there are no images of Warren Quinn online since he died before the internet and was not famous before he died, but this is the actress Quinn Warren, courtesy of IMDB, instead.

Putting Rationality In Its Place

In order to set up the next class of objections that Schroeder tries to respond to in chapter 5 of Slaves of the Passions, for today’s class we’re reading a famous article by the philosopher Warren Quinn, who like Jean Hampton with whom I believe he was friends, died at a tragically young age in the 1990’s. In this article, Quinn introduces an example that has become very famous. As you read, see if you can guess which example is the one that is so important and has become so famous. Who, among the philosophers who we have read this semester, does this example make the most trouble for?

Reading

You will find the reading here. Note that this online PDF includes both Quinn’s article and another paper published in the same volume by Philippa Foot - you will want to stop reading after Quinn’s article, which is just 22 pages. As you read, ask yourself: is Quinn trying to argue against noncognitivism, or against the Humean Theory of Reasons? Separate this question into the separate questions of what does he seem to say that he is trying to argue against, and what does his argument really attack?