Papers by James Tartaglia
Journal of Philosophy of Life, 2025
I defend an evaluatively neutral interpretation of nihilism against the negative and positive alt... more I defend an evaluatively neutral interpretation of nihilism against the negative and positive alternatives, arguing that Negative Nihilism and Sunny Nihilism fail to grasp the significance of nihilism's claim that there is no cosmic goal to human life, and thereby misinterpret a descriptive claim about the nature of human life as if it were an evaluative claim being made within a social context. Nihilism might seem negative or positive to certain individuals, but only because of the nature of their previously held false beliefs about meaning. Through three counterfactual scenarios, I show that unless the meaning of life involves a non-manifest reward or punishment, its presence or absence is a matter for indifference.
Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions, 2024
In this paper, I analyse and critique Aribiah David Attoe's position in The Question of Life's Me... more In this paper, I analyse and critique Aribiah David Attoe's position in The Question of Life's Meaning: An African Perspective. While highly sympathetic to his project, since I also defend an evaluatively neutral form of nihilism, I argue that the role of death and indifference within his theory is incompatible with thinking of nihilism in a neutral manner, and that his position wavers between the traditional view of Negative Nihilism and the Neutral Nihilism I recommend. In reconstructing his position, I begin by arguing, on historicist grounds, that the meaning-realism Attoe has adopted from Thaddeus Metz and others is implausible, and that Attoe's account of meaning in life appears in a much more favourable light when construed as a project of conceptual engineering. After explaining why Attoe thinks that death establishes nihilism and undermines the significance of meaning in life, I argue that the only real connection between nihilism and death is a historical one. I conclude that Attoe's neutrality about nihilism should not lead him to indifference about life, since it is only nihilism that he should be neutral about.
Metaphilosophy, Apr 15, 2024
The ethnophilosophy debate in African philosophy has been primarily concerned with the nature and... more The ethnophilosophy debate in African philosophy has been primarily concerned with the nature and future direction of African philosophy, but I approach it in search of lessons about philosophy in general. I show how this ongoing debate has been obscured by varying understandings of "ethnophilosophy" and that a de facto victory has long since transpired, since "ethnophilosophy", in the sense I recommend, is flourishing. I argue that the political arguments with which Hountondji and Wiredu initiated the debate in the 1970s supervene on the metaphilosophical view that ethnophilosophy, if philosophy at all, is of a poor standard. Showing that ethnophilosophy must indeed be philosophy, I argue that the critics' low opinions of it depend on unrealistic assumptions about how philosophy makes progress. I conclude that Africa is lucky to have ethnophilosophies and that the rest of the world should hope to develop some.
![Research paper thumbnail of Wolna wola a wiara w determinizm [polskie tłumaczenie]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/118102826/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Artykuł porusza kwestię wolnej woli i determinizmu za pomocą dyskusji nad paradoksem Newcomba, pr... more Artykuł porusza kwestię wolnej woli i determinizmu za pomocą dyskusji nad paradoksem Newcomba, przedstawionej w postaci dialogu między duchami-paniami Traf i Przeznaczenie. Argumentuję, że przyjęcie determinizmu, sugerowanego przez metafizykę materialistyczną, stoi w sprzeczności z naszym doświadczeniem wolności wyboru. Paradoks Newcomba opisuje dylemat polegający na wyborze między jednym lub dwoma pudełkami w celu maksymalizacji zawartości tych pudełek, którą z góry określiła maszyna przewidująca wybór. Postać Heather, stawiając czoła temu dylematowi, symbolizuje ludzkość borykającą się z problemem wolnej woli w obliczu determinizmu. Twierdzę, że nasze doświadczenie wolności nie pozwala nam wierzyć, że determinizm jest prawdziwy, gdy odpowiednio się nad tą kwestią zastanowimy, podobnie jak Heather nie była w stanie uwierzyć w determinizm, kiedy musiała dokonać wyboru w sytuacji opisanej w paradoksie.
This essay begins by asking why Rorty would endorse a physicalist agenda which, on the face of it... more This essay begins by asking why Rorty would endorse a physicalist agenda which, on the face of it, ran counter to his aims in philosophy; and concludes both that his motivation was confused, and that he failed to detach physicalism from metaphysics and scienticism. I begin by showing the importance of metaphilosophy to Rorty's position on consciousness, and the centrality of consciousness to his overall project. I then summarise Rorty's position, which was essentially derived from Ryle, but uniquely driven by metaphilosophy. My assessment begins by disputing Rorty's thesis about the historical origins of the concept of consciousness, before following him into his favourite argumentative territory by talking about the social utility of first-person reflection on consciousness, and his own motivations for wanting to undermine such reflection. I conclude that because of his obsession with religion, Rorty became entangled in a scientistic agenda he should have opposed.
Human Affairs, Oct 1, 2022
The Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Philosophers, 2005
Routledge eBooks, Dec 21, 2020
This book offers a philosophical defence of nihilism. The authors argue that the concept of nihil... more This book offers a philosophical defence of nihilism. The authors argue that the concept of nihilism has been employed pejoratively by almost all philosophers and religious leaders to indicate a widespread cultural crisis of truth, meaning, or morals. Many religious believers think atheism leads to moral chaos (because it leads to nihilism), and atheists typically insist that we can make life meaningful through our own actions (thereby avoiding nihilism). In this way, both sides conflate the cosmic sense of meaning at stake with a social sense of meaning. This book charts a third course between extremist and alarmist views of nihilism. It casts doubt on the assumption that nihilism is something to fear, or a problem which human culture should overcome by way of seeking, discovering, or making meaning. In this way, the authors believe that a revised understanding of nihilism can help remove a significant barrier of misunderstanding between religious believers and atheists. A Defence of Nihilism will be of interest to scholars and students in philosophy, religion, and other disciplines who are interested in questions surrounding the meaning of life.
Routledge eBooks, Dec 21, 2020
Routledge eBooks, Dec 21, 2020
Routledge eBooks, Dec 21, 2020
This essay comprises an overview of the plot to Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, foll... more This essay comprises an overview of the plot to Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, followed by a more detailed examination of the three parts of the book. It begins by showing the importance of metaphilosophy to Rorty's project, while explaining the significance of PMN for both Rorty's philosophy as a whole, and the history of philosophy. Then follows the overview, after which I explain the detail of Rorty's arguments, while developing a line of argument to show that Rorty's final conclusion that there is no objective truth-because the world can be endlessly redescribed-undermines his argumentative strategy. Taking into account Rorty's standard response, according to which he was making a pragmatic social proposal, I conclude that Rorty's desire to avoid the nihilistic conclusion that life is meaningless, led him to transform existentialism into postmodernism; and that the result, however brilliant, is nevertheless unstable and badly motivated.
Springer eBooks, 2023
I begin with a defence of both Gyekye's universalist and African metaphilosophies. In lig... more I begin with a defence of both Gyekye's universalist and African metaphilosophies. In light of these metaphilosophies, I discuss the contemporary Western hegemony of materialist philosophy of mind and its origins in Gilbert Ryle's The Concept of Mind (1949), showing that the existence and nature of the traditional Akan philosophy, as elaborated by Gyekye,
ethics, one founded on the idea of a certain un-normative respect towards the Earth, which we, as... more ethics, one founded on the idea of a certain un-normative respect towards the Earth, which we, as humans, can never pretend to appropriate or sovereignly possess. But the author opens to much more indeed: Blok opens to a certain test for our humanity. The test of re-thinking another beginning for the Earth by actively engaging in the possibility of changing our relation to our world – that is by significatively deciding for the event of Earth to inhabit our world, electing the Earth to incessantly suspend the pretended unity of our world by informing it otherwise as the multiple possibilities of the Earth. Heidegger’s Concept of Philosophical Method is not only an exegesis of Heidegger’s philosophy. It brings this philosophy to its limits and urges it to seek for its own-most meaning elsewhere than in the confines of its determined logic. For it poses this central question, a question perhaps still to come in Vincent Blok’s philosophical work and writing: to which futurity are we heading in the conativity, non-identity, responsiveness, performative behaviour and eventuality of the Earth for our world?
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc eBooks, 2015
Th is book is dedicated with love to Zo Hoida Preface x I would like to take this opportunity to ... more Th is book is dedicated with love to Zo Hoida Preface x I would like to take this opportunity to thank my parents Phillip and Terena Tartaglia for an upbringing that emphasized the importance of ambition, and for providing me every opportunity to realize my ambitions within their power. And I am always very grateful to my teachers in philosophy, Tim Crane and J. J. Valberg, who set me on the right track to start with, and helped me get into the profession. If it hadn't been for Jerry's lectures on Heidegger, I would never have wanted to be a philosopher in the first place; his own original philosophy was to become one of my major influences, as should become clear in this book. And if Tim hadn't thought my essays on (e.g.) Russell's Theory of Descriptions were good, then I would have scrapped the idea of a career in philosophy and looked elsewhere. Thanks are also due to Keele University for giving me three distinct periods of research leave to work on this book; the second was wonderful because I was able to spend it in Ponte de Lima in the Minho (that's where it started to take on its current shape: amid the caipirinhas, arroz de sarrabulho and folklore). And finally, there are a number of people who have directly affected the content here and therein various different ways-all of whom I would like to thank.
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Papers by James Tartaglia
Special Issue “Nihilism and the Meaning of Life: A Philosophical Dialogue
with James Tartaglia,” Journal of Philosophy of Life, Vol.7, No.1, 2017,
pp.1-315. Two years ago, in 2015, we published the book Reconsidering
Meaning in Life: A Philosophical Dialogue with Thaddeus Metz, and after
the publication, one of the contributors to the above book, James Tartaglia, published his own intriguing philosophical book on the meaning of life and its connection with nihilism, entitled Philosophy in a Meaningless Life: A System of Nihilism, Consciousness and Reality (Bloomsbury 2016). I thought it would be a good idea to have a symposium on his book in the Journal of Philosophy of Life.
I invited ten philosophers who have a strong interest in this topic, and
edited a special volume dedicated to Tartaglia’s book. After receiving their papers, I asked James to write a reply to each of them, and in July this year we published a special issue in the Journal. You can read all of them, along with the replies by Tartaglia, in this single book.