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91Some varieties of metaphysical dependenceIn Miguel Hoeltje, Benjamin Schnieder & Alex Steinberg (eds.), Varieties of Dependence: Ontological Dependence, Grounding, Supervenience, Response-Dependence, Philosophia. pp. 193-210. 2013.In this paper, I first of all define various kinds of ontological dependence, motivating these definitions by appeal to examples. My contention is that whenever we need, in metaphysics, to appeal to some notion of existential or identity-dependence, one or other of these definitions will serve our needs adequately, which one depending on the case in hand. Then I respond to some objections to one of these proposed definitions in particular, namely, my definition of (what I call) essential identit…Read more
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284The problems of intrinsic change: Rejoinder to LewisAnalysis 48 (2): 72-77. 1988.E. J. Lowe; The problems of intrinsic change: rejoinder to Lewis, Analysis, Volume 48, Issue 2, 1 March 1988, Pages 72–77, https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/48.2.7.
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90Radical externalism or Berkeley revisited?Journal of Consciousness Studies 13 (7-8): 78-94. 2006.Ted Honderich's 'Radical Externalism' concerning the nature of consciousness is a refreshing, and in many ways very appealing, approach to a long- standing and seemingly intractable philosophical conundrum. Although I sympathize with many of his motivations in advancing the theory and share his hostility for certain alternative approaches that are currently popular, I will serve him better by playing devil's advocate than by simply recording my points of agreement with him. If his theory is a go…Read more
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1Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective By Donald Davidson Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. xviii + 237. ISBN 0-19-823752-9 (review)Philosophy 78 (4): 553-564. 2003.
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2843D/4D equivalence, the twins paradox and absolute timeAnalysis 63 (2). 2002.The thesis of 3D/4D equivalence states that every three-dimensional description of the world is translatable without remainder into a four-dimensional description, and vice versa. In representing an object in 3D or in 4D terms we are giving alternative descriptions of one and the same thing, and debates over whether the ontology of the physical world is "really" 3D or 4D are pointless. The twins paradox is shown to rest, in relativistic 4D geometry, on a reversed law of triangle inequality. But …Read more
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26The Human Person: Animal and Spirit By David Braine London:Duckworth, 1993, viii+182pp., £35.00 (review)Philosophy 69 (268): 244-. 1994.
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112Substantial change and spatiotemporal coincidenceRatio 16 (2). 2003.Substantial change occurs when a persisting object of some kind either begins or ceases to exist. Typically, this happens when one or more persisting objects of another kind or kinds are subjected to appropriate varieties of qualitative or relational change, as when the particles composing a lump of bronze are rearranged so as to create a statue. However, such transformations also seem to result, very often, in cases of spatiotemporal coincidence, in which two numerically distinct objects of dif…Read more
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25Modes of exemplificationIn Langlet B. Monnoyer J.-M. (ed.), Gustav Bergmann : Phenomenological Realism and Dialectical Ontology, Ontos Verlag. pp. 29--173. 2009.
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35Conditions of Identity: A Study of Identity and SurvivalPhilosophical Books 30 (2): 103-106. 1989.
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52A simplification of the logic of conditionalsNotre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 24 (3): 357-366. 1983.
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172Miracles and laws of natureReligious Studies 23 (2): 263-78. 1987.Construing miracles as \textquotedblleft{}violations,\textquotedblright I argue that a law of nature must specify some kind of possibility. But we must have here a sense of possibility for which the ancient rule of logic---ab esse ad posse valet consequentia---does not hold. We already have one example associated with the concept of statute law, a law which specifies what is legally possible but which is not destroyed by a violation. If laws of nature are construed as specifying some analogous s…Read more
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Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Action |
Philosophy of Language |
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Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
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