-
226An informal sketch is offered of some chief ideas of the (formal) ``branching histories'' theory of objective possibility, free will and indeterminism. Reference is made to ``branching time'' and to ``branching space-times,'' with emphasis on a theme that they share: Objective possibilities are in Our World, organized by the relation of causal order.
-
230
-
19A Contribution to the Axiomatization of Lewis' System S 5.Ten Modal ModelsJournal of Symbolic Logic 31 (3): 498. 1966.
-
19Memorial MinutesPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1974 (n/a): 60. 1974.
-
24Wells Rulon. A measure of subjective information. Structure of language and its mathematical aspects, Proceedings of symposia in applied mathematics, vol. 12, American Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island, 1961, pp. 237–244.Sable J. D., Wells R.. Comments. Structure of language and its mathematical aspects, Proceedings of symposia in applied mathematics, vol. 12, American Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island, 1961, pp. 267–268 (review)Journal of Symbolic Logic 30 (2): 244-245. 1965.
-
10Hintikka K. J. J.. Towards a theory of definite descriptions. Analysis , vol. 19 no. 4 , pp. 79–85Journal of Symbolic Logic 25 (1): 88-89. 1960.
-
84How Causal Probabilities Might Fit into Our Objectively Indeterministic WorldSynthese 149 (1): 1-36. 2006.We suggest a rigorous theory of how objective single-case transition probabilities fit into our world. The theory combines indeterminism and relativity in the “branching space–times” pattern, and relies on the existing theory of causae causantes (originating causes). Its fundamental suggestion is that (at least in simple cases) the probabilities of all transitions can be computed from the basic probabilities attributed individually to their originating causes. The theory explains when and how on…Read more
-
41Restricted quantification and conditional assertionIn Hugues Leblanc (ed.), Truth, syntax and modality, North-holland. 1973.
-
1Bressan's type-theoretical combination of quantification and modalityIn Henrik Lagerlund, Sten Lindström & Rysiek Sliwinski (eds.), Modality Matters: Twenty-Five Essays in Honour of Krister Segerberg, Uppsala Philosophical Studies 53. pp. 53--31. 2006.
-
337A theory of causation: Causae causantes (originating causes) as inus conditions in branching space-timesBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 56 (2): 221-253. 2005.permits a sound and rigorously definable notion of ‘originating cause’ or causa causans—a type of transition event—of an outcome event. Mackie has famously suggested that causes form a family of ‘inus’ conditions, where an inus condition is ‘an insufficient but non-redundant part of an unnecessary but sufficient condition’. In this essay the needed concepts of BST theory are developed in detail, and it is then proved that the causae causantes of a given outcome event have exactly the structure o…Read more
-
77(2005, pdf format, Unpublished
-
50Reply to Robert KoonsNotre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 35 (4): 632-636. 1994.We are grateful to Professor Robert Koons for his excellent, and generous, review (henceforth KR) of our book The Revision Theory of Truth (henceforth RTT). Koons provides in KR a welcome guide to our RTT, and he puts forward objections that deserve serious consideration. In this note we shall respond only to his principal objection.' This objection, which is developed on pp. 625 ââ¬â 628 of KR, calls into question our main thesis. As we argue below, however, the objection is not successful.…Read more
-
146Truth values, neither-true-nor-false, and supervaluationsStudia Logica 91 (3). 2009.The first section (§1) of this essay defends reliance on truth values against those who, on nominalistic grounds, would uniformly substitute a truth predicate. I rehearse some practical, Carnapian advantages of working with truth values in logic. In the second section (§2), after introducing the key idea of auxiliary parameters (§2.1), I look at several cases in which logics involve, as part of their semantics, an extra auxiliary parameter to which truth is relativized, a parameter that caters t…Read more
-
499How a computer should thinkIn Gilbert Ryle (ed.), Contemporary aspects of philosophy, Oriel Press. 1977.(from Entailment II)
-
40Some non-classical logics seen from a variety of perspectivesJournal of Sun Yatsen University 43 167-179. 2003.
-
13Review: Hugues Leblanc, Theodore Hailperin, Nondesignating Singular Terms (review)Journal of Symbolic Logic 25 (1): 87-88. 1960.
-
Proof tableau formulations of some first-order relevant ortho-logicsBulletin of the Section of Logic 13 (4): 233-239. 1984.In [6] proof tableau formulations were given of the implication/negation fragments of the important zero-order relevant logics E and R and the semirelevant logic RM . The main purpose of this paper then, is to extend results by giving proof tableau formulations of the distribution-free fragments of E, R and RM and of their first order extensions EQ, RQ and RMQ. Where X is one of these logics, we shall follow [13] in calling its distribution-free fragment OX – the ‘O’ standing for ‘ortho’ which is…Read more
-
86Before refraining: Concepts for agency (review)Erkenntnis 34 (2). 1991.A structure is described that can serve as a foundation for a semantics for a modal agentive construction such as sees to it that Q ([ stit: Q]). The primitives are Tree,,Instant, Agent, choice. Eleven simple postulates governing this structure are set forth and motivated. Tree and encode a picture of branching time consisting of moments gathered into maximal chains called histories. Instant imposes a time-like ordering. Agent consists of agents, and choice assigns to each agent and each moment …Read more
-
49Propensities and probabilitiesStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 38 (3): 593-625. 2007.Popper’s introduction of ‘‘propensity’’ was intended to provide a solid conceptual foundation for objective single-case probabilities. By considering the partly opposed contributions of Humphreys and Miller and Salmon, it is argued that when properly understood, propensities can in fact be understood as objective single-case causal probabilities of transitions between concrete events. The chief claim is that propensities are well-explicated by describing how they fit into the existing formal the…Read more
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |