Search the Garden

Jorge Luis Borges

  • "Under the trees of England I meditated on this lost and perhaps mythical labyrinth. I imagined it untouched and perfect on the secret summit of some mountain; I imagined it drowned under rice paddies or beneath the sea; I imagined it infinite, made not only of eight-sided pavilions and of twisting paths but also of rivers, provinces and kingdoms. I thought of a maze of mazes, of a sinuous, ever growing maze which would take in both past and future and would somehow involve the stars."
Powered by TypePad

Comments RSS Feeds

April 29, 2008

GFP Reading Group: Haji's "The Manipulation Argument"

Two weeks have come and gone since the posting of Haji's article, "The Manipulation Argument".   It's a wonderful piece and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to present some of my own reactions to it. 

In broad strokes, Haji tackles three of the most central issues currently surrounding such arguments:

(A)      The proper interpretation of the Manipulation Argument (i.e. the formal structure shared by all manipulation arguments), and the relation between it and particular manipulation arguments.

(B)       Michael McKenna’s recent distinction between ‘hard-line’ and ‘soft-line’ response strategies, and the soundness of his argument that every ‘credible’ manipulation argument (including Pereboom’s Four-Case Argument) requires a hard-line reply. 

                                 

(C)       The dialectical role of “ultimate origination” principles in the success of manipulation arguments, especially that of Pereboom’s Principle O in the Four-Case Argument.

My comments are a bit long (sorry), but I hope that they will help kick off a great reading group discussion:

Download GFP_HAJI_demetriou.pdf