Dead Philosophers' Carnival - The 60th Philosophers' Carnival.

Welcome to the Dead Philosophers’ Carnival - The 60th Philosophers' Carnival.

The death of Socrates marks one of the most significant moments in the development of philosophy. It is one of the landmarks in the development of Plato’s thought, and thus influential on all who have laboured under his tutelage. It is also one of the deaths that have a presence in the history of philosophy; a notable elder sibling to the deaths of Seneca, Boethius, Nietzsche, and Foucault.

The death of a philosopher marks the conclusion of their endeavours. In some cases it comes at the end of substantial contribution, in others it comes a little too early.

The intent of this Carnival – the first in what, it is hoped, will be an annual series – was to provide an opportunity for the students of philosophy to reflect on the contributions made by those who did not see the close of 2007. Admittedly not everyone stuck to the theme, but if philosophers always did what was asked of them, where would we be?

Duckrabbit starts the proceedings with a discussion of the work of Richard Rorty, one of the most high-profile philosophers to die in 2007 with: Is Rorty a "textualist"? And if so, is that bad?

Inconsistent thoughts provides a retrospective of Paul Cohen’s work on the Continuum Hypothesis: On Cohen and CH

VirtualPrimate gives an excellent summation of the Humanist philosophy of of Kurt Vonnegut jr: Goodbye Blue Monday : Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 1922-2007

Philosophy etc talks not about someone in particular who died, but about the end of one’s life itself with: Death's Deprivations


Enigmania nominated two other posts of note relating to the work of philosophers who passed in 2007:

Religious Pluralism and Consistency relates to Jewish religious philosopher Ernst Ludwig Ehrlic’s work

and

Monty Hall and Interpretations of Probability is in the area of the late Henry E Kyburg Jr, well known for his contributions to both Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence.


And now to the other articles of philosophy worthy of inclusion, but sadly off-theme.

Pete Mandik of Brain Hammer assures us that: Your Brain is Reading This. And who are we to argue?

Andrew Moon of Show-me the Argument asks us to consider how much similarity is there between The Train Case and the Hospital Case ?

Gualtiero Piccinini quizzes us on out semantic intuitions (I have none, Kripke has ruined them) - Will You Share Your Semantic Intuitions?

Nothing of Consequence revisits some earlier work on Sequent Calculus in: Operational meaning and global meaning in sequent calculus.

And finally, Thom Brooks at The Brooks Blog outlines some of the pitfalls awaiting us when we try to get a book deal with: Some of the worst advice on publishing (Graduate Students note: Thom's blog is packed with good advice in many relevant areas!)


To all the contributors who made the cut, especially those who stuck to the theme, well done and keep up the good work. The Editors appreciate the effort that you went to.

With only one exception (the article was good, but not actual philosophy), the rest of the submissions we received were essentially political, commercial or religious spam and/or total and utter drivel. Those people will get nothing from us except pure contempt. You know who you are.

Happy New Year Everyone.

Philosophy Honours at Newcastle in 2008

Details of the honours program in Philosophy have just recently been made available.

In 2008, the following Honours course work components be offered:

Eros and Agape (Dr Joe Mintoff) An examination of the two forms of love: Eros and Agape. The writings of a range of classical and more contemporary authors will be considered.

Consciousness (Dr John Wright). An examination of the philosophical problems of consciousness. Much contemporary philosophy is devoted to this topic.

Philosophical Issues of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Dr Yin Gao) An examination of the methodological and philosophical issues connected with traditional Chinese Medicine. Classic Chinese texts, as well as recent work, will be studied in this course.

Science, Rationality and Realism (Dr John Wright) An examination of the issues surrounding scientific Realism and Truth.

Of course, as well as the coursework, there is the 12,000 - 15,000 word thesis to be completed! I recommended that students considering doing Honours in 2008 contact the Philosophy Discipline ASAP, and discuss possible thesis topics.

