Correct Conceivability and its Role in the Epistemology of Modality

The starting point of this paper is an argument to the conclusion that the definition of metaphysical possibility in terms of correct conceivability, conceivability informed by knowledge of relevant essences, found in Rosen (2006) is equivalent to a version of the essentialist definition of metaphysical necessity. This argument appears to show that correct conceivability is a notion of conceivability by name only and is therefore of no interest to epistemologists of modality. In this paper, I present the equivalence argument, explain the idealizing assumptions involved in it and sketch a version of the conceivability approach which weakens these assumptions in order to show that the notion of correct conceivability can still play a specific limited role in the epistemology of modality

Cross-World Comparatives for Modal Realists

Divers (2014) argues that a Lewisian theory of modality which includes both counterpart theory and modal realism cannot account for the truth of certain intuitively true modal sentences involving cross-world comparatives. The main purpose of this paper is to defend the Lewisian theory against Divers’s challenge by developing a response strategy based on a degree-theoretic treatment of comparatives and by showing that this treatment is compatible with the theory

Soames's argument 1 against strong two-dimensionalism

This paper criticizes Soames's main argument against a variant of two-dimensionalism that he calls strong two-dimensionalism. The idea of Soames's argument is to show that the strong two-dimensionalist's semantics for belief ascriptions delivers wrong semantic verdicts about certain complex modal sentences that contain both such ascriptions and claims about the truth of the ascribed beliefs. A closer look at the formal semantics underlying strong two-dimensionalism reveals that there are two feasible ways of specifying the truth conditions for claims of the latter sort. Only one of the two yields the problematic semantic verdicts, so strong two-dimensionalists can avoid Soames's argument by settling for the other wa

In Response: Should Psychotherapy be Taught to Psychiatric Residents?

The debate discussing whether psychotherapy should be taught to psychiatric residents (1) reflects the change, growth, and maturation of the profession. A theme that virtually defined psychiatric practice only a few decades ago is viewed by some as ready for discard while others still see it as essential. Of course, this isn\u27t the first time. Eighty years ago some argued that the intellectual excitement and therapeutic promise of psychoanalysis was more than ample reason to discard the sterile and clinically nihilistic concern with constitutional neuropathic diatheses that marked 19th century psychiatry. Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed

Husserlian Eidetic Variation and Objectual Understanding as a Basis for an Epistemology of Essence

Vaidya has recently argued that while Husserl’s method for acquiring knowledge of essence through use of our imagination is subject to a vicious epistemic circle, we can still use the method to successfully attain objectual understanding of essence. In this paper, I argue that the Husserlian objectual understanding-based epistemology envisaged by Vaidya suffers from a similar epistemic circularity as its knowledge-based foil. I argue that there is a straight-forward solution to this problem, but then raise three serious problems for an amended version of Vaidya’s proposal and any similar Husserlian epistemology of essence. The paper closes with some general reflections on applying the Husserlian method to the contemporary notion of essence and on the idea of refocusing the epistemology of essence on understanding instead of knowledge

Sociologie de la bohème et de ses rapports avec le prolétariat intellectuel

Le Dictionnaire de l’Académie française tient aujourd’hui à distinguer nettement deux homonymes par leurs orthographes respectives afin de souligner leurs différentes significations. Bohême et bohème. Le premier, avec un accent circonflexe, est une région d’Europe centrale, le centre politique (avec la Moravie) de la République de Tchécoslovaquie, une région dont les habitants sont, ou plutôt s’appellent, les Bohémiens ; le second terme, pour sa part, désigne un groupe d’écrivains ou d’artist..