Philosophy
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Adrian Haddock - Work in Progress
(1) 'Putnam and Idealism' (This essay considers Hilary Putnam's response to the charge that the argument against metaphysical realism which he presents in chapter one of Reason, Truth, and History gives rise to a form of transcendental idealism, and argues that Putnam's response itself invites the charge of self-stultification.)
(2) '"The knowledge that a man has of his intentional actions" (II)' (This essay builds on an earlier essay of mine with the same title, which argued for a certain way of understanding G.E.M. Anscombe's claim that 'the knowledge that a man has of his intentional actions' is not just knowledge 'without observation', but 'practical knowledge'. It argues that Anscombe's claim is not vulnerable to certain influential counter-arguments, when understood in the way I suggest.)
(3) 'What is Transcendental Idealism?' (This essay argues that the form of transcendental idealism which emerges from both the Transcendental Aesthetic and related sections of the Prolegomena is very close to the form discussed in essay (2) above. It discusses this claim in relation to the contrasting claims of Allais, Allison, Guyer, and Setiya.)
(4) 'The Force of the "Because"' (This essay argues that the influential 'causal closure' or 'exclusion' argument for 'physicalism' rests on a conception of causal explanation which is both unmotivated and unnecessary. I have written an essay with this title, on this topic, every year for the past five years, and each time have ended up throwing the essay away. But I think this might just be The One.)