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Volume 3 Issue 1

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Contents
Journal Overview

March 19, 2010

Transzendentale Wahrheit. Das metaphysische Vernunftinteresse bei Kant

Axel Hutter

Page range: 5-36

Abstract

Die Vernunft verfügt bei Kant über ein ihr eigentümliches Interesse, durch das sie sich vom Verstand unterscheidet. Das Interesse der Vernunft richtet sich des näheren auf den metaphysischen „Übergang“ zwischen einer bedingten und einer unbedingten Erkenntnis. Im Ausgang von diesem metaphysischen Vernunftinteresse unternimmt Kant eine transzendentale Neubestimmung des Wahrheitsbegriffs, bei der er sich kritisch von einem „objektivistischen“ und einem „intellektualistischen“ Wahrheitsbegriff absetzt.

March 19, 2010

The Liar Syndrome

Albert A. Johnstone

Page range: 37-55

Abstract

This paper examines the various Liar paradoxes and their near kin, Grelling's paradox and Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem. All are found to spring from circular definition – whether of statements, predicates, or sentences – a manoeuvre that generates the fatal disorders of the Liar syndrome: semantic vacuity, semantic incoherence, and predicative catalepsy. Afflicted statements, such as the Liar statement, fail to be genuine statements, and hence say nothing – a point that invalidates the arguments on which the various paradoxes rest. Formal systems are found to require disambiguators to distinguish the pseudostatements from their genuine doubles. Gödel's Theorem is shown to be fallacious, and measures are proposed to correct the conceptual mistakes on which it is based.

March 19, 2010

Intentionality and Feeling. A Sketch for a Two-Level Account of Emotional Affectivity

Mikko Salmela

Page range: 56-75

Abstract

Two main theories of emotional affectivity exist in the modern philosophy of emotion: sensationalism and ‘cognitivism’. The fundamental dispute between these theories concerns the question of whether feeling merely accompanies the evaluative content of emotion or is directed toward it. I reject both sensationalism and cognitivism as general theories of emotional affectivity. Instead, I propose a twolevel account of emotional affectivity that allows both theories their proper due. We must distinguish between feelings with primitive and full-fledged intentionality. Both involve a sense and a reference to an object, but only the latter exhibits experiential directedness toward an object. Primitively intentional first-order feelings emerge as analog representations of changes in one's organismic and/or attitudinal mental state. They amount to a hedonically valenced experience of one's own state, as the sensationalist view suggests. Second-order feelings with full-fledged intentionality emerge when a ‘pure’ feeling is interpreted and categorized in terms of the evaluative content of one's present emotion. They are feelings toward the object of one's emotion, as the cognitivist theory holds.

March 19, 2010

Gadamer on Authority

Kristján G. Arngrímsson

Page range: 76-82

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify an important distinction which is lingering within Hans-Georg Gadamer's words on authority, and is necessary for making his attempt at rehabilitation of authority viable. This is the distinction between genuine authority and formal authority. The importance of this distinction is further explicated with reference to the famous Milgram-experiment on obedience to authority.

March 19, 2010

Reflections on the Philosophy of Science beyond Realism and Constructivism

Henning Høgh Laursen

Page range: 83-101

Abstract

This article is an attempt to sketch the outline of a philosophy of science which avoids the traditional battle zone between realism and constructivism by drawing attention to parallels between modern debates in philosophy of science and themes from classical history of philosophy. I argue that the main problem with these theories is, that they at best can only offer us a metaphorical image of a world which has been made known to us in e.g. science. They can not tell us anything substantial about how we obtain new knowledge about the world. By focusing on a dynamic view on the things in the world notably in the scientific experiment, we might get a more fruitful approach to the multiple ways in which we interact with the world and thus avoid some of the traditional dichotomies of philosophy of science, for instance between nature and society and between things and signs.

March 19, 2010

On Victimhood

Roger Fjellstrom

Page range: 102-117

Abstract

A challenging theme for reflection after the Holocaust is victimhood. There is a presumed but rather unexplored connection between victimhood and intrinsic evil. This essay wants to contribute to the clarification of the concept of being a victim, with special regard to intrinsic evil. Current notions turn out to be impregnated with religious, legalistic and moralistic connotations that express non-victim perspectives. The essay proposes that the concept of being a victim should be interpreted from a victim perspective, which would yield a concept that makes victimhood a possibly universal intrinsic evil. Such a concept, it is suggested, should focus on severe injury in combination with drastically reduced agency in respect to the injury in question.

