Mind, Language and Morality: Essays in Honor of Mark Platts (Routledge Festschrifts in Philosophy)

"Mark Platts is responsible for the first systematic presentation of truth-conditional semantics and for turning a generation of philosophers on to the Davidsonian program. He is also a pioneer in discussions of moral realism, and has made important contributions to bioethics, the philosophy of human rights and moral responsibility. This book is a tribute to Platts’s pioneering work in these areas, featuring contributions from number of leading scholars of his work from the US, UK and Mexico. It features replies to the individual essays from Platts, as well as a concluding chapter reflecting on his philosophical career from Oxford to Mexico City. Mind, Language and Morality will be of interest to philosophers across a wide range of areas, including ethics, moral psychology, philosophy of law, and philosophy of language. "--Provided by publisher Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Foreword 8 1 Ways of Meaning and Knowing Moral Realities 12 2 Platts on Kant and Mandeville 24 3 Wrong Direction? A Criticism of Direction of Fit 37 4 Equality as a Foundation of Ethics 60 5 Inflation or Deflation of Rights? 70 6 The Debate on the Abuse of the Concept of Human Rights 79 7 Convergence or Divergence in the Evolution of (Criminal) Rights? A Case Study of the Multiple Incoherencies of the Presumption of Innocence 94 8 Wittgenstein on Rule Following: Some Themes and Some Reactions 108 9 Kantian Neuroscience and Radical Interpretation: Ways of Meaning in the Bayesian Brain 126 10 Reflections and Replies 159 a. “Barry Stroud on the Meaning and Transcendence of Values” 160 b. “Ralph Walker on an Attempted Alliance Within Moral Philosophy” 164 c. “Gustavo Ortiz-Millán on the Direction of the Mind” 169 d. “James Griffin on the Ethics of Equality” 173 e. “Juan Antonio Cruz Parcero, Larry Laudan and Rodolfo Vázquez on Candidates for Being Human Rights” 177 f. “Paul F. Snowdon’s Prolegomena to Wittgenstein and Rule-Following” 185 g. “Jim Hopkins on Theories of Meaning, Mind and the Brain” 189 11 Closing Comments: Philosophical Life 194 Contributors 202 Index 204