intuitions
TagDeontologists, Utilitarians, and Predictability
Non-philosophers tend to view utilitarians as less moral and deontologists as more moral. The reason for this, according to recent research, is that deontologists are more “predictable.” (more…)
Intuitive Expertise in Moral Judgments (guest post)
“People’s intuitive judgments about thought experiment cases are influenced by all kinds of irrelevant factors… the issue of intuitive expertise in moral philosophy is anything but settled.”
Philosophical Intuitions Are Surprisingly Stable (guest post by Joshua Knobe)
There seems to be a very general pattern whereby the tensions in people’s intuitions tend to be surprisingly stable across both demographic groups and situations. (more…)
Intuitions, Common Sense, and “Earning the Right” to Judgments about Philosophy
“Intuitions and common sense are not, I claim, a good basis on which to reach philosophical conclusions.” (more…)
Philosophical Intuitions and Demographic Differences
Philosophers are disagreeing over what lessons should be learned from the growing body of work on the interplay between demographics and philosophical intuitions. (more…)
Three Observations About Moral Philosophy Today
Below are three features of contemporary moral philosophy that I’ve observed, and that may be worth discussing. I present them largely without judgment, except to say here that each seems like a mixed bag. Feel free to discuss, evaluate, elaborate, etc. These aren’t the only observations I have about moral philosophy today, but they are ones that recent events have..
Intuitive Bedrock and the Philosophical Enterprise (guest post by Dale Dorsey)
The following guest post* is by Dale Dorsey (Kansas) and appears here via a special arrangement with Oxford University Press and the OUP Blog, at which it is also posted.
Intuitive Bedrock and the Philosophical Enterprise
by Dale Dorsey
Imagine a person who spends their entire life sitting on the couch watching and rewatching Clive Barker’s Hellraiser. He..
Two Ideas About Philosophers’ Use Of Intuitions
James Andow (Reading) has a very interesting post up at Imperfect Cognitions about how philosophers use intuitions. As he notes, and as everyone acknowledges, philosophers use intuitions. And, as everyone knows, reliance on intuitions has come under intense criticism, increasingly so during the past four decades. But how fair is the general criticism of philosophy t..
Sosa and Stich Win Lebowitz Prizes for Philosophical Achievement
Ernest Sosa and Stephen Stich, both professors of philosophy at Rutgers University, have been awarded the 2016 Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prizes for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution.
The prizes—$26,500 to each winner—are awarded by the Phi Beta Kappa Society and the American Philosophical Association (APA). They go to two philo..
Thought Experiments and Philosophical Method
In an interview at 3:am Magazine, Richard Marshall presses Philip Kitcher (Columbia) on his criticism of a priori, thought-experiment-driven approaches to philosophy. Marshall says that a criticism of Kitcher’s view is that it “would end much typical philosophical investigation.” Kitcher replies:
Thought experiments work when, and only when, they call into action..
Rise of the Intuitions
Is there a word more overused in philosophy nowadays than “intuition”? That is many people’s intuition sense of things, but why go with gut feelings when there is data? That’s right: data. James Andow of the University of Reading has just published findings on the use of the word “intuition” and its variations in an article in Metaphilosophy entitled “How ‘Intuitio..
Is this video a test of your rationality or your humanity or what?
Boston Dynamics builds robots. Here’s a video of “Spot,” their robotic dog. Watch until at least the 10-second mark.
Is it wrong to kick the dog? What can we learn from our reactions to this video?
An article here reports on the reactions of others.
Philosophers and Cognitive Bias
Should the order in which a person considers thought experiments affect one’s responses to them? Rationally, it seems no. Yet the “order effect” is well-confirmed. What about philosophers? We are supposed to have a kind of expertise in handling thought experiments and are known (?) for thinking clearly and rationally; certainly the content of our judgments are not s..