Exploring the Easy Road to Nominalism
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PHI 351 Nominalism
Philosophy 351 September 9, 2008 Prof. Clare Batty Universals: Nominalism 1. Recap Metaphysical realism: the world contains both universals and particulars. Certain things (particulars) are alike in attribute (property, relation, kind) because they exemplify the same universal. Metaphysical realists claim that their two-category framework not only provides us with the machinery with which to explain attribute agreement/similarity/resemblance but also a pair of important phenomena: i. The truth of subject-predicate discourse ii. Our use of abstract reference. 2. Issues we have raised about metaphysical realism a. What universals is the metaphysical realist willing to allow into his/her ontology? • Does he/she allow the universal bachelor or just unmarried, adult, male (does he/she even allow unmarried?). What about he universal green or just green (or light green)? 52 b. Are there unexemplified universals? • Certainly there might have been different properties in the world. Are there universals corresponding to these non-existent, but possible, properties? c. Is the relation of exemplification itself a universal? If so, doesn’t this commit the metaphysical realist to an infinite regress? • Suppose a and b are both F. That is, they exemplify the universal F-ness. But now they have an additional thing in common: they are both exemplifications of F-ness. That is, they both exemplify the universal exemplification of F-ness. Can you see where this is going? d. Doesn’t the metaphysical realist overestimate the degree of agreement/likeness/resemblance in the world? • Grass, peas and wasabi paste are all similar; but they are not exactly alike. 3. -
The Coherence of Stoic Ontology
The Coherence of Stoic Ontology by Vanessa de Harven A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Prof. Dorothea Frede, Co-chair Prof. Klaus Corcilius, Co-chair Prof. A.A. Long Spring 2012 Abstract The Coherence of Stoic Ontology by Vanessa de Harven Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy University of California, Berkeley Professors Dorothea Frede and Klaus Corcilius, Co-chairs Any thoroughgoing physicalist is challenged to give an account of immaterial entities such as thoughts and mathematical objects. The Stoics, who eagerly affirmed that only bodies exist, crafted an elegant solution to this challenge: not everything that is Something (ti) exists. Rather, some things have a derivative mode of reality they call subsistence: these entities are non-existent in that they are not themselves solid bodies, but they are nonetheless Something physical because they depend on bodies for their subsistence. My dissertation uncovers the unifying principles of Stoic subsistence, and shows how they can account for thoughts and other immaterial entities without running afoul of their physicalist commitments. While all commentators agree that the Stoics posited Something as the highest category of being, they have failed to find a coherent physicalist account of Stoic ontology. For instance, (1) a canonical set of incorporeals (time, place, void, and what is sayable (lekton)) is well attested, but there is little agreement as to what these entities have in common as incorporeals, which makes the category look like an ad hoc collection of left-over entities. -
In Defence of Folk Psychology
FRANK JACKSON & PHILIP PETTIT IN DEFENCE OF FOLK PSYCHOLOGY (Received 14 October, 1988) It turned out that there was no phlogiston, no caloric fluid, and no luminiferous ether. Might it turn out that there are no beliefs and desires? Patricia and Paul Churchland say yes. ~ We say no. In part one we give our positive argument for the existence of beliefs and desires, and in part two we offer a diagnosis of what has misled the Church- lands into holding that it might very well turn out that there are no beliefs and desires. 1. THE EXISTENCE OF BELIEFS AND DESIRES 1.1. Our Strategy Eliminativists do not insist that it is certain as of now that there are no beliefs and desires. They insist that it might very well turn out that there are no beliefs and desires. Thus, in order to engage with their position, we need to provide a case for beliefs and desires which, in addition to being a strong one given what we now know, is one which is peculiarly unlikely to be undermined by future progress in neuroscience. Our first step towards providing such a case is to observe that the question of the existence of beliefs and desires as conceived in folk psychology can be divided into two questions. There exist beliefs and desires if there exist creatures with states truly describable as states of believing that such-and-such or desiring that so-and-so. Our question, then, can be divided into two questions. First, what is it for a state to be truly describable as a belief or as a desire; what, that is, needs to be the case according to our folk conception of belief and desire for a state to be a belief or a desire? And, second, is what needs to be the case in fact the case? Accordingly , if we accepted a certain, simple behaviourist account of, say, our folk Philosophical Studies 59:31--54, 1990. -