March 19, 2010

Critical Notice of Armstrong's and Lewis' Concepts of Supervenience

Ingvar Johansson

Page range: 118-122

March 19, 2010

On Colin McGinn, Ethics, Evil, and Fiction

Jerrold Levinson

Page range: 123-134

March 19, 2010

Timothy Williamson. Knowledge and Its Limits. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp. xi + 340

Guy Longworth

Page range: 135-139

March 19, 2010

Niels Thomassen: Ulykke og lykke. Et livsfilosofisk udspil med stadigt hensyn til Søren Kierkegaard. København: Gyldendal, 2001. 488 sider

Mogens Pahuus

Page range: 140-144

March 19, 2010

Stephen Davies, Musical Works & Performances, A Philosophical Exploration, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001

Roger Pouivet

Page range: 144-150

March 19, 2010

Gunnar Schrøder Kristiansen: Jens Kraft og Opplysningen: Filosofi og Vitenskap i Danmark-Norge i det 18. Århundre, Spartacus Forlag, Oslo 2001

Erik Lundestad

Page range: 151-154

March 19, 2010

Günther Witzany: Life: The Communicative Structure - a new philosophy of biology, Libri Books on Demand, Hamburg 2000

Claus Emmeche

Page range: 155-162

March 19, 2010

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Wiener Aufgabe Band 11: ‘The Big Typescript’. Micheal Nedo (red.), Vienna: Springer 2000. 546 pp.

Anne-Marie Christensen

Page range: 165-170

March 19, 2010

Slavoj Žižek: Det skrøbelige absolutte - eller hvorfor er den kristne arv værd at kæmpe for? Oversat til dansk af Henrik Mossin. Forord ved Kirsten Hyldgaard. Gyldendal, 2001. 271s

Henrik Jøker Bjerre

Page range: 171-175

March 19, 2010

Wrathall, M. & Malpas, J. (eds.) Heidegger, Authenticity, and Modernity: Essays in Honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus, Volume 1. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2000 Wrathall, M. & Malpas, J. (eds.) Heidegger, Coping, and Cognitive Science: Essays in Honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus, Volume 2. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2000

Svend Brinkmann

Page range: 175-180

About this journal

SATS – Northern European Journal of Philosophy publishes accessible, high-quality academic articles in all traditions and fields of philosophy. As a broad and inclusive philosophy journal, it is our mission to promote philosophical dialogue across disciplinary boundaries, within philosophy and with neighbouring fields. We welcome submissions from junior as well as senior scholars who in their work are aiming to promote philosophical dialogue. To achieve this, articles submitted to SATS should

be jargon-free and written in clear accessible prose

address a broad audience of philosophers and philosophically oriented academics

seek to contextualise the philosophical questions addressed

SATS publishes two issues per year: A special issue in the spring and a regular issue in the autumn.

Our special issue addresses a topic which has relevance for promoting philosophical dialogue and cross-disciplinary thinking. Please watch for calls for papers to special issues on our homepage.

Our regular issue includes submissions from all fields of philosophy and a book review section. The book review section is especially dedicated to highlighting reviews with interdisciplinary relevance.

Upon submission, we aim to give authors swift feedback on the status of their manuscripts.

Contemporary academic philosophy is characterised by increased specialisation and small technical and scholarly debates. Although such discussions are crucial for the development and growth of knowledge, they require a counterbalance in the form of texts and contexts of broader scope. We believe that original research in philosophy can be written in a non-technical, lucid style and that philosophical discussions have much to gain from such work. To support a fruitful exchange of ideas, we encourage authors to explicate technical issues, and to clarify the relevance of their work to non-specialists.

Our goal is to be a favourite publication venue for interdisciplinary philosophical debates. We welcome and support submissions that contextualise philosophy by bringing it into dialogue with other fields, for instance literary studies, history, sociology, anthropology, economics, mathematics or the natural sciences. We also believe that philosophy benefits from dealing with the immediate concerns of modern societies, and that modern societies benefit from more engaged forms of philosophy. In other words, SATS is happy to provide a venue for articles that put philosophy to work beyond specialised philosophical discussions.

Submit your research online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sats

Your article can be published open access if your institution sponsors such an arrangement or if it has an agreement with De Gruyter – please see the sections about publishing in hybrid open access journals here: https://www.degruyter.com/cms/pages/oa-articles

Call for Papers:

Philosophical Perspectives on Trust in Contemporary Societies