Philosophy in Review/Comptes Rendus Philosophiques Academic
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Externalism Is a View About the Conditions for Our Thoughts and Words to Refer to Things
Semantic Internalism and Externalism in the Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Language, ed. by Barry C. Smith and Ernest Lepore. Oxford University Press 2006. pp. 323-40. Katalin Farkas Central European University, Budapest 1. Three claims about meaning In a sense, the meaning of our words obviously depends on circumstances outside us. ‘Elm’ in English is used to talk about elms, and though I could decide – perhaps as a kind of code – to use the word ‘elm’ to talk about beeches, my decision would hardly change the English language. The meaning of ‘elm’ depends on conventions of the language speaking community, and these are certainly beyond my control. In this sense, no-one will disagree that meaning is determined by factors outside the individual. At the same time, it seems that it is up to me what I mean by my words; and in fact, the meaning of a word in the language is simply a result of what most of us mean by it. Another way of putting this point is that even if the meaning of an expression is determined by social agreement, grasping the meaning of the word is an individual psychological act. I may grasp the usual public meaning correctly, or I may – willingly or accidentally – mean something different by the word, but it looks that meaning in this sense depends entirely on me. It is also plausible to assume that in some sense, our physical environment contributes to what our words mean. If I am right in assuming that before Europeans arrived to Australia, English had had no word which meant the same as the word ‘kangaroo‘ does nowadays, this is easily explained by the fact that people at that time hadn’t encountered kangaroos. -
Wittgenstein in Exile
Wittgenstein in Exile “My thoughts are one hundred per cent Hebraic.” -Wittgenstein to Drury, 19491 Wittgenstein was born in 1889 into one of the richest families in Central Europe. He lived and learned at home, in Vienna, until 1903, when he was 14. We have no record of his thoughts about the turn of the last century, but it is unlikely that it seemed very significant to him. The Viennese of the time had little inclination to consider the possibilities of change, and the over-ripe era in which Wittgenstein grew up did not really end until Austria-Hungary’s defeat, in World War I, and subsequent dismantling. But the family in which Wittgenstein grew up apparently felt that European culture had already come to an end in the 1840’s. And Wittgenstein himself felt he belonged to an era that had vanished with the death of the composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856).2 Somewhere in the middle of the Nineteenth Century there was an important change into the contemporary era, of which Wittgenstein did not feel a part. Wittgenstein’s understanding of history, and his consequent self-understanding in relation to his times, was deeply influenced by Oswald Spengler, who in 1918 published The Decline of the West [Der Untergang des Abenlandes]. This book, expanded to a second volume in 1922, and revised in 1923, became a best-seller in post-war Europe. Wittgenstein made numerous references to it in 1930-1931, and acknowledged Spengler as one of his ten noteworthy influences.3 According to Spengler, cultures grow, flower, and deteriorate naturally, according to their own internal form, much as a human being does. -
Alfred Tarski and a Watershed Meeting in Logic: Cornell, 1957 Solomon Feferman1
Alfred Tarski and a watershed meeting in logic: Cornell, 1957 Solomon Feferman1 For Jan Wolenski, on the occasion of his 60th birthday2 In the summer of 1957 at Cornell University the first of a cavalcade of large-scale meetings partially or completely devoted to logic took place--the five-week long Summer Institute for Symbolic Logic. That meeting turned out to be a watershed event in the development of logic: it was unique in bringing together for such an extended period researchers at every level in all parts of the subject, and the synergetic connections established there would thenceforth change the face of mathematical logic both qualitatively and quantitatively. Prior to the Cornell meeting there had been nothing remotely like it for logicians. Previously, with