Intuitions and adequate philosophical solutions
Abstract
Philosophical investigation relies on intuition; among other things, intuitions are used to discover problems and intuitions are used to provide solutions to those problems. I provide an analysis of three kinds of philosophical problems and their solutions. "No principle" problems are rather basic; roughly this is the problem of justifying and explaining intuitive particular judgments. I largely assume that a subsuming principle is a solution to this problem. There is a problem of competing solutions; i.e. that several solutions to no principle problems can be offered and yet at most only one can be true. I call this the "too many principles" problem. Finally there is are aporia; this is a set of individually plausible and yet jointly inconsistent propositions. My thesis is that if one's solution to either a too many principle problem or an aporia crucially relies on intuition, then the solution is not an adequate solution.
Degree
Ph. D.