Entry to this program is restricted to those with a complete Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in philosophy and at least a credit average (GPA of 5.0 on a 7 point scale or an average of over 65%) in the that philosophy major. Places are limited, but the faculty will be taking direct applications up until February. If you are interested, please go to the Philosophy info page and contact Dr John Wright for more details.

Mind Papers

David Chalmers and David Bourget have announced the launch of MindPapers, a new website with a bibliography covering 18,087 published papers and online papers in the philosophy of mind and the science of consciousness. Many of these are available online at no cost and many more should accessible for University of Newcastle students if the follow the instructions for 'off campus access' or via the library portal.

This isn't just a great resource for philosophy students and academics, but for those studying and practicing psychology as well with over 3900 entries on the science of consciousness.

Philosophy Job Market and Publishing Advice

Aidan McGlynn (of the boundaries of language) has recently constructed this page of links containing advice about employment and publishing (and they are intimately linked at this time) for philosophers.

Anyone considering a career in Philosophy should take a look.

God or Blind Nature? Philosophers Debate the Evidence

On July 1st, Internet Infidels released the first installment ("Mind and Will") of a four-part series of debates called "God or Blind Nature? Philosophers Debate the Evidence." This "Great Debate" concerns which of naturalism or theism is more likely to be true given different kinds of evidence. The second installment ("Evil and Evolution") was released on September 1st, and the third and fourth installments ("Science and the Cosmos" and "Faith and Uncertainty") will be released on November 1st and January 1st, respectively.

In the first installment Andrew Melnyk defends physicalism about the human mind, the truth of which he takes to be some evidence against theism, while Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro defend substance dualism and libertarian free will, which they take to undermine naturalism.

In section two Paul Draper defends his argument from the biological role of pain and pleasure against the existence of God, while Alvin Plantinga defends his famous argument that evolutionary naturalism is self-defeating. Each contributor critiques the opening case of the other, and each defends his opening case against its critique.

The Internet Infidels are soliciting questions to pass on to the contributors on either of the two sides of these debates as part of Q&A sessions to be published online later, and would appreciate it if you would inform your students in the appropriate classes about this interactive dialogue.

Members on both sides of the Theist/Atheist side of the fence would benefit from looking over these arguments.

A Definition Of Philosophy - The Study Of Understanding

Recently I was contacted in my capacity as Club President with a request by one Philip Atkinson who expressed a wish to meet with the group and speak about his views on Philosophy. Before deciding whether or not it's wise for such a meeting to occur, I thought it would be educational (for all parties) if various contributing members could take a look at his work on his website and present their reactions in a series of posts. Mr Atkinson seems keen to have people try to refute his arguments, and I hope that other members will be happy to oblige him. I know I am.

So I'd like to open with my thoughts on A Definition Of Philosophy - The Study Of Understanding
(Please go and read it, this won't make much sense otherwise).

Atkinson's opening remark sets the tone for the whole piece, and isn't without it's problems. While I agree that Philosophy is viewed with some suspicion and trepidation by much of the populace, I'd hardly take this as a sign that it is an "unhelpful discipline". A large group of people thinking that something was true never made it so (well maybe, more of that later) for example the earth being flat and so forth. A quick tour of Mr Atkinson's site reveals that he doesn't believe that the belief of the masses constitutes truth or even reasonable evidence. The difficulty in discovering the achievements of philosophy, if I may be so direct, arises from a lack of serious study of the subject.

The assertion that it can be made into a "useful science" presents a few issues as well. MH has suggested that the move should be in the other direction - that Science should regognise its philosophical beginnings. I'll leave that argument to him for the moment. What I will ask is that we take the time to think about what is meant by 'useful' in this context, and who exactly reaps the benefit.

So on to the "self evident" truths, which I have italicised for the sake of clarity. In examining these, each of which constitutes a premise in Mr Atkinson's argument, I'll look at if they are actually true or at least plausible and if they are indeed self-evident. The validity (or lack thereof) of the argument will become apparent along the way.

