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201Ontological Scope and Linguistic Diversity: Are The Universal Categories?Journal of Semantics 4 (98): 318-343. 2015.The aim of this paper is to address a longstanding concern about the linguistic ‘relativ- ity’ of ontological categories, and resulting limitations in the scope of ontological theo- ries. Given recent evidence on the influence of language on cognitive dispositions, do we have empirical reasons to doubt that there are ontological categories that have uni- versal scope across languages? I argue that this is the case, at least if we retain the stan- dard ‘inferential’ approach within analytical onto…Read more
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35The 'Umbau' - from Constitution Theory to Constructional OntologyHistory of Philosophy Quarterly 14 (3). 1997.The paper traces, historically and systematically, the influence of Carnap’s philosophical program on the writings of Nelson Goodman, focusing on the relationship between Carnap’s Aufbau and Goodman’s Structure of Appearance. In particular, drawing on unpublished material from the Carnap Research Archives, I show that Carnap had already anticipated Goodman’s criticism of the method of quasi-analysis and that Goodman misconstrued the status of this procedure on several counts. I also argue tha…Read more
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7Towards Process Ontology: A Critical Study in Substance-Ontological PremisesDissertation, University of Pittsburgh. 1990.This thesis promotes a therapeutic revision of fundamental assumptions in contemporary ontological thought. I show that none of the extant standard theories of objects provides a viable account of the numerical, qualitative, and trans-temporal identity of objects, and that this is due to certain substance-ontological premises. I argue that in order to state the identity conditions of objects we must abandon these premises, together with the idea that objects enjoy ontological primacy. ;I follow …Read more
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Schwerpunkt: Wilfrid Sellars' nominalistischer NaturalismusDeutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 48 (4): 595-598. 2000.
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56The dynamic constitution of thingsPoznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 76 241-278. 2000.
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733Non-transitive Parthood, Leveled Mereology, and the Representation of Emergent Parts of ProcessesGrazer Philosophische Studien 91 161-190. 2014.
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55Ontological Scope and Linguistic Diversity: Are There Universal Categories?The Monist 98 (3): 318-343. 2015.
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125Pure processes and projective metaphysicsPhilosophical Studies 101 (2-3): 253-289. 2000.There is a well-known tension within Sellars' scheme arising from commitments to both an anti-foundationalist epistemology and a Peircean scientific realism. This tension surfaces conspicuously in his treatment of ontological category theory. On the one hand, Sellars applies and extends Carnap's metalinguistic deflation of ontology. On the other hand, however, Sellars is not prepared to 'go conventionalist' but upholds the possibility of a "positive ontology" (Rosenberg). I offer a new reading o…Read more
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53Processes: Analysis and application of dynamic categories (edited book, review)Springer Verlag. 2004.
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74“Embodying” the Internet: Towards the Moral Self via Communication Robots? (review)Philosophy and Technology 25 (3): 285-307. 2012.Abstract Internet communication technology has been said to affect our sense of self by altering the way we construct “personal identity,” understood as identificatory valuative narratives about the self; in addition, some authors have warned that internet communication creates special conditions for moral agency that might gradually change our moral intuitions. Both of these effects are attributed to the fact that internet communication is “disembodied.” Our aim in this paper is to establish …Read more
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91Non-countable [ndlvidualsSouthwest Philosophy Review 12 (1): 225-236. 1996.It is a common presupposition in ontology (metaphysics) that a so-called 'principle of individuation' amounts to a principle of counting. Against this presupposition I argue that the predicates 'x is the same individual as y' and 'x is one with y' are neither co-extensional nor co-intensional. Non-countable entities such as masses or stuffs (or the referents of nouns in classifier languages) also fulfill the requirements of individuality. I suggest that Leibniz' 'principle of the identity of ind…Read more
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Individuen als ProzesseLogos. Anales Del Seminario de Metafísica [Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España] 2 352-384. 1995.
