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Philosophies, Volume 8, Issue 3 (June 2023) – 9 articles

Cover Story (view full-size image): Contentful moral perception is the view that moral properties can be perceived. Heather Logue (2012) has distinguished between two potential ways of perceiving a property. A Kantian Property (KP) in perception is one in which a perceiver’s access involves the detection of the property via a representational vehicle. A Berkeleyan Property (BP) in perception is one in which a perceiver’s access to the property involves that property being partly constitutive of the experience itself. I explore whether proponents of CMP have reasons to understand moral perception as Kantian or Berkeleyan. I explore three possible explanatory differences by: (a) explaining the intrinsic motivating force of moral perceptions, (b) providing a metasemantics for moral properties, and (c) providing an epistemology of the normative authority of moral properties. View this paper
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20 pages, 318 KiB  
Article
Armchair Evaluative Knowledge and Sentimental Perceptualism
by Michael Milona
Philosophies 2023, 8(3), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies8030051 - 19 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1095
Abstract
We seem to be able to acquire evaluative knowledge by mere reflection, or “from the armchair.” But how? This question is especially pressing for proponents of sentimental perceptualism, which is the view that our evaluative knowledge is rooted in affective experiences in much [...] Read more.
We seem to be able to acquire evaluative knowledge by mere reflection, or “from the armchair.” But how? This question is especially pressing for proponents of sentimental perceptualism, which is the view that our evaluative knowledge is rooted in affective experiences in much the way that everyday empirical knowledge is rooted in perception. While such empirical knowledge seems partially explained by causal relations between perceptions and properties in the world, in armchair evaluative inquiry, the relevant evaluative properties are typically not even present. The paper shows how sentimental perceptualists can ultimately provide a broadly causal explanation of our reflective evaluative knowledge. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Moral Perception)
12 pages, 249 KiB  
Article
Forms of Life and Linguistic Change: The Case of Trans Communities
by Anna Boncompagni
Philosophies 2023, 8(3), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies8030050 - 31 May 2023
Viewed by 1485
Abstract
Wittgenstein mentions “forms of life” only on a limited number of occasions in his writings; however, this concept is at the core of his approach to language, as the vast literature on the subject shows. My aim in this paper is neither to [...] Read more.
Wittgenstein mentions “forms of life” only on a limited number of occasions in his writings; however, this concept is at the core of his approach to language, as the vast literature on the subject shows. My aim in this paper is neither to adjudicate which of the many competing interpretations of “forms of life” is correct nor to propose a new one. I start with a methodological take on this notion and test it by applying it to a specific case. In my view, the notion of forms of life is a methodological tool that Wittgenstein uses to draw attention to the embeddedness of language in our lives and practices. This reading, I suggest, allows us to oppose those who want to see in Wittgenstein a conservative thinker, based on his remark on forms of life as “the given” that must be accepted. In particular, it becomes possible to put his notion to use in the study of linguistic and social change. Hence, I propose as an example the case of innovative language games in trans communities. In this context, the notion of forms of life enables us to see with more clarity how linguistic change occurs, which also helps us better understand phenomena such as disagreement, conflict, and hermeneutical injustice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wittgenstein’s “Forms of Life”: Future of the Concept)
17 pages, 290 KiB  
Article
How Naive Is Contentful Moral Perception?
by Preston J. Werner
Philosophies 2023, 8(3), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies8030049 - 31 May 2023
Viewed by 1138
Abstract
According to contentful moral perception (CMP), moral properties can be perceived in the same sense as tables, tigers, and tomatoes. Recently, Heather Logue (2012) has distinguished between two potential ways of perceiving a property. A Kantian Property (KP) in perception is one in [...] Read more.
