Rationis Defensor

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

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2. In Epistemology

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Getting Over Gettier

      • Alan Musgrave

      Pages 3-10

   3. Justified Believing: Avoiding the Paradox

      • Gregory W. Dawes

      Pages 11-21

   4. Literature and Truthfulness

      • Gregory Currie

      Pages 23-31

   5. The Buck-Passing Stops Here

      • Andrew Moore

      Pages 33-40

3. In Science

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 41-41

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   2. Universal Darwinism: Its Scope and Limits

      • James Maclaurin

      Pages 43-55

   3. The Future of Utilitarianism

      • Tim Mulgan

      Pages 57-74

   4. Kant on Experiment

      • Alberto Vanzo

      Pages 75-96

   5. Did Newton Feign the Corpuscular Hypothesis?

      • Kirsten Walsh

      Pages 97-110

   6. The Progress of Scotland and the Experimental Method

      • Juan Gomez

      Pages 111-124

4. In Metaphysics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 125-125

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   2. Propositions: Truth vs. Existence

      • Heather Dyke

      Pages 127-138

   3. Against Advanced Modalizing

      • Josh Parsons

      Pages 139-153

   4. Spread Worlds, Plenitude and Modal Realism: A Problem for David Lewis

      • Charles R. Pigden, Rebecca E. B. Entwisle

      Pages 155-176

   5. Defending Quine on Ontological Commitment

      • Emily Gill

      Pages 177-190

   6. The Scandal of Semantic Platonism

      • Vladimír Svoboda

      Pages 191-200

5. In Logic

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 201-201

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   2. A Neglected Reply to Prior’s Dilemma

      • Jc Beall

      Pages 203-208

Rationis Defensor is to be a volume of previously unpublished essays celebrating the life and work of Colin Cheyne. Colin was until recently Head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Otago, a department that can boast of many famous philosophers among its past and present faculty and which has twice been judged as the strongest research department across all disciplines in governmental research assessments. Colin is the immediate past President of the Australasian Association for Philosophy (New Zealand Division). He is the author of Knowledge, Cause, and Abstract Objects: Causal Objections to Platonism (Springer, 2001) and the editor, with Vladimir Svoboda and Bjorn Jespersen, of Pavel Tichy’s Collected Papers in Logic and Philosophy (University of Otago Press, 2005) and, with John Worrall, of Rationality and Reality: Conversations with Alan Musgrave (Springer, 2006). This volume celebrates the dedication to rational enquiry and the philosophical style of Colin Cheyne. It also celebrates the distinctive brand of naturalistic philosophy for which Otago has become known. Contributors to the volume include a wide variety of philosophers, all with a personal connection to Colin, and all of whom are, in their own way, defenders of rationality.  ​

• Alan Musgrave
• Colin Cheyne
• naturalistic philosophy
• naturalistic philosophy
• philosophical societies
• rational enquiry

From the reviews:

“This collection of recent philosophical papers … provides a nice selection of the current debates and crucial issues at play in philosophy. … To the potential reader this collection contains a solid sampling of modern philosophy that showcases a strong defence of rationality and the progress made in the philosophical method. … If you are interested in reading an example of what philosophers have been up to lately then pick up a copy of Rationis Defensor. You will not be disappointed.” (Charles Gibson, Scoop Review of Books, February, 2013)

• , Philosophy Dept, Univeristy of Otago, Dunedin SI, New Zealand

  James Maclaurin

Policies and ethics