A Daring Soft Libertarian Response to Present Luck
in Free Will and Luck
February 2006; published online February 2006.
Chapter. Subjects: metaphysics. 14436 words.
This chapter constructs a libertarian view that grants the main moral of Frankfurt-style cases, and offers a resolution of the problem of present luck. Attention to how human beings may develop from...
‘A Dead Cadaverous Thing’
in Causation and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Philosophy
September 2009; published online September 2009.
Chapter. Subjects: metaphysics. 2230 words.
In England, ontological mechanism comes under fire. Figures such as Ralph Cudworth and Henry More argue that this ontology is too impoverished to explain such phenomena as cohesion, gravity, the...
À Dieu
in Between Chora and the Good
September 2004; published online March 2011.
Chapter. Subjects: philosophy of religion. 8734 words.
This chapter examines philosopher and theologian Franz Rosenzweig's view on the interpretation of language. In his Star of Redemption, Rosenzweig suggested an intriguing...
“A Free Man Thinks of Nothing Less Than of Death”
in Early Modern Philosophy
May 2005; published online July 2005.
Chapter. Subjects: history of Western philosophy. 9288 words.
Spinoza's doctrine of the eternal existence of the mind has given rise to an enormous amount of speculation, both as to what he meant by the doctrine and why he included it in the Ethics. This...
A. J. Ayer
Overview page. Subjects: philosophy.
(1910–1989)
British philosopher, responsible for introducing the principles of logical positivism of the Vienna Circle to British philosophers. He was knighted in 1970.
Born in London, Ayer was...
‘A Learned and Eloquent Piety’
in Descartes: An Intellectual Biography
May 1997; published online November 2003.
Chapter. Subjects: history of Western philosophy. 10888 words.
Extracts from Descartes's correspondence with Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia explaining his ideas on the passions lead to a psychological analysis of Descartes and a discussion of melancholia....
A Model of Experience and Knowledge
in Empiricism and Experience
October 2006; published online January 2009.
Chapter. Subjects: philosophy. 14054 words.
This chapter develops an account of experience and knowledge that takes seriously the interdependence of our conceptions of the self and the world. It argues that without an adequate conception of...
A Modulated Case for the Primacy of Value
in Ethics and Qualities of Life
May 2007; published online January 2009.
Chapter. Subjects: moral philosophy. 9918 words.
This chapter charts the roles of consequentialist considerations within an acceptable ethical theory. It argues that quality-of-life (in the sense of what is valuable) considerations are decisive in...
A. N. Whitehead
in Deleuze's Philosophical Lineage
March 2005; published online March 2012.
Chapter. Subjects: philosophy. 7521 words.
This chapter highlights the connection between the philosophies of A.N. Whitehead and Gilles Deleuze. It explains that Deleuze has roots in an early French reader of Whitehead through the work of his...
6 A Naturalist's Case Against V = L
in Naturalism in Mathematics
June 2000; published online November 2003.
Chapter. Subjects: philosophy of mathematics and logic. 8271 words.