Contemporary Analytic Philosophy and Bayesian Subjectivism： Why Both Are Incoherent

My purpose in this paper is to argue for two separate, but related theses. The first is that contemporary analytic philosophy is incoherent. This is so, I argue, because its methods contain as an essential constituent a non-classical conception of intuition that cannot be rendered consistent with a key tenet of analytic philosophy unless we allow a Bayesian-subjectivist epistemology. I argue for this within a discussion of two theories of intuition： a classical account as proposed by Descartes and a modem reliabilist account as proposed by Komblith, maintaining that reliabilist accounts require a commitment to Bayesian subjectivism about probability. However, and this is the second thesis, Bayesian subjecfivism is itself logically incoherent given three simple assumptions： （1） some empirical propositions are known, （2） any proposition that is known is assigned a degree of subjective credence of 1, and （3） every empirical proposition is evidentially relevant to at least one other proposition. I establish this using a formal reductio proof. I argue for the t-u-st thesis in section 1 and for the second in section 2. The final section contains a summary and conclusion.

The Relevance of Vygotsky＇s Developmental Perspective to the Debate on Methodology in Psychological Science

Throughout his work, Lev S. Vygotsky （1896-1934） pursued the objective of reformulating psychological theory. His historical-cultural analysis of the ＂crisis in psychology＂ showed that, beyond contradictions between the two main methodological currents---＂objective/explanatory＂ and ＂subjective/intuitive＂--psychology is primarily influenced by its empirical-sensory foundations. This influence is actually at the origin of the disagreement since it maintains the obligation for the two currents to make reference to empirical-sensory data. Only a general model of the developing human being, assessed by its usefulness, will allow reorienting psychology towards a broader science. This would lead to a general theory of psychology, which could then facilitate the search for tools for an indirect method enabling it to go beyond empiricism.

Positive Romanticism and Ode to the West Wind

There are not as many British positive romanticism research as romanticism research.The positive romanticism possesses distinguished characteristics in different cultures.The English positive romanticism pushed the romanticism literature to the highest among which Shelley's Ode to the West Wind is one of the best works.Through mainly analysis on the background of Ode to the West Wind,and the features of positive romanticism,my research finally drew an conclusion that Ode to the West Wind adopts a variety of ways to analyze the subjectivism,the political lyricism,idealism.This thesis also illustrates the features of human's appreciations for the nature.

An Essay on the Double Nature of the Probability

Classical statistics and Bayesian statistics refer to the frequentist and subjective theories of probability respectively. Von Mises and De Finetti, who authored those conceptualizations, provide interpretations of the probability that appear incompatible. This discrepancy raises ample debates and the foundations of the probability calculus emerge as a tricky, open issue so far. Instead of developing philosophical discussion, this research resorts to analytical and mathematical methods. We present two theorems that sustain the validity of both the frequentist and the subjective views on the probability. Secondly we show how the double facets of the probability turn out to be consistent within the present logical frame.

Afro-American Socio-Psycho Resistance AgainstOppression of Identity

Social discrimination of races and racial oppression in American colonial history had deep devastating impact on Afro-Americans.Their true identities were shattered and the truth of their existence was constructed for them by the so-called superior white American race.Afro-Americans’struggles for recognition had been started since the moment racial oppression took place and United States might profess now to be agenda-free but contemporary Afro-American literature does not say so.Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Race Analysis of Toni Morrison’s work manifests that Afro-Americans are still struggling for their recognition and their place in the white US society;she delineates their pain of going through the continuous identity-formation process that how white American society still make them finding escapes because of their dark skin tone and put them in need to prove them to be worthy of living in America.Her writing has helped analyze Afro-American subjectivation through a series of socio-psycho conceptualizations.Frantz Fanon’s work on western colonial racial oppression and identity crisis of blacks has helped analyze what traumatic culture Afro-Americans faced.His work sheds light on that disrespect and contempt experiences of blacks in personal and collective terms which they have been facing under the rule of white supremacy.Morrison’s fiction and Fanon’s“socio-psychopolitics”—his critical psychological approach analyzes the identity crisis that functions betwixt sociopolitical and psychological realms—have yielded the analyses of how manipulative power of“Racial Politics”actualizes its agendas.Morrison’s work demonstrates how historical trauma of turning Afro-Americans into stereotypical subjects still prevails in the blacks living in the contemporary racist and prejudiced white America while Fanon’s work gives a vast and detailed framework of analysis;his work consists on intersectionality and psychopolitical violence which have been forcing blacks to turn their identities into whiteness by accepting blackness as if it is evil.

Subjective transformation in poeticized language and the formation of poeticness

As one locus of extraordinary collocations,poeticized language features expressions that depart from the physical reality,involving the subjective transformation of objects in the mental space.Increasing subjectivity renders extraordinary collocations resistant to rational readings,resulting in two types of constructions:“innovative”collocations and“self-created”collocations.The meaning construction in the former is easier to achieve than in the latter;the former entails the“rational evaluation”and the latter the“speculative evaluation”processes in metalanguage.With its rule-breaking defiance caused by meaning obscurity compensated for by rich implied meaning and positive aesthetic feedback,the“self-created”collocations are regarded as poetic and re-accepted by the system.Therefore,the so-termed“poeticness”is derived from the positive feedback during the speculative evaluation process and constitutes the main substance of aesthetic interpretation.

A Subjectivist Defense of Radioman

Warren Quinn’s Radioman example makes vivid one of the strongest objectivist critiques of subjectivism:that an agent’s desires lack the power to rationalize her actions.The force of Radioman,however,derives from making the subjectivist commit to defining desires as dispositional states of action.Without this commitment,a subjectivist can escape Quinn’s argument and even save Radioman’s agency.In this paper,I will first present Quinn’s Radioman example and explain why it renders subjectivism inconsistent,then,I will offer a new conception of desires that stays within subjectivist parameters while avoiding the pitfall that doomed Radioman.I will go on to explain the flaw in Quinn’s argument against the power of desires to rationalize action,and,finally,I will present a modified version of Radioman who is indeed a rational agent.