There has been a pretty steady flow of new articles to “Philosophy Compass”:http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/philosophy/ in recent months. Here is a list of what we’ve recently posted.

* “Hobbes’s Reply to the Fool”:http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/philosophy/article_view?parent=section&last_results=section%3Dphco-history&sortby=date&section=phco-history&browse_id=569789&article_id=phco_articles_bpl053, By Michael LeBuffe, Texas A&M University.
* “Moral Rationalism vs. Moral Sentimentalism: Is Morality More Like Math or Beauty?”:http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/philosophy/article_view?parent=section&last_results=section%3Dphco-history&sortby=date&section=phco-history&browse_id=569782&article_id=phco_articles_bpl052, By Michael B. Gill, University of Arizona.
* “A Field Guide to Social Construction”:http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/philosophy/article_view?parent=section&last_results=section%3Dphco-naturalistic-philosophy&sortby=date&section=phco-naturalistic-philosophy&browse_id=569775&article_id=phco_articles_bpl051, By Ron Mallon, University of Utah.
* “Experimental Philosophy”:http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/philosophy/article_view?parent=section&last_results=section%3Dphco-naturalistic-philosophy&sortby=date&section=phco-naturalistic-philosophy&browse_id=569768&article_id=phco_articles_bpl050, By Joshua Knobe, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
* “Analytic Epistemology and Experimental Philosophy”:http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/philosophy/article_view?parent=section&last_results=section%3Dphco-naturalistic-philosophy&sortby=date&section=phco-naturalistic-philosophy&browse_id=569753&article_id=phco_articles_bpl048, By Joshua Alexander and Jonathan M. Weinberg, Indiana University, Bloomington.
* “Morality and Psychology”:http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/philosophy/article_view?parent=section&last_results=section%3Dphco-mind-and-cognitive-science&sortby=date&section=phco-mind-and-cognitive-science&browse_id=569810&article_id=phco_articles_bpl055, By Chrisoula Andreou, University of Utah.
* “Religion in the Public Square”:http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/philosophy/article_view?parent=section&last_results=section%3Dphco-religion&sortby=date&section=phco-religion&browse_id=569746&article_id=phco_articles_bpl044, By Edward Langerak, St. Olaf College.
* “Moral Explanation”:http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/philosophy/article_view?parent=section&last_results=section%3Dphco-ethics&sortby=date&section=phco-ethics&browse_id=569761&article_id=phco_articles_bpl049, By Brad Majors, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
* “Probability in the Everett Interpretation”:http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/philosophy/article_view?parent=section&last_results=section%3Dphco-philosophy-of-science&sortby=date&section=phco-philosophy-of-science&browse_id=569803&article_id=phco_articles_bpl054, By Hilary Greaves, Rutgers University.

Clicking on any of those links will take you to the (freely available) article abstracts. And if you like the look of the articles, feel free to ask your library to carry Compass!

Karen Bennett, “Mental Causation”:http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1747-9991.2007.00063.x for “Philosophy Compass”:http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/phco.

bq. Concerns about ‘mental causation’ are concerns about how it is possible for mental states to cause anything to happen. How does what we believe, want, see, feel, hope, or dread manage to cause us to act? Certain positions on the mind-body problem – including some forms of physicalism – make such causation look highly problematic. This entry sketches several of the main reasons to worry, and raises some questions for further investigation.

Michael Gill, “Moral Rationalism vs. Moral Sentimentalism: Is Morality More Like Math or Beauty?”:http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1747-9991.2006.00052.x for “Philosophy Compass”:http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/phco?open=2006

bq. One of the most significant disputes in early modern philosophy was between the moral rationalists and the moral sentimentalists. The moral rationalists – such as Ralph Cudworth, Samuel Clarke, and John Balguy – held that morality originated in reason alone. The moral sentimentalists – such as Anthony Ashley Cooper, the third Earl of Shaftesbury, Francis Hutcheson, and David Hume – held that morality originated at least partly in sentiment. In addition to other arguments, the rationalists and sentimentalists developed rich analogies. The most significant analogy the rationalists developed was between morality and mathematics. The most significant analogy the sentimentalists developed was between morality and beauty. These two analogies illustrate well the main ideas, underlying insights, and accounts of moral phenomenology the two positions have to offer. An examination of the two analogies will thus serve as a useful introduction to the debate between moral rationalism and moral sentimentalism as a whole.