UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Analytic Philosophy and the Fall and Rise of the Kant–Hegel Tradition
Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87272-0 - Analytic Philosophy and the Return of Hegelian Thought Paul Redding Excerpt More information INTRODUCTION: ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY AND THE FALL AND RISE OF THE KANT–HEGEL TRADITION Should it come as a surprise when a technical work in the philosophy of language by a prominent analytic philosopher is described as ‘an attempt to usher analytic philosophy from its Kantian to its Hegelian stage’, as has 1 Robert Brandom’s Making It Explicit? It can if one has in mind a certain picture of the relation of analytic philosophy to ‘German idealism’. This particular picture has been called analytic philosophy’s ‘creation myth’, and it was effectively established by Bertrand Russell in his various accounts of 2 the birth of the ‘new philosophy’ around the turn of the twentieth century. It was towards the end of 1898 that Moore and I rebelled against both Kant and Hegel. Moore led the way, but I followed closely in his foot- steps. I think that the first published account of the new philosophy was 1 As does Richard Rorty in his ‘Introduction’ to Wilfrid Sellars, Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind, with introduction by Richard Rorty and study guide by Robert Brandom (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 8–9. 2 The phrase is from Steve Gerrard, ‘Desire and Desirability: Bradley, Russell, and Moore Versus Mill’ in W. W. Tait (ed.), Early Analytic Philosophy: Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein (Chicago: Open Court, 1997): ‘The core of the myth (which has its origins in Russell’s memories) is that with philosophical argument aided by the new logic, Russell and Moore slew the dragon of British Idealism ...An additional aspect is that the war was mainly fought over two related doctrines of British Idealism ...The first doctrine is an extreme form of holism: abstraction is always falsification. -
Gottlob Frege Patricia A
Gottlob Frege Patricia A. Blanchette This is the penultimate version of the essay whose final version appears in the Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century German Philosophy, M. Forster and K. Gjesdal (eds), Oxford University Press 2015, pp 207-227 Abstract Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) made significant contributions to both pure mathematics and philosophy. His most important technical contribution, of both mathematical and philosophical significance, is the introduction of a formal system of quantified logic. His work of a more purely- philosophical kind includes the articulation and persuasive defense of anti-psychologism in mathematics and logic, the rigorous pursuit of the thesis that arithmetic is reducible to logic, and the introduction of the distinction between sense and reference in the philosophy of language. Frege’s work has gone on to influence contemporary work across a broad spectrum, including the philosophy of mathematics and logic, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mind. This essay describes the historical development of Frege’s central views, and the connections between those views. Introduction Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege was born on November 8, 1848 in the Hanseatic town of Wismar. He was educated in mathematics at the University of Jena and at the University of Göttingen, from which latter he received his doctorate in 1873. He defended his Habilitation the next year in Jena, and took up a position immediately at the University of Jena. Here he spent his entire academic career, lecturing in mathematics and logic, retiring in 1918. His death came on July 26, 1925 in the nearby town of Bad Kleinen.1 Frege is best known for three significant contributions to philosophy. -
Inside the Epistemological Cave All Bets Are
Inside the epistemological cave all bets are off Colin Wight Department of Politics, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Exeter, The Queen’s Drive, Exeter, Devon EX4 4QJ, UK. E-mail: [email protected] In this short rejoinder to Friedrich Kratochwil’s plea for a ‘pragmatic approach to theory building’, I argue that, despite his claims to the contrary, his position essentially rests on a curious form of foundationalism and relativism. The problem, as I identify it, is that Kratochwil’s attempt to move contemporary debate forward fails because he treats the issue only in epistemological terms. Kratochwil is deeply suspicious of the very idea of the ‘real world’and reduces it to an infinitely malleable construct of our ways of thinking and talking about it. This means that he remains trapped in the epistemological cave and is condemned to an endless quest to solve problems that have no solution. But the real world is not simply something that we think and talk about but, rather, we engage with it in practice and as such it offers resistance to our attempts to grasp it. Hence, it is not a subject without a voice in the global conversation. This is an important theoretical limit, particularly in relation to contemporary issues surrounding global environmental problems. Journal of International Relations and Development (2007) 10, 40–56. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jird.1800109 Keywords: dogmatism epistemology; foundationalism; reality; relativism; theoretical pluralism; truth Introduction When, in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the prisoner released from his chains returns to inform his fellow inmates that he has discovered that their world is an illusion, he could be forgiven for being surprised by their response. -
