18,533 research outputs found
ADAM SMITH'S OPTIMISTIC TELEOLOGICAL VIEW OF HISTORY
No full textAdam Smith's four-stage theory provides the framework for his writings on history. The fourth stage is the commercial epoch; the culmination of history in this stage is a key component in the conventional interpretation of Adam Smith as a prophet of commercialism. In two historical case studies Smith shows the capacity of commercial society to regenerate itself. This potent capacity suggests that commercial society is inevitable. At a certain point in time it also overcomes the major obstacles to its permanence. Smith's philosophy of history anticipates the end of history views of Kant and Hegel.Political Economy,
Inner World as a Useful Fiction: An Interview with Adam Toon
No full textAdam Toon is an Associate Professor at the University of Exeter and Director of Egenis, Centre for the Study of Life Sciences. He did his PhD in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. He works in philosophy of science and philosophy of mind, mainly investigating the idea of representations as fictions. Toon is the author of Mind as Metaphor: A Defence of Mental Fictionalism (Oxford University Press, 2023) and Models as Make-Believe: Imagination, Fiction and Scientific Representation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). He is also co-editor (with Tamás Demeter and Ted Parent) of Mental Fictionalism: Philosophical Explorations (Routledge, 2022).Adam Toon gave the Gottlob Frege Lectures in Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Tartu on December 5–7, 2023, under the title “The Story of the Mind: Cartesianism, Behaviourism, and Fictionalism”. The interview took place in Tartu on December 7, 2023
Tamás Demeter, Ted Parent and Adam Toon, (Eds.), "Mental Fictionalism: Philosophical Explorations"
No full textReview of "Mental Fictionalism: Philosophical Explorations" by Tamás Demeter, Ted Parent, and Adam Toon
How Might Adam Smith Pay Professors Today?
No full textAdam Smith’s proposal for paying professors was intended to induce increased faculty knowledge. If students have imperfect information about what they learn, and universities can only imperfectly measure the input of faculty time in student learning, publications may be used to measure faculty knowledge. If professors’ ability to publish is positively related to their ability to produce student learning, which universities can imperfectly measure, publications may be necessary to attract more able professors. Since research signals faculty knowledge, schools that do not value publications per se could require higher publication standards and pay higher wages than schools that value only publications.
ADAM SMITH'S VIEW OF HISTORY: CONSISTENT OR PARADOXICAL?
No full textThe conventional interpretation of Adam Smith is that he is a prophet of commercialism. The liberal capitalist reading of Smith is consistent with the view that history culminates in commercial society. The first part of the article develops this optimistic interpretation of Smith's view of history. Smith implies that commercial society is the end of history because 1) it supplies the ends of nature that he identifies; 2) it is inevitable; and 3) it is permanent. The second part of the article shows that Smith has some dark moments in his writings where he seems to reject completely such teleological notions. In this more civic humanist mood he confesses that commercial society does not supply the ends of nature, nor is it inevitable, nor is it permanent. Both views exist in Smith and the commentator is forced to choose between passages in Smith's work in order to support a particular interpretation of the former's view of history.Political Economy,
Fictionalism and intentionality
No full textThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Routledge via the DOI in this recordThis chapter offers a defence of mental fictionalism. Its central claim is that the notion of the mind as an inner world of representations is merely a useful fiction. Mental fictionalism is often said to suffer from “cognitive collapse”, since stating the fictionalist’s position itself involves reference to mental states, such as imagination or make-believe. This chapter shows how mental fictionalism can avoid cognitive collapse. To do so, it explores fictionalism’s broader implications for the nature of intentionality. The key to avoiding cognitive collapse is to see that fictionalism can grant the existence of external, public representations with content, such as written and spoken language. In contrast, the notion of inner representations is what the early fictionalist Hans Vaihinger called a “real fiction”: it is an idea that is not merely false, but incoherent
Models as Make-Believe: Imagination, Fiction, and Scientific Representation
No full textToon A. Models as Make-Believe: Imagination, Fiction, and Scientific Representation. New Directions in the Philosophy of Science. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; 2012.Scientists often try to understand the world by creating simplified or idealised models of it. And yet modelling is hard to make sense of, not least because it seems to involve learning about things that don’t exist, like ideal oscillators or perfect spheres. Models as Make-Believe offers a new approach to scientific modelling by looking to an unlikely source of inspiration: the dolls and toy trucks of children’s games of make-believe. Drawing on philosophical discussions of art and fiction, Adam Toon offers a unified framework that can solve difficult metaphysical problems posed by modelling at the same time as helping to make sense of scientific practice. In developing this new perspective, Models as Make-Believe combines careful philosophical analysis with historical and sociological approaches, shedding light on a range of issues, from scientists’ visual and tactile interaction with models to the role that cardboard cut-outs played in the development of our understanding of atoms
Novel approaches to models
No full textToon A. Novel approaches to models. Metascience. 2010;19(2):285-288
Adam Smith and Roman Servitudes
No full textThis essay is a preprint of an article that appeared at: Tijdschrift voor Rechstsgeschiedenis, 72 (2004), 327–57.This essay discusses Adam Smith historical jurisprudence and his use of Roman law materials in his Lectures on Jurisprudence. It argues that Smith found it difficult to maintain his theory of legal development in the face of a highly developed body of Roman law literature
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