James R O’shea
Biographic Data
| ID | 1634269 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James R O’shea |
| GIVEN NAMES | James R |
| FAMILY NAME | O’shea |
| SIGNATURE | O’SHEA J R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College Dublin |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7478-638X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 8 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Conceptions du sens interne et de l’aperception chez Kant, Sellars, et dans l’École de Pittsburgh
Ce que l’on appelle désormais l’« École de Pittsburgh » est en partie connu pour les différentes façons dont ses représentants ont adapté des idées centrales de Kant. Dans cet article, j’examine comment Sellars, R. Brandom et J. McDowell se sont approprié, chacun à leur manière, les conceptions kantiennes du « sens interne » et de l’« aperception ». Ce qui est frappant, c’est la divergence des perspectives philosophiques qui ont émergé de ce noya…
An Interview with John McDowell on his 2013 Agnes Cuming Lectures (UCD), ‘Two Questions About Perception’
In 2013 John McDowell, Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, delivered the Agnes Cuming Lectures that are hosted annually by the School of Philosophy at
On Kant’s Janus-Faced Transcendental and Empirical Conception of the Human Being
There has been increased attention to the empirical and naturalistic dimensions of Kant’s philosophy in recent decades, across both his theoretical and practical philosophy. Anik Waldow’s impressively wide-ranging and carefully argued book, Experience Embodied: Early Modern Accounts of the Human Place in Nature (Waldow 2020), clearly demonstrates the fruits of this reoriented focus, not only in the case of Kant, but also in all the embodied agenc…
What is the myth of the given
The idea of ‘the given’ and its alleged problematic status as most famously articulated by Sellars (1956, 1981) continues to be at the center of heated controversies about foundationalism in epistemology, about ‘conceptualism’ and nonconceptual content in the philosophy of perception, and about the nature of the experiential given in phenomenology and in the cognitive sciences. I argue that the question of just what the myth of the given is suppo…
A Tension in Pragmatist and Neo-Pragmatist Conceptions of Meaning and Experience
This paper examines a lasting tension in pragmatism between broadly functionalist outlooks on meaning and a primacy placed on what can be revealed by direct experiential or practical encounters. Both the inferentialist and experiential emphases can be traced back to Peirce’s original pragmatic maxim. Here the tension is examined first in William James’s insightful views on intentionality and experience, followed by a diagnosis of the problem as i…
Objective Truth and the Practice Relativity of Justification in the Pragmatic Turn
In the beginning, as they say, was the ‘pragmatic maxim’ of Peirce and James. Peirce’s early formulation of the maxim in "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" ran as follows: Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object. (Peirce, 1878: 132; cf. Bernstein, 2010: 2-3, and O’Shea, 2008: 208-13) At its…
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
Immanuel Kant s Critique of Pure Reason (1781) remains a landmark work of philosophy and one that most students will encounter at some point in their studies. At nearly seven hundred pages of detailed and complex argument it is a demanding and intimidating read. James O Shea s introduction to the Critique seeks to make it less so. Aimed primarily at students coming to the book for the first time, it provides step by step analysis in clear, unambi…
The Needs of Understanding
This article examines the relationship in Kant between transcendental laws and empirical laws (focusing on causal laws), and then brings a particular interpretation of that issue to bear on familiar puzzles concerning the status of the regulative maxims of reason and reflective judgment. It is argued that the ‘indeterminate objective validity’ possessed by the regulative maxims derives ultimately from strictly constitutive demands of understandin…
The Needs of Understanding
This article examines the relationship in Kant between transcendental laws and empirical laws (focusing on causal laws), and then brings a particular interpretation of that issue to bear on familiar puzzles concerning the status of the regulative maxims of reason and reflective judgment. It is argued that the ‘indeterminate objective validity’ possessed by the regulative maxims derives ultimately from strictly constitutive demands of understandin…
What is the myth of the given
The idea of ‘the given’ and its alleged problematic status as most famously articulated by Sellars (1956, 1981) continues to be at the center of heated controversies about foundationalism in epistemology, about ‘conceptualism’ and nonconceptual content in the philosophy of perception, and about the nature of the experiential given in phenomenology and in the cognitive sciences. I argue that the question of just what the myth of the given is suppo…
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
