Thursday, February 24, 2005

Readworthy

Well, it's not quite Thursday evening, but here's a preliminary post on various excellent discussions in the blogosphere.

A. The historians in the blogosphere have been in top form recently:

* This is my truth at "Early Modern Notes"

* NIV, TNIV, and Ephesians 5 at "Hugo Schwyzer" (cross-posted at Cliopatria). The comments are worth reading, too. I'll be putting something up about this topic later.

* Harry Truman and the Vulcans by Greg Robinson at "Cliopatria"

* Narrative at "The Little Professor" (cross-posted at Cliopatria)

->Also worth reading is the older post linked to in the above post, Evangelical historiography: a Victorian example (the ideas involved in such historiography, I've always thought, played an imporant role in the rise of importance of utilitarianism in philosophy, although as far as I know there hasn't been much work on this to determine how significant the role was; it's something I'd like to get around to someday, since I have an interest in Whewell, who reacts to utilitarianism and is, I'm inclined to think, forced to his particular mode of response - that utilitarianism is true but useless - by his commitment to a similar sort of providentialism; but, again, that's all speculation - the work still needs to be done).

B. Other recent things of interest, here and there:

* Phil in words of one syll at "Fragments of Consciousness"

* Peirce's "Fraser's The Works of George Berkeley" (hat-tip: Mormon Metaphysics): Peirce argues for scholastic realism (in particular, that of Scotus) against nominalism. I have no real taste for pragmatism, but anyone who appreciates the Subtle Doctor is OK by me.

C. Siris posts I like that people have recently come across by way of search engines:

* Examples and Counterexamples (discusses the proper way to view counterexamples by looking at the famous case of Hume's missing shade of blue)

* On Frankfurt Examples and Illusions - I Mean, Intuitions (discusses why I am not convinced by the claim that Frankfurt-style counterexamples show that moral responsibility does not require the ability to do otherwise)

* On the Theological Importance of a Harlot (looks at the providential role of Rahab in Scripture)