Plato -- Aristotle -- Aquinas -- Machiavelli -- Hobbes -- Locke -- Rousseau -- Burke -- Hegel -- Marx -- Mill.

Introduction, by R. Peters and M. Cranston.--Hobbes: the problem of interpretation, by W. H. Greenleaf.--Warrender and his critics, by B. Barry.--Hobbes and the just man, by K. R. Minogue.--Hobbes on the knowledge of God, by R. W. Hepburn.--The context of Hobbes's theory of political obligation, by Q. Skinner.--The economic foundations of Hobbes' politics, by W. Letwin.--Hobbes & Hull: metaphysicians of behaviour, by R. Peters and H. Tajfel.--Hobbes on power, by S. I. Benn.--Liberty, by J. W. N. Watkins.--Man and society (...) in Hobbes and Rousseau, by P. Winch.--On the intention of Rousseau, by L. Strauss.--The social contract and Rousseau's revolt against society, by J. McManners.--On le forcera d'être libre, by J. Plamenatz.--Rousseau's images of authority, by J. N, Shklar.--The notion of time in Rousseau's political thought, by W. Pickles.--The structure of Rousseau's political thought, by R. D. Masters.--Rousseau and the problem of happiness, by R. Grimsley.--Individual identity and social consciousness in Rousseau's philosophy, by J. Charvet.--Rousseau's theory of the forms of government, by B. de Jouvenel.--Bibliography (p. [498]-505). (shrink)

This volume discusses the ideas of six leading thinkers of the French Enlightenment: Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Holbach, and Condorcet. A general introduction surveys the political theories of the Enlightenment, setting them in the context of the political realities of 18th-century France. The first book of its kind on the subject, Philosophers and Pamphleteers brings a welcome, new perspective to the study of French political thought during a fascinating historical era.

Public services worldwide have been subject to externally imposed reforms utilizing tools such as financial incentives and performance targets. The adverse impact of such reforms on a public service ethos has been claimed, but rarely demonstrated. Individuals within organizations work beyond their formal contracts of employment, described as Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), to further organizational interests. Given New Public Management reform and the subsequent contextual changes in the way in which public sector organizations are managed and funded, the present study (...) theorizes that OCB directed towards the organization may be ‘crowded-out’. This article tests the relationships between public service ethos and OCB and it presents empirical evidence from a study in England ( n = 433) of the ability of each dimension of this ethos to predict OCB. (shrink)

In this chapter, Talbott responds to four main objections: Rorty’s defense of Humean moral antirealism, the view that the development of human rights norms is a progress of sentiment, not reason; Skyrms’s defense of evolutionary anti-realism, according to which the development of norms of fairness can be explained without supposing there are any truths about fairness; Lee Kwan Yew’s "Asian values" objection to the concept of human rights as a Western invention that is not appropriate for Asian societies; Cranston’s (...) objection to the inclusion of economic and social rights as human rights. Talbott suggests that the characteristic that grounds basic human rights is autonomy in the non-metaphysical sense. Talbott notes that moral progress itself is a collective action problem, so that moral progress depends on the capacity to adopt the moral standpoint and to cooperate rather than take a free ride, at least when the costs of cooperating are not too great. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Attic Document Reliefs: Art and Politics in Ancient AthensWilliam C. WestCarol L. Lawton. Attic Document Reliefs: Art and Politics in Ancient Athens. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. xxii 1 167 pp. 96 pls. Cloth, $100. (Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology)Although long recognized as a distinct genre, the reliefs on documents have not been collected comprehensively and studied for their own sake. They are set above the texts of (...) honorary decrees, alliances and documents concerning [End Page 465] foreign affairs, decrees concerning cults, accounts and inventories, public dedications, and other inscriptions. Previous work on the subject (Binnebössel 1932; Meyer 1989) sought to relate the reliefs to other genres of art. Lawton notes that the document relief is “the only genre of Greek art that explicitly and consistently refers to contemporary events in the political sphere” (4). The style of the sculpture of the reliefs is shown to be conservative, “following rather than setting the sculptural trends of their own day” (73).The aim of illustrating documents with reliefs seems to be the desire to highlight certain relations to the text (deities as representative of cities; heroes, personifications of Demos, Boule, and Demokratia; individuals honored set amid the appropriate divinities, etc.). Expenses for inscribing were sometimes shared, as by cities of the empire or by individuals who received honorary decrees, but the cost of inscribing probably also included the reliefs (23–24). They would have been commissioned by authority of the secretaries of the assembly (or other political group such as deme or tribe) in consultation with sculptors and masons. Thus the relief contributes to the artistic display, just as certain features of the layout of the text on the stone (stoichedon style, intentional use of vacat, chequer pattern) serve to articulate the elements of the text and create an attractive monument. Lawton asserts that most of the document reliefs had a votive function, as they were set up in sanctuaries (29).Lawton presents a catalogue of 187 reliefs, arranged in two parts (dated and undated) and listed in chronological order within each part. Each item is accompanied by a lemma giving its most accessible publication, location, measurements, iconographical description, and bibliography. Thus 62 are classified as dated and 125 as undated. Although they range from the middle of the fifth to the second half of the second century B.C., the overwhelming preponderance fall in the fifth and fourth centuries. Statistics make the point effectively: fifth century, 28 total (12 dated, 16 undated); fourth century, 148 total (46 dated, 102 undated). Five are classified “late 5th-early 4th century,” bringing the grand total to 181. Of the dated group in the fourth century, only 9 can be put after 323 and only 4 after 318/17. One might justifiably conclude that the document relief is a phenomenon of the classical period, continued occasionally after it.Lawton offers excellent analyses, with concise discussion of relevant interpretations, in terms of type of inscription, iconography, style, and chronology. Where problems in interpretation still persist, she is careful to note the probabilities.Possibly the earliest surviving document with a relief is the Miletos decree (no. 63 = IG I3 21), which is put by Meritt and others about 450 because it uses the three-bar sigma, but in the 420s by H.B. Mattingly. Lawton summarizes fairly the arguments for both datings but does not insist on either. Rather, she notes the frequency of document reliefs from the 420s onward.IG I3 68 (no. 1), on the collection of tribute, is presented as the earliest securely dated inscription. Perhaps here the case is stated too positively, as the date 426/25 depends on the identification of the proposer Kleonymos with the man [End Page 466] who proposed a decree favoring Methone in the first prytany of that year (Meiggs and Lewis, no. 68, p. 188). Hence the date is probable, rather than certain. Secure dates for several decrees of the fourth century come from the name of the archon in the heading, but in cases where insufficient text is preserved for certainty (as in IG II2 133, no. 30) it should be noted that the stoichedon pattern provides... (shrink)