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41Constitution Theory and Metaphysical NeutralityThe Monist 83 (1): 161-183. 2000.Carnap’s thought not only played a pivotal role for the development of formal semantics and modern philosophy of science, but also engendered the profound methodological reorientation that distinguishes analytical from traditional ontology. Historically and systematically, Carnap’s formal approach to category theory is the primary source of influence on the three research programs that have given analytical ontology its distinctive profile: the design of constructional systems, the investigation…Read more
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33III. Process and particularsIn Michel Weber (ed.), After Whitehead: Rescher on process metaphysics, Ontos Verlag. pp. 1--111. 2004.
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18How is Global Dialogue Possible?: Foundational Reseach on Value Conflicts and Perspectives for Global Policy (edited book)De Gruyter. 2014.
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19From The Guest Editor: Climate Change, Sustainability, and Environmental EthicsEnvironmental Ethics 35 (2): 131-132. 2013.
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167Forms of emergent interaction in General Process TheorySynthese 166 (3): 479-512. 2009.General Process Theory (GPT) is a new (non-Whiteheadian) process ontology. According to GPT the domains of scientific inquiry and everyday practice consist of configurations of ‘goings-on’ or ‘dynamics’ that can be technically defined as concrete, dynamic, non-particular individuals called general processes. The paper offers a brief introduction to GPT in order to provide ontological foundations for research programs such as interactivism that centrally rely on the notions of ‘process,’ ‘interac…Read more
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109Free process theory: Towards a typology of occurringsAxiomathes 14 (1-3): 23-55. 2004.The paper presents some essential heuristic and constructional elements of Free Process Theory (FPT), a non-Whiteheadian, monocategoreal framework. I begin with an analysis of our common sense concept of activities, which plays a crucial heuristic role in the development of the notion of a free process. I argue that an activity is not a type but a mode of occurrence, defined in terms of a network of inferences. The inferential space characterizing our concept of an activity entails that anything…Read more
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3Fission, sameness, and survival: Parfit's branch line argument revisitedMetaphysica 1 (2): 95-134. 2000.Parfit’s Branch Line argument is intended to show that the relation of survival is possibly a one-many relation and thus different from numerical identity. I offer a detailed reconstruction of Parfit’s notions of survival and personal identity, and show the argument cannot be coherently formulated within Parfit’s own setting. More specifically, I argue that Parfit’s own specifications imply that the “R-relation”, i.e., the relation claimed to capture of “what matters in survival,” turns out to h…Read more
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114Sociable Robots and the Future of Social Relations: Proceedings of Robo-Philosophy (edited book)IOS Press. 2014.The robotics industry is growing rapidly, and to a large extent the development of this market sector is due to the area of social robotics – the production of robots that are designed to enter the space of human social interaction, both physically and semantically. Since social robots present a new type of social agent, they have been aptly classified as a disruptive technology, i.e. the sort of technology which affects the core of our current social practices and might lead to profound cultura…Read more
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11Der Aufbau im Umbau - zur Entwicklung der analytischen OntologieDeutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 44 (5): 807-836. 1996.
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93Functions between reasons and causes : on picturingIn Willem A. DeVries (ed.), Empiricism, Perceptual Knowledge, Normativity, and Realism: Essays on Wilfrid Sellars, Oxford University Press. 2009.
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17Chapter five. Intercultural dialogue and the processing of significance: Cognition as orientationIn Johanna Seibt & Jesper Garsdal (eds.), How is Global Dialogue Possible?: Foundational Reseach on Value Conflicts and Perspectives for Global Policy, De Gruyter. pp. 85-116. 2014.
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38Christian Kanzian, ereignisse und andere partikularien: Vorbemerkungen zu einer mehrkategorialen ontologie. Paderborn: Ferdinand schöningh 2001Grazer Philosophische Studien 65 (1): 223-236. 2002.
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12Introduction to Part IIn Johanna Seibt & Jesper Garsdal (eds.), How is Global Dialogue Possible?: Foundational Reseach on Value Conflicts and Perspectives for Global Policy, De Gruyter. pp. 3-10. 2014.
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103Theory and Applications of Ontology: Philosophical Perspectives (edited book)Springer Verlag. 2010.The volume offers an overview of current research in ontology, distinguishing basic conceptual issues, domain applications, general frameworks, and mathematical ...