1. Philosophy is the study of understanding.

Perhaps. We could get into it being the rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge, but it is unnecessary, and soon you'll see why.

2. Understanding is the bestowing of meaning upon observations.

Once again, I’d say maybe. But be aware that there are two ways that this definition can be taken at this point. If an event occurs I can understand how it happened (the car fell into the river because the bridge collapsed) without understanding why it happened (was there a divine purpose to the tragedy?). This definition talks about meaning as if it were the same as belief, which isn’t consistent with what follows.

3. Meaning is the realisation obtained by applying beliefs to the observations of an understanding —the use of reason. These beliefs are the understanding .

Now the problem becomes apparent: ‘Understanding’ is defined in terms of ‘Meaning’ and vice-versa. Unless this circularity is dealt with the whole argument is a house built on sand. “Meaning is the realisation obtained by applying beliefs to observations.” would have made more sense. If we take ‘realisation’ to be a process of coming to or gaining a belief (which seems plausible), then Meaning is the process of gaining beliefs through the application of other beliefs to the observations of an understanding. But if we apply this definition to point 2, Understanding becomes ‘the bestowing of a process of gaining beliefs upon observations’, which does not really make sense and makes point 3 somewhat ungainly. It also highlights how inconsistent the final assertion in point 3 is.

The entirety of follows is already problematic as Atkinson hasn’t yet produced an adequate non-circular definition of ‘understanding’, so there is no real reason to accept any of it till that problem is resolved. However in the interest of being through I’ve made brief responses to what remains.

4. Two Kinds Of Beliefs:

i. Control the Understanding —those bestowed by nature and modified by infancy in the creation of an understanding so are unchangeable: that is, the instincts and infantile experiences, which dictate what the creature should, or should not, do — survive, eat, sleep, multiply, etc.— thus allowing the recognition of right from wrong, and are the morality of the understanding.

That the factors that dictate our behaviour might dictate or influence what we then take to be moral or immoral behaviour. This is controversial enough, but to take the further step that these factors for what is actually morally right or wrong, which seems to be implied here, is much longer bow to draw. Following the ‘morality’ link provides further expansions of what Mr Atkinson thinks constitutes morality, how it should be taught and its importance.

ii. Tools of the Understanding — those revealed by the understanding's experience of cause and effect. That is, if you step off a cliff you fall, and these axioms, which are collected and refined throughout the life of the understanding, allow the recognition of true or false and are the knowledge of the understanding.

If it is the collection of axioms through experience that allow us to judge truth from falsity, then how do we make this judgement in a new case where there are no axioms applicable to it? Are all tools of the understanding revealed through experience? If they are then how do we even recognise cause and effect? Kant (I think) suggests that this is an innate ability.

— this Morality and Knowledge together form the beliefs, or truths, of the understanding. Hence:

Beliefs and Truths are not always interchangeable, see below.

5. Truth is the beliefs, or realisations, of an understanding, and is used to create the reality of an understanding.

Most philosophers, myself included, would assert that there is more to Truth than just beliefs or realisations. Some beliefs and the like can be wrong. A person can believe P when not-P is the actual real state of the world. Even if you ascribe to an ‘assertability’ rather than truth value type of view, then you would still have a test of community or expert acceptance that would have to be passed before something could be called a ‘truth’. Both of the categories of ‘belief’ above can fall prey to either of these objections. You need good reasons for moving something from the category of ‘belief’ to that of ‘truth’ and they are simply not supplied in this case.

6. Reality is the creation of an understanding as it is the remembered meanings, or experience, of an understanding and consists of:

	i. The nature of the understanding—its senses
ii.	The position of the understanding—what it can observe
iii.	The experience of the understanding—the meaning it realises.

This sounds like the claim is that reality is somehow constructed in your head, which is a view popular with some philosophers, but not with others. At the risk of being labelled a realist, could we not just say that ‘reality is’?

