Research and Publications - Department of Philosophy
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Item Reconciling Deflationism and Satisfaction Semantics(Springer, 2026) Wrenn, Chase B.Item On Lao Tzu's Idea of the Self(Open Library of Humanities, 1981-06-02) Wu, Kathleen Johnson“Tao” may be translated as “principle” or “way.” In Chinese philosophy the term is often used to refer to the way of a sage. Lao Tzu gives it a different though related meaning: The way of a sage is not Tao but to act like Tao. But what is Tao? How does one come to act like Tao? I shall clarify the idea of the self that is implicit in Lao Tzu’s answer to these two questions and relate his insights to some findings, attitudes, and problems of contemporary science. That this can be done is seen in how Lao Tzu and some contemporary thinkers try to unify facts and values. Lao Tzu’s understanding of altruism is a case in point: Genuine altruism is rooted in a primitive disposition to be useful, and thus it can be learned only through examples of symbiosis in nature. I shall discuss his views on altruism and egoism, and the relation between the individual and the natural environment and the man-made, and other issues of current scientific concern.Item Police interrogation and fraudulent epistemic environments(Cambridge University Press, 2025-02-24) Hunt, Luke WilliamThe police are required to establish probable cause before engaging in custodial interrogation. Much custodial interrogation relies on a fraudulent epistemic environment (FEE) in which the police knowingly use deception and dishonesty to gain an advantage over a suspect regarding a material issue, injuring the interests of the suspect. Probable cause, then, is a sort of evidentiary and epistemic standard that legally justifies the police’s use of deceptive and dishonest custodial interrogation tactics that are on par with fraud. However, there are both deontological and consequentialist considerations that show why the police’s use of an FEE is often unjustified. Accordingly, the paper argues that even if the use of an FEE is based on probable cause, there are other (non-epistemic) reasons to think evidence with probative value (such as a confession) should be excluded when derived from an FEE and there is no acute threat of harm to others.Item Preambular Persuasion as Proleptic Engagement: The Legislative Strategy of Plato's Laws(Cambridge University Press, 2025) Solis, EricIn the Laws, Plato argues that legislation must not only compel, but also persuade. This is accomplished by prefacing laws with preludes. While this procedure is central to the legislative project of the dialogue, there is little interpretative agreement about the strategy of the preludes. This article defends an interpretation according to which the strategy is to engage with citizens in a way that anticipates their progress toward a more mature evaluative outlook, and helps them grow into it. The article shall refer to this strategy as proleptic engagement. While the virtuous ways of life required by law are intimately connected to happiness, the preludes do not persuade by spelling out this connection. Rather, they persuade by telling citizens what they need to hear so that they can come to appreciate this connection for themselves, in the context of their own lives. While the preludes are many and varied, this article argues that all preambular material can be understood as proleptic engagement.