself frequently emphasises the incompleteness of his presentation. The article thus develops a series of detailed arguments to propose a differentiation of each analogical relation into two subrelations, which imply a transcendent principle and an immanent representation of this principle on both sides of the Analogy. Implementing this differentiation bears the potential to solve existing tensions within the interpretation of Republic VI and VII, it allows for further systematic considerations about, among others, the Good and the Beautiful and it may help to contextualise Plato's Analogy historically. (shrink)

We outline a dual systems approach to temporal cognition, which distinguishes between two cognitive systems for dealing with how things unfold over time – a temporal updating system and a temporal reasoning system – of which the former is both phylogenetically and ontogenetically more primitive than the latter, and which are at work alongside each other in adult human cognition. We describe the main features of each of the two systems, the types of behavior the more primitive temporal updating system (...) can support, and the respects in which it is more limited than the temporal reasoning system. We then use the distinction between the two systems to interpret findings in comparative and developmental psychology, arguing that animals operate only with a temporal updating system and that children start out doing so too, before gradually becoming capable of thinking and reasoning about time. After this, we turn to adult human cognition and suggest that our account can also shed light on a specific feature of our everyday thinking about time that has been the subject of debate in the philosophy of time, which consists in a tendency to think about the nature of time itself in a way that appears ultimately self-contradictory. We conclude by considering the topic of intertemporal choice, and argue that drawing the distinction between temporal updating and temporal reasoning is also useful in the context of characterising two distinct mechanisms for delaying gratification. (shrink)

Three variants of Kurt Gödel's ontological argument, proposed by Dana Scott, C. Anthony Anderson and Melvin Fitting, are encoded and rigorously assessed on the computer. In contrast to Scott's version of Gödel's argument the two variants contributed by Anderson and Fitting avoid modal collapse. Although they appear quite different on a cursory reading they are in fact closely related. This has been revealed in the computer-supported formal analysis presented in this article. Key to our formal analysis is the utilization of (...) suitably adapted notions of ultrafilters, and a careful distinction between extensions and intensions of positive properties. (shrink)

Seit ihrer Verurteilung vor allem im Deutschen Idealismus hatte die Popularphilosophie, in der zweiten Halfte des 18. Jahrhunderts eine der einflussreichsten Stromungen, einen faden Beigeschmack. Dabei verstand sich die Diskussion uber eine Philosophie, die mehr Nahe zum Leben der Menschen suchte, als Teil der umfassenden Selbstverstandnisdebatte von Aufklarung insgesamt. Vor allem die Auseinandersetzung mit der kritischen Philosophie Kants zwang dazu, Anspruch, Grenzen und Moglichkeiten popularer Philosophie zu uberdenken. So wurde Popularitat zu Programm und Problem von Philosophie, damals wie heute. - (...) Der vorliegende Band zeichnet die Geschichte der Popularphilosophie nach: ihre Vorgeschichte, die Diskussion im 18. und ihre Nachklange im 19. und fruhen 20. Jahrhundert bis hin zur gegenwartigen Auseinandersetzung. Since its condemnation, above all by German idealism, popular philosophy, which had been one of the most influential movements of the 18th century, had a negative connotation. The discussion about a philosophy which tried to get closer to peoples lives did however see itself as a part of the widespread debate on self-understanding of Enlightenment as a whole. It was mainly the study of Kant's critical philosophy which forced people to rethink the demands, limitations and possibilties of popular philosophy. Thus popularity became the agenda and the problem of philosophy, then as now. This volume traces the history of popular philosophy: its previous history, the discussion in the 18th century and its reverberations in the 19th and early 20th centuries up to the present time. (shrink)

Heinrich Friedrich von Diez war eine der schillerndsten Figuren der deutschsprachigen Spätaufklärung. Als Philosoph und Publizist schon in frühen Jahren ein Freidenker mit großen Ambitionen und ungewöhnlichen Ansichten – so zu Spinoza oder der Emanzipation der Juden – avancierte er ab den 1780er Jahren zum preußischen Geschäftsträger in Konstantinopel. Hier entwickelte er eine rege politische Tätigkeit, begann aber auch mit orientalischen Studien und der Anlage einer umfangreichen Handschriften- und Büchersammlung. Als Berater Goethes bei dessen Arbeiten zum West-Östlichen Divan konnte er (...) noch im Alter seine umfangreichen Kenntnisse einflussreich vermitteln. Der Band versammelt erstmals Studien zu allen Reflexions- und Handlungsfeldern und aus allen Lebensphasen dieses ungewöhnlichen Aufklärers. (shrink)

This comparative case study examines the place of white supremacy in teacher lessons on the U.S. South. Multi-day lesson plans and interviews with three teacher participants revealed that open encounters with white supremacist histories were supported by a high degree of professional freedom in their school settings. The teachers held a common commitment to teach about white racism and violence. However, extending these lessons into a more comprehensive confrontation with harmful white supremacist master narratives is complicated by highly varied conceptions (...) of the history classroom, among these teachers and in the field of social studies. This study supports continued efforts to provide teachers with resources and space to address racist legacies. I recommend that these efforts should be paired with an inspection of the individual and collective conceptions of social studies classrooms so that master narratives may be addressed more directly. (shrink)

Forms and Concepts is the first comprehensive study of the central role of concepts and concept acquisition in the Platonic tradition. It sets up a stimulating dialogue between Plato s innatist approach and Aristotle s much more empirical response. The primary aim is to analyze and assess the strategies with which Platonists responded to Aristotle s (and Alexander of Aphrodisias ) rival theory. The monograph culminates in a careful reconstruction of the elaborate attempt undertaken by the Neoplatonist Proclus (6th century (...) AD) to devise a systematic Platonic theory of concept acquisition.". (shrink)

The origin of colour categories and their relationship to colour perception have been the prime example for testing the influence of language on perception and thought and more generally for investigating the biological, ecological and cultural determination of human cognition. These themes are central to a broad range of disciplines, including vision research, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, developmental science, cultural anthropology, linguistics, computer science, and philosophy. Unfortunately, though, it has been tacitly taken for granted that the conceptual assumptions and methodological practices (...) from the dawn of empirical research on colour categorisation are the gold standard for current colour category research. Here, we show that these assumptions and practices are obsolete and flawed and have led to four fundamental and widespread misconceptions about colour categorisation: 1.) that colour perception is inherently categorical; 2.) that English Basic Colour Terms correspond to universal categories that are the end point of a fixed evolutionary sequence; 3.) that the prototypes of English basic colour terms are perceptually salient and qualify as focal colours; and 4.) that colour category research essentially revolves around the universalism-realism debate. State-of-the-art research on colour categorisation provides new, more sophisticated approaches and allows for rectifying those four statements. At the same time, some of the questions underlying those statements are not convincingly answered yet and constitute major challenges to future research. The critical considerations on colour categorisation may be transferred to research on other kinds of perceptual categorisation to inspire new, more general research questions. (shrink)