PAPERS
FROM
JOURNALS AND THE LIKE by Ted Honderich Excerpts from
books Philosophy of Mind
Determinism &
Freedom Political
Philosophy THE 1st CHAPTER OF A BOOK
PUBLISHED IN SEPTEMBER 2002 -- After the Terror
. THE OPENING OF A BOOK OF PHILOSOPHICAL
AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Philosopher: A Kind of Life
PHILOSOPHY OF MIND Consciousness as Existence Again Consciousness as Existence and the End of Intentionality Perceptual, Reflective and Affective Consciousness The above related papers are on a novel idea -- since something new and different is surely needed in the Philosophy of Mind. The second paper corrects the first in important respects. Each paper is preceded by an abstract, but for a journalistic glance at this later 'existentialism', English rather than French, click on Being Aware of This Place You're In. A slight piece of journalism, on Consciousness as Existence Mind the Guff -- John Searle's Thinking on Consciousness and Free Will Examined The above paper gives some of the reason for giving up on such traditional accounts of consciousness as Searle's and turning to something radically different -- e.g. Consciousness as Existence. A little more is said of that view. The categorical version of the above appears in The Journal of Consciousness Studies for July 2000. In my view, or anyway hope, it demonstrates the need for something new and different in the current Philosophy of Mind. That subject is in need of reviving by all of us not distracted by the several sciences of the mind. Donald Davidson's Anomalous Monism and the Champion of Mauve. This brings together two papers, the first and the last of a vigorous controversy in the journal Analysis. They aren't brand new, but maybe they're still true. Functionalism, Identity Theories, the Union Theory Consciousness, Neural Functionalism, Real Subjectivity The above three papers also went against the current Philosophy of Mind, rightly. But now they are just prehistory with respect to the idea of perceptual consciousness as existence. They do not contain that novel but arguable proposition about subjectivity. Can some of the positive stuff in them be so reformed as to be made consistent with the novel idea? Turned into propositions on brains rather than consciousness? Is the Mind Ahead of the Brain? -- Benjamin Libet's Evidence Examined Is the Mind Ahead of the Brain? -- Rejoinder to Benjamin Libet These two papers seem to me grist for my
current mill -- the argument that the Philosophy of Mind needs to
be more philosophical and less scientific. The two papers question some
empirical research, lately also discussed by Daniel Dennett, that is
supposed to show that the mind gets ahead of the brain in time. The two
papers were originally published in the Journal of Theoretical
Biology under the titles
'The Time of a Conscious Sensory Experience and Mind-Brain Theories'
and
'Mind, Brain and Time: Rejoinder to Libet'. DETERMINISM AND FREEDOM Free Will, Determinism, and Moral Responsibility -- The Whole Thing in Brief Compatibilism, Incompatibilism, and the Smart Aleck Determinism as True, Compatibilism and Incompatibilism as Both False, and the Real Problem After Compatibilism and Incompatibilism Mind the Guff: John Searle's Thinking on Consciousness and Freedom Examined The first one of the above six papers, the basis of a lecture or two in foreign parts, is background to the second. The second is a defence (against Richard Double's interesting line and book) of what on a good day still seems to be the resolution of the central philosophical problem of freedom and determinism -- whether freedom is compatible or incompatible with determinism. The third piece, from Robert Kane's The Oxford Handbook of Free Will, does not break a lot of new ground, except for a little sod at the end, but is confident. The fourth breaks another little sod. The fifth, on Searle, says a thing or two worth saying. The categorical version of the paper appears in the Journal of Consciousness Studies April 2001. The sixth is not greatly more than notes for a conference lecture, but does attend a little to the strong work of Professor Robert Kane, particularly his paper on this website. These papers, as well as papers by others,
some in defence of Compatibilism or Incompatibilism, appear on the Determinism and Freedom Philosophy Website.
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY After the
Terror: A Book and Further
Thoughts What Equality Is Not, Fortunately Hierarchic Democracy and
the Necessity of Mass Civil Disobedience MORAL PHILOSOPHY After the Terror: A Book and Further Thoughts The above is as much moral philosophy as
political philosophy . Consequentialism, Moralities of Concern, and Selfishness Unlike some other things under my name, the
above piece seems to me true -- even though it follows that an awful
lot of other writing on consequentialism is wrong. Moral Philosophy is
easier than the Philosophy of Mind, isn't it? METAPHYSICS Time -- What Is Real About It? Time seems to be a matter of the temporal relations, such one event's being before another, and the temporal properties, such as an event's being past. Are only the relations real? Are the properties reducible to the relations? ------------------------------- HOME: T.H. front
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