Conceptual Analysis and Philosophical Naturalism (Bradford Books)

A new program of philosophical analysis that reconciles a certain account of analysis with philosophical naturalism is applied to a range of philosophical issues. Many philosophical naturalists eschew analysis in favor of discovering metaphysical truths from the a posteriori, contending that analysis does not lead to philosophical insight. A countercurrent to this approach seeks to reconcile a certain account of conceptual analysis with philosophical naturalism; prominent and influential proponents of this methodology include the late David Lewis, Frank Jackson, Michael Smith, Philip Pettit, and David Armstrong. Naturalistic analysis (sometimes known as "the Canberra Plan" because many of its proponents have been associated with Australian National University in Canberra) is a tool for locating in the scientifically given world objects and properties we quantify over in everyday discourse. This collection gathers work from a range of prominent philosophers who are working within this tradition, offering important new work as well as critical evaluations of the methodology. Its centerpiece is an important posthumous paper by David Lewis, "Ramseyan Humility," published here for the first time. The contributors first address issues of philosophy of mind, semantics, and the new methodology's a priori character, then turn to matters of metaphysics, and finally consider problems regarding normativity. Conceptual Analysis and Philosophical Naturalism is one of the first efforts to apply this approach to such a wide range of philosophical issues. Contributors David Braddon-Mitchell, Mark Colyvan, Frank Jackson, Justine Kingsbury, Fred Kroon, David Lewis, Dustin Locke, Kelby Mason, Jonathan McKeown-Green, Peter Menzies, Robert Nola, Daniel Nolan, Philip Pettit, Huw Price, Denis Robinson, Steve Stich, Daniel Stoljar Bradford Books imprint Introducing The Canberra Plan / David Braddon-mitchell And Robert Nola -- I: Mind, Concepts, And Theories -- Naturalistic Analysis And The A Priori / David Braddon-mitchell -- Folk Psychology And Tacit Theories : A Correspondence Between Frank Jackson And Steve Stich And Kelby Mason / Frank Jackson, Kelby Mason, And Steve Stich -- A Priori Biconditionals And Metaphysics / Frank Jackson -- The Argument From Revelation / Daniel Stoljar -- Names, Plans, And Descriptions / Fred Kroon -- Jackson's Armchair : The Only Chair In Town? / Justine Kingsbury And Jonathan Mckeown-green -- Is Semantics In The Plan? / Peter Menzies And Huw Price -- Ii: Metaphysics -- Ramseyan Humility / David Lewis -- A Partial Defense Of Ramseyan Humility / Dustin Locke -- Physicalism Without Pop-out / Philip Pettit -- Platitudes And Metaphysics / Daniel Nolan -- Iii: Normativity -- Naturalizing Normativity / Mark Colyvan -- Moral Functionalism, Ethical Quasi-relativism, And The Canberra Plan / Denis Robinson. Edited By David Braddon-mitchell And Robert Nola. A Bradford Book. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [349]-361) And Index. Introducing the Canberra Plan Part I: Mind, concepts, and theories Naturalistic analysis and the A priori / David Braddon-Mitchell Folk psychology and tacit theories : a correspondence between Frank Jackson and Steve Stich and Kelby Mason / Frank Jackson, Kelby Mason, and Steve Stich A priori biconditionals and metaphysics / Frank Jackson The argument from revelation / Daniel Stoljar Names, plans, and descriptions / Fred Kroon Jackson's armchair : the only chair in town? / Jonathan McKeown-Green and Justine Kingsbury Is semantics in the plan? / Huw Price and Peter Menzies Part II: Metaphysics Ramseyan humility / David Lewis A partial defense of ramseyan humility / Dustin Locke Physicalism without pop-out / Philip Pettit Platitudes and metaphysics / Daniel Nolan Part III: Normativity Naturalising normativity / Mark Colyvan Moral functionalism, ethical quasi-relativism, and the Canberra Plan / Denis Robinson. This volume shows how the so-called 'Canberra Plan' of metaphysical research continues to inspire (and provoke) some of the most interesting work in modern metaphysics