Immanuel Kant s Critique of Pure Reason (1781) remains a landmark work of philosophy and one that most students will encounter at some point in their studies. At nearly seven hundred pages of detailed and complex argument it is a demanding and intimidating read. James O Shea s introduction to the Critique seeks to make it less so. Aimed primarily at students coming to the book for the first time, it provides step by step analysis in clear, unambi…
A Tension in Pragmatist and Neo-Pragmatist Conceptions of Meaning and Experience
This paper examines a lasting tension in pragmatism between broadly functionalist outlooks on meaning and a primacy placed on what can be revealed by direct experiential or practical encounters. Both the inferentialist and experiential emphases can be traced back to Peirce’s original pragmatic maxim. Here the tension is examined first in William James’s insightful views on intentionality and experience, followed by a diagnosis of the problem as i…
Objective Truth and the Practice Relativity of Justification in the Pragmatic Turn
In the beginning, as they say, was the ‘pragmatic maxim’ of Peirce and James. Peirce’s early formulation of the maxim in "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" ran as follows: Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object. (Peirce, 1878: 132; cf. Bernstein, 2010: 2-3, and O’Shea, 2008: 208-13) At its…
The Needs of Understanding
This article examines the relationship in Kant between transcendental laws and empirical laws (focusing on causal laws), and then brings a particular interpretation of that issue to bear on familiar puzzles concerning the status of the regulative maxims of reason and reflective judgment. It is argued that the ‘indeterminate objective validity’ possessed by the regulative maxims derives ultimately from strictly constitutive demands of understandin…
Objective Truth and the Practice Relativity of Justification in the Pragmatic Turn
In the beginning, as they say, was the ‘pragmatic maxim’ of Peirce and James. Peirce’s early formulation of the maxim in "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" ran as follows: Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object. (Peirce, 1878: 132; cf. Bernstein, 2010: 2-3, and O’Shea, 2008: 208-13) At its…
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
Immanuel Kant s Critique of Pure Reason (1781) remains a landmark work of philosophy and one that most students will encounter at some point in their studies. At nearly seven hundred pages of detailed and complex argument it is a demanding and intimidating read. James O Shea s introduction to the Critique seeks to make it less so. Aimed primarily at students coming to the book for the first time, it provides step by step analysis in clear, unambi…
A Tension in Pragmatist and Neo-Pragmatist Conceptions of Meaning and Experience
This paper examines a lasting tension in pragmatism between broadly functionalist outlooks on meaning and a primacy placed on what can be revealed by direct experiential or practical encounters. Both the inferentialist and experiential emphases can be traced back to Peirce’s original pragmatic maxim. Here the tension is examined first in William James’s insightful views on intentionality and experience, followed by a diagnosis of the problem as i…
What is the myth of the given
The idea of ‘the given’ and its alleged problematic status as most famously articulated by Sellars (1956, 1981) continues to be at the center of heated controversies about foundationalism in epistemology, about ‘conceptualism’ and nonconceptual content in the philosophy of perception, and about the nature of the experiential given in phenomenology and in the cognitive sciences. I argue that the question of just what the myth of the given is suppo…
An Interview with John McDowell on his 2013 Agnes Cuming Lectures (UCD), ‘Two Questions About Perception’
In 2013 John McDowell, Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, delivered the Agnes Cuming Lectures that are hosted annually by the School of Philosophy at
On Kant’s Janus-Faced Transcendental and Empirical Conception of the Human Being
There has been increased attention to the empirical and naturalistic dimensions of Kant’s philosophy in recent decades, across both his theoretical and practical philosophy. Anik Waldow’s impressively wide-ranging and carefully argued book, Experience Embodied: Early Modern Accounts of the Human Place in Nature (Waldow 2020), clearly demonstrates the fruits of this reoriented focus, not only in the case of Kant, but also in all the embodied agenc…
Conceptions du sens interne et de l’aperception chez Kant, Sellars, et dans l’École de Pittsburgh
Ce que l’on appelle désormais l’« École de Pittsburgh » est en partie connu pour les différentes façons dont ses représentants ont adapté des idées centrales de Kant. Dans cet article, j’examine comment Sellars, R. Brandom et J. McDowell se sont approprié, chacun à leur manière, les conceptions kantiennes du « sens interne » et de l’« aperception ». Ce qui est frappant, c’est la divergence des perspectives philosophiques qui ont émergé de ce noya…
Epistemology (7 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Philosophical Ethics and Theory (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Intentionality (3 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (3 works) · Pragmatism (3 works) · Metaphysics (2 works) · Perception (2 works) · Philosophy and Theoretical Science (2 works)