the growing importance in the twentieth century of their subject both in mathematics and philosophy, it had been natural for many of the broadly representative meetings of mathematicians and of philosophers to include lectures by logicians or even have special sections devoted to logic. Only with the establishment of the Association for Symbolic Logic in 1936 did logicians begin to meet regularly by themselves, but until the 1950s these occasions were usually relatively short in duration, never more than a day or two. Alfred Tarski was one of the principal organizers of the Cornell institute and of some of the major meetings to follow on its heels. Before the outbreak of World War II, outside of Poland Tarski had primarily been involved in several Unity of Science Congresses, including the first, in Paris in 1935, and the fifth, at Harvard in September, 1939. -
State Board of Education Welcomes Newest Member: Ernest Lepore of Hudson County
NJDOE News For More Information Contact the Public Information Office: Jon Zlock Kathryn Forsyth 609-292-1126 For Release: December 1, 2004 State Board of Education Welcomes Newest Member: Ernest Lepore of Hudson County The State Board of Education today welcomed Ernest Lepore, Ph.D., the associate director of the Rutgers University Center of Cognitive Sciences and a resident of Hudson County, as its newest member. Dr. Lepore was sworn in during this morning’s regular session. "It is my pleasure to welcome Dr. Lepore to the State Board of Education," said Acting Gov. Richard Codey. "His expertise in the philosophy of language, in particular, and his expertise as an educator at Rutgers University should help him lead discussions on literacy and other important facets of the Department of Education’s mission." Lepore, who begins a six-year term, replaces Samuel J. Podietz of Burlington County, who served on the Board since 1998. "We are so very pleased to have Dr. Lepore join us in our work," Commissioner of Education William L. Librera said. "His wealth of experience in Higher Education will help him here; we have a sense that his abilities on the collegiate level, particularly in philosophy, will help him serve on the board with an open ear, and a dedication to advancing the education of children throughout the state." "We look forward to working with Dr. Lepore and the many contributions we know he will make to this Board," President Arnold Hyndman said. "I know my own experiences in Higher Education have made my time here on the Board all the more valuable. -
Holism: a Shopper's Guide Jerry Fodor, Ernest Lepore
To purchase this product, please visit https://www.wiley.com/en-eg/9780631181934 Holism: A Shopper's Guide Jerry Fodor, Ernest Lepore Paperback 978-0-631-18193-4 April 1992 Print-on- £34.25 demand DESCRIPTION The main question addressed in this book is whether individuation of the contents of thoughts and linguistic expressions is inherently holistic. The authors consider arguments that are alleged to show that the meaning of a scientific hypothesis depends on the entire theory that entails it, or that the content of a concept depends on the entire belief system of which it is part. If these arguments are sound then it would follow that the meanings of words, sentences, hypotheses, predictions, discourses, dialogs, texts, thoughts and the like are merely derivative. The implications of holism about meaning for other philosophical issues (intentional explanation, translation, Realism, skepticism, etc.) will also be explored. Authors discussed include Quine, Davidson, Lewis, Bennett, Block, Field, Churchland, and others. The book is intended for all those interested in language, mind, metaphysics or epistemology. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jerry Fodor is the author of numerous, and influential, books, most recently A Theory of Content and Other Essays (1990). Ernest Lepore is the co-editor of the recent John Searle and his Critics (Blackwell, 1991) and of two volumes of essays on Donald Davidson, as well as numerous articles on philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. FEATURES * A witty, controversial and partisan book on a subject of central importance to philosophers, psychologists, linguists and cognitive scientists. * It covers all the main positions held by key people in the field. -
Is Internal Realism a Philosophy of Scheme and Content?’
