luvluv

The only thing of Burger's I have read is his deconstruction of James' The Will to Believe, and in all honesty I thought it was written by an undergraduate.

It is really brutally ad hominem in places and in my mind blatantly misrepresents a lot of what James was saying. Maybe the kid had a bad day or whatever, but after reading that he went high up on my list of Essayists Never to be Read Again.

Do you like him mostly because he doesn't like James, or for some other reason?

luvluv

Clutch:

Would you mind terribly destroying my critique of "The Ethics of Belief", which I started here:

http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.p...threadid=48854

My erstwhile sparring partner, Family Man, has head for smarter pastures, leaving me no one to play with. I'd like to hear your comments.

Also, there is an abortive attempt to discuss Burger's critique, if you're interested Pyhrro. I got more to say about him, but I got distracted before I could finish posting my critique of him.

Neilium

LOL, that's ironic.

I like Dennett, Dennett likes Stove; it doesn't automatically follow that my dislike of Stove is ill-grounded. Dennett might like ketchup on his hot dogs; that's not reason enough for me to ruin a perfectly good frank. Nor is it reason enough to change my opinion of Dennett's books.

I listed Dennett not because I agree with everything he writes. I enjoy his books, he presents his ideas well, and his ideas make for compelling discussions.

-neil

3rdhybrid

we are the philosophers of today. yes, it is us.
be ready for the revolution

Clutch

Okay!

But, erm... how do I get ready? Will I need plastic sheeting and duct tape? A varmint rifle and six crates of ammo? Or will it be more a "Tear up the paving stones; the beach is beneath!" sort of thing?

Hoping to be ready,
Clutch

God Fearing Atheist

Try David Gauthier, Jan Narveson, Peter Danielson, John Searle, and Gilbert Harman.

For some good dead guys, try J.L. Mackie, Robert Nozick, A.J. Ayer and Karl Popper.

-GFA

Clutch

Each to his own, and all. I can see Gauthier and Harman. Maybe Narveson to get a look at a smart libertarian (no, really, don't laugh!), but not for an intro to moral/political thinking. Danielson... why? (Not being snotty, just really not sure why anyone would think of PD as one of the highpoints of contemporary philosophy...) And Searle -- yuck.

The Searle pattern: He doesn't understand X; he doesn't want to understand X; but that sure won't stop him from attacking X and labelling its adherents frauds. Oh, and BTW, here's his positive account Y. You might also recognize it as X.

Pyrrho

You are demonstrating your poor reading skills with such assertions, as Burger stated:

Your carelessness does not help you. And, of course, you are merely committing an argumentum ad hominem anyway. You don't even manage to keep your personal attacks accurate, much less relevant.

It is ironic that you accuse Burger of ad hominems, yet you here do nothing more than commit argumentum ad hominems to discredit Burger. Of course, your hypocrisy now does not prove you are wrong; so I invite everyone who might be interested in this subject to take a look at Burger's essay, which may be found at:

http://ajburger.homestead.com/files/book.htm

I also invite anyone interested in this subject to take a look at your earlier discussion about Clifford, James, and Burger, with Family Man at:

http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.p...threadid=48854

I am rather impressed with Family Man's patience in arguing with you. I doubt you would listen to me now, when you did not listen to him then, so I have nothing that I wish to add to that discussion.

God Fearing Atheist

I think Danielson has made some interesting revisions of Gauthier's work.

Long live rational choice contractarianism!

-GFA

luvluv

Pyhro:

Yeah, I caught that he wasn't an undergraduate. I just thought that it read like the work of an undergraduate.

Appreciate the link. I would very much like to ressurect that discussion, but no one seems interested.

You seem to be smitten with old, A.J. What else of Burger's do you reccomend?