The Idea of Mimesis: Semblance, Play, and Critique in the Works of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W
DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences 8-2012 The idea of mimesis: Semblance, play, and critique in the works of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno Joseph Weiss DePaul University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd Recommended Citation Weiss, Joseph, "The idea of mimesis: Semblance, play, and critique in the works of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno" (2012). College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 125. https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/125 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Idea of Mimesis: Semblance, Play, and Critique in the Works of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy October, 2011 By Joseph Weiss Department of Philosophy College of Liberal Arts and Sciences DePaul University Chicago, Illinois 2 ABSTRACT Joseph Weiss Title: The Idea of Mimesis: Semblance, Play and Critique in the Works of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno Critical Theory demands that its forms of critique express resistance to the socially necessary illusions of a given historical period. Yet theorists have seldom discussed just how much it is the case that, for Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. -
Philosophy 125 — Day 9: Overview Nominalism XVII: Metalinguistic
Branden Fitelson Philosophy 125 Lecture 1 Branden Fitelson Philosophy 125 Lecture 2 ' $ ' Philosophy 125 — Day 9: Overview $ Nominalism XVII: Metalinguistic Nominalism 2 • Administrative Stuff • Metalinguistic nominalists think that realists and austere nominalists make the same kind of mistake: thinking that there must be some non-lingusitic entities – Guest Lecture Thursday: Ed Zalta on Abstract Objects to which terms like “courage” (in, e.g., “Courage is a virtue”) refer. ∗ Introducing Ed — via iChatAV – First Paper Topics and S.Q.s announced last week (see website) • For realists, these entities are universals, for austere nominalists, the entities are concrete particulars (e.g., courageous persons). The metalingustic – Lectures should be up to date (sometimes I fiddle before lecture) nominalist thinks both the realist and the austere nominalist are incorrect. • Agenda: Nominalism • Carnap sketches how a systematic and precise metalinguistic nominalistic – Metalingusitc Nominalism theory might be worked out. Carnap proposes (roughly) that claims like ∗ Carnap’s Naive Proposal “Courage is a virtue” get unpacked as claims about predicates in languages: ∗ Sellars’ Refinement ∗ Residual Problems “Courage is a virtue” 7→ “ ‘Courageous’ is a virtue predicate”. “Trangularity is a shape” 7→ “ ‘Triangular’ is a shape predicate”. – Trope Theory ∗ The best of both worlds? • Problems: (1) Linguistic types vs linguistic tokens (trading new universals for ∗ Plus set theory? old ones?), (2) Language relativity (abs. claims don’t seem language relative). & Nominalism (Cont’d) 09/23%/03 & Nominalism (Cont’d) 09/23/03 % Y¿yellow[0pt]c Branden Fitelson Philosophy 125 Lecture 3 Branden Fitelson Philosophy 125 Lecture 4 ' Nominalism XIX: Metalinguistic Nominalism 4 $' Nominalism XX: Metalinguistic Nominalism 5 $ • Sellars addresses this first problem (for nominalism) of linguistic types/tokens • To address problem (2), Sellars introduces what he calls dot-quotation. -
John P. Burgess Department of Philosophy Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544-1006, USA [email protected]
John P. Burgess Department of Philosophy Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544-1006, USA [email protected] LOGIC & PHILOSOPHICAL METHODOLOGY Introduction For present purposes “logic” will be understood to mean the subject whose development is described in Kneale & Kneale [1961] and of which a concise history is given in Scholz [1961]. As the terminological discussion at the beginning of the latter reference makes clear, this subject has at different times been known by different names, “analytics” and “organon” and “dialectic”, while inversely the name “logic” has at different times been applied much more broadly and loosely than it will be here. At certain times and in certain places — perhaps especially in Germany from the days of Kant through the days of Hegel — the label has come to be used so very broadly and loosely as