METAPHILOSOPHY Vol. 22, No. 3, July 1991 0026-1068 $2.00 IS INTERNAL REALISM A PHILOSOPHY OF SCHEME AND CONTENT?’ EVAN THOMPSON 1. The Aporia of Representation Hilary Putnam has remarked that metaphysical realism is less of a theory than a model of the relation between any correct theory and the world.* The model assumes that there is some way that the world is and that our theories are correct to the extent that we are able to represent the world accurately. But the world is independent of any of our representations; indeed, for all we know, we might be incapable of accurately representing the world. Arguments against metaphysical realism often accept a crucial feature of the realist model. That feature is the view that cognition is essentially representation: the anti-realist typically claims that we cannot get outside our representations to compare them with what they supposedly represent. He argues that no content can be given to the notion of a reality independent of all representations; we can retain talk of the world, therefore, only relative to some system of representation. This notion that we are linked to the world via representations gives rise to an aporia that neither the traditional realist nor anti-realist seems able to disentangle. The realist naturally thinks that there is a difference between representation and that which is represented; such a distinc- tion seems, after all, to be required by the very concept of representa- tion. Thus we might be able to ascertain truth only by looking to the coherence of our representations, but truth itself is a matter of the way the world is, which we get some sense of, perhaps, by inferring to the best explanation. -
Una Stojni´C
UNASTOJNI C´ personal information contact Department of Philosophy, Princeton University 223 1879 Hall, Princeton University Princeton, NJ, 08544-1006, USA email [email protected] phone +1 (732) 543–5580 academic employment 2019– Department of Philosophy, Princeton University, Assistant Professor (TT) 2017–2019 Department of Philosophy, Columbia University, Assistant Professor (TT) Fall 2018 Department of Philosophy, Princeton University, Visiting Assistant Professor 2016–2017 Department of Philosophy, NYU, Bersoff Faculty Fellow/Assistant Professor June–September School of Philosophy, ANU, Research Fellow 2016 and 2017 education 2016 Rutgers University, PhD, Philosophy Dissertation Title: Context-sensitivity in a Coherent Discourse Under the supervision of Prof. Jeffrey C. King and Prof. Ernie Lepore 2016 Rutgers University, Graduate Certificate, Cognitive Science Project Title: Meaning and Demonstration Under the supervision of Prof. Matthew Stone (Computer Science) 2010 University of Belgrade, B.A., Philosophy (GPA: 10/10) areas of specialization Philosophy of Language, Formal Semantics and Pragmatics, Logic, Philosophy of Mind, Cognitive Science areas of competence Epistemology, Early analytic philosophy papers and publications Book manuscript Context and Coherence: The Logic and Grammar of Prominence, completed to appear manuscript, under contract with OUP, UK Forthcoming “Anatomy of Arguments in Natural Language Discourse,” in Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Language, vol 2. Forthcoming “Fodor and Demonstratives in the Language of Thought,” Una Stojnic´ and Ernie Lepore, in Theoria, http://dx.doi.org/10.1387/theoria.20906 Forthcoming “Pointing Things Out: In Defense of Attention and Coherence,” Una Stojnic,´ Matthew Stone, and Ernie Lepore, in Linguistics and Philosophy, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-019-09271-w 2 2019 “Expressions and their Articulations and Applications,” Una Stojnic´ and Ernie Lepore, in Croatian Journal of Philosophy, 19:57, 477–496. -
LYING, MISLEADING, and LANGUAGE by Matthew Knachel
LYING, MISLEADING, AND LANGUAGE by Matthew Knachel B.G.S, University of Dayton, 1999 M.A., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2003 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2014 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Matthew Knachel It was defended on April 3rd, 2014 and approved by Michael Liston, Professor, Department of Philosophy, UW-Milwaukee Mark Wilson, Professor, Department of Philosophy Dissertation Advisor: Kieran Setiya, Professor, Department of Philosophy Dissertation Advisor: James Shaw, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy ii Copyright © by Matthew Knachel 2014 iii LYING, MISLEADING, AND LANGUAGE Matthew Knachel, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2014 My focus is the everyday distinction between lies and other deceptive speech acts—acts of misleading—which involve saying something truthful with the intention of causing one’s listener to have false beliefs. The distinction resists straightforward pre-theoretical formulation, but it is closely tied to the concept of saying: if what someone said, strictly speaking, is true, then she did not lie— though she may have misled. Ever since Paul Grice distinguished what a speaker says from what she otherwise communicates (e.g., via implicatures), theorists have attempted to provide a rigorous circumscription of ‘what is said’. I test these theories according to how well they handle our intuitions about the lying/misleading distinction, and find that no extant account can adequately underwrite that distinction—in the process discovering that the boundary in question is even more difficult to draw than initially expected. -
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R E C E N Z J E ROCZNIKI FILOZOFICZNE Tom LIX, numer 1 – 2011 Anita Burdman-Feferman, Solomon Feferman, Alfred Tarski. aycie i logika , przeł. Joanna Goli Lska-Pilarek, Marian Srebrny, Warszawa: Wydaw- nictwa Akademickie i Profesjonalne 2009, ss. 475. ISBN 978-83-60501-94-8. Nie trzeba by 4 „rasowym” logikiem lub filozofem, by wiedzie 4, kim był Alfred Tarski (1901-1983). Powszechnie znany jest jako „człowiek, który zdefiniował praw- dB” lub – w Bb szemu gronu – jako współautor twierdzenia o paradoksalnym rozkładzie kuli. Wywarł znacz =cy wpływ na rozwój całej XX-wiecznej logiki i podstaw mate- matyki, a tak be – poprzez badania z zakresu semantyki formalnej i podstaw logiki – na epistemologi B, metodologi B nauk i filozofi B j Bzyka. Stworzył semantyk B logiczn =, przyczynił si B do rozwoju metamatematyki oraz teorii modeli, osi =gn =ł znacz =ce rezultaty w teorii mnogo Vci, topologii, geometrii i arytmetyce. Ksi =b ka Alfred Tarski. aycie i logika autorstwa Anity i Solomona Fefermanów została wydana przez Wydawnictwa Akademickie i Profesjonalne, w profesjonalnym przekładzie Joanny Goli Lskiej-Pilarek i Mariana Srebrnego. Szkoda jedynie, be polski przekład pojawił si B dopiero pi B4 lat po opublikowaniu oryginału ameryka Lskiego Alfred Tarski. Life and Logic przez University of Cambridge. Nie jest chyba przypadkiem, be identyczny podtytuł nosi biografia innego wiel- kiego uczonego, który wraz z Tarskim, lecz niezale bnie od niego, zmienił oblicze logiki XX wieku – Kurta Gödla (John Casti, Werner DePauli, Gödel. aycie i logika , tłum. P. Amsterdamski, Warszawa: Wyd. CiS 2003). Z jednej strony samo bycie, jak be ró bne w obu przypadkach: pełne pasji i nami Btno Vci pierwszego, wyobcowane i egocentryczne drugiego; z drugiej – logika, wielka miło V4 ich obu. -
An Interview with Martin Davis
Notices of the American Mathematical Society ISSN 0002-9920 ABCD springer.com New and Noteworthy from Springer Geometry Ramanujan‘s Lost Notebook An Introduction to Mathematical of the American Mathematical Society Selected Topics in Plane and Solid Part II Cryptography May 2008 Volume 55, Number 5 Geometry G. E. Andrews, Penn State University, University J. Hoffstein, J. Pipher, J. Silverman, Brown J. Aarts, Delft University of Technology, Park, PA, USA; B. C. Berndt, University of Illinois University, Providence, RI, USA Mediamatics, The Netherlands at Urbana, IL, USA This self-contained introduction to modern This is a book on Euclidean geometry that covers The “lost notebook” contains considerable cryptography emphasizes the mathematics the standard material in a completely new way, material on mock theta functions—undoubtedly behind the theory of public key cryptosystems while also introducing a number of new topics emanating from the last year of Ramanujan’s life. and digital signature schemes. The book focuses Interview with Martin Davis that would be suitable as a junior-senior level It should be emphasized that the material on on these key topics while developing the undergraduate textbook. The author does not mock theta functions is perhaps Ramanujan’s mathematical tools needed for the construction page 560 begin in the traditional manner with abstract deepest work more than half of the material in and security analysis of diverse cryptosystems. geometric axioms. Instead, he assumes the real the book is on q- series, including mock theta Only basic linear algebra is required of the numbers, and begins his treatment by functions; the remaining part deals with theta reader; techniques from algebra, number theory, introducing such modern concepts as a metric function identities, modular equations, and probability are introduced and developed as space, vector space notation, and groups, and incomplete elliptic integrals of the first kind and required. -
Ludwig in Fact and Fiction!
