The Problem of Necessary and Sufficient Conditions and Conceptual Analysis

Metaphilosophy 46 (4-5):555-563 (2015)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In this article the standard philosophical method involving intuition-driven conceptual analysis is challenged in a new way. This orthodox approach to philosophy takes analysanda to be the specifications of the content of concepts in the form of sets of necessary and sufficient conditions. Here it is argued that there is no adequate account of what necessary and sufficient conditions are. So, the targets of applications of the standard philosophical method so understood are not sufficiently well understood for this method to be dependable

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

DOI

10.1111/meta.12158

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

Are necessary and sufficient conditions converse relations?Gilberto Gomes - 2009 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 87 (3):375 – 387.
The Logical vs. the Ontological Understanding of Conditions.Rögnvaldur Ingthorsson - 2008 - Metaphysica 9 (2):129-137.
James, intentionality and analysis.Henry Jackman - 2018 - In Alexander Mugar Klein (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of William James. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
The Conceptual Carvery: The necessary and sufficient guide to necessary and sufficient conditions.Peter S. Fosl - 2004 - The Philosophers' Magazine 27:56-56.
Necessary and sufficient conditions.Andrew Brennan - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The Interventionist Account of Causation and Non-causal Association Laws.Max Kistler - 2013 - Erkenntnis 78 (1):1-20.
Moral Realism: Best Explanation Arguments and Conceptual Analysis.Michael Yaziji - 1995 - Dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara
The Authority of Pragmatic Conceptual Analysis.Justin C. Fisher - unknown
Revamping Action Theory.Gordon Park Stevenson - 2004 - Behavior and Philosophy 32 (2):427 - 451.
The Logical Paradox of Causation.Yuval Steinitz - 2001 - Journal of Philosophical Research 26:223-227.
Representation and a science of consciousness.Andrew R. Bailey - 2007 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 14 (1):62-76.
Has psychology debunked conceptual analysis?Per Sandin - 2005 - Metaphilosophy 37 (1):26–33.
The Problem of Universals and the Limits of Conceptual Analysis.Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra - 2002 - Philosophical Papers 31 (1):39-47.
“X” means X: Semantics Fodor-style. [REVIEW]Fred Adams & Kenneth Aizawa - 1992 - Minds and Machines 2 (2):175-83.
Subjunctive conditionals.R. A. Fumerton - 1976 - Philosophy of Science 43 (4):523-538.

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-09-09

Downloads
1,005 (#13,428)

6 months
154 (#21,480)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Michael Shaffer
Gustavus Adolphus College

Citations of this work

Conceptual Analysis and African Philosophy.Michael Omoge - 2022 - Philosophical Papers 51 (2):295-318.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Philosophical Investigations.Ludwig Wittgenstein - 1953 - New York, NY, USA: Wiley-Blackwell. Edited by G. E. M. Anscombe.
Two Dogmas of Empiricism.W. Quine - 1951 - [Longmans, Green].
The Philosophy of Philosophy.Timothy Williamson - 2007 - Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong.Jerry A. Fodor - 1998 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.

View all 28 references / Add more references