Philosophical Progress: And Other Philosophical Studies

Description

The nine original essays collected in this volume explore the themes of philosophical progress, ultimate explanation, the metaphysics of free will, and the relation of sciences and religion. These essays exemplify Nicholas Rescher's characteristic mode of combining historical perspectives with analytical elucidation on philosophically contested issues and utilize this methodology to address some of the salient problems of the field. Preface 1 Philosophical Progress 1.1 The Question of Progress 1.2 Presidential Perspectives 1.3 Experiential Contextualism 1.4 Technical Progress 1.5 Present Prospects 2 Issues of Ultimate Explanation 2.1 Some Ontological Theses 2.2 The Axiological Turn 2.3 The Role of Intelligence in Axiology 2.4 An Oversimple Illustration of Formation by Selective Elimination 2.5 Summary 3 Evidentiating Free Will 3.1 The Problem Setting 3.2 Understanding Free Will 3.3 Evidentiating Free Will 3.4 Is Free Will Unscientific? 3.5 Libet Problems 3.6 Free-Will Naturalism and Evolution 4 God and the Grounding of Morality 4.1 The Best-Interest Theory of Morality 4.2 The Divine-Command Theory of Morality 4.3 A Different Turning: The Duty-of-Gratitude Theory of Morality 4.4 But Are Those Opportunities for the Good Real? 4.5 Summary 4.6 A Postscript on the Insufficiency of Divine Command Theory 5 Contextuality and the Relation to Science and Religion 5.1 Contextuality 5.2 The Relation of Science and Religion 5.3 Directive Understanding 6 Value Exclusion and Neutrality in Science 6.1 Is/Ought Separation and Value Exclusion from Science 6.2 Why Fact/Value Separation Is Untenable: I Logical Grounds 6.3 Why Fact/Value Separation Is Untenable: II Practical Grounds 6.4 What Is Left of Value-Freedom 6.5 What It Means for the Working Scientists 7 Generalization and the Future 8 Cognitive Eschatology in C. S. Peirce 8.1 Actual vs. Putative 8.2 Long-Run Problems: I 8.3 Long-Run Problems: II 8.4 Explaining How It Is That Nature Is Cooperative 8.5 Peircean Idealism 8.6 The Possibility of Science 9 Reference Theory 9.1 Preliminaries: The Idea of Reference Space 9.2 Count Problems 9.3 Massaging Numbers 9.4 Taxonomic Focusing 9.5 Logarithmic Reduction Name Index