To mark the birthday of David below is a relatively recent and welcome return by him to metaphysics after moving away, primarily to ethics, for the latter part of his career. Sameness and Substance would figure in my top twenty favourite philosophical books, historical or contemporary, and one of a handful of direct influences upon my…
Coming soon. Aristotlecognitive closureConservatismFerenc HörcherPolitical philosophyprudenceTradition
Until about 2006 I read pretty much everything I could on the knowing-how/knowing-that distinction. Here is one paper that I’ve only recently come across by David Wiggins in Mind. I was very lucky to have Wiggins as a tutor, a most honorable man and an exacting philosopher. AristotleDavid WigginsEpistemologyGilbert Ryleknowing-that knowing-howMichael Oakeshott
Steven Nadler reviews Grayling’s latest. anthony graylingAristotleChristianityDavid HumeDescartesleibnizmodern philosophyPhilosophyspinozasteven nadler
A promising new title from U of Penn with several references to Aristotle, Hume, Oakeshott, Hayek, Aron, Berlin and more besides. The business of a government [is] not to inflame passion and give it new objects to feed upon, but to inject into the activities of already too passionate men an ingredient of moderation. — Michael Oakeshott…
One of my favourite living philosophers (if not the favourite) is David Wiggins. He was my tutor for ethics but not unfortunately for metaphysics which by then had become a secondary interest for him. Great to see that he has just released a new book gathering several of his most important essays on identity in one volume.…
Here’s a relatively recent piece from David Wiggins of course invoking the historical figure he is most familiar with — Aristotle: One who agrees to speak about the ethical meaning of work might be expected to say something about its religious significance. Given limitations of time and competence, let me simply offer two remarkable utterances from the…
The richly eclectic Ed Feser has brought my attention to his latest paper. If you don’t know Ed’s work or at least his blog (as well as his popular writings), you really should explore his diverse interests. Ed is one of those highly unusual writers because he so naturally draws on contemporary, ancient and scholastic perspectives and this…
Friends are not concerned with what might be made of one another, but only with the enjoyment of one another; and the condition of this enjoyment is a ready acceptance of what is and the absence of any desire to change or to improve. A friend is not somebody one trusts to behave in a…
After a long break from writing on metaphysics the wonderful David Wiggins has a freely available paper published in the European Journal of Philosophy. Sameness and Substance remains one of the most satisfying (and most difficult) reads I’ve ever experienced. Forty four years ago I published a short monograph called Identity and Spatio-Temporal Continuity, henceforth ISTC…
manwithoutqualities 