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Language, meaning, and mind in Locke's EssayIn Lex Newman (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Locke's Essay, Cambridge University Press. pp. 286-312. 2007.This paper reconsiders and defends the view that Locke's theory of signification is a theory of meaning.
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108Individuation and the bundle theoryPhilosophical Studies 52 (2). 1987.It has been suggested that distinct individuals can have exactly the same properties; thus individuals cannot be individuated by their properties, And so the bundle theory appears to be false. One way to shore up the bundle theory is to introduce impure properties, And I defend this move against some objections by d m armstrong, M loux, And j van cleve
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50An Ontological Argument for Modal RealismGrazer Philosophische Studien 31 (1): 165-177. 1988.I argue for modal realism from the following principles:(R1) p just in case there are truth-makers for the proposition that p.(R2) If there are truth-makers for the proposition that p and the proposition that p relevantly entails the proposition that q, then there are truthrmakers for the proposition that q.(M) The proposition that p relevantly entails the proposition that possibly p.(R3) I f there are truth-makers for the proposition that q, then necessarily, if q, there are truth-makers for th…Read more
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76The Nature of ArtifactsPhilosophy 65 (251). 1990.In Book II, Chapter 1 of the Physics Aristotle attempts to distinguish natural objects from artifacts. He begins by stating that a natural object ‘has in itself a source of change and staying unchanged, whether in respect of place, or growth and decay, or alteration’. But this is not sufficient to distinguish natural objects from artifacts. As he points out later, a wooden bed, for example, can rot or burn, and this is surely a change whose source is, in part, internal to the bed. To make his di…Read more
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Alvin I. Goldman, Liaisons: Philosophy Meets the Cognitive and Social Sciences (review)Minds and Machines 7 306-312. 1997.
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91Linguistic Turns in Modern PhilosophyCambridge University Press. 2006.This book traces the linguistic turns in the history of modern philosophy and the development of the philosophy of language from Locke to Wittgenstein. It examines the contributions of canonical figures such as Leibniz, Mill, Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Austin, Quine, and Davidson, as well as those of Condillac, Humboldt, Chomsky, and Derrida. Michael Losonsky argues that the philosophy of language begins with Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding. He shows how the history of the philos…Read more
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48Roger Woolhouse, Locke: A Biography (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 46 (1): 175-176. 2008."A man of versatile mind"—a remark from a letter to Locke by a life-long friend—is the subtitle of the first chapter of this biography. It could also be the book's subtitle. Relying on Locke's correspondence, manuscripts, and mostly unpublished journals, Woolhouse pieces together a detailed quilt that exhibits the tremendous variety of Locke's interests and activities. Locke, who admitted to wandering interests , wrote about medicine, horticulture, religion, education, economics, government, and…Read more
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111Emdedded systems vs. individualismMinds and Machines 5 (3): 357-71. 1995.The dispute between individualism and anti-individualism is about the individuation of psychological states, and individualism, on some accounts, is committed to the claim that psychological subjects together with their environments do not constitute integrated computational systems. Hence on this view the computational states that explain psychological states in computational accounts of mind will not involve the subject''s natural and social environment. Moreover, the explanation of a system''…Read more
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37Abstraction, covariance, and representationPhilosophical Studies 70 (2). 1993.According to a simple similarity theory of representation, x represents y because x and y share some properties. In Meaning and Mental Representation, Robert Cummins rejects this account for representations that play a role in cognition because, among other things, a similarity theory of representation precludes a satisfactory account of an essential cognitive task, namely abstraction. Intelligent beings have representations of classes and properties, and we need an account for such representati…Read more
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341The Preoccupation and Crisis of Analytic PhilosophyEuropean Journal of Analytic Philosophy 10 (1): 5-20. 2014.I propose to reconsider Gilbert Ryle’s thesis in 1956 in his introduction to The Revolution of Philosophy that “the story of twentieth-century philosophy is very largely the story of this notion of sense or meaning” and, as he writes elsewhere, the “preoccupation with the theory of meaning is the occupational disease of twentieth-century Anglo-Saxon and Austrian philoso- phy.” Ryle maintains that this preoccupation demar- cates analytic philosophy from its predecessors and that it gave philosoph…Read more
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2Patricia S. Churchland and Terrence J. Sejnowski, The Computational Brain Reviewed by (review)Philosophy in Review 13 (4): 142-144. 1993.
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Locke on meaning and significationIn Graham Alan John Rogers (ed.), Locke's Philosophy: Content and Context, Oxford University Press. 1994.
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25Idealism, cataclysms, and the facts of referenceAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 61 (1). 1983.A theory of reference for proper names according to which reference is fixed solely in terms of the contents of language users' minds is an idealist theory. A theory of reference for proper names in which reference is fixed not in terms of the contents of language users' minds, but in terms of causal chains connecting users to referents is a materialist theory. A dualist theory is one in which reference is fixed both by the contents of minds and causal chains. The main reason materialists…Read more
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96The Completeness of Kant's Table of JudgmentsDuke University Press. 1992.English translation by Kneller and Losonsky of Klaus Reich, Die Vollständigkeit der Kantischen Urteilstafel "This classic of Kant scholarship, whose first edition appeared in 1932, deals with one of the most controversial and difficult topics in the Critique of Pure Reason: Kant's table of judgments and their connection to the table of categories. Kant's attempt to derive the latter from the former is called the "Metaphysical Deduction," and it paves the way for the Transcendental Deduction tha…Read more
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42Beginning metaphysics: an introductory text with readings (edited book)Blackwell. 1991.This flexible textbook is both an introduction and a reader in metaphysics combining original discussion with selections from primary sources.
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58No problem for actualismPhilosophical Review 95 (1): 95-97. 1986.Alan mcmichaels has argued that actualism, The view that there are no non-Actual entities, Has a problem with iterated modalities. This paper argues that this is not the case
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A Defense of an Idealist Theory of Reference for Proper NamesDissertation, The University of Rochester. 1982.According to an idealist theory of reference for proper names the reference of proper names is fixed by what name users express in their beliefs, intentions, thoughts, and so forth. My task is to show that an idealist can defend himself against the proponent of the causal theory of reference, who claims that reference cannot be fixed solely by what is expressed in name users' minds. An idealist can handle certain facts of reference the causal theorist believes idealists cannot handle. Moreover, …Read more
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125On language: on the diversity of human language construction and its influence on the mental development of the human species (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 1999.Wilhelm von Humboldt's classic study of human language was first published in 1836, as a general introduction to his three-volume treatise on the Kawi language of Java. It is the final statement of his lifelong study of the nature of language, exploring its universal structures and its relation to mind and culture. Empirically wide-ranging - Humboldt goes far beyond the Indo-European family of languages - it remains one of the most interesting and important attempts to draw philosophical conclus…Read more
Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Language |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
The Argument from Evil |
The Nature of Analytic Philosophy |