Papers by Felipe Morales Carbonell
This article aims to connect issues in the epistemology of modality with issues in the philosophy... more This article aims to connect issues in the epistemology of modality with issues in the philosophy of music, exploring how modalizing takes place in the context of musical performance. On the basis of studies of jazz improvisation and of classical music, it is shown that considerations about what is sonically, musically, and agentively possible play an important role for performers in the Western tonal tradition. We give a more systematic sketch of how a modal epistemology for musical performance could be constructed. We argue that it is necessary to adopt a pluralist approach toward the modal epistemology of music.
Theoria. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 2024
The use of dispositions has been put into question many times in the philosophical literature, es... more The use of dispositions has been put into question many times in the philosophical literature, especially with regards to how dispositional attributions can be justified. Yet, dispositions are an important part not only of our everyday talk but also of our scientific practices. In this paper, we develop an argument that infers the epistemic justification of dispositional talk from its indispensability for carrying out basic epistemological projects, and we apply it to the use of dispositions in evolutionary biology. For doing this, we first advocate for a function-based strategy for the epistemic justification of dispositional attributions. We next review the functional role of some key dispositional notions in evolutionary biology, such as fitness and evolvability. Then, we show that alternative non-dispositional substitutes of these dispositions fail to fulfill their roles to the same degree. We conclude that the use of dispositions is justified in evolutionary biology.
Argumenta, 2020
Counterpossibles, counterfactuals conditional with impossible antecedents, are notoriously contes... more Counterpossibles, counterfactuals conditional with impossible antecedents, are notoriously contested; while the standard view makes them trivially true, some authors argue that they can be non-trivially true. In this paper, I examine the use of counterfactuals in the context of games, and argue that there is a case to be made for their non-triviality in a restricted sense. In particular, I examine the case of retro problems in chess, where it can happen that one is tasked with evaluating counterfactuals about illegal positions. If we understand illegality as a type of restricted impossibility, those counterfactuals are non-trivial counterpossibles. I suggest that their non-triviality stems from their role in practices of rule coordination and revision, and suggest that this model could be generalized to counterpossibles in different domains. I then compare the approach to the accounts of Vetter (2016) and Locke (2019).
Synthese, 2019
The final chapter of Elgin's True Enough (2017) defends the claim that some mistakes mark signifi... more The final chapter of Elgin's True Enough (2017) defends the claim that some mistakes mark significant epistemic achievements. Here, I extend Elgin's analysis of the informativeness of mistakes for epistemic policing. I also examine the type of theory of competence that Elgin's view requires, and suggest some directions in which this can be taken.
Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio, 2018
Loughlin's (2018) uses Wittgenstein's remarks in Philsophical Investigations to motivate his 'wid... more Loughlin's (2018) uses Wittgenstein's remarks in Philsophical Investigations to motivate his 'wide' view of cognition. In opposition to other accounts of extended cognition, his view presents a negative solution to the location problem. Here, I argue that, if we consider Wittgenstein's remarks on the notion of ability, the support for the wide view is not as straightforward. The criteria for using the concept of ability are highly context-dependent, and there is not a single account for them. This shows that at best, a moderate form of anti-individualism for cognitive capacities can be defended on Wittgensteinian grounds. Furthermore, the suggestion that ontological questions can be bypassed is questioned.
Thesis Chapters by Felipe Morales Carbonell
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Papers by Felipe Morales Carbonell
Thesis Chapters by Felipe Morales Carbonell