-
50Tree proofs for syllogisticStudia Logica 48 (4). 1989.This paper presents a tree method for testing the validity of inferences, including syllogisms, in a simple term logic. The method is given in the form of an algorithm and is shown to be sound and complete with respect to the obvious denotational semantics. The primitive logical constants of the system, which is indebted to the logical works of Jevons, Brentano and Lewis Carroll, are term negation, polyadic term conjunction, and functors affirming and denying existence, and use is also made of a…Read more
-
70Mind and opacityDialectica 49 (2-4): 131-46. 1995.Where there is mind there is representational opacity, and vice versa. Opacity arises because where there is representation there may be misrepresentation, and the status of the misrepresenting sign or state of the misrepresenting sign‐user can only be characterized via the terms used for a correctly represented object. Opacity is not a blight for naturalism, but must be recognized and exploited if naturalism is to adequately embrace the mental. Opacity is illustrated for language, for the menta…Read more
-
490Truth-MakersSwiss Philosophical Preprints. 2009.During the realist revival in the early years of this century, philosophers of various persuasions were concerned to investigate the ontology of truth. That is, whether or not they viewed truth as a correspondence, they were interested in the extent to which one needed to assume the existence of entities serving some role in accounting for the truth of sentences. Certain of these entities, such as the Sätze an sich of Bolzano, the Gedanken of Frege, or the propositions of Russell and Moore, were…Read more
-
12Mathematik als wissenschaft der gestaltenIn Reinhard Fabian (ed.), Christian von Ehrenfels: Leben und Werk, Rodopi. pp. 8--112. 1986.
-
71A leśniewskian language for the nominalistic theory of substance and accidentTopoi 2 (1): 99-109. 1983.
-
56Tractatus Mereologico-Philosophicus?Grazer Philosophische Studien 28 (1): 165-186. 1986.The philosophies of late Brentano and early Wittgenstein can be brought closer in two ways. One way discovers a surprising amount of part-whole theory in the Tractatus if we see states of affairs (not wholly wilfully) as thinglike rather than factlike. This throws up a modal analogue to Chisholm's entia successiva in the form of situations. The other way sees all propositions as truth-functions of existential propositions, supporting Brentano's view that existentials are primary, and incidentall…Read more
-
675Plural reference and set theoryIn Barry Smith (ed.), Parts and Moments. Studies in Logic and Formal Ontology, Philosophia Verlag. pp. 199--260. 1982.
-
Supernumeration: Vagueness and NumbersIn Richard Dietz & Sebastiano Moruzzi (eds.), Cuts and clouds: vagueness, its nature, and its logic, Oxford University Press. 2010.
-
25Multivalence and Vagueness: A Reply to CopelandProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 95. 1995.Peter Simons; Multivalence and Vagueness: A Reply to Copeland, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 95, Issue 1, 1 June 1995, Pages 201–210, https://
-
46Reasoning on a tight budget: Lesniewski's nominalistic metalogic (review)Erkenntnis 56 (1): 99-122. 2002.
-
5Why the negations of false atomic sentences are trueEssays on Armstrong. Acta Philosophica Fennica 84. 2008.
-
Lesniewski's Logic and its Relation to Classical and Free LogicIn G. Dorn & P. Weingarten (eds.), Foundations of Logic and Linguistics. Problems and Solutions, Plenum. pp. 369-400. 1985.
-
993Particulars in particular clothing: Three trope theories of substancePhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 54 (3): 553-575. 1994.
-
11Who's Afraid of Higher-Order Logic?Grazer Philosophische Studien 44 (1): 253-264. 1993.Suppose you hold the following opinions in the philosophy of logic. First-order predicate logic is expressively inadequate to regiment concepts of mathematic and natural language; logicism is plausible and attractive; set theory as an adjunct to logic is unnatural and ontologically extravagant; humanly usable languages are finite in lexicon and syntax; it is worth striving for a Tarskian semantics for mathematics; there are no Platonic abstract objects. Then you are probably already in cognitive…Read more
-
32Abstraktion ohne abstrakte GegenstandeZeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 66 (1): 114-129. 2012.
-
Truth on a Tight Budget: Tarski and NominalismIn Douglas Patterson (ed.), New essays on Tarski and philosophy, Oxford University Press. 2008.
-
195Extended SimplesThe Monist 87 (3): 371-384. 2004.I argue that the assumptions that physically basic things are either mereologically atomic, or that they are continuous and there are no atoms, both face difficult conceptual problems. Both views tend to presuppose a largely unquestioned assumption, that things have parts corresponding to the geometric parts of the regions they occupy. To avoid these problems I propose a third view, that physically simple things occupy a finite volume without themselves having parts. This view is examined enough…Read more
-
Nominalism in PolandIn Jan Wolenski, Roberto Poli & Francesco Coniglione (eds.), Polish Scientific Philosophy: The Lvov-Warsaw School, Rodopi. pp. 207-231. 1993.
-
38Armstrong and TropesIn Francesco Federico Calemi (ed.), Metaphysics and Scientific Realism: Essays in Honour of David Malet Armstrong, De Gruyter. pp. 71-84. 2016.
-
41The Importance of Joint RespectPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 56 (1): 217-221. 1996.George and I have been discussing Dividing Reality. It was my Canadian friend whose native language is supposed to have so many different words for snow and ice who suggested I was wasting my time with him and should try George. After all, he pointed out, George’s environment is so different from even the Arctic that we'd be getting a truly alien perspective. He at least understands ‘gricular', in fact he'd be happy to see more gricular things about, they might well be edible. George does not se…Read more
-
101Metaphysical systematics: A lesson from Whitehead (review)Erkenntnis 48 (2-3): 377-393. 1998.Despite its lack of influence in analytical philosophy, and independently of its content as a process philosophy, Whitehead's system in Process and Reality affords a valuable lesson on how to pursue revisionary systematic metaphysics. This paper argues the case generally for metaphysical revision and system, describes the structure of Whitehead's categorial scheme, endorses his idea of an ultimate which is not an entity, and outlines an alternative, “digital” ultimate or basis composed of severa…Read more
Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland