Russian Philosophers on Personal Origins Social Concepts

English Women Philosophers and the Origins

In his recent book on the rise of modernity, Jonathan Israel argues that philosophers and philosophical ideas played a significant role in the transformation of opinions and attitudes across early modern Europe. In the seventeenth century, Cartesian philosophy in particular was at the forefront of the formation of modern concepts and institutions. Many aspects of Cartesianism are now seen as ty...

The origins of concepts

Certain of our concepts are innate, but many others are learned. Despite the plausibility of this claim, some have argued that the very idea of concept learning is incoherent. I present a conception of learning that sidesteps the arguments against the possibility of concept learning, and sketch several mechanisms that result in the generation of new primitive concepts. Given the rational consid...

The Philosophers' Process on Graphs

Cheiron's origins: personal recollections and a photograph.

When the Cheiron Society convened at the University of New Hampshire for its thirty-fifth annual meeting in June 2003, members were returning to the site where the proposal to establish a new scholarly organization to promote research in the history of the behavioral and social sciences originated in the summer of 1968. I was witness to Cheiron's birthing and have been closely involved in its e...

Social Constructivism for Philosophers of Technology: a Shopper's Guide1

Social constructivist approaches in technology studies have recently gained the attention of philosophers of technology, as is shown by a number of publications (e.g., Mitcham, 1995; Feenberg and Hannay, 1995; Winner, 1991, 1994; Feenberg, 1992, 1995). Whereas the aim of some of these studies is to provide a philosophical critique of social constructivism (e.g., Winner 1991), others aim to inco...