Children approach counterfactual questions about stories with a reasoning strategy that falls short of adults’ Counterfactual Reasoning (CFR). It was dubbed “Basic Conditional Reasoning” (BCR) in Rafetseder et al. (Child Dev 81(1):376–389, 2010). In this paper we provide a characterisation of the differences between BCR and CFR using a distinction between permanent and nonpermanent features of stories and Lewis/Stalnaker counterfactual logic. The critical difference pertains to how consistency between a story and a conditional antecedent incompatible with a nonpermanent feature of (...) the story is achieved. Basic conditional reasoners simply drop all nonpermanent features of the story. Counterfactual reasoners preserve as much of the story as possible while accommodating the antecedent. (shrink)

"Christliche Philosophie" steht in dem Verdacht, weder Philosophie noch christlich zu sein. Ob dieser Vorbehalt zurecht besteht, entscheidet sich an der Frage nach der Weite der Vernunft. Wo nur das als vernünftig anerkannt wird, wird, was die Naturwissenschaften von der Wirklichkeit erfassen, bleibt die Vernunft hinter ihren Möglichkeiten zurück. Auf jeden Fall bleibt das Bedürfnis der Vernunft, Sinn und Ziel des Ganzen als Zusammenhang von Gott, Welt und Mensch zu verstehen, unerfüllt. Aber welche Möglichkeiten hat die Vernunft, ihrem Erkenntnisbedürfnis zu (...) folgen? Eine Leitthese des Buches wird sein, dass die philosophische Einsicht im gleichen Maße zunimmt, wie sie im Hören auf die christliche Offenbarung vom Anfang und Ende aller Dinge mitbegründet ist. Pieper und Lewis waren überzeugt, dass im verstehenden Nachvollzug des Gehörten mehr Licht auf die großen Lebensfragen des Menschen fällt, als dies im modernitätstypischen Kontext einer selbstreferentiellen Vernunft der Fall sein kann. Autonomie der Vernunft und Anerkennung religiöser Überlieferungen schließen sich für Lewis und Pieper nicht aus. Ihre Denkwege sind eine für jeden nachvollziehbare Herausforderung, seine Grundoptionen angesichts der Wirklichkeit im Ganzen zu überprüfen. (shrink)

"Philosophieren heißt, Sterben lernen!" - Das antike Ideal des Weisen von Sokrates und Seneca bis hin zu Montaigne stellt uns vor die Frage, ob in der Sterblichkeit des Menschen ein Anlaß zur Hoffnung liegt oder nicht eher zur Resignation. Mit der Geburt ist alles Lebendige unterwegs zu seinem Tod. Der Tod scheint daher auch für den Menschen sein natürliches Ende zu sein. Die Rede vom "natürlichen Ende" läßt allerdings noch ungeklärt, ob das "Ende" als Aufhören oder als Vollendung zu denken (...) ist, und ob ein bloßes Aufhören des Lebens für den Menschen schon die Vollendung als Person sein kann. Bezeichnend für das besondere Verhältnis des Menschen zu seinem Tod ist seit den Anfängen der Philosophie die Frage nach der Unsterblichkeit der Geistseele. Josef Pieper hat ihr sein Buch "Tod und Unsterblichkeit" gewidmet. Die vorliegenden Beiträge nehmen den 50. Todestag von C. S. Lewis zum Anlaß, die philosophische Frage nach Leid und Tod neu zu durchdenken. (shrink)

A contemporary of Jesus Christ, Philo of Alexandria ranks among the greatest of Jewish and Greek thinkers.

A study of various central and connected topics in philosophical logic and the theory of meaning. There are important sections on the relation between linguistic and abstract entities, on necessity and convention, on meaning, sense and reference, and on entailment. Dr Lewy proposes a number of original solutions to problems which have been widely discussed in literature, and there is in particular a sharp and sustained criticism of conventionalism and reductionism. These are among the most difficult and intricate issues (...) in contemporary philosophy, but Dr Lewy writes with great clarity and a minimum of technicality. Where his views are controversial they are explained and supported in a detail which makes it both possible and necessary for potential critics to state their disagreement precisely. The book should therefore be of value as an advanced textbook as well as an original contribution to philosophical logic. (shrink)

C. Lewy; VI—Entailment and Propositional Identity, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 64, Issue 1, 1 June 1964, Pages 107–122, https://doi.org/10.1.

