I propose to dissolve the distinction between “rustic” and “urbane” interpretations of Sextus Empiricus’ account of Pyrrhonian assent to appearances. On the traditional picture, the “rustic” takes the skeptic to have no beliefs while the “urbane” takes the skeptic to have some “everyday” beliefs. I examine the distinction in two forms. First, in the original suite of papers by Frede, Burnyeat, and Barnes, I find that aside from a few differences in English terminology choice, the three authors substantially agree on (...) the interpretation of assent to appearances. Second, turning to the revised distinction proposed by Fine, I find that the two supposedly divergent interpretations give us pictures of the Pyrrhonist indistinguishable from each other on the basis of the skeptic’s actions or assent. The distinction dissolved, I propose a unified interpretation that expresses what I find to be the ultimate agreement between the two supposedly different camps. Finally, I turn to the question of the skeptical life and use this unified interpretation to argue that both an everyday life and an unconventional one are equally consistent with Pyrrhonian practice. (shrink)

Praise and blame are both forms of moral assessment. Yet, the literature on standing has focussed on blame – to blame appropriately one needs standing to do so. Praise has been mostly ignored. This paper argues that the asymmetrical treatment of praise and blame is unwarranted: there’s no good reason to think that we need standing to blame, but don’t need standing to praise. This conclusion is important because it provides a new line of argument for scepticism about standing to (...) blame. (shrink)

Just something I did on a whim a while ago when I saw a blog post about summarizing philosophers' works in words of one syllable. Revised since then as I spotted multisyllabic words. About 2 pages long, single-spaced.

The neo-Aristotelian conception of essence has gained prominence in recent analytic metaphysics. I will present an epistemic problem for such essentialists. The challenge centers on the following question: assuming there are essence-facts, what relationship between essence-facts and essence-attitudes explains why those attitudes’ correctness is not coincidental? It is a debunking challenge—what I call the explanatory challenge. The explanatory challenge is distinctive for at least three reasons: (i) it does not centrally concern the domain in question containing abstract objects, or having (...) evolutionary etiologies, (ii) it targets neo-Aristotelian essentialism, not merely essentialism insofar as it is modally analyzable, and (iii) the challenge comes in three grades—weak, moderate, and strong. Although debunking challenges do not pose a problem unique to essentialism, they have yet to be explicitly applied to essentialism in detail. I aim to redress this omission here. I begin by explaining the challenge’s grades, paying particular attention to a species of the moderate grade, which generates a more specific challenge I call the deflationary challenge. Then, I’ll survey David Oderberg’s and E.J. Lowe’s epistemologies of essence. I’ll argue that their accounts fail the weak challenge and that this leaves them especially vulnerable to the moderate challenge, where this involves positive reason to think essence-facts do not, in fact, play an explanatory role in forming one's essence-attitudes. Lastly, I’ll propose that Amie Thomasson’s deflationary account of identity-conditions might offer a deflationary challenge for essentialism. (shrink)

Drawing on digital sensory ethnographic research with potters during the Covid-19 pandemic in Britain, along with the literature on clay therapy, this paper explores how engagements with clay afford hedonic psychological wellbeing impacts. Adopting an embodied-enactive-ecological approach, we utilise Material Engagement Theory (MET) and the concept of therapeutic affordances to challenge internalist cognitive approaches and to argue for the active role of material engagements in shaping our affective states. We argue that clay’s materiality is central to such impacts and that (...) wellbeing arises relationally through interactions between specific individuals, materials, and their environment. This paper discusses how the tactile, cohesive, and malleable materiality of clay, as well as the variability in how it can be engaged, allows for mindful, immersive and relaxing experiences, that positively contributed to the hedonic wellbeing of our participants. Additionally, we examine how interactions between potter and clay evolve through the development of skill, as their affordance space changes. Particularly, we highlight the complex nature of control with respect to the volatility of clay and pottery; we explore the tension between the desire for and the pressures of skilful production, we analyse the enjoyment of the processes of making, and discuss the permeability of distinctions between hedonic and eudemonic wellbeing. (shrink)

Few of us are free of all prejudices, however subtle and subconscious, and they may affect both patient care and teaching. Here I use reflection about a patient with HIV infection, from the points of view of two doctors caring for him and the patient himself, to explore prejudice against lifestyles that are considered “dangerous”. The paper then goes on to discuss research about physicians' attitudes to such cases, the teaching of ethics in a clinical environment and the need to (...) support junior medical staff. (shrink)

Truth exists in the form of true propositions. Therefore identification of the nature of truth means identification of the conditions in which a proposition is true. A proposition is true if its content is not dependent upon the knower, and it constitutes a reflection of objective reality. Such a proposition yields knowledge. We shall call it a cognitive proposition.

