Expressions of the form 'S is aware of the fact that p' are commonplace. This book provides a systematic exploration of the relation between knowledge and factual awareness, arguing that knowledge is but one species of factual awareness and that we can understand the possession of objective reasons, the normativity of knowledge, and the nature of knowledge in terms of factual awareness. In this way, the state of factual awareness is, structurally and substantively, a more basic type of state than (...) knowledge. If correct, this undermines a number of ways in which knowledge has been regarded as ‘first’ in recent epistemology. (shrink)

_Contributes a black Atlantic perspective to postmodernism, theology, and metaphysics._.

The study of metaphor is now firmly established as a central topic within cognitive science and the humanities. We marvel at the creative dexterity of gifted speakers and writers for their special talents in both thinking about certain ideas in new ways, and communicating these thoughts in vivid, poetic forms. Yet metaphors may not only be special communicative devices, but a fundamental part of everyday cognition in the form of 'conceptual metaphors'. An enormous body of empirical evidence from cognitive linguistics (...) and related disciplines has emerged detailing how conceptual metaphors underlie significant aspects of language, thought, cultural and expressive action. Despite its influence and popularity, there have been major criticisms of conceptual metaphor. This book offers an evaluation of the arguments and empirical evidence for and against conceptual metaphors, much of which scholars on both sides of the wars fail to properly acknowledge. (shrink)

Charles Griswold has written a comprehensive philosophical study of Smith's moral and political thought. Griswold sets Smith's work in the context of the Enlightenment and relates it to current discussions in moral and political philosophy. Smith's appropriation as well as criticism of ancient philosophy, and his carefully balanced defence of a liberal and humane moral and political outlook, are also explored. This 1999 book is a major philosophical and historical reassessment of a key figure in the Enlightenment that will be (...) of particular interest to philosophers and political and legal theorists, as well as historians of ideas, rhetoric, and political economy. (shrink)

When a belief is self-fulfilling, having it guarantees its truth. When a belief is self-defeating, having it guarantees its falsity. These are the cases of “self-impacting” beliefs to be examined below. Scenarios of self-defeating beliefs can yield apparently dilemmatic situations in which we seem to lack sufficient reason to have any belief whatsoever. Scenarios of self-fulfilling beliefs can yield apparently dilemmatic situations in which we seem to lack reason to have any one belief over another. Both scenarios have been used (...) independently to challenge Evidentialism, on which what we may rationally believe is all and only what fits our current evidence. Here we tie the two scenarios together and explore what a knowledge-sensitive evidentialist approach to one implies for the other. (shrink)

The philosophy of medicine cum bioethics has become the socially recognized source for moral and epistemic direction in health-care decision-making. Over the last three decades, this field has been accepted politically as an authorized source of guidance for policy and law. The field's political actors have included the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical (...) and Behavioral Research, the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and the new Council on Bioethics; these groups and agencies have set forth rules on issues ranging from the role of humans in biomedical research to the production of human embryos for research, the definition of death, and the permissibility of human cloning. The members of the field are not just scholars and teachers in an academic realm directed to both theoretical and applied issues. They are, in addition, practitioners of a conceptual and moral trade that possesses a legal and political standing. This essay critically addresses the sudden emergence of bioethics as a societally recognized source of moral guidance, a source replete with authorized moral experts. Attention is directed to moral and conceptual assumptions that have led the philosophy of medicine, and especially bioethics, to acquire a quasi-juridical/political role in guiding clinical choices, framing health-care policy, and directing court holdings. (shrink)

This papers deals with examples offered by Adams, Austin and others which seem to show that `if' does not conform to all of the laws of the conditional. These a reconciled by treating them as conjunctions with embedded modalities.

