Ben Middleton

We precisify the causal exclusion argument against dualism in the language of causal models and argue that the precisified version puts significant pressure on almost all existing models of dualist interaction. We argue that the most promising response available to the dualist is to model dualist interaction as a kind of double prevention. In particular, we defend a new double prevention model of dualist interaction according to which a non-physical “backup system” ensures that physical events remain in alignment with conscious experiences. We argue that the Backup System Model is an improvement on a previous double prevention model due to Gibb.

ABSTRACT We argue that Roberts’s argument for the thesis that absolute velocity is not measurable in a Newtonian world is unsound, because it depends on an analysis of measurement that is not extensionally adequate. We propose an alternative analysis of measurement, one that is extensionally adequate and entails that absolute velocity is measured in at least one Newtonian world. If our analysis is correct, then this Newtonian world is a counterexample to the widely endorsed thesis that if a property varies under the symmetries of a theory then, according to that theory, the property could not be measured. Thus, our paper shows that the debate over the measurability of symmetry-variant properties is more unsettled than previously supposed.

I show that the logic $\textsf {TJK}^{d+}$, one of the strongest logics currently known to support the naive theory of truth, is obtained from the Kripke semantics for constant domain intuitionistic logic by dropping the requirement that the accessibility relation is reflexive and only allowing reflexive worlds to serve as counterexamples to logical consequence. In addition, I provide a simplified natural deduction system for $\textsf {TJK}^{d+}$, in which a restricted form of conditional proof is used to establish conditionals.