Adam Dickerson

The Measurement and Meaning of Intrinsic Radical Stability: Are Chemical Questions just Problems in Applied Mathematics?

Aust. J. Chem. 2008, 61, 172–182. Focussing on the concept of intrinsic radical stability, it is argued that chemical concepts are not reducible to quantum mechanics. Even though the concept of intrinsic radical stability makes little or no sense in quantum mechanical terms, we argue that it is nonetheless possible to define measures of it that are of great practical use, so long as they are used with careful attention to their limitations.

A Reasonable Contextualism (or, Austin Reprised)

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the relation between Austins views and epistemological skepticism. Along with a desire to describe the varying standards actually used ordinarily ascribing knowledge, contextualism is also motivated by a desire to offer a satisfying response to skepticism. It is argued by many contemporary contextualists (such as Cohen, DeRose, and Lewis) that their epistemology allows to hold that many of the “ordinary” knowledge ascriptions are true, while simultaneously doing justice to the supposed power of skeptical arguments. This salience mechanism offers what looks like a simple account of the effect of skeptical arguments. On the one hand, skeptical arguments certainly appear to create wide-ranging doubts in the minds of many of those who entertain them—that is, such arguments do seem to destroy knowledge in their immediate vicinity. This, in turn, suggests that there may be deep limitations on what can be achieved, what can be said, by a “theory of knowledge,” at least if this means an abstract attempt to specify what is common to all knowledge attributions across all contexts.

The Great Endarkenment: Philosophy for an Age of Hyperspecialization, by Elijah Millgram

This book is a collection of eleven papers (five of which have been previously published), examining themes in moral theory, practical reasoning, agency, and modality. The book is a rewarding one —...

Repatriating Human Remains: Searching for an Acceptable Ethics

Requests for the repatriation of human remains raise a number of perplexing ethical issues for cultural heritage institutions. The ethics of repatriation is complex, because, as Scarre (J Appl Philos 20:237–249, 2003) points out, it involves a four-way relationship between (1) cultural heritage professionals and institutions, (2) ‘the public’, (3) individuals or communities claiming close cultural and/or kinship ties with the dead and (4) the dead themselves. In this chapter, we examine the key ethical issues raised by this complex relationship and evaluate what they might mean for cultural heritage practice and policy.