to threaten to take in nearly the whole of metaphysics and epistemology. Logic in our sense has often been distinguished from “logic” in other, sometimes unmanageably broad and loose, senses by adding the adjectives “formal” or “deductive”. The scope of the art and science of logic, once one gets beyond elementary logic of the kind covered in introductory textbooks, is indicated by two other standard references, the Handbooks of mathematical and philosophical logic, Barwise [1977] and Gabbay & Guenthner [1983-89], though the latter includes also parts that are identified as applications of logic rather than logic proper. The term “philosophical logic” as currently used, for instance, in the Journal of Philosophical Logic, is a near-synonym for “nonclassical logic”. There is an older use of the term as a near-synonym for “philosophy of language”. -
Getting Realistic About Nominalism
Getting Realistic about Nominalism Mark F. Sharlow URL: http://www.eskimo.com/~msharlow ABSTRACT In this paper I examine critically the relationship between the realist and nominalist views of abstract objects. I begin by pointing out some differences between the usage of existential statements in metaphysics and the usage of such statements in disciplines outside of philosophy. Then I propose an account of existence that captures the characteristic intuitions underlying the latter kind of usage. This account implies that abstract object existence claims are not as ontologically extravagant as they seem, and that such claims are immune to certain standard nominalistic criticisms. Copyright © 2003 Mark F. Sharlow. Updated 2009. 1 I. What Do People Really Mean by "Exist"? There appears to be a marked difference between the way in which philosophers use the word "exist" and the way in which many other people use that word. This difference often shows itself when beginners in philosophy encounter philosophical positions that deny the existence of seemingly familiar things. Take, for example, nominalism — a view according to which multiply exemplifiable entities, such as properties and relations, really do not exist. (This definition may not do justice to all versions of nominalism, but it is close enough for our present purpose.) A strict nominalist has to deny, for example, that there are such things as colors. He can admit that there are colored objects; he even can admit that we usefully speak as though there were colors. But he must deny that there actually are colors, conceived of as multiply exemplifiable entities. A newcomer to philosophy might hear about the nominalist view of colors, and say in amazement, "How can anyone claim that there are no such things as colors? Look around the room — there they are!" To lessen this incredulity, a nominalist might explain that he is not denying that we experience a colorful world, or that we can usefully talk as if there are colors. -
CRITICAL NOTICE Why We Need Ordinary Language Philosophy
CRITICAL NOTICE Why We Need Ordinary Language Philosophy Sandra Laugier, Translated by Daniela Ginsberg, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2013, pp. 168, £ 24.50. ISBN-13: 978-0-226-47054-2 (cloth). Reviewed by Derek A. McDougall Originally published in French in the year 2000, the English version of Sandra Laugier’s short book of 10 Chapters plus an Introduction and Conclusion, has a 7 page Preface, 9 pages of Notes, a brief Bibliography and 121 pages of actual text. The reading of Wittgenstein and Austin that she provides is distinctly Cavellian in character. Indeed, Stanley Cavell in a dust-cover quote, remarks that her work is already influential in France and Italy, exciting as it does a new interest in ‘language conceived not only as a cognitive capacity but also as used, and meant, as part of our form of life’. Cavell goes on to say that this new translation is not merely welcome but indispensable, and has at least the capacity to alter prevailing views about the philosophy of language, so affecting what we have come to think of as the ‘analytic-continental divide’. Toril Moi of Duke Uni., in another dust-cover quote, states that Laugier’s reading of Wittgenstein-Austin-Cavell shows how their claim that ‘to speak about language is to speak about the world is an antimetaphysical revolution in philosophy that tranforms our understanding of epistemology and ethics.’ She concludes with the thought that anyone who wishes to understand what ‘ordinary language philosophy’ means today should read this book. This is a large claim to make, and anyone who is inclined to read Wittgenstein and Austin strictly in their own terms, and with their own avowed intentions - where discernible - steadily in view, is almost bound to conclude that it is simply not true. -
Measuring Conceptual Similarity in Ontologies: How Bad Is a Cheap Measure?
