Results 21 to 30 of about 732 (66)

Shepherd on Hume’s Argument for the Possibility of Uncaused Existence

Journal of Modern Philosophy, 2020
Shepherd’s argument against Hume’s thesis that an object can begin its existence uncaused has received short shrift in the secondary literature. I argue that the key to understanding that argument’s success is understanding its dialectical context ...
David Landy
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Leibniz and the Molyneux Problem

Journal of Modern Philosophy, 2020
The Molyneux problem is one of the major questions addressed by early modern authors. Whereas Locke’s response to Molyneux’s question has been the subject of extensive scholarly discussion, Leibniz’s response has received comparatively little attention ...
Bridger Ehli
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What Am I? Descartes’s Various Ways of Considering the Self

Journal of Modern Philosophy, 2020
In the ;Meditations' and related texts from the early 1640s, Descartes argues that the self can be correctly considered as either a mind or a human being, and that the self’s properties vary accordingly.
Colin Chamberlain
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Spinoza’s ‘Infinite Modes’ Reconsidered

Journal of Modern Philosophy, 2019
My two principal aims in this essay are interconnected. One aim is to provide a new interpretation of the ‘infinite modes’ in Spinoza’s Ethics. I argue that for Spinoza, God, conceived as the one infinite and eternal substance, is not to be understood as
Kristin Primus
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Absential Suspension: Malebranche and Locke on Human Freedom

Journal of Modern Philosophy, 2019
This paper treats a heretofore-unnoticed concept in the history of the philosophical discussion of human freedom, a kind of freedom that is not defined solely in terms of the causal power of the agent.
Julie Walsh
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Spinoza and the Logical Limits of Mental Representation

Journal of Modern Philosophy, 2019
This paper examines Spinoza’s view on the consistency of mental representation. First, I argue that he departs from Scholastic tradition by arguing that all mental states—whether desires, intentions, beliefs, perceptions, entertainings, etc.—must be ...
Galen Barry
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“That Sottish and Selfish principle”: Cugoano on Self-Interest, Imagination, and Moral Wrongdoing

Journal of Modern Philosophy
The following paper analyzes Ottobah Cugoano’s argument against the type of moral wrongdoing of those who participated in the practices of the transatlantic slave trade and of enslavement. I will argue that Cugoano describes moral wrongdoing in a general
Aminah Hasan-Birdwell
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Acquiescentia and Power in Spinoza’s Ethics

Journal of Modern Philosophy
The challenge at the center of this paper is to reconcile three explicit assertions that Spinoza makes in his Ethics: 1. Rational self-esteem is “a joy born of the fact that a man considers himself and his own power of acting”; 2.
Noa Naaman-Zauderer
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Fallibilism and Givenness in Marx's Critique of Stirner

Journal of Modern Philosophy
Marx is a fallibilist. He holds that no commitment is immune to revision under pressure of rational scrutiny. His criticisms of rival thinkers often turn not just on their getting things wrong, but on their being too little observant of this precept.
Lawrence Dallman
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Modal Metaphysics and the Priority of Causes in Hume's Treatise

Journal of Modern Philosophy
In his Treatise of Human Nature Hume claims to demonstrate that simultaneous causation is absolutely impossible; all causes must precede their effects in time.
Ariel Melamedoff
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