To take another tack, if reality is created from experience, then with no experience there is either no reality at all, or you have no grip on it, depending on what level of ontological commitment you feel like taking on. Regardless, either situation leaves no room for an account of how we go about creating/making sense of reality if only experience can give us the tools to do so.

7. Wisdom is the habits (traditions) adopted by an understanding to achieve the greatest benefit from its reality.

Even if wisdom was the habits or traditions of a community or individual, what the ‘greatest benefit’ is, is not self-evident. Achieving the greatest benefit is (arguably) not always the most morally right course of action for an individual or even for a community. The ends might not justify the means. And knowing how to do the morally or ethically wrong thing for one's own benefit is not what everyone would consider 'wise', though some would.

To sum up:

It is arguable that all of the “Self-evident truths” presented here are not true, and most certainly not self-evident. For something to be self-evident, it needs to be either true by definition, or so obvious as to require no explanation. ‘A triangle has 3 sides’ is self-evident, and some philosophers might consider the notion that one can now that know that one is conscious is self-evident. None of Atkinson's propositions presented above are analytically true, nor is it implausible to deny their truth. His declarations therefore are not self-evident and I dare anyone to adequately explain to me how I’m wrong on that score.

It is worth noting that it can't be claimed that I have misunderstood these self-evident statements. If a proposition is claimed to be self-evident, it is an argumentative fallacy to assert that disagreement with the proposition indicates a misunderstanding of it.

On a more serious note, the argument simply does not fit together in a logical structure. In fact the whole thing would have worked better if the assertions were presented in the opposite order as the definitions run in the totally wrong direction, when they go anywhere at all. Declaring something to be true does not make it so. I would encourage readers to read, and respond to Mr Atkinson’s work including that regarding Recognising Good And Evil and The End Of Western Civilization.

Sam Douglas.

Wendell Holmes on Philosophers

'Any two philosophers can tell each other all they know in two hours.' - Oliver Wendell Holmes.

[Apologies for not providing a more precise citation at present.]

Rorty on Democracy and Philosophy

Since his death Rorty has become something of a regular here about. Here is one of his last works, discussing the premises of his philosophy.

2nd Online Philosophy Conference

The 2nd Online Philosophy Conference (OPC2) has opened this week with a keynote address from Professor Ernest Sosa.

Undergraduate Philosophy at the University of Newcastle

For the official University of Newcastle philosophy course descriptions, please click on the course code. You will note that not all philosophy courses are available this year. This is due to a combination of issues, so generally they are run on alternate years .
If we had enough people express interest, then the university might be able to run them more often.

If you are an Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident and do not currently qualify for entry to university, but want to study philosophy, both Newstep and Open Foundation run excellent introductory Philosophy courses.

PHIL1020 Introduction to Philosophy A 10 units
An introduction to Philosophy through a range of topics from to the Mind-Body problem to Utilitarianism. Content changes almost every year. Not indicative of the structure or depth of more advanced courses.

PHIL1030 Introduction to Philosophy B 10 units
As above. Has previously included Existentialism, Peter Singer on Animal Rights and Darwinism.


PHIL1060 Introduction to Philosophy of Psychology 10 units
An introduction to the philosophical issues arising from the study of psychology.

PHIL3020 Metaphysics 20 units
Does Space have a shape? Do other minds exist? Do I have hands? Is Inductive reasoning of causation reasonable? Survey a highly diverse selection of philosopher’s arguments in one of the most interesting and fundamental branches of philosophy. I enjoyed it in the past, therefore you will enjoy it in the future!

PHIL3030 Reason and Religion 10 units
One of the most popular higher level philosophy courses run by the faculty, content covers most of the major arguments for the existence of God, as well as many of the arguments against this proposition.

PHIL3060 Topics in Ancient, Medieval and Modern Philosophy 10 units (Not available in 2007)
Plato, Aquinas and Nietzsche. A heady and dangerous mix if the proportion of Nietzsche is too high. Spend many happy hours in the Godfrey Tanner bar wondering what it would be like to be a barbarian. In all seriousness a great precursor to any serious study of ‘Continental’ philosophy.