Interpreting Figurative Meaning critically evaluates the recent empirical work from psycholinguistics and neuroscience examining the successes and difficulties associated with interpreting figurative language. There is now a huge, often contradictory literature on how people understand figures of speech. Gibbs and Colston argue that there may not be a single theory or model that adequately explains both the processes and products of figurative meaning experience. Experimental research may ultimately be unable to simply adjudicate between current models in psychology, linguistics and philosophy (...) of how figurative meaning is interpreted. Alternatively, the authors advance a broad theoretical framework, motivated by ideas from 'dynamical systems theory', that describes the multiple, interacting influences which shape people's experiences of figurative meaning in discourse. This book details past research and theory, offers a critical assessment of this work and sets the stage for a new vision of figurative experience in human life. (shrink)

[This is a paper that was originally written in 2017 and doesn't represent Silva's current thinking about the relation between belief and degrees of confidence. See On Believing and Being Convinced for more.] Can there be knowledge and rational belief in the absence of a rational degree of confidence? Yes, and cases of "mistuned knowledge" demonstrate this. In this paper we leverage this normative possibility in support of advancing our understanding of the metaphysical relation between belief and credence. It is (...) generally assumed that a Lockean metaphysics of belief that reduces outright belief to degrees of confidence would immediately effect a unification of coarse-grained epistemology of belief with fine-grained epistemology of confidence. Scott Sturgeon has suggested that the unification is effected by understanding the relation between outright belief and confidence as an instance of the determinable-determinate relation. But determination of belief by confidence would not by itself yield the result that norms for confidence carry over to norms for outright belief unless belief and high confidence are token identical. We argue that this token-identity thesis is incompatible with the neglected phenomenon of “mistuned knowledge”—knowledge and rational belief in the absence of rational confidence. We contend that there are genuine cases of mistuned knowledge and that, therefore, epistemological unification must forego token identity of belief and high confidence. We show how partial epistemological unification can be secured given determination of outright belief by degrees of confidence even without token-identity. Finally, we suggest a direction for the pursuit of thoroughgoing epistemological unification. (shrink)

Contemporary theories of consciousness are based on widely different concepts of its nature, most or all of which probably embody aspects of the truth about it. Starting with a concept of consciousness indicated by the phrase “the feeling of what happens” (the title of a book by Antonio Damásio), we attempt to build a framework capable of supporting and resolving divergent views. We picture consciousness in terms of Reality experiencing itself from the perspective of cognitive agents. Each conscious experience is (...) regarded as composed of momentary feeling events that are combined by recognition and evaluation into extended conscious episodes that bind cognitive contents with a wide range of apparent durations (0.1 secs to 2 or more secs, for us humans, depending on circumstances and context). Three necessary conditions for the existence of consciousness are identified: a) a ground of Reality, envisaged as an universal field of potentiality encompassing all possible manifestations, whether material or 'mental'; b) a transitional zone, leading to; c) a manifest world with its fundamental divisions into material, 'informational' and quale-endowed aspects. We explore ideas about the nature of these necessary conditions, how they may relate to one another and whether our suggestions have empirical implications. (shrink)

My argument proceeds in two stages. In §I, I sum up the intuitions of a popular argument for 'satisfaction accounts' of Purgatory that I label, TAP. I then offer an argument, taken from a few standard orthodox Christian beliefs and one axiom of Christian theology, to so show that TAP is unsound. In the same section, I entertain some plausible responses to my argument that are prima facie consistent with these beliefs and axiom. I find these responses wanting. In §II, (...) I offer a sorites problem for TAP, given the orthodox Christian understanding of Christ’s parousia, showing that TAP and the intuitions driving it are faulty. To attempt something of a corrective, I end by offering some modest theological suggestions for thinking through “the logic of total transformation.”. (shrink)

El objetivo del presente estudio es analizar algunos aspectos vinculados a la interpretación de la ley humana y su causa final en el pensamiento del teólogo, f ilósofo y jurista Español Francisco Suárez (1548-1617). En algunos autores resulta indudable su pertenencia a un modo de pensar determinado. Ello se observa, por mencionar algunos ejemplos, en los casos de Alberto Magno y Tomás de Aquino —identiicados con la edad media—. Por el contrario otros autores, aún medievales, desarrollaron doctrinas que se constituyeron (...) en preludio de elaboraciones posteriores modernas. Por este motivo tales figuras resultan fuertemente vinculadas a al- gunas corrientes de pensamiento modernas. Aquí puede mencionarse a Escoto, Ockham y Marsilio de Padua. Esta claridad recientemente señalada no se observa en relación a Francisco Suárez quien aparece como un autor controvertido y considerado de transición, por lo menos temporalmente, entre edad media y moderna. Las discusiones actuales en torno a Suárez se deben a la inexistencia de un cierto consenso respecto al lugar que le corresponde a su doctrina, especialmente filosófico-política, entre las concepciones que caracterizan a los períodos antiguo-medieval y moderno. Por estos motivos esta investigación persigue def inir la ubicación del pensamiento suareciano, en relación al tema propuesto, y de acuerdo a lo que nuestro autor expone en su Tratado de la Ley. (shrink)

El presente artículo tiene por objetomostrar la armónca int.egración de las doctrtnas dela Equidad en las Filosofias Prácticas de AlbertoMagno y de Tomás de Aquino. Las soluciones queambos autores ofrecen perrniten extraer importanteselementos de juicio a fin de resolver e! importanteproblema de la Filosofia Política y Jurídicaactual a saber, e! dei modo de determinar la medidade la Justicia que sirve como situación de partidapara la formación y regulación de la ComunidadPolitica. E! texto está compuesto de cuatro partesprincipales. En primer lugar (...) se puntualiza la inclusióndei tema dentro de los problemas de la FilosofiaPráctica actual. En segundo lugar se formulanalgunas presiciones histórico filosóficas que serviránluego de apoyatura para delinear las doctrinasde los autores tratados. Aqui mismo se presentauna sistemática amplia acerca dei concepto deEquldad en la cual quedan int.egrados los rasgoscomunes que las historia de! concepto desde laantigüedad hasta la Edad Media permite bosquejar.En tercer lugar se ofrecen las doctrinas de Alberto yde Tomás, poniendo especial atención tanto a lapresentación de los textos pertientes como a suacuerdo sea entre un autor y e! otro, como tambiénrespecto de la tradición llamada iusnaturalista. Porúltimo se extraen algunas conclusiones mediantelas que se pretende abrir un debate posteriorcentrado en la misma perspectivca de! presetneestudio a saber, revalorizar la inclusión de lasargurnentaciones de Alberto y de Tomás en lascuestiones más actuales de las Filosofias: Políticasy Jurídicas. (shrink)

El ideal propuesto por Santo Domingo de Guzmán a la Orden de Predicadores alcanzó, en la obra de Alberto Magno, su primera expresión académica y sistemática. La vita activa constituye una efusión de la vita contemplativa en la temporalidad. Ambas conforman lo que en la tradición dominicana recibe el nombre de vita apostolica. Objeto del presente estudio es mostrar que la contemplación no solo orienta el obrar moral y político, sino que fundamentalmente lo transforma. Los hombres no son buenos solo (...) porque pueden ofrecer una explicación racional acerca de Dios como causa primera, sino porque, contemplando al Dios Revelado y Sus obras, se deciden resueltamente a traducir Su modelo en la vida política, mediante la virtus politica. (shrink)

El presente estudio se propone rehabilitar la fundamentación onto-teológica del Justo natural platónico y poner en evidencia su proyección en orden a, en primer lugar, la constitución de la - politike episteme - Ciencia Política, en segundo lugar, la constitución de la polis, y, en tercer lugar, la constitución del - psykhe - alma humana, desde donde nace la polis justa. La misión del verdadero filósofo-político es la de ascender hacia la contemplación del Bien Supremo y posteriormente, una vez lograda (...) la purificación de su alma - katharsis -, iniciar el descenso hacia la polis, a fin de intentar la resolución del conflico existente entre el Poder Político y la Filosofía. Finalmente el propósito será subrayar la originalísima reducción del mundo sensible a la clave suprasensible que ofrece el mundo de las ideas y del Bien Supremo en particular, no sin dejar de poner en evidencia la debilidad de la dialéctica platónica al mantener dicho Bien Supremo en el plano meramente intuitivo. (shrink)