According to contentful moral perception (CMP), moral properties can be perceived in the same sense as tables, tigers, and tomatoes. Recently, Heather Logue (2012) has distinguished between two potential ways of perceiving a property. A Kantian Property (KP) in perception is one in which a perceiver’s access involves a detection of the property via a representational vehicle. A Berkeleyan Property (BP) in perception is one in which a perceiver’s access to the property involves that property as partly constitutive of the experience itself. In this paper, I set aside generalized arguments in favor of one view or another, and instead ask whether proponents of CMP have reasons to understand moral perception as Kantian or Berkeleyan. I explore three possible explanatory differences—(a) explaining the intrinsic motivating force of moral perceptions, (b) providing a metasemantics for moral properties, and (c) providing an epistemology of the normative authority of moral properties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Moral Perception)
9 pages, 216 KiB  
Article
Solidarity, Care and Permanent Crisis
by Jordi Riba
Philosophies 2023, 8(3), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies8030048 - 31 May 2023
Viewed by 1012
Abstract
Solidarity is a contested concept whose definition needs to be clarified, especially in the context of the recent pandemic and in a world in permanent crisis. It is necessary to review certain stages of how solidarity develops and to relate the stages to [...] Read more.
Solidarity is a contested concept whose definition needs to be clarified, especially in the context of the recent pandemic and in a world in permanent crisis. It is necessary to review certain stages of how solidarity develops and to relate the stages to the current status of solidarity in this post-pandemic period, with the aim of establishing some lines of approach to proposals for viable bioethics in the context of a post-foundational philosophy as the present one. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solidarity in Bioethics)
20 pages, 317 KiB  
Article
Crime and Punishment: A Rethink
by Ognjen Arandjelović
Philosophies 2023, 8(3), 47; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies8030047 - 26 May 2023
Viewed by 2948
Abstract
Incarceration remains the foremost form of sentence for serious crimes in Western democracies. At the same time, the management of prisons and of the prison population has become a major real-world challenge, with growing concerns about overcrowding, the offenders’ well-being, and the failure [...] Read more.
Incarceration remains the foremost form of sentence for serious crimes in Western democracies. At the same time, the management of prisons and of the prison population has become a major real-world challenge, with growing concerns about overcrowding, the offenders’ well-being, and the failure of achieving the distal desideratum of reduced criminality, all of which have a moral dimension. In no small part motivated by these practical problems, the focus of the present article is on the ethical framework that we use in thinking about and administering criminal justice. I start with an analysis of imprisonment and its permissibility as a punitive tool of justice. In particular, I present a novel argument against punitive imprisonment, showing it to fall short in meeting two key criteria of just punishment, namely (i) that the appropriate individual is being punished, and (ii) that the punishment can be adequately moderated to reflect the seriousness of the crime. The principles I argue for and that the aforementioned analysis brings to the fore, rooted in the sentient experience, firstly of victims, and not only of victims but also of the offenders as well as the society at large, then lead me to elucidate the broader framework of jurisprudence that I then apply more widely. Hence, while rejecting punitive imprisonment, I use its identified shortcomings to argue for the reinstitution of forms of punishment that are, incongruently, presently not seen as permissible, such as corporal punishment and punishments dismissed on the basis of being seen as humiliating. I also present a novel view of capital punishment, which, in contradiction to its name, I reject for punitive aims, but which I argue is permissible on compassionate grounds. Full article
21 pages, 331 KiB  
Article
Ends of Life: Forms of Life as the “Ruins of an Enduring Fable”?
by Edward Guetti
Philosophies 2023, 8(3), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies8030046 - 25 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1107
Abstract
This paper addresses the possibility of using the Wittgensteinian conception of “forms of life” (“Lebensformen”) as a potentially transformative philosophical framework that responds to contemporary challenges. These challenges can be understood as resulting from parallel discourses of “ends”: that of “nature” [...] Read more.
This paper addresses the possibility of using the Wittgensteinian conception of “forms of life” (“Lebensformen”) as a potentially transformative philosophical framework that responds to contemporary challenges. These challenges can be understood as resulting from parallel discourses of “ends”: that of “nature” and that of the “human”. These challenges are relevant, especially, for a Cavellian interpretation of Wittgensteinian Lebensformen as an expression of cultural and natural factors. My purpose is to show how Cavell’s elaboration of Wittgensteinian Lebensformen can be maintained against the critical pressures exerted by prevailing discourses of ends. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wittgenstein’s “Forms of Life”: Future of the Concept)
15 pages, 293 KiB  
Article
John Dewey’s Radical Temporalism
by Vincent Colapietro
Philosophies 2023, 8(3), 45; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies8030045 - 24 May 2023
Viewed by 1182
Abstract
The author presents John Dewey’s mature account of temporal continuity, showing how Dewey’s position can be identified as a form of radical temporalism. Even at the most elemental level (that of subatomic particles), natural existence is for such a temporalist an irreducibly temporal [...] Read more.