Comments on “Facts About the Slingshot” by Gregory Landini Valia Allori
Comments on “Facts about the Slingshot” by Gregory Landini Valia Allori This paper is very technical, so I will start my comments with a reconstruction of the arguments presented. Only at the end of this I will say what I think. I apologize in advance for any misinterpretation that I might have done. If I did, it was, of course, entirely unintentional. There is an argument against the correspondence theory of truth that, because of its combined simplicity and devastation, has been named the slingshot argument. According to the correspondence theory of truth a sentence is true iff there is a fact corresponding to it. In order to make sense, it seems that this theory must be able to differentiate between facts. The slingshot arguments, if sound, establish that every true sentence corresponds to the same fact, and therefore the corresponding theory of truth is doomed to failure. In his paper, Gregory argues that the slingshot argument is unsound. Let me just recapitulate what the argument says and my understanding of Gregory's argument against it. I will talk only about Davidson’s first version, for simplicity. The comments I will make will nonetheless apply to both versions. Let [p] be a shortcut for the locution “the fact that p”. Then it seems reasonable to assume that: 1) if to sentences p and q are identical, then [p]=[q] 2) if p and q describe the same thing (are co-denoting), then [p]=[q] for example: given S= “Cicero wrote Philippicae Oratione” and R=“Tully wrote Philippicae Oratione”, then [Cicero wrote Philippicae Oratione]=[Tully wrote Philippicae Oratione] 3) if p ad q are logically equivalent sentences, then [p]=[q] for example: S'= “ Plato=x: (x=Plato & S)” is logically equivalent to S, so [S]=[S'] Assumption number 2) is what Gregory calls the assumption of “constitution”: it amounts to say that the facts containing an object do not depend on the description provided. -
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus</Em>
University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 8-6-2008 Three Wittgensteins: Interpreting the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Thomas J. Brommage Jr. University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Brommage, Thomas J. Jr., "Three Wittgensteins: Interpreting the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" (2008). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/149 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Three Wittgensteins: Interpreting the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Thomas J. Brommage, Jr. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Co-Major Professor: Kwasi Wiredu, B.Phil. Co-Major Professor: Stephen P. Turner, Ph.D. Charles B. Guignon, Ph.D. Richard N. Manning, J. D., Ph.D. Joanne B. Waugh, Ph.D. Date of Approval: August 6, 2008 Keywords: Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, logical empiricism, resolute reading, metaphysics © Copyright 2008 , Thomas J. Brommage, Jr. Acknowledgments There are many people whom have helped me along the way. My most prominent debts include Ray Langely, Billy Joe Lucas, and Mary T. Clark, who trained me in philosophy at Manhattanville College; and also to Joanne Waugh, Stephen Turner, Kwasi Wiredu and Cahrles Guignon, all of whom have nurtured my love for the philosophy of language. -
The Slingshot Argument, Godel's Hesitation and Tarskian Semantics
Arhat Virdi The slingshot argument, Godel’s hesitation and Tarskian semantics Article (Accepted version) (Refereed) Original citation: Virdi, Arhat (2009) The slingshot argument, Godel's hesitation and Tarskian semantics. Prolegomena, 8 (2). pp. 233-241. ISSN 1333-4395 © 2009 © 2009 Society for the Advancement of Philosophy, Zagreb This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/27063/ Available in LSE Research Online: Feb 2010 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author’s final manuscript accepted version of the journal article, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer review process. Some differences between this version and the published version may remain. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. The slingshot argument, Gödel’s hesitation and Tarskian semantics ARHAT VIRDI The slingshot argument is a reductio purporting to show that if there are facts at all there is only one to which all true statements correspond. If facts are not non-trivially individuable then this presumably must render the notion of fact and, by implication, theories such as the correspondence theory of truth incoherent. -
Ghost World: a Context for Frege's Context Principle Mark Wilson, University of Pittsburgh
