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658Foundational Holism, Substantive Theory of Truth, and A New Philosophy of Logic: Interview with