【Philosophy】African philosophy cannot be a thing
This essay unpacks several arguments about the metaphilosophic nature of African philosophy and charts a way through the problems these arguments enco... [more]
【Philosophy】Fusion Philosophy and Epistemic Injustice
I use the concept of epistemic injustice to think through the practice and methodology of comparative, or fusion, philosophy. I make two related claim... [more]
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Science and security before the atomic bomb: The loyalty case of Harald U. Sverdrup
In the summer of 1941, Harald Sverdrup, the Norwegian-born Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) in La Jolla, California, was denied security clearance to work on Navy-sponsored research in underwater acoustics applied to anti-submarin
T. C. Chamberlin, climate change, and cosmogony
This paper examines the life and work of T. C. Chamberlin, a prominent glacial geologist who developed an interest in interdisciplinary earth science. His work on the geological agency of the atmosphere informed his understanding of climate change and oth
The assembly of geophysics: Scientific disciplines as frameworks of consensus
What makes any investigative field a scientific discipline? This article argues that disciplines are ever-changing frameworks within which scientific activity is organised. Moreover, disciplinarity is not a yes or no proposition: scientific activities may
Imagining membership: The conception of Europe in the political thought of T. G. Masaryk and Vaclav
A decade after the fall of Communism in Europe, the Czech Republic's membership in the European Union is still a matter of a relatively short waiting period of 4 years. Not so the imagination of this membership and the creation of a political concept cre
An american philosopher at Moscow State University, 1964-1965
For an American philosopher participating in a cultural exchange program with the Soviet Union in 1964-65, a year spent in the Philosophy Faculty of Moscow State University, studying and doing research in the history of Russian philosophy, provided many i
The challenge of postmodernism and the health of theology
This article addresses the situation of contemporary theological thinking in relation to postmodernism, or contemporary Continental philosophy. Using a criterion of health from Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, it argues that theology should avoid eit
Complexity versus uncertainty: The question of staying alive
Some real objects show a very particular tendency: that of becoming independent with regard to the uncertainty of their surroundings. This is achieved by the exchange of three quantities: matter, energy and information. A conceptual framework, based on bo
Two explanations of evolutionary progress
Natural selection explains how living forms are fitted to their conditions of life. Darwin argued that selection also explains what he called the gradual advancement of the organisation, i.e. evolutionary progress. Present-day selectionists disagree. In t
The revival of rejective negation
Whether assent )'acceptance') and dissent ('rejection') are thought of us speech acts or as propositional attitudes, the leading idea of rejectivism is that a grasp of the distinction between them is prior to our understanding of negation as a sentenc
The mind and the faculties: the controversy over 'primitive mentality' and the struggle fo
This article deals with some aspects of the study of the mind between the 1920s and 1940s at the University of Paris. Traditionally the domain of philosophy, the study of the mind was encroached upon by other disciplines such as history of science, ethnol
Trustworthiness in explanation: The obligation to explain well
'Scientific integrity' certainly requires that data and references be beyond reproach. However, issues within the theory of scientific explanation suggest that there may be more to if than just this. While it is true that some contemporary, pragmatic an
The use of genetic test information in insurance: The argument from indistinguishability reconsidere
In the bioethical literature, discrimination in insurance on the basis of genetic risk factors detected by genetic testing has been defended and opposed on various ethical grounds. One important argument in favour of the practice is offered by those who b
McDowell on Kant: Redrawing the bounds of sense
John McDowell's Mind and World is a notable attempt to redirect the interest of analytic philosophers toward certain themes in Kantian and more recent continental thought. Only thus, he believes, can we move beyond the various failed attempts by Quine, D
Identity and difference: A hundred years of analytic philosophy
At its origins, analytic philosophy is an interest in language, science, logic, analysis, and a systematic rather than a historical approach to philosophical problems. Early analytic philosophers were famous for making clear conceptual distinctions and fo
The mission of philosophy today
The paper gives a brief characterization of philosophical problems; points up something of their significance for the culture, the social order, and our lives; indicates the methodology appropriate for the problems; and presents a view of the cultural mis