Ghost World: A Context for Frege's Context Principle Mark Wilson, University of Pittsburgh ------------------------------------ Note: a version of this paper has been published in Michael Beaney and Erich Reck, eds., Gottlob Frege: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, vol 3 (London: Routledge, 2005). Because these volumes are quite expensive, I’ve posted the original version here. ------------------------------------- Beware the unexampled aphorism, however beguiling in appearance, for opposing parties can quote scripture to their own, divergent purposes. An excellent case in point is provided by Gottlob Frege's celebrated context principle: We must never try to define the meaning of a word in isolation, but only as it is used in the context of a proposition.1 "That sounds very nice," we should demur, "but can you supply some concrete 'fer instance' that makes clear what you have in mind?" Indeed, the context principle has been accorded the most extraordinary gamut of readings in the standard literature, in a fashion that draws misty uncertainty over the interpretation of virtually every other central contention within Frege's corpus. To encounter such a nugget of refractory murkiness is surprising, for he is not an author who otherwise courts obscurity. Nonetheless, these obstacles are entirely Frege's fault, for the following reasons (for which the remainder of this essay will argue). (i) As he wrote the Grundlagen, Frege had in mind a concrete family of practices, to be found in the "higher geometry" of his time, that he regarded as exemplifying the context principle as he intended it. This methodology, which was practiced in the Göttingen of his student days, is not one of "contextual definition" in the usual sense of the term, although allied to it in spirit (which explains why Frege's attitude towards "definitions in context" often seems elusive. -
Frege's Influence on Wittgenstein: Reversing Metaphysics Via the Context Principle*
Frege's Influence on Wittgenstein: Reversing Metaphysics via the Context Principle* Erich H. Reck Gottlob Frege and Ludwig Wittgenstein (the later Wittgenstein) are often seen as polar opposites with respect to their fundamental philosophical outlooks: Frege as a paradig- matic "realist", Wittgenstein as a paradigmatic "anti-realist". This opposition is supposed to find its clearest expression with respect to mathematics: Frege is seen as the "arch-pla- tonist", Wittgenstein as some sort of "radical anti-platonist". Furthermore, seeing them as such fits nicely with a widely shared view about their relation: the later Wittgenstein is supposed to have developed his ideas in direct opposition to Frege. The purpose of this paper is to challenge these standard assumptions. I will argue that Frege's and Wittgen- stein's basic outlooks have something crucial in common; and I will argue that this is the result of the positive influence Frege had on Wittgenstein. It would be absurd to claim that there are no important differences between Frege and Wittgenstein. Likewise, it would be absurd to claim that the later Wittgenstein was not critical of some of Frege's ideas. What, then, is the common element I see? My sugges- tion is that the two thinkers agree on what I call a reversal of metaphysics (relative to a standard kind of metaphysics attacked by both). This is not an agreement on one particu- lar thesis or on one argument. Rather, it has to do with what is prior and what is posterior when it comes to certain fundamental explanations in metaphysics (also, relatedly, in semantics and epistemology). -
Frege and the Logic of Sense and Reference
FREGE AND THE LOGIC OF SENSE AND REFERENCE Kevin C. Klement Routledge New York & London Published in 2002 by Routledge 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001 Published in Great Britain by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. Copyright © 2002 by Kevin C. Klement All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any infomration storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Klement, Kevin C., 1974– Frege and the logic of sense and reference / by Kevin Klement. p. cm — (Studies in philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0-415-93790-6 1. Frege, Gottlob, 1848–1925. 2. Sense (Philosophy) 3. Reference (Philosophy) I. Title II. Studies in philosophy (New York, N. Y.) B3245.F24 K54 2001 12'.68'092—dc21 2001048169 Contents Page Preface ix Abbreviations xiii 1. The Need for a Logical Calculus for the Theory of Sinn and Bedeutung 3 Introduction 3 Frege’s Project: Logicism and the Notion of Begriffsschrift 4 The Theory of Sinn and Bedeutung 8 The Limitations of the Begriffsschrift 14 Filling the Gap 21 2. The Logic of the Grundgesetze 25 Logical Language and the Content of Logic 25 Functionality and Predication 28 Quantifiers and Gothic Letters 32 Roman Letters: An Alternative Notation for Generality 38 Value-Ranges and Extensions of Concepts 42 The Syntactic Rules of the Begriffsschrift 44 The Axiomatization of Frege’s System 49 Responses to the Paradox 56 v vi Contents 3. -
Fregean Versus Kripkean Reference*