Measuring Conceptual Similarity in Ontologies: How Bad is a Cheap Measure? Tahani Alsubait, Bijan Parsia, and Uli Sattler School of Computer Science, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom falsubait,bparsia,[email protected] Abstract. Several attempts have been made to develop similarity mea- sures for ontologies. Motivated by finding problems in existing measures, we design a new family of measures to address these problems. We carry out an empirical study to explore how good the new measures are and to investigate how likely it is to encounter specific task-oriented problems when using a bad similarity measure. 1 Introduction The process of assigning a numerical value reflecting the degree of resemblance between two ontology concepts or the so called conceptual similarity measure- ment is a core step in many ontology-related applications (e.g., ontology align- ment [7], ontology learning [2]). Several attempts have been made to develop methods for measuring conceptual similarity in ontologies [22, 32, 23, 20, 4]. In addition, the problem of measuring similarity is well-founded in psychology and a number of similarity models have been already developed [6, 30, 26, 19, 29, 8, 12]. Rather than adopting a psychological model for similarity as a foundation, we noticed that some existing similarity measures for ontologies are ad-hoc and unprincipled. This can negatively affect the application in which they are used. However, in some cases, depending on how simple the ontology/task is, using a computationally expensive \good" similarity measure is no better than using a cheap \bad" measure. Thus, we need to understand the computational cost of the similarity measure and the cases in which it succeeds/fails. -
Concrete Possible Worlds (Final)
CONCRETE POSSIBLE WORLDS Phillip Bricker 1. INTRODUCTION. Open a book or article of contemporary analytic philosophy, and you are likely to find talk of possible worlds therein. This applies not only to analytic metaphysics, but to areas as diverse as philosophy of language, philosophy of science, epistemology, and ethics. Philosophers agree, for the most part, that possible worlds talk is extremely useful for explicating concepts and formulating theories. They disagree, however, over its proper interpretation. In this chapter, I discuss the view, championed by David Lewis, that philosophers’ talk of possible worlds is the literal truth.1 There exists a plurality of worlds. One of these is our world, the actual world, the physical universe that contains us and all our surroundings. The others are merely possible worlds containing merely possible beings, such as flying pigs and talking donkeys. But the other worlds are no less real or concrete for being merely possible. Fantastic? Yes! What could motivate a philosopher to believe such a tale? I start, as is customary, with modality.2 Truths about the world divide into two sorts: categorical and modal. Categorical truths describe how things are, what is actually the case. Modal truths describe how things could or must be, what is possibly or 1 The fullest statement of Lewis’s theory of possible worlds is contained in his magnum opus, Lewis (1986), On the Plurality of Worlds. Lewis’s view is sometimes called “modal realism.” 2 Historically, it was the attempt to provide semantics for modal logic that catapulted possible worlds to the forefront of analytic philosophy. -
A Model of Human Categorization and Similarity Based Upon Category Theory Michael Healy
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of New Mexico University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Electrical & Computer Engineering Technical Engineering Publications Reports 7-1-2008 A Model of Human Categorization and Similarity Based Upon Category Theory Michael Healy Thomas Caudell Timothy Goldsmith Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ece_rpts Recommended Citation Healy, Michael; Thomas Caudell; and Timothy Goldsmith. "A Model of Human Categorization and Similarity Based Upon Category Theory." (2008). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ece_rpts/28 This Technical Report is brought to you for free and open access by the Engineering Publications at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electrical & Computer Engineering Technical Reports by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO A Model of Human Categorization and Similarity Based Upon Category Theory Michael John Healy Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering e-mail: [email protected] Thomas Preston Caudell Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Department of Computer Science e-mail: [email protected] Timothy E. Goldsmith Department of Psychology e-mail: [email protected] University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA UNM Technical Report: EECE-TR-08-0010 Report Date: June 19, 2008 Abstract Categorization and the judgement of similarity are fundamental in cognition. We propose that these and other activities are based upon an underlying structure of knowledge, or concept representation, in the brain. -
Introduction to Philosophy of Science
INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE The aim of philosophy of science is to understand what scientists did and how they did it, where history of science shows that they performed basic research very well. Therefore to achieve this aim, philosophers look back to the great achievements in the evolution of modern science that started with the Copernicus with greater emphasis given to more recent accomplishments. The earliest philosophy of science in the last two hundred years is Romanticism, which started as a humanities discipline and was later adapted to science as a humanities specialty. The Romantics view the aim of science as interpretative understanding, which is a mentalistic ontology acquired by introspection. They call language containing this ontology “theory”. The most successful science sharing in the humanities aim is economics, but since the development of econometrics that enables forecasting and policy, the humanities aim is mixed with the natural science aim of prediction and control. Often, however, econometricians have found that successful forecasting by econometric models must be purchased at the price of rejecting equation specifications based on the interpretative understanding supplied by neoclassical macroeconomic and microeconomic theory. In this context the term “economic theory” means precisely such neoclassical equation specifications. Aside from economics Romanticism has little relevance to the great accomplishments in the history of science, because its concept of the aim of science has severed it from the benefits of the examination of the history of science. The Romantic philosophy of social science is still resolutely practiced in immature sciences such as sociology, where mentalistic description prevails, where quantification and prediction are seldom attempted, and where implementation in social policy is seldom effective and often counterproductive.