The author presents John Dewey’s mature account of temporal continuity, showing how Dewey’s position can be identified as a form of radical temporalism. Even at the most elemental level (that of subatomic particles), natural existence is for such a temporalist an irreducibly temporal affair. While he focuses primarily on Dewey’s “Time and Individuality” (1940), the author supplements his account by drawing upon Experience and Nature (1925), “Events and the Future” (1926), and to a lesser extent, other texts. In his magnum opus, Dewey draws a crucial distinction between temporal quality and temporal seriality. In an essay published the following year, he insists, contra C. D. Broad, on qualitative heterogeneity being an intrinsic trait of even the thinnest slice of the tem-poral continuum. The most elemental units of the temporal flux are neither “eternal and immu-table”, nor qualitatively homogenous. They also exhibit a from-to-through structure, with the dimensions of time being defined by these terms (pastness as from which, futurity as toward which, and presentness as through which). By relating the distinction between temporal quality and temporal seriality as well as the central claims made in “Events and the Future” to “Time and Individuality”, the author brings into clear focus the contours of Dewey’s radical temporalism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Historic Ontology and Epistemology)
12 pages, 430 KiB  
Article
Prolegomena to the Study of Love
by Alan Soble
Philosophies 2023, 8(3), 44; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies8030044 - 17 May 2023
Viewed by 993
Abstract
Consider this propositional function which includes the dyadic predicate “loves”: “X does not love Y unless Y loves X” (or “if Y does not love X”). This function may be treated in four ways. (1) If universally quantified, it states [...] Read more.
Consider this propositional function which includes the dyadic predicate “loves”: “X does not love Y unless Y loves X” (or “if Y does not love X”). This function may be treated in four ways. (1) If universally quantified, it states a (purported) conceptual truth about “love” or the nature or essence of love. Love is necessarily reciprocal. (2) If universally quantified, it may alternatively be a nomological generalization stating an empirical or factual truth about human nature, i.e., about a pattern of reciprocity that occurs among people who are independently identified as lovers. (3) If instantiated with constants, it is an empirical proposition about the attitudes or behaviors of particular individuals (a, b, c). Finally, (4) the function may be treated axiologically; it expresses a normative judgment about what love ought to be or what lovers ought to feel or do. Other propositional functions may be constructed for the constancy, exclusivity, and benevolence of love. This essay investigates the implications of these understandings of the function and how they are logically related to each other. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Philosophical Richness and Variety of Sex and Love)
21 pages, 321 KiB  
Article
The Effects of a Martial Arts-Based Intervention on Secondary School Students’ Self-Efficacy: A Randomised Controlled Trial
by Brian Moore, Dean Dudley and Stuart Woodcock
Philosophies 2023, 8(3), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies8030043 - 10 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3316
Abstract
Physical activities are generally accepted as promoting important psychological benefits. However, studies examining martial arts as a form of physical activity and mental health have exhibited many methodological limitations in the past. Additionally, recent philosophical discussion has debated whether martial arts training promotes [...] Read more.
Physical activities are generally accepted as promoting important psychological benefits. However, studies examining martial arts as a form of physical activity and mental health have exhibited many methodological limitations in the past. Additionally, recent philosophical discussion has debated whether martial arts training promotes psychological wellbeing or illness. Self-efficacy has an important relationship with mental health and may be an important mechanism underpinning the potential of martial arts training to promote mental health. This study examined the effect of martial arts training on the psychological construct of self-efficacy. A total of 283 secondary school students with a mean age of 12.76 (SD = 0.68) years were recruited to complete a time-limited (10-session) martial arts intervention, which was examined using a randomised controlled trial. Univariate ANOVAs found that the intervention improved the experimental group’s self-efficacy compared to the control group, which was sustained at follow-up. Regression analysis indicated that socio-educational status moderated this outcome. These findings support the martial arts-based intervention’s potential to improve self-efficacy and promote wellbeing through physical activity. Martial arts training may be an efficacious psychosocial treatment that can be used as a complementary approach to promote mental health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Philosophy and Science of Martial Arts)
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