According to Guyer, Kant’s entire aesthetic theory rests on the imputation of intersubjectivity to judgments of taste. Empiricist theories could not establish intersubjectivity; rationalist ones could do so only by construing aesthetic judgment as confused cognitive or moral judgment. But even in the pre-Critical aesthetics, which Guyer teases out of Reflexionen, letters, and student notes, anticipations of a duality in intersubjectivity’s aesthetic function can be found. The first version and the printed version of the Critique of Judgment’s Introduction, in differentiating (...) aesthetic judgment from determinant and teleological judgment, reveal that intersubjectivity must both cause aesthetic pleasure and ground aesthetic judgment. (shrink)

Properties sometimes attributed to the “particle” aspect of a neutron, e.g., mass and magnetic moment, cannot straightforwardly be regarded in the Bohm interpretation of quantum mechanics as localized at the hypothetical position of the particle. This is shown by examining a series of effects in neutron interferometry. A related thought-experiment also provides a variation of a recent demonstration that which-way detectors can appear to behave anomolously in the Bohm theory.

J. S. Bell's classic 1966 review paper on the foundations of quantum mechanics led directly to the Bell nonlocality theorem. It is not widely appreciated that the review paper contained the basic ingredients needed for a nonlocality result which holds in certain situations where the Bell inequality is not violated. We present in this paper a systematic formulation and evaluation of an argument due to Stairs in 1983, which establishes a nonlocality result based on the Bell-Kochen-Specker “paradox” in quantum mechanics.

We start this issue of Journal of Military Ethics with a recent address on military ethics given by one of the US ARMY's leading officers.Brigadier General H. R. McMaster graduated from the United...

I argue that the current view (as held by, eg., Warnock, Anscombe and Stenius) of Wittgenstein's theory of language in the Tractates is mistaken. This view maintains that Wittgenstein's theory is one of 'isomorphism'; that, roughly, a sentence has meaning in virtue of its being a facsimile of a fact or possible fact. But a detailed study of significant passages in the Tractattis shows that Wittgenstein held no such view. His use of important terms, such as Salz, Bild, Sachverhalt, Tatsache (...) , etc., has been crucially misunderstood. There is no isomorphism. The theory is not about sentences at all, but about talking sense. (shrink)

The book called The Consolation of Philosophy was throughout the Middle Ages, and down to the beginnings of the modern epoch in the sixteenth century, the scholars familiar companion. Few books have exercised a wider influence in their time. It has been translated into every European tongue, and into English nearly a dozen times, from King Alfreds paraphrase to the translations of Lord Preston, Causton, Ridpath, and Duncan, in the eighteenth century.

A systematic effort to state and answer the classical problems of moral philosophy, including that of the metaphysical foundations of morals. The outline of problems and the general position argued is reminiscent of Kant's Grundlegung; like Kant, Mr. Raphael locates the essence of morality in the recognition that human personality, including the ability to choose freely, is an "evil in itself." Even more than Kant, however, he is doubtful of demonstrating the force of this conception of morality by rational argument.--R. (...) H. (shrink)

An interesting book, offering a forceful criticism of some classical and modern traditions in philosophy, especially of speculative idealism, phenomenology, and existentialism. The argument is not so much an attack on the explicit theories of these traditions as it is a criticism of their underlying assumptions about the purpose and limits of philosophizing itself. For the author this purpose has been and must always be the clarification of "confusions," as against the discovery of ultimate truths about reality.--R. H.

An independent attempt to discover the standards of judging goodness and right, based on a description of the ways in which such judgments arise in economics and law. The approach and outcome are generally Kantian, and the author concludes with an effort to reconcile the claims of causality and freedom.--R. H.

The author tries to show that modern western science is coherent with past philosophical speculation, both western and eastern. Some of the book's 9 chapters have previously been published in American and Indian journals.--R. H.

A popular survey of human achievement in all fields, based upon a view combining metaphysical naturalism with ethical utilitarianism.--R. H.

Professors A. D. Ritchie and F. H. George both miss the question: What is the use of saying that machines think? Does the extension in the use of the word “think” to cover the complicated activity of modern machines enable us to explain better the nature of such activity? Extensions in usage are common and necessary in science.

Open peer commentary on the article “The Autopoiesis of Social Systems and its Criticisms” by Hugo Cadenas & Marcelo Arnold. Upshot: I discuss the foundations of what I have said in my work as a biologist on autopoiesis, molecular autopoietic systems and social systems. I argue that the theme of sociology should be to understand how is it that we come out of the social manner of living that is the foundation of our origin as languaging and reflecting human beings.

The Uniformly Reflexive Structure was introduced by E. G. Wagner who showed that the theory of such structures generalized much of recursive function theory. In this paper Uniformly Reflexive Structures are constructed as factor algebras of Free nonassociative algebras. Wagner's question about the existence of a model with no computable splinter ("successor set") is answered in the affirmative by the construction of a model whose only computable sets are the finite sets and their complements. Finally, for each countable Boolean algebra (...) R of subsets of a countable set which contains the finite subsets, a model is constructed with R as its family of computable sets. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “Social Autopoiesis?” by Hugo Urrestarazu. Upshot: In my commentary I reflect on conceptual and epistemological questions. In particular, I challenge the idea of trying to define social systems. I also wonder whether in many cases autopoiesis is carelessly used as a mere synonym for self-organization.