Teorema Vol. XVII/1, 1998, pp. 21-44 Fregean versus Kripkean Reference* Manuel García-Carpintero RESUMEN El millianismo es la tesis de que los nombres propios, desde un punto de vista semántico, se limitan a referir: no desempeñan ninguna otra función semánticamente importante. El caso de los indéxicos hace patente que la mayoría de las consideracio- nes en Naming and Necessity que los lectores encuentran convincentes son compati- bles con la falsedad del millianismo. Además, existen buenas razones para considerar esa tesis falsa. Los millianos aceptan la existencia de información descriptiva asocia- da con los nombres propios, más allá del referente, de algún modo semánticamente significativa. Defienden su tesis, sin embargo, elaborando una distinción entre pro- piedades de las expresiones semánticamente relevantes, y propiedades meramente “metasemánticas” que una explicación genuinamente semántica no debe tomar en consideración. En este trabajo examino estas propuestas y doy razones para incluir propiedades de los nombres propios distintas de sus referentes entre aquellas que una teoría genuinamente semántica debe incorporar. Argumento también que mi propues- ta es compatible con las ideas centrales de Naming and Necessity, indicando que la tesis más importante de esa obra impresionante no es el millianismo, sino una cierta forma de externismo. ABSTRACT: Millianism is the view that, from a semantical viewpoint, proper names simply refer; there is no further semantically relevant function they play. As the case of in- dexicals makes very clear, most of the considerations in Naming and Necessity that people find plausible are compatible with the falsity of Millianism. Besides, there are good reasons to consider that thesis false. -
Metaphysics and Natural Kinds: Slingshots, Fundamentality, and Causal Structure
METAPHYSICS AND NATURAL KINDS: SLINGSHOTS, FUNDAMENTALITY, AND CAUSAL STRUCTURE By ANDREW LEE MCFARLAND Submitted to the graduate degree program in the Department of Philosophy and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Chair: John Symons ________________________________ John Bricke ________________________________ Armin Schulz ________________________________ Clif Pye ________________________________ Philippe Huneman Date Defended: May 16, 2014 The Dissertation Committee for Andrew Lee McFarland certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: METAPHYSICS AND NATURAL KINDS: SLINGSHOTS, FUNDAMENTALITY, AND CAUSAL STRUCTURE ________________________________ JOHN SYMONS Date approved: May 16, 2014 ii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Metaphysics and Natural Kinds: Slingshots, Fundamentality, and Causal Structure Andrew Lee McFarland My dissertation addresses a question relevant to metaphysics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of science: What are natural kinds? I explore a view that holds that natural kinds are complex, structural properties that involve causal structure. Causal structure describes the idea that for the many properties associated with natural kinds, these properties are nomically linked – that is causally connected – in such a way that the properties of non-natural kinds are not. After criticizing arguments in favor of a nominalist theory of kinds – one that holds that a natural kind just is to be identified with its class of instances – and after defending the notion of a complex structural property from several prominent objections posed by David Lewis, I apply a causal account of natural kinds to a set of problematic cases, paying special attention to isomeric kinds from chemistry. iii Dedication I dedicate this doctoral thesis to my family and to the tireless support they have given me over the years. -
REALISM and ITS IMPLICATIONS: Real/Reality/Realism: the Beginning Student Will Do Well to Get Clearly in Mind the Meaning of Such Terms As Real, Reality, and Realism
REALISM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS: Real/Reality/Realism: The beginning student will do well to get clearly in mind the meaning of such terms as real, reality, and realism. The real is the actual, or the existing. The term refers to things or events belonging to the order of nature or existing in their own right, as opposed to the imaginary, the artificial, the fictitious. Real refers to "what is." Reality is the state or quality of being real or actually existent, in contrast to what is mere appearance. In a popular sense, realism may mean devotion to fact and details as opposed to the imaginary. In philosophy, however, the word is used in a more technical sense. WHAT IS REALISM? Realism, in a philosophical sense, is the doctrine that the objects of our senses are real in their own right in that they exist independent of their being known or related to mind. Realism ' is the disposition to think and to act in the light of things as they ' are; it is a preoccupation with fact or reality; it emphasizes the objective and the scientific as opposed to the subjective and the speculative. For the realist the universe is so inexorably "out there" that the only thing we can do is to make the best terms possible with it. The realist attempts to come to terms with the universe, not to interpret the world in terms of his experience or in spiritual terms. A contemporary British realist, Professor John MacMurray, says: "We cannot get away from the primary fact that there is a distinction between things and ideas.