david armstrong – manwithoutqualities

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May 13, 2014david armstrong

David Malet Armstrong (8 July 1926 – 13 May 2014)

H/T to Andrew Irvine. DMA’s wiki entry. david armstrongExternalismfunctionalismMaterialismmetaphyicsneurosciencephilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mind

March 15, 2014david armstrong

David Malet Armstrong

My chum Andrew Irvine has a terrific piece “David Armstrong and Australian Materialism” along with a Reader’s Guide in the latest issue of Quadrant. Andrew mentions that Armstrong attended Oakeshott’s History of Political Thought lectures earlier on his career when he had a stint at Birkbeck. I’d forgotten this unlikely connection: Armstrong had mentioned this to…

July 18, 2012australian philosophy, conservatism, david armstrong, michael oakeshott, mind body

David Malet Armstrong

“David Armstrong has suggested (lightly) that the strong sunlight and harsh brown landscape of Australia force reality upon us.” Cited in Devitt’s Realism and Truth, p. x It’s great to see that DMA is still with us, as is “Jack” Smart, both grandees of OZ philosophy. The number of top-notch philosophers that OZ has produced relative…

April 18, 2009alvin goldman, coherentism, david armstrong, epistemology, idealism, ignoratio elenchi, leslie marsh, michael freeden, modality, modernity, modes, Nozick, oakeshott, podoksik, political philosophy, postmodern, quine, ramsey, relativism, rorty, sellars, terry nardin, truth

Oakeshott’s Relativism

Attributions of relativism to Oakeshott are twofold: The first, and the more common attribution, is from the general perspective of viewing Oakeshott as a postmodern relativist. The second, more technical aspect and less familiar attribution, involves the assumption that Oakeshott was a coherentist. I examine the second view first. On this assumption it is standard to…