•  5
    Philosophy of Science and Occult, 1st Ed (edited book)
    State University of New York Press. 1982.
    Philosophy of Science and the Occult has two aims: to introduce the philosophy of science through an examination of the occult, and to examine the occult rigorously enough to raise central issues in philosophy of science. Patrick Grim has compiled selections by authors with divergent views on astrology, parapsychology, and UFO’s to emphasize topics standard to the philosophy of science. He discusses issues such as confirmation and selection for testing, possibility and a priori probabilities, ca…Read more
  •  666
    Fractal images of formal systems
    with Paul St Denis
    Journal of Philosophical Logic 26 (2): 181-222. 1997.
    Formal systems are standardly envisaged in terms of a grammar specifying well-formed formulae together with a set of axioms and rules. Derivations are ordered lists of formulae each of which is either an axiom or is generated from earlier items on the list by means of the rules of the system; the theorems of a formal system are simply those formulae for which there are derivations. Here we outline a set of alternative and explicitly visual ways of envisaging and analyzing at least simple formal …Read more
  •  1013
    Truth, Omniscience, and Cantorian Arguments: An Exchange
    Philosophical Studies 71 (3): 267-306. 1993.
    An exchange between Patrick Grim and Alvin Plantinga regarding Cantorian arguments against the possibility of an omniscient being.
  •  424
    Is this a swizzle stick which I see before me?
    Analysis 43 (4): 164-166. 1983.
    On swizzle sticks, sorites paradoxes, and precise replacements.
  •  150
    Gremlins Revenged
    with Robert Brecher
    Philosophical Studies (Dublin) 30 165-176. 1984.
  •  354
    Contrary to the great bulk of philosophical work on vagueness, the core of vagueness is not to be found in vague monadic predicates such as ‘bald’, ‘tall’, or ‘old’. The true source of vagueness – at least vagueness of the type that typically appears in the sorites – lies beneath these, in a mechanism using a buried quantifier operative over the comparatives ‘balder’, ‘taller’ and ‘older’.
  •  17
    Beyond the Limits of Thought (review)
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 58 (3): 719-723. 1998.
  •  13
    Philosophy for Computers: Some Explorations in Philosophical Modeling
    Metaphilosophy 33 (1‐2): 181-209. 2003.
    Philosophical modeling has a long and distinguished history, but the computer offers new and powerful prospects for the creation and manipulation of models. It seems inevitable that the computer will become a major tool in future philosophical research. Here I offer an overview of explorations in philosophical computer modeling that we in the Group for Logic and Formal Semantics at SUNY Stony Brook have undertaken: explorations regarding (1) the potential emergence of cooperation in a society of…Read more
  •  9
    Mind and Consciousness: 5 Questions (edited book)
    Automatic Press. 2009.
    Debates concerning the nature of mind and consciousness are active and ongoing, with implications for philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence and the neurosciences. This book collects interviews with some of the foremost philosophers of mind, focusing on open questions, promising projects, and their own intellectual histories. The result is a rich glimpse of the contemporary debate through some of the people who make it what it is. Interviews with Lynne Rudder Baker, David Chalmers, Dani…Read more
  •  1
    Wright on Functions
    Analysis 35 (2): 62-64. 1974.
  •  365
    Information and meaning: Use-based models in arrays of neural nets (review)
    with P. St Denis and T. Kokalis
    Minds and Machines 14 (1): 43-66. 2004.
    The goal of philosophy of information is to understand what information is, how it operates, and how to put it to work. But unlike ‘information’ in the technical sense of information theory, what we are interested in is meaningful information. To understand the nature and dynamics of information in this sense we have to understand meaning. What we offer here are simple computational models that show emergence of meaning and information transfer in randomized arrays of neural nets. These we t…Read more
  •  120
    ``Truth, Omniscience and Cantorian Arguments: An Exchange" (review)
    Philosophical Studies 71 (3): 267-306. 1993.
  •  3
    We extend previous work by modeling evolution of communication using a spatialized genetic algorithm which recombines strategies purely locally. Here cellular automata are used as a spatialized environment in which individuals gain points by capturing drifting food items and are 'harmed' if they fail to hide from migrating predators. Our individuals are capable of making one of two arbitrary sounds, heard only locally by their immediate neighbors. They can respond to sounds from their neighbors …Read more
  •  5
    Philosophy of Science and the Occult: Second Edition (edited book)
    State University of New York Press. 1990.
