Drakes, seadevils, and similarity fetishism

Drakes, seadevils, and similarity fetishism

Homeostatic property clusters (HPCs) are offered as a way of understanding natural kinds, especially biological species. I review the HPC approach and then discuss an objection by Ereshefsky and Matthen, to the effect that an HPC qua cluster seems ill-fitted as a description of a polymorphic species. The standard response by champions of the HPC approach is to say that all members of a polymorp...

Paraphilia and Fetishism

A Contribution to the Study of Fetishism

It is not my intention to deal with the literature of fetishism. It is not very extensive on the analytical side ; and on the non-analytical side, although extensive, it is not very illuminating. Freud has expressed his fundamental contributions to the subject with great lucidity, and there is no doubt to my mind that they provide us with the most important line of approach. But I feel sure tha...

Punitive Damages and Private Ordering Fetishism

Let me begin with some words of warm thanks, first to Professors Michael Krauss and David Owen for engaging my work with attention and interest and, second, to the editors at PENNumbra, for soliciting my reactions. This Reply’s principal goal is to clarify some areas in which I think Professors Krauss and Owen misunderstood some aspects of my proposed framework for restructuring punitive damage...

How to Reform Danto's Vehicle Fetishism

Vehicle fetishism is a near-ubiquitous cultural attitude in theorizing about the arts. It commonly occurs as a background assumption, if not an explicit belief, that the physical vehicles, by means of which the artistic meaning or content of artworks is communicated, must somehow themselves be integral parts of the relevant artworks. Of course, such a primitivist or magical view about the power...