Guillaume d'Ockham fut l'initiateur principal d'une approche sémantique aux phénomènes cognitifs: la pensée, pour lui, est un discours intérieur et il propose de l'analyser systématiquement à travers les catégories de la grammaire et celles — surtout — de la théorie nouvelle des « propriétés des termes » . On examine ici comment cette suggestion fut reçue chez les philosophes anglais du temps d'Ockham, en particulier: Gauthier Chatton, Hugues Lawton, le Pseudo-Campsall, Crathorn, Robert Holkot et Adam Wodeham. William of (...) Ockham initiated a semantical approach to cognitive phenomena: thought, for him, is a mental discourse and he proposes to analyse this discourse systematically with the help of the categories of grammar and that of the relatively new theory of « the properties of terms » . What is studied here is the reception of this suggestion among English philosophers in Ockham's own time, notably: Walter Chatton, Hugh Lawton, the Pseudo-Campsall, Crathorn, Robert Holcot and Adam Wodeham. (shrink)

Reprint of the original, first published in 1860.

William Vitek enlarges our understanding by treating the act of promising as a social practice and complex human experience. Citing engaging examples of promises made in everyday life, in extraordinary circumstances, and in literary works, Vitek grapples with the central paradox of promising: that human beings can intend a future to which they are largely blind. _Promising_ evaluates contemporary approaches to the topic by such philosophers as John Rawls, John Searle, Henry Sidgwick, P.S. Atiyah, and Michael Robbins but transcend (...) their more limited focus on promissory obligation. Vitek's innovative approach moves beyond theories of language, ethics, and law to unveil a complex human activity subject to shifting interpretations and changes in nature. (shrink)

Opposition to induced abortion rests on the belief that fetuses have a moral status comparable to beings like us, and that the loss of such a life is tragic. Antiabortion, or pro-life, theorists argue that (1) it is wrong to induce abortion and (2) it is wrong to allow others to perform induced abortion. However, evidence suggests that spontaneous abortion kills far more fetuses than induced abortion, and critics argue that most pro-life theorists neglect the threat of spontaneous abortion and (...) ought to do more to prevent it. Friberg-Fernros contends such an obligation would be implausibly strong, arguing that induced abortions are far worse than spontaneous abortions because while both involve the tragedy of the death of the fetus, induced abortion involves a second tragedy—one person killing another. I argue this two tragedies argument fails to explain what is morally relevant about induced abortion. (shrink)

Research on diseases such as cancer reveals that primary mechanisms, which have been the focus of study by the new mechanists in philosophy of science, are often subject to control by other mechanisms. Cancer cells employ the same primary mechanisms as healthy cells but control them differently. I use cancer research to highlight just how widespread control is in individual cells. To provide a framework for understanding control, I reconceptualize mechanisms as imposing constraints on flows of free energy, with control (...) mechanisms operating on flexible constraints in primary mechanisms. I argue that control mechanisms themselves often form complex, integrated networks. (shrink)

One way in which philosophy of science can perform a valuable normative function for science is by showing characteristic errors made in scientific research programs and proposing ways in which such errors can be avoided or corrected. This paper examines two errors that have commonly plagued research in biology and psychology: 1) functional localization errors that arise when parts of a complex system are assigned functions which these parts are not themselves able to perform, and 2) vacuous functional explanations in (...) which one provides an analysis that does account for the inputs and outputs of a system but does not employ the same set of functions to produce this output as does the natural system. These two kinds of error usually arise when researchers limit their investigation to one type of evidence. Historically, correction of these errors has awaited researchers who have employed the opposite type of evidence. This paper explores the tendency to commit these errors by examining examples from historical and contemporary science and proposes a dialectical process through which researchers can avoid or correct such errors in the future. (shrink)

This paper argues that human beings possess the rational capabilities necessary to achieve the goal of more just and peaceable social orders, but that our educational institutions are failing in their responsibility to do what in fact can be done to produce graduates who make decisions in ways most likely to achieve this goal.Data compiled by us, consistent with other research, indicates that only a small percentage of the individuals graduating from universities and professional schools have developed the capacity for (...) post-conventional moral reasoning. (shrink)

Eleonore Stump and Katherin Rogers have recently defended the doctrine of divine timelessness in separate essays, arguing that the doctrine is consistent with libertarian free will and that timeless divine knowledge is providentially useful. I show that their defenses do not succeed; a doctrine of eternity having these features cannot be saved.

Explanations of biological phenomena such as cell division, protein synthesis or circadian rhythms commonly take the form of models of the responsible mechanisms. Recently philosophers of science have attempted to analyze this practice, presenting mechanisms as organized collections of parts performing operations that together produce the phenomenon. But in some cases what researchers seek to explain is not a general phenomenon, but a specific feature of a more fine-grained phenomenon. In some of these cases, it is not the model of (...) the mechanism that performs the explanatory work. I consider a case in which the investigator offered an abstract representation of a fine-grained phenomenon to show why in had the feature in question. I consider a second case in which a researcher abstracted from the mechanism to identify a design principle that explains why the functioning mechanism exhibits a specific feature. (shrink)

The present dilemma in philosophy -- What pragmatism means -- Some metaphysical problems pragmatically considered -- The one and the many -- Pragmatism and common sense -- Pragmatism's conception of truth -- Pragmatism and humanism -- Pragmatism and religion.

In a recent discussion article in this journal, Gila Sher responds to some of my criticisms of her work on what she calls the formal-structural account of logical consequence. In the present paper I reply and attempt to advance the discussion in a constructive way. Unfortunately, Sher seems to have not fully understood my 1997. Several of the defenses she mounts in her 2001 are aimed at views I do not hold and did not advance in my 1997. Most prominent (...) among these are her claims that I reject the formal-structural account, because it licenses “unnatural” logical constants, and that I consider the “truth-functional criterion” for connectives “a paradigm of a successful criterion of logicality”. Both of these claims are simply false, as even a moderately careful reading of my 1997 will show. Other charges she makes have some basis in fact but are inaccurate. For example, she says that I claim that FS is “neutral with regard to the apriority of logic,” and that this neutrality “renders it inconsistent”. What I actually say is that Sher’s acceptance of the neutrality in question is “inconsistent with part of the legacy of Tarski, a legacy that she finds very congenial”, not that FS itself is inconsistent. More interestingly, she misunderstands my claim about the apriority of logic, and clarification of this misunderstanding suggests two distinct ways in which logic might be held to be free of empirical influence. It is also noteworthy that Sher’s statements about the apriority of logic constitute both a change in the position she took in her 1991 and, although she seems not to realize it, an admission that she does not take issue with one of my major criticisms. (shrink)

William Hare; Open-mindedness in the Classroom, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 19, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 251–259, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14.

In Barnett and Block :711–716, 2009a), the present authors claim that borrowing short and lending long is fraudulent, and thus ought to be prohibited on legal grounds. Bagus and Howden :399, 2009) take issue with our ethical analysis. The present paper is our response to these authors; it is an attempt to defend Barnett and Block :711–716, 2009a) against the very interesting and important, although we believe, erroneous, criticisms of Bagus and Howden :399, 2009).

In this book, William H. F. Altman considers the pedagogical connections behind the post-Republic dialogues from Timaeus to Theaetetus in the context of their Reading Order.

Neste artigo, pretendo discutir alguns problemas que emergem da associação, já comum na literatura secundária, entre o último dualismo pulsional freudiano, baseado na oposição entre pulsões de vida e de morte, e as teses schopenhauerianas sobre a vida e a morte derivadas de sua metafísica da vontade. A partir de uma confrontação com as leituras de Marcel Zentner e Stephan Atzert, argumentarei a favor da hipótese de que a diferença mais relevante entre os modelos de Freud e de Schopenhauer não (...) diz respeito à distinção no plano ontológico entre dualismo das pulsões e monismo da vontade, mas sim entre sentido biológico e sentido ético da suposta finalidade associada à morte, como “fim” ou “objetivo” da vida. Minha discussão, portanto, gira em torno de uma distinção quanto ao estatuto teleológico que se pode atribuir à dinâmica da relação entre vida e morte nos dois autores. (shrink)