-
136Is the "bottom-up" approach from the theory of meaning to metaphysics possible?Journal of Philosophy 93 (8): 373-407. 1996.Dummett’s The Logical Foundations of Metaphysics (LFM) outlines an ambitious project that has been at the core of his work during the last forty years. The project is built around a particular conception of the theory of meaning (or philosophy of language), according to which such a theory should constitute the corner stone of philosophy and, in particular, provide answers to various metaphysical questions. The present paper is intended as a critical evaluation of some of the main features of th…Read more
-
94Naming and Diagonalization, from Cantor to Gödel to KleeneLogic Journal of the IGPL 14 (5): 709-728. 2006.We trace self-reference phenomena to the possibility of naming functions by names that belong to the domain over which the functions are defined. A naming system is a structure of the form ,{ }), where D is a non-empty set; for every a∈ D, which is a name of a k-ary function, {a}: Dk → D is the function named by a, and type is the type of a, which tells us if a is a name and, if it is, the arity of the named function. Under quite general conditions we get a fixed point theorem, whose special cas…Read more
-
138Deceptive updating and minimal information methodsSynthese 187 (1): 147-178. 2012.The technique of minimizing information (infomin) has been commonly employed as a general method for both choosing and updating a subjective probability function. We argue that, in a wide class of cases, the use of infomin methods fails to cohere with our standard conception of rational degrees of belief. We introduce the notion of a deceptive updating method and argue that non-deceptiveness is a necessary condition for rational coherence. Infomin has been criticized on the grounds that there ar…Read more
-
327Vagueness, tolerance and contextual logicSynthese 174 (1). 2010.The goal of this paper is a comprehensive analysis of basic reasoning patterns that are characteristic of vague predicates. The analysis leads to rigorous reconstructions of the phenomena within formal systems. Two basic features are dealt with. One is tolerance: the insensitivity of predicates to small changes in the objects of predication (a one-increment of a walking distance is a walking distance). The other is the existence of borderline cases. The paper shows why these should be treated as…Read more
New York City, New York, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Language |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Philosophy of Mathematics |
Philosophy of Probability |