Cajal realizó un soberano esfuerzo para que la ciencia de España figurase entre las naciones próceres de Europa. La teoría neuronal de Cajal ha significado una verdadera revolución no sólo en la histología sino también en la fisiología. La moderna tecnología electrónica también es cajalista. La independencia genética neuronal por él descubierta cuando tenía 37 años marcó en su vida la defensa de la verdad a ultranza y la independencia de juicio en todos los aspectos sociales, filosóficos y mundiales de (...) su época. (shrink)

A model of writing in cognitive development, Understanding the Representational Mind synthesizes the burgeoning literature on the child’s theory of mind to provide an integrated account of children’s understanding of representational and mental processes, which is crucial in their acquisition of our commonsense psychology. Perner describes experimental work on children’s acquisition of a theory of mind and representation, offers a theoretical account of this acquisition, and gives examples of how the increased sophistication in children’s theory of mind improves their understanding (...) of social interaction and how, in the case of autistic children, an impairment results in social ineptitude. He analyzes the concepts of representation and metarepresentation as they appear in current discussion in the philosophy of cognitive science and explains how the unfolding of mental representation enables infants to comprehend change over time, engage in pretence, and use representational systems like pictures and language. Perner goes on to show that around age four children become able to understand the representational nature of pictures and language and to distinguish appearance from reality. Introducing basic distinctions in philosophy of mind for characterizing the mental, Perner discusses differences in how commonsense and cognitive psychology view the mind. Tracing the onset of a commonsense psychology in the social and emotional awareness of early infancy, he reveals how the child begins to take a cognitive, representational view of the mind with repercussions for children’s episodic memory, self control, and their ability to engage in deception. Perner concludes by describing the observed developmental changes as a case of theory change And contrasts his thesis with competing proposals. Josef Perner is Lecturer in Experimental Psychology at Sussex University, Brighton, England. (shrink)

Casimir Lewy; On the “Justification” of Induction1, Analysis, Volume 6, Issue 5-6, 1 September 1939, Pages 87–90, https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/6.5-6.87.

A critical and detailed introduction to Kant's philosophy, with particular reference to the Critique of Pure Reason. Since Broad's death there have been many publications on Kant but Broad's 1978 book still finds a definite place between the very general surveys and the more specialised commentaries. He offers a characteristically clear, judicious and direct account of Kant's work; his criticisms are acute and sympathetic, reminding us forcefully that 'Kant's mistakes are usually more important than other people's correctitudes'. C.D. Broad was (...) Knightsbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge from 1933 to 1953, and this book is based on his undergraduate lectures on Kant. Broad died in 1971 and Dr Lewy has since edited the book for publication. (shrink)

The causal theory of action is widely recognized in the literature of the philosophy of action as the "standard story" of human action and agency--the nearest approximation in the field to a theoretical orthodoxy. This volume brings together leading figures working in action theory today to discuss issues relating to the CTA and its applications, which range from experimental philosophy to moral psychology. Some of the contributors defend the theory while others criticize it; some draw from historical sources while others (...) focus on recent developments; some rely on the tools of analytic philosophy while others cite the latest empirical research on human action. All agree, however, on the centrality of the CTA in the philosophy of action. The contributors first consider metaphysical issues, then reasons-explanations of action, and, finally, new directions for thinking about the CTA. They discuss such topics as the tenability of some alternatives to the CTA; basic causal deviance; the etiology of action; teleologism and anticausalism; and the compatibility of the CTA with theories of embodied cognition. Two contributors engage in an exchange of views on intentional omissions that stretches over four essays, directly responding to each other in their follow-up essays. As the action-oriented perspective becomes more influential in philosophy of mind and philosophy of cognitive science, this volume offers a long-needed debate over foundational issues. Contributors: Fred Adams, Jesus H. Aguilar, John Bishop, Andrei A. Buckareff, Randolph Clarke, Jennifer Hornsby, Alicia Juarrero, Alfred R. Mele, Michael S. Moore, Thomas Nadelhoffer, Josef Perner, Johannes Roessler, David-Hillel Ruben, Carolina Sartorio, Michael Smith, Rowland Stout. (shrink)