    This book both introduces the philosophy of science through examination of the occult and examines the occult rigorously enough to raise central issues in the philosophy of science. Placed in the context of the occult, philosophy of science issues become immediately understandable and forcefully compelling. Divergent views on astrology, parapsychology, and quantum mechanics mysticism emphasize topics standard to the philosophy of science. Such issues as confirmation and selection for testing, ca…Read more
  •  218
    Plenum theory
    Noûs 42 (3): 422-439. 2008.
    Plena are large-scale macro-totalities appropriate to the realms of all facts, all truths, and all things. Our attempt here is to take some first technical steps toward an adequate conception of plena.
  •  756
    Logic and limits of knowledge and truth
    Noûs 22 (3): 341-367. 1988.
    Though my ultimate concern is with issues in epistemology and metaphysics, let me phrase the central question I will pursue in terms evocative of philosophy of religion: What are the implications of our logic-in particular, of Cantor and G6del-for the possibility of omniscience?
  •  14
    A version of this paper was presented at the IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence, combined meeting of ICNN, FUZZ-IEEE, and ICEC, Orlando, June-July, 1994, and an earlier form of the result is to appear as "The Undecidability of the Spatialized Prisoner's Dilemma" in Theory and Decision . An interactive form of the paper, in which figures are called up as evolving arrays of cellular automata, is available on DOS disk as Research Report #94-04i . An expanded version appears…Read more
  •  213
    Modeling and simulation clearly have an upside. My discussion here will deal with the inevitable downside of modeling — the sort of things that can go wrong. It will set out a taxonomy for the pathology of models — a catalogue of the various ways in which model contrivance can go awry. In the course of that discussion, I also call on some of my past experience with models and their vulnerabilities
  •  283
    The being that knew too much
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 47 (3): 141-154. 2000.
    John Abbruzzese has recently attempted a defense of omniscience against a series of my attacks. This affords me a welcome occasion to clarify some of the arguments, to pursue some neglected subtleties, and to re-think some important complications. In the end, however, I must insist that at least three of four crucial arguments really do show an omniscient being to be impossible. Abbruzzese sometimes misunderstands the forms of the argument themselves, and quite generally misunderstands th…Read more
  •  19
    Criticism and Commitment (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 41 (2): 384-385. 1987.
    'Post-critical,' as Echeverria rightly notes, "is one of those catchy, yet slippery phrases which seem to crop up in so many places that they take on a power of their own." But for the purposes of this study, at least, he manages to circumscribe the topic with remarkable clarity: "... the traditional meaning of a critique of knowledge excluded reflection on one's own historical context as an essential trait of philosophical theories, and relegated that context to psychology. 'Post-critical' phil…Read more
  •  17
  •  202
    Meaning, morality, and the moral sciences
    Philosophical Studies 43 (3). 1983.
    n the John Locke Lectures, included in Meaning and the Moral Sciences, Hilary Putnam argues that "the 'softness' of social facts may affect the 'hard' notions of truth and reference" Without fully endorsing Putnam's argument, I hope to show that a similar argument could be constructed for a slightly different conclusion: that the 'softness' of ethics may affect the 'hard' notions of truth and reference.
  •  671
    What Won't Escape Sorites Arguments
    Analysis 42 (1). 1982.
    'Precise replacements' for ordinary terms such as 'swizzle stick,' proposed by Unger and Quine, won't escape sorites arguments so easily.
  •  52
    Information and Meaning: Use-Based Models in Arrays of Neural Nets
    with Paul St Denis and Trina Kokalis
    Minds and Machines 14 (1): 43-66. 2004.
    The goal of philosophy of information is to understand what information is, how it operates, and how to put it to work. But unlike ‘information’ in the technical sense of information theory, what we are interested in is meaningful information. To understand the nature and dynamics of information in this sense we have to understand meaning. What we offer here are simple computational models that show emergence of meaning and information transfer in randomized arrays of neural nets. These we take …Read more
  •  42
    Two Roads to Ignorance (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 36 (4): 953-954. 1983.
    Eliseo Vivas's intellectual life started at the political left and within the tradition of American naturalism, and has ended up somewhere to the political right and with some form of anti-naturalism. Vivas also started "with a great deal of cocksure confidence about his knowledge of the ills of society and the nature of the universe" and ended up recognizing that "he knew very little besides the fact that he did not know, because genuine knowledge about these matters does not exist". This book,…Read more
  •  216
    Epistemology of Modeling and Simulation: Variations on a Theme (review)
    Philosophy and Technology 26 (1): 73-74. 2012.
    An introduction to three papers in a special issue