PHIL3070 Scientific Knowledge and Scientific Method 10 units
What is special about Science and why does it work so well? How should we decide between competing theories? Includes work by Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn and Paul K Feyerabend.

PHIL3120 Philosophy and Film 10 units (Not available in 2008)
A highly popular course with both Film and Philosophy students.


PHIL3140 Non-European Philosophy 10 units
See how the other half live. Daoism & Lao-Tzu, Confucianism, and ancient chinese cosmology. Dwell on filial piety, ponder the elegant visual poetry of Lao-Tzu, or completely un-do your mind by thinking about what the Dao is like.

PHIL3260 Philosophy of Language 10 units (Not available in 2008)
Covering works from Kripke, Quine, Wittgenstein and many more this course gives a solid introduction to a field that straddles Logic, Philosophy of Mind and the relationship between our words and the world we inhabit.


PHIL3420 Critical Thinking 10 units
Learn to differentiate between Soundness and Validity. Finally figure out what those little diamond and square shapes in books about logic mean. Hone your critical skills in a way that can improve your performance in almost any other discipline if applied properly.

PHIL3430 Introduction to Rationality Theory 10 units (Not available in 2008)
If you are lucky enough and know more about game theory than your opponent, you could win a cash prize from Dr Mintoff!

PHIL3451 Philosophy and the Good Life 20 units (Not available in 2008)
What is ‘the Good’? How will we know it when we see it? What is the role of pleasure in life?

PHIL3460 Philosophy and Human Relationships 10 units
Friendship, Love, Happiness and Politics.

PHIL3580 Ethical Issues 10 units
Both a stimulating and at times confronting look at ethical issues surrounding the profession of Social Work. Even if you are not a Bachelor of Social Work student, this is worth doing if you are interested in issues of social welfare and justice.

PHIL3720 Philosophy of Cognitive Science 10 units (Not available in 2008)
Once run by the now legendary Professor Cliff Hooker, this course may, or may not be back. But I (and others) hope that it will return at some stage.

PHIL3821 Enlightenment and its Discontents 20 units (Not available in 2008)
The Enlightenment, Modernity & its defenders and the people who insisted on pointing out the problems with both. As Mr Hill would say: “Was ist Aufklarung?”

PHIL3850 Power and Subjectivity 20 units (Not available in 2008)
Want to understand Foucault? Well it will take more than this, but it is a good start. Covering a large amount of material from Conolly, Lukes, Marcuse and Foucault, this course looks at the exercise of power and the creations of subjects via everything from discourses on sex to correction by incarceration, ostensibly from a continental perspective.

PHIL3910 Technology and Human Values 10 units
Striking fear into the hearts of engineering students, who will do anything to avoid it as it involves thinking, writing essays and working in groups, this course exists to expose students to normative decision making in an engineering, design and dynamic systems modeling context, through the use of both technological examples and philosophic works.

PHIL3930 Human Values and Commercial Practice 10 units
Should businesses ever be ethical for reasons other than money?
Widely taken by business and management students (who generally miss the point) Looks at issues of normative ethics and meta-ethics from a business and managerial perspective.

There is also an Honours program in Philosophy available through the Bachelor of Arts. This consists of a full-time year (or equivalent) of study roughly split between coursework on selected topics and a written dissertation/thesis on a topic of the students own choosing. Coursework varies from year to year, but has in the past choices have included courses on: Kripke’s Meaning Scepticism, Philosophy of Consciousness, Socrates, David Hume and Aristotelian Virtue Ethics.

Candidates who achieve Honours Class I or Class II Division 1 are eligible for admission to post-graduate research degrees. Alternatively, for those seeking further coursework based study in other fields, successful completion of this Honours year translates to an extremely high score on the Universities Admissions Index (UAI).

A note on ‘units’: A standard course ( aka subject) is 10 units, and a normal full-time load is 40 units per semester.