Browsing Philosophy (Theses and Dissertations) by Title
Now showing items 22-41 of 41
-
A Pragmatic Bishop: George Berkeley's Theory of Causation in De motu
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of Philosophy, 2022)In this doctoral thesis, I will argue that in his De motu (1721, 'On motion'), Bishop George Berkeley (c.1684-1753) develops a pragmatist theory of causation regarding mechanical theories outlined previously with Newtonianism. ... -
Quine between Russell's extreme realism and Carnap's extreme relativism : a coherent alternative?
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Philosophy Department, 2006)In the philosophical literature of the past century few if any philosophers present a greater wealth of ideas or pose more important problems than W. V. Quine. In spite of the diversity of his contributions to philosophy, ... -
Radical minimalism and the possibility of a context-free semantics
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Philosophy Department, 2012)This thesis explores the nature of the distinction between two types of meaningful content associated with human language: context-free linguistic content and pragmatically enriched communicated content. -
The Relation between the What-It-Is and the Why-It-Is in Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, On the Parts of Animals, and Metaphysics
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of Philosophy, 2020)In this dissertation, I wish to examine the relation between the what-it-is and the why-it-is in Aristotle’s three treatises. The main conclusions I will defend in this thesis can be formulated as follows. In the Posterior ... -
Relativism about truth : a critique
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Philosophy Department, 2012)This thesis examines John MacFarlane's attempt to make sense of relative truth, but concludes by rejecting the coherence of such an attempt, on the grounds that it fails to adequately address a problem that was posed by ... -
A reliabilist-teleological account of Plato's theory of knowledge based on the Timaeus, the Republic and the Theaetetus
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of Philosophy, 2023)Whether, in Plato's epistemology, the Forms can be grasped without using the inferior epistemic capacities, and whether the inferior epistemic capacities contribute to one's grasp of F-ness and the Form F - These are the ... -
Removing Rubbish and Laying Foundations: Berkeley's Solution to the Sceptical Problem
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of Philosophy, 2020)In this dissertation, I argue that while Berkeley can and should be characterised as an idealist, an immaterialist, and an anti-abstractionist, he is, above all, an anti-representationalist thinker. My contention is that ... -
Rorty On Religion
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of Philosophy, 2020)This thesis aims to explore Rorty's pragmatic approach to religion and critically engage with it. In the core of this approach lies his distinction between private and public projects, and his plea for the privatization ... -
Seeking Spinoza: The Spinozistic Origins of Early Psychological Theory in Wundt, James and Freud
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of Philosophy, 2019)This thesis investigates the previously unexamined convergence between Spinoza's monistic philosophy of psychology and early psychological theory. It argues that the three 'founding fathers' of the field of psychology, ... -
Simple Bodies and Aristotle's Explanation of Change: De Caelo and De Generatione et Corruptione
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of Philosophy, 2021)Why does Aristotle commit to the existence of simple bodies? Why does Aristotle conduct an investigation into simple bodies as part of his his natural philosophy? These are the two questions I want to focus on in this ... -
The Structure of Forms in Plato's Theory of Forms
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of Philosophy, 2023)The overall aim of this PhD dissertation is to consider and examine the relations between Forms in Plato?s theory of Forms. Undertaking this task does not require a full account of Plato?s theory of Forms, rather it requires ... -
Substantial priority : an essay in fundamental mereology
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Philosophy Department, 2013)Philosophical inquiry concerning the relationship between wholes and their parts (mereology) has occupied center stage in some of the most fruitful periods in the Western philosophical tradition. With the recent resurgence ... -
The argumentative unity of Plato's Parmenides
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Philosophy Department, 2014)The purpose of this thesis is to make the case that Plato's dialogue Parmenides constitutes an argumentative unity whereby certain philosophic difficulties presented in the first part of the dialogue are resolved by the ... -
The metaphysics of 18th century natural religion
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Philosophy Department, 2011)The main focus of this dissertation concerns the influence that Malebranche's conception of causation, which understands causal power in terms of absolute necessity, had upon the writings of George Berkeley and David Hume, ... -
The role of Kinêsis and Statis in Plato's Sophist : an inquiry into the two forgotten Megista Genê of the Sophist
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Philosophy Department, 2017)This dissertation addresses the general question of the relation between the problem of being and the theory of the five great kinds (megista genê) in Plato’s dialogue the Sophist. In contemporary scholarship, the two ... -
The Schreber case : towards a philosophical construction of madness
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Philosophy Department, 2009)Daniel Paul Schreber, lawyer and judge, is better known as a "psychiatric patient par excellence". Schreber's case is also interesting in terms of the debate as to what constitutes health and what, disease. The three main ... -
Transcendentalism without Idealism: An Essay on Kant and Wittgenstein
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of Philosophy, 2024)In this work, I compare Kant and Wittgenstein’s critical philosophies with respect to Transcendental Idealism, as a doctrine meant to “prove” the possibility of Metaphysics. My Central Question is: Is the early Wittgenstein ... -
Weakness of will and practical reason
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Philosophy Department, 2004)This thesis argues that a correct understanding of weakness of will (that is, freely failing to act as one thinks one has most reason to act) is crucial to a correct understanding of practical reason. Central to a theory ... -
What does it mean to say that truth is plural?
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Philosophy Department, 2014)This essay is an attempt to make sense of idea that truth is plural. I begin with presenting some motivations for pluralism about truth. I then move on to discuss the standard objections, and give some arguments for why ... -
Wittgenstein and scepticism about meaning and rule-following : a Kripkean reading
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Philosophy Department, 2011)In this thesis, I propose a defence of Saul Kripke's interpretation of Wittgenstein's later discussion of meaning and rule-following. The most striking feature of Kripke's Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language (WRPL) ...