Peter of John Olivi composed Question 57 of his Quaestiones in secundum librum Sententiarum (“Questions on the Second Book of the Sentences”) in the decade after William of Moerbeke had translated, not long before 1270, Aristotle’s On Rhetoric into Latin.2 It was above all Moerbeke’s translation that gave thirteenth-century Europe access to the analysis of the emotions that Aristotle had placed in Book Two of the work. Two earlier translations existed: one that Hermannus Alemannus had made from an Arabic translation (...) in 1256, and another that an anonymous translator had done from the Greek, sometime in the middle of the century.3 Few had read Hermannus’s version; and even fewer that of the unknown translator. In .. (shrink)

Industrial food systems are being increasingly challenged by alternative food movements globally that advocate for better environmental, social, economic, and political outcomes as part of societal transitions to more sustainable food systems. At the heart of these transitions are local food producers operating within shorter food supply chains, their experiences, and their knowledge of ecologically sustainable food production, biodiversity and climate, and their communities. Despite their important contributions to the resilience of food systems, society and ecology, local food producers' experiences (...) and knowledges are often undervalued, ignored, or inaccurately reflected. This systematic literature review identifies the values, motivations, and concerns as key elements of the experiences of local food producers within short food supply chains across literature globally, their contributions to social-ecological resilience, and discusses how these experiences and contributions can influence transitions to sustainable food systems. Eighty-five research articles were distilled from 5 databases and thematic analysis revealed four major themes: (1) concerns for exploitative operating contexts and hidden labor expectations within short food supple chains, (2) local food producers’ value and need for social networks, (3) their environmental values, connections, and concerns, and (4) how they can value and be motivated by alternative models but are concerned by their economic viability. This review also observed an important paradox within local food producers’ experiences showing that whilst farming is a demanding profession and lifestyle, they can feel a deep fulfilment when they live and work in harmony with their values and motivations. This systematic review is significant for how it values and synthesizes the experiences of local food producers and the diverse personal, social, ecological, and economic contributions that local food production has for social-ecological resilience of communities. By better communicating these experiences and contributions to decision-makers, policy makers and planners, this research can have major implications for enabling societal transitions that are fairer and more just in ways that empower, protect, and privilege local food producers’ voices. (shrink)

This work is devoted to the consideration of key aspects of the philosophical work of Ismail Hakki Bursev, a prominent Turkish Sufi thinker, adherent of the Talaquat Halvatiya. The figure of Ismail Hakki Bursay is of particular importance in the context of his work, the purpose of which was the translation and commentary of the works of the prominent Sufi thinker, Mohdtsin Ibn-Arabi, the "Great Sheikh" of the Sufi tradition. In this way, Bursev tried to acquaint Ibn-Arabi with a wider (...) audience, primarily Turkic. However, Bursev did not dwell solely on translations and commentary, but created his own doctrine based on the creative reception of the Ibn-Arabi teachings. (shrink)

In this article, the author analyzes the concept of religious foundations of culture and power as a problem of Russian political consciousness. The paper reveals the patterns of interaction between the religious and political traditions of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. The author provides Bargradsky project case as a unique example of such influence, identifying its mean in the later Russian Empire’s political history. Philosophical-political case that is analyzed in the article makes it possible to trace the (...) inner links between religious attitudes and political imagination of Russian monarchical circles and to identify the peculiarities of religious and political self-awareness of Russian power, its mechanisms for the selecting the ideas, symbols, images of the national political, religious and artistic culture in the last period of the Russian Empire. From our point of view, it would be most effective to combine the cultural-historical and the philosophical and historical approaches both in the reconstruction of Bargradsky project and in studies of Russian political culture. The article examines both the political conditions of activities and spiritual-cultural goals of Bargradsky Committee on Bargradsky project in Italian Bari as well as in Saint Petersburg in the 1910s. The author discusses the religious concept of Russian political culture, applying philosophical-historical method for the analyses Bargradsky Committee activity and its attempt to slow down the degradation of the Russian autocracy. The major emphasis is placed on the political and philosophical way of analysis as well as on the possibility of introducing the results of philosophical-historical research into current debates on the issue of alternatives to Russian history. (shrink)