Modality, The Synthetic Apriori, and Phenomenology
Course at IAP-PUC, Second Semester 2008, by Daniel von Wachter
Lunes y Miércoles 15:00 - 16:20 h
Contact: epost@ABCD.de - replace "ABCD" by "von-wachter"
- You can reach this page via http://2008-2-modality.von-wachter.de
- All links on this page automatically open in a new tab or window
- Refresh this page each time you re-visist it (Ctrl+F5), because it might have been updated.
- Search on a page with Ctrl+F
Content of this page
At the heart of the difference between logical empiricism (and, in a narrow sense, 'analytic phi-losophy') and realist phenomenology lies a difference in the understanding of modality, i.e. possibility and necessity. Phenomenology puts forward synthetic modal claims about the world - synthetic a priori claims -, whereas logical empiricism rejects all synthetic modality and al-lows only possibility in the sense of 'logical possibility', i.e. consistency, and only necessity in the sense of logical necessity, i.e. analyticity. Modal questions arise everywhere in philosophy, and how one interprets them determines not only which views one takes but also one's phi-losophical method.
The aim of this course is to understand the problem of modality and the synthetic apriori and to answer questions about it. The interpretation and understanding of texts is essential for this course too, but it is subordinate to this aim. The professor will present all relevant alternative views but also present and defend his own views. The students are free to defend any view.
In this course we shall
-
investigate both approaches by reading texts from logical empiricism and from phenomenology
- develop in detail a theory of possibility as synthetic possibility
- read contemporary texts about modality
- investigate the relation between modality and philosophical method
- address important philosophical modal questions, e.g. concerning the existence of God and the mind-body problem
Advice
Read http://von-wachter.de/lehre/students.html#englisch
18 August 2008
Read for the next session carefully: Armstrong 1989, 7-13. Give a brief answer in writing to this question:
What does Armstrong mean by "semantic reasons" and what does he object to such reasons?
Read on this also: Wachter, Daniel von, "The Ontological Turn Misunderstood: How to Misunderstand David Armstrong’s Theory of Possibility", Metaphysica, Vol. 5: pp. 105-114, download.
27.8.2008
Read for this session: Wachter, Daniel von, "The Ontological Turn Misunderstood: How to Misunderstand David Armstrong’s Theory of Possibility", Metaphysica, Vol. 5: pp. 105-114, download, HTML.
10.9.2008
Texts relevant for this session:
- Analytic/Synthetic Distinction
- Wachter, D. von: "What is possible?"/ "Synthetische Notwendigkeit"/ Die kausale Struktur der Welt (Buch)
- Ayer, A.J., 1936, Language, Truth, and Logic (Condensed version, Wikipedia, Summary
- Schlick, Moritz. 1930. "Is There a Factual Apriori?" (original: "Gibt es ein materiales Apriori?"). In: Readings in Philosophical Analysis, edited by H. Feigl and W. S. Sellars. New York: Ridgeview, 1983.
15.9.2008
For this session read:
- Skyrms, Brian, "Tractarian Nominalism", in Armstrong 1989, 145ff.
- Laurence and McDonald, ed., part II.
- Schlick, Moritz. 1930. "Is There a Factual Apriori?" (original: "Gibt es ein materiales Apriori?" HTML). In: Readings in Philosophical Analysis, edited by H. Feigl and W. S. Sellars. New York: Ridgeview, 1983.
22.10.2008
For this session, study Hildebrand, Ethics, ch. 4.
27.10.2008
For this session read:
- Hildebrand, ch. 4
- Reinach: "Was ist Phänomenologie?" (see also "Die Theorie des negativen Urteils"
- Zelaniec
Important contemporary texts
Important texts by phenomenologians
Texts from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Other articles in dictionaries
List of all texts
- Armstrong, David, 1989, A Combinatorial Theory of Possibility
- Ayer, A.J., 1936, Language, Truth, and Logic (Condensed version, Wikipedia, Summary
- Nikolaus von Cues: Gespräch über Seinkönnen
- Divers, John, Possible Worlds
- Findlay, John, 1948, "Can God's Existence be Disproved" (HTML)
- Hildebrand, Dietrich von, What is Philosophy
- Jackson, Frank, 2000, From Metaphysics to Ethics: A Defense of Conceptual Analysis
- King, Peter: "Duns Scotus on Possibilities, Powers, and the Possible"
- Laurence and Macdonald: Contemporary Readings in the Foundations of Metaphysics, part II (Lycan, Lewis, Stalnaker, Forrest)
- Leibniz: "On Contingency
", http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/f_leibniz.html
- Lewis, David, On the plurality of worlds
- Lowe, E. J. 2002. A Survey of Metaphysics, Oxford UP.
- Pfänder, Alexander, Logik
- Plantinga, Alvin. 1974. The Nature of Necessity. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Quine, WVO, 1948, "On What There Is" (HTML, PDF)
- Quine, WVO, 1951, "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" (HTML)
- Reinach, Adolf, "Was ist Phänomenologie?"/ "What is Phenomenology"
- Scheler, Max. 1916. Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die materiale Wertethik. 6. ed. Bern, München: Francke Verlag, 1980.
- Schlick, Moritz. 1930. "Is There a Factual Apriori?" (original: "Gibt es ein materiales Apriori?" HTML). In: Readings in Philosophical Analysis, edited by H. Feigl and W. S. Sellars. New York: Ridgeview, 1983.
- Seifert, Josef, Discours des Méthodes: Discourse on the Methods of Philosophy and Realist Phenomenology
- Swinburne, Richard, 1994, The Christian God, ch.
- Wachter, Daniel von, "What is Possible?" (I shall send you this article)
- Wachter, Daniel von, "The Ontological Turn Misunderstood: How to Misunderstand David Armstrong’s Theory of Possibility", Metaphysica, Vol. 5: pp. 105-114, download, HTML.
- Zelaniec,Wojciech, 1996, The Recalcitrant Synthetic Apriori, PDF