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Joe

Sep 30, 20212 min

Peoples and states in Rawls' Law of Peoples

Peoples and states are treated differently by Rawls in the Law of Peoples than in A Theory of Justice, but does this extend to democracies?

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Joe

Sep 21, 20213 min

On the impossibility of Rawls' realistic utopia

There are reasons to reject Rawls' realistic utopia, and this post considers at least two of them.

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Joe

Sep 13, 20213 min

Outlaw states' nuclear ambitions are real!

Rawls believed outlaw states had no reason to acquire nuclear weapons if superpowers could suppress their desire for them. Rawls is wrong.

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Joe

Aug 30, 20213 min

Contradictory principles in Rawls' *Law of Peoples*

Rawls argues that countries should leap to the defence of another country but is forbidden from instigating war. What justifies this?

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Joe

Aug 16, 20213 min

Does Mackie's epistemological argument from queerness fail because it assumes objectivity?

Mackie's epistemological argument from queerness presupposes that objective values are not influential. I argue that Mackie rejects that.

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Joe

Aug 3, 20212 min

Objectivity and Mackie's epistemological queerness argument

If Mackie's epistemological argument from queerness is correct, then epistemic access to objective value is possible.

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Joe

Jul 26, 20214 min

Is truth objective?

Michael Lynch argues for truth's objectivity early in his (2004), and I challenge that argument here.

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What are desires behind the veil of ignorance?

Joe

Jul 20, 20213 min

What are desires behind the veil of ignorance?

John Rawls' justice as fairness was based upon principles discovered by persons behind a veil of ignorance. Does the VOI eliminate desires?

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Joe

Jul 7, 20214 min

Is pornography rape?

People tend to overlook instances of sex as rape because of their preconceived ideas. Here, I argue that pornography is rape.

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Joe

Jun 28, 20213 min

Motivating logical psychologism

In this post, I present two arguments that motivate an interest in seeing logical psychologism rehabilitated.

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Quine's notion of paraphrase and modest conceptual analysis

Joe

Jun 16, 20212 min

Quine's notion of paraphrase and modest conceptual analysis

Quinean paraphrase is one of the best exemplifications of conceptual analysis.

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Joe

Jun 9, 20213 min

Is human agency dependent on the cooperation of others?

Complete ignorance of others' rules and policies is implausible; we infer their rules and policies from their behaviour.

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Are motivating reasons normative reasons?

Joe

Jun 3, 20213 min

Are motivating reasons normative reasons?

Alan Millar distinguishes between motivating and normative reasons, but is the distinction as clear-cut as many have believed it to be?

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Re-examining the trolley vignette: when is sacrificing the five acceptable?

Joe

May 25, 20215 min

Re-examining the trolley vignette: when is sacrificing the five acceptable?

A version of the trolley vignette can elicit the opposite reaction to the dilemma, i.e., sacrifice the five to save the one.

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Joe

May 13, 20213 min

A modest role of conceptual analysis

Is Jackson's modest role of conceptual analysis any better than the immodest role?

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Joe

Apr 30, 20212 min

Categorising emailers

A summary of types of emailers: relaxed, driven, and stressed.

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Joe

Apr 22, 20212 min

Thinking blindspots

Thinking blindspots are aggravating because they take our focus away from important matters and clues that could lead to alternative ends.

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Joe

Apr 14, 20211 min

Is truth a goal of science?

A quick note on the nature of scientific progress and getting closer to the truth.

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Joe

Apr 6, 20216 min

Tarski, Field, and Deflationism

Tarski's theory of truth has been thought to be a definition of truth without giving an explanation of it; here, I take that to task.

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Joe

Mar 9, 20217 min

On the puzzle of non-denoting phrases

Russell contended that non-denoting phrases were problematic because of scope ambiguity; in this post, I challenge that view.

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Joe

Feb 23, 20215 min

On holistic positive coherence theories of justification

Pollock and Cruz criticise Lehrer's holistic theory of coherence justification. In this post, I offer a defence of Lehrer's position.

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Joe

Feb 9, 20213 min

Habermas, narrative over argument

Jürgen Habermas has claimed that narrative shouldn't replace argument in philosophy but that narrative is philosophy.

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