Philosophy as Synchronic History
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21876355 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel Stoljar (0000-0003-4506-3614, Australian National University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 155-172 |
| Publication date | 2021-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the American Philosophical Association (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2053-4477 • E-ISSN: 2053-4485 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/apa.2020.14 |
| OpenAlex | W3136183882 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 32 |
Bernard Williams argues that philosophy is in some deep way akin to history. This article is a novel exploration and defense of the Williams thesis (as I call it)—though in a way anathema to Williams himself. The key idea is to apply a central moral from what is sometimes called the analytic philosophy of history of the 1960s to the philosophy of philosophy of today, namely, the separation of explanation and laws. I suggest that an account of causal explanation offered by David Lewis may be modified to bring out the way in which this moral applies to philosophy, and so to defend the Williams thesis. I discuss in detail the consequences of the thesis for the issue of philosophical progress and note also several further implications: for the larger context of contemporary metaphilosophy, for the relation of philosophy to other subjects, and for explaining, or explaining away, the belief that success in philosophy requires a field-specific ability or brilliance
Analytic philosophy · Contemporary philosophy · Epistemology · Metaphilosophy · Metaphysics · Modern philosophy · Moral philosophy · Philosophy of language · Philosophy of mind · Western philosophy · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · History · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science
Frontiers of Science and Philosophy
Making Things Up
Reasons Why
Where the Conflict Really LiesScience, Religion, and Naturalism
The Philosophy of Philosophy
Laws for Metaphysical Explanation
Grounding in the image of causation
Metaphysical Dependence
The Function of General Laws in History
Women are underrepresented in fields where success is believed to require brilliance
No Work for a Theory of Grounding
On What Grounds What
Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline
The Question of Realism
Philosophical Progress
Essays on Actions and Events
Analytic Philosophy of History
Probability, explanation, and information
In defence of story-telling
A Deductive-Nomological Model of Probabilistic Explanation
Scientific Knowledge and the Deep Past
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |