Chauncey Maher – författare

The idea that plants have minds can sound improbable, but some widely respected contemporary scientists and philosophers find it plausible. It turns out to be rather tricky to vindicate the presumption that plants do not have minds, for doing so requires getting clear about what plants can do and what exactly a mind is.By connecting the most compelling empirical work on plant behavior with philosophical reflection on the concept of minds, Plant Minds aims to help non-experts begin to think clearly about whether plants have minds. Relying on current consensus ideas about minds and plants, Chauncey Maher first presents the best case for thinking that plants do not have minds. Along the way, however, he unearths an idea at the root of that case, the idea that having a mind requires the capacity to represent the world. In the last chapter, he defends a relatively new and insightful theory of mind that rejects that assumption, making room for the possibility that plants do have minds, primarily because they are alive.

In this volume, Maher contextualizes the work of a group of contemporary analytic philosophers—The Pittsburgh School—whose work is characterized by an interest in the history of philosophy and a commitment to normative functionalism, or the insight that to identify something as a manifestation of conceptual capacities is to place it in a space of norms. Wilfrid Sellars claimed that humans are distinctive because they occupy a norm-governed "space of reasons." Along with Sellars, Robert Brandom and John McDowell have tried to work out the implications of that idea for understanding knowledge, thought, norms, language, and intentional action. The aim of this book is to introduce their shared views on those topics, while also charting a few key disputes between them.

White moderates have been a hidden obstacle to black-white equality in the United States for over two centuries. This book offers the first philosophical critique of their role in impeding racial progress and perpetuating black-white inequality.Taking his cue from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” the author defines white moderates as those who embrace the need for progress while opposing immediate action due to fears of social disorder. By acting on these commitments, they have contributed to the persistence of both moral and material inequality. The goal of this book is to diagnose and critique the white moderates’ philosophical position. It argues that white moderates have crafted unreasonable compromises in response to legitimate calls for reform. In doing so, they support social closure: practices of hoarding and exploitation that sustain black-white inequality. The book proceeds to examine the reasons why white people embrace moderation and then show how their arguments for incrementalism are mistaken on historical and moral grounds. Furthermore, the book contends that social and psychological factors make moderation seem more reasonable than it truly is. Ultimately, the book argues that efforts to make progress toward black-white equality must confront the white moderate in rational discussion.How White Moderates Impede Racial Progress will appeal to researchers and students working in ethics, social and political philosophy, philosophy of race, critical race theory, and African American politics.

White moderates have been a hidden obstacle to black-white equality in the United States for over two centuries. This book offers the first philosophical critique of their role in impeding racial progress and perpetuating black-white inequality.Taking his cue from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” the author defines white moderates as those who embrace the need for progress while opposing immediate action due to fears of social disorder. By acting on these commitments, they have contributed to the persistence of both moral and material inequality. The goal of this book is to diagnose and critique the white moderates’ philosophical position. It argues that white moderates have crafted unreasonable compromises in response to legitimate calls for reform. In doing so, they support social closure: practices of hoarding and exploitation that sustain black-white inequality. The book proceeds to examine the reasons why white people embrace moderation and then show how their arguments for incrementalism are mistaken on historical and moral grounds. Furthermore, the book contends that social and psychological factors make moderation seem more reasonable than it truly is. Ultimately, the book argues that efforts to make progress toward black-white equality must confront the white moderate in rational discussion.How White Moderates Impede Racial Progress will appeal to researchers and students working in ethics, social and political philosophy, philosophy of race, critical race theory, and African American politics.

The idea that plants have minds can sound improbable, but some widely respected contemporary scientists and philosophers find it plausible. It turns out to be rather tricky to vindicate the presumption that plants do not have minds, for doing so requires getting clear about what plants can do and what exactly a mind is.By connecting the most compelling empirical work on plant behavior with philosophical reflection on the concept of minds, Plant Minds aims to help non-experts begin to think clearly about whether plants have minds. Relying on current consensus ideas about minds and plants, Chauncey Maher first presents the best case for thinking that plants do not have minds. Along the way, however, he unearths an idea at the root of that case, the idea that having a mind requires the capacity to represent the world. In the last chapter, he defends a relatively new and insightful theory of mind that rejects that assumption, making room for the possibility that plants do have minds, primarily because they are alive.