This paper critically evaluates an objection to introspective arguments for human freedom found within Spinoza's Ethics. The objection-- which we call Spinoza's dream argument -- challenges the evidentiary value of a person's experience of her own freedom by pointing out that some choices made within dreams are experienced as no less free than choices made while awake despite the fact that choices made within dreams are not free. After reconstructing Spinoza's dream argument, we critically evaluate it, concluding ultimately that it (...) fails in two respects. First, we draw upon the results of an experiment we conducted that suggests that dreamt choices are not experienced as free to the same extent as choices made while awake. Second, we argue that there is no compelling justification for the claim that choices made within dreams are not free. (shrink)

This paper defends the possibility that meaningful learning can be supported by the Internet. Responding to Hubert Dreyfus’s neo-Kierkegaardian contention that the Internet inhibits and does not support meaningful learning, we argue that it is a valuable tool for learning that can promote the development of intellectual expertise without the accompanying atrophy of personhood that Dreyfus believes is a prominent effect of extensive engagement with the Internet. Additionally, we argue that a conflation of practically ultimate commitments and epistemically ultimate commitments (...) underlies Dreyfus’s conception of unconditional commitments that constitutes the core of his critique of the possibility of meaningful learning on the Web. (shrink)

This study, theoretically based on integrated threat and image theory, explored (1) the mental constructs produced by the Slovak majority in relation to cooperation with the Roma minority and (2) differences in thinking about different Roma demographic groups. In Slovakia, prejudice towards Roma people is a long-standing phenomenon. In this study there were 228 participants, mostly young adults, who produced 22 categories of associations, explored using content and network analyses. The frequency of category associations in the first and second research (...) group was mostly the same, but the distribution differed for the demographic groups considered by the third research group, which was asked to produce associations separately for each Roma demographic group. The largest difference measured was between integrated and segregated Roma people – the associations were mostly positive for the first and negative for the second. These results provide the first empirical exploration of cooperation intentions with Roma people in the Slovak context and suggestions are made for future discourse on Roma. (shrink)

This essays provides a critical overview of the the significance of sexual activity and the important role consent as a necessary condition for its permissibility.

Evil Beyond Belief provides an overview of the problem of evil and argues that the evil in the universe does not make it irrational to believe in an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent creator.

This dissertation is an attempt to construct a coherent account of Rene Descartes' theory of the will from the remarks on the will scattered throughout his works. Although his treatment of the topic is fragmentary , and cursory , Descartes' assorted comments on the will can be reconstructed into an account that is both consistent and penetrating. ;The most distinctive features of the reconstructed theory are: the will is not a distinct faculty, but merely the extension of the class of (...) volitions, the will is necessitated by the contents of consciousness and judgment and is an act of the will. With regard to the first point, it is argued that a good deal of the criticism that Descartes' theory has received stems from inaccurately attributing a faculty model of the soul to him. In addition, an attempt is made to reconcile the non-faculty model of the soul with the account of error found in the Fourth Meditation. In explaining the second aforementioned feature of Descartes' theory, it is argued--against commentators such as Anthony Kenny, Margaret Wilson and Peter Schouls--that he held that all free action is necessitated by some set of psychological states. Finally, regarding the third distinctive feature of Descartes' theory, the claim that judgment is an act of the will is defended on the basis of the fact that one's judgments can have an impact upon one's behavior and web of beliefs. (shrink)

A critical overview of topics in the philosophy of sex and love, this article pays special attention to the connection between reason and love.

The Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks: Philosophy series serves undergraduate college students who have had little or no exposure to philosophy, as well as the curious lay reader. Following this first primer volume, which introduces both the discipline and the topics of the remaining nine volumes, each handbook will usher the reader into a subfield of philosophy, and explore fifteen to thirty topics in that subfield. Every chapter in each volume will use vehicles such as film to facilitate understanding of philosophical issues; (...) for example, the film Dead Man Walking may be used as an introduction to issues related to the death penalty. (shrink)

This essay is a detailed, critical overview of the evidence and arguments for and against belief in reincarnation.

Wittgenstein's distinction between the subjective and objective uses of the first-person and his claim that " I " plays a referential role in its objective use are explicated and defended in terms of the conceptual connection between the language-games of falsifiability and referring. In addition, Norman Malcolm's criticism of the objective/referring use of "I" is seen to fail because he does not attend to the role that the contextuality of meaning plays in Wittgenstein's account of the different uses of "I".

Wittgenstein's distinction between the subjective and objective uses of the first-person and his claim that " I " plays a referential role in its objective use are explicated and defended in terms of the conceptual connection between the language-games of falsifiability and referring. In addition, Norman Malcolm's criticism of the objective/referring use of "I" is seen to fail because he does not attend to the role that the contextuality of meaning plays in Wittgenstein's account of the different uses of "I".

Wittgenstein's distinction between the subjective and objective uses of the first-person and his claim that " I " plays a referential role in its objective use are explicated and defended in terms of the conceptual connection between the language-games of falsifiability and referring. In addition, Norman Malcolm's criticism of the objective/referring use of "I" is seen to fail because he does not attend to the role that the contextuality of meaning plays in Wittgenstein's account of the different uses of "I".