Category: Metaphilosophy
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Notes on Burden of Proof and Defeasible Presumption
Since I don't understand this topic very well, I blog about it. Nescio, ergo blogo! Caveat lector! The following notes are a blend of what I have gleaned from Nicholas Rescher and Douglas Walton and my own reflections. 1. Burden of Proof and Defeasible Presumption are correlative notions. If there is a defeasible presumption in…
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Burden of Proof in Philosophy: Preliminary Thoughts
A reader asks about burden of proof in philosophy. I really ought to have a worked-out theory on this, but I don't. Here are some very tentative remarks. 1. In the law it is clear where the burden of proof lies: on the plaintiff in a civil case and on the prosecutor in a criminal…
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Realism and Idealism
An excerpt from an e-mail by Chris C., with responses in blue. . . . I read your post on Butchvarov's latest paper, and you made clear your argument about the problem with the crucial step in the "idealist" position; then you closed with the assertion that realism has its own set of problems. Granted that…
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The Joys of Philosophy
One of the joys of philosophy is the joy of exploring the cartography of ideas, the landscape of the mind, the contours of the noosphere. And all of this whether or not we arrive at truth.
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The Philosopher
A philosopher is one to whom the large impersonal questions matter personally.
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Why Dennis Prager Didn’t Major in Philosophy
Just now I heard Prager say on his radio show that he didn't major in philosophy because on the first day of a philosophy class he heard the professor say that what would be discussed in the class was whether we exist. I'll leave it to you philosophy teachers out there to make of this…
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Philosophy Under Attack: An Exercise in Philosophical Apologetics
Philosophy’s place in the world has always been precarious and embattled. The assaults on our fair mistress are of two sorts. I am not concerned on this occasion with brutal ad baculum suppression, but with objections of an intellectual or quasi-intellectual nature. By my count, such objections come from as many directions as there are…
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Philosophy Under Attack at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Start with this piece by Todd Edwin Jones, chairman of the UNLV philosophy department: Budgetary Hemlock: Nevada Seeks to Eliminate Philosophy. The original plan to eliminate the philosophy department entirely has apparently been revised. See here. Excerpt: UNLV’s College of Liberal Arts received news Tuesday from its dean of a revised budget-cutting plan that includes…
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Philosophy, Religion, Mysticism, and Wisdom
Dennis E. Bradford sent me three comments via e-mail on my recent Butchvarov post. I omit the first and the third which are more technical in nature, and which I may address in later posts. Bradford writes, Second, and this separates me from Butch, Larry [Blackman], and you, I reject your assumption concerning the narrowness of philosophy. You mention…
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In Defense of Eclecticism
From an English reader: The extraordinary eclecticism of the Maverick Philosopher blog has struck me with unusual force just recently. This diversity of interest is what keeps me reading – though sometimes I stare at your commentaries in ignorant awe. I'll never get up to speed with many of your discussions, and give up on…
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‘Practical’ and Religious Attitudes Toward Philosophy
Philosophy is unserious to the onesidedly worldly and 'practical' because it bakes no bread. To which the best response is: "Man does not live by bread alone." To the onesidedly religious, philosophy is unserious because it begets pride and does not lead unto salvation. "Not worth an hour's trouble," said Pascal with Descartes in his sights.…
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A Divine Activity
Philosophy is a divine activity because only a god has the time and the peace of mind for it. The full-time mortal, embroiled in the flux and shove of material life, is too much in need of guiding convictions to be much of a pursuer of the impersonal truth. In auspicious circumstances, with the right…
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Chess and Philosophy
In chess, the object of the game is clear, the rules are fixed and indisputable, and there is always a definite outcome (win, lose, or draw) about which no controversy can arise. In philosophy, the object and the rules are themselves part of what is in play, and there is never an incontrovertible result. So I…
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Anarchism and Eliminativism
Anarchism is to political philosophy as eliminative materialism is to the philosophy of mind. But untenable positions have their uses. They serve as foils for the development of sensible theories.
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Against Best Play
It may be that in philosophy it is as in chess: against best play one can only hope for a draw.