,%vieUJs LUDWIG IN FACT AND FICTION! NICHOLAS GRIFFIN Philosophy I McMaster University Hamilton, ant., Canada L8s 4K1 Brian McGuinness. Wittgenstein: a Life. Vo!. I: Young Ludwig (I88f)-I92I). Paperback: London: Penguin, 1990 (1St ed., 1988). Pp. xiv, 322. £6.99. Ray Monk. Ludwig Wittgenstein: the Duty of Genius. London: Cape; New York: Free P., 1990. Pp. xv, 654. £20.00; U5$29.95. Paperback: New York: Viking Penguin, 1991. U5$15.95. G. H. von Wright, ed. A Portrait of Wittgenstein as a Young Man .from the Diary ofDavid Hume Pinsent I9I2-I9I4. Oxford: Blackwell, 1990. Pp. xxii, II9. £25.00. Bruce Duffy. The World as I Found It. New York: Tichnor and Fields, 1987. Pp. x, 548. U5$19.95. Theodore Redpath. Ludwig Wittgenstein: a Student's Memoir. London: Duck worth, 1990. Pp. 109. £12.95. Terry Eagleton. Saints and Scholars. London: Verso, 1987. Pp. 145. £9.95. ittgenstein's life has always attracted a good deal of attention. From W his nrst appearance in Cambridge, before his thought was at all note worthy, he was taken to be a remarkable man. The Apostles were fascinated by him: Bloomsbury handled him cautiously but with interest. He became, well before his death-in fact, before he was even middle-aged-a legendary Cambridge eccentric. Elizabeth Anscombe, one of his executors, once declared she would like to have a button which would stop all the interest in Wittgenstein's personal life and leave only the interest in his philosophy: she might as well have been Canute wishing for a button to control the tides. -
Wittgenstein on Aesthetics and Philosophy
Wittgenstein on aesthetics and philosophy Article Accepted Version Schroeder, S. (2019) Wittgenstein on aesthetics and philosophy. Revista de Historiografía, 32. pp. 11-21. ISSN 2445-0057 doi: https://doi.org/10.20318/revhisto.2019.4891 Available at http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/84464/ It is advisable to refer to the publisher’s version if you intend to cite from the work. See Guidance on citing . Identification Number/DOI: https://doi.org/10.20318/revhisto.2019.4891 <https://doi.org/10.20318/revhisto.2019.4891> All outputs in CentAUR are protected by Intellectual Property Rights law, including copyright law. Copyright and IPR is retained by the creators or other copyright holders. Terms and conditions for use of this material are defined in the End User Agreement . www.reading.ac.uk/centaur CentAUR Central Archive at the University of Reading Reading’s research outputs online Wittgenstein on Aesthetics and Philosophy by Severin Schroeder (University of Reading) 1. Wittgenstein’s objections to scientific aesthetics For a short period of time in 1912, Wittgenstein tried to apply experimental psychology to aesthetics. With his friend David Pinsent he experimented on the perception of musical rhythm, trying to ascertain under what circumstances a regular sequence of beats, such as of a metronome, was heard as accentuated (McGuinness 1988, 127-8). ‘Useless experiments’ he called them later in a 1933 lecture (ML 363), and continued to explain what is wrong with the idea of aesthetics as a branch of psychology. The same lines of criticism recur in his 1938 lectures on aesthetics. The following are Wittgenstein’s three main objections.