【Philosophy】African philosophy cannot be a thing
This essay unpacks several arguments about the metaphilosophic nature of African philosophy and charts a way through the problems these arguments enco... [more]
【Philosophy】Fusion Philosophy and Epistemic Injustice
I use the concept of epistemic injustice to think through the practice and methodology of comparative, or fusion, philosophy. I make two related claim... [more]
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Mortal losses, vital gains: The role of spirituality
Grief and its management constitute the general topic of this paper. A personal dynamic of reframing is articulated and defined as a major experiential source of human spirituality. The argument is that exercises in the comparative free association of los
The concept of truth in a finite universe
The prospects and limitations of defining truth in a finite model in the same language whose truth one is considering are thoroughly examined. It is shown that in contradistinction to Traski's undefinability theorem for arithmetic, it is in a definite se
Remarks on the modal logic of Henry Bradford Smith
H.B.Smith, Professor of Philosophy at the influential 'Pennsylvania School' was (roughly) a contemporary of C.I. Lewis who was similarly interested in a proper account of 'implication'. His research also led him into the study of modal logic but in a
Sets and classes as many
In this paper the view is developed that classes should not be understood as individuals, but, rather, as 'classes as many' of individuals. To correlate classes with individuals 'labelling' and 'colabelling' functions are introduced and sets identif
Semantics for the logic of essence
This paper provides a possible worlds semantics for the system of the author's previous paper 'The logic of essence'. The basic idea behind the semantic is that a statement should be taken to be true in virtue of the nature of certain objects just in c
Unreal Friends
It has become quite common for people to develop `personal' relationships nowadays, exclusively via extensive correspondence across the Net. Friendships, even romantic love relationships, are apparently, flourishing. But what kind of relations really are
Mach's phenomenalism and the British reception of mendelism
The assimilation of Mendel's paper into Britain look place in an Edwardian social context. This paper concentrates on the interplay of empirical and philosophical issues in this reception. A feature of the British reception of mendelism, not duplicated e
Mendelism: from hybrids and trade to a science
In this paper I explore the historical context in which news of the rediscovery of Mendel's laws was received in England. This exploration leads me to the Cambridge zoologist, William Bateson, to his exploitation of the prestige and support of the Royal
Preferences in their place
In at least some of their forms, Cost-Benefit techniques for the evaluation of environmental projects and policies treat the preferences of citizens as the sole determinants of the value of outcomes. There are two salient ways in which this supposition mi
Darwinian ethics and error
Suppose that the human tendency to think of certain actions and omissions as morally required - a notion that surely lies at the heart of moral discourse - is a trait that has been naturally selected for. Many have thought that from this premise we can ju
Adaptation and moral realism
Conventional wisdom has it that evolution makes a sham of morality, even if morality is an adaptation. I disagree. I argue that our best current adaptationist theory of meaning offers objective truth conditions for signaling systems of all sorts. The obje
The engagement of religion and biology: A case study in the mediating role of metaphor in the sociob
I claim that explanations of human behaviour by Edward O. Wilson and Charles Lumsden are constituted by a religiously functioning metaphysics: emergent materialism. The constitutive effects are identified using six criteria, beginning with a metaphorical
Functional complexity in organisms: Parts as proxies
The functional complexity, or the number of functions, of organisms has figured prominently in certain theoretical and empirical work in evolutionary biology. Large-scale trends in functional complexity and correlations between functional complexity and o
Richard Rorty: Philosophy by other means
Richard Rorty's argumentative strategy variously termed pragmatist, postmodernist, and postphilosophical is examined in some detail in the context of his treatment of philosophical issues in general and of the views of other philosophers in particular, f
Women, evil, and gray zones (Resistance in coercive institutions)
Gray zones, which develop wherever oppression is severe and lasting, are inhabited by victims of evil who become complicit in perpetrating on others the evils that threaten to engulf themselves. Women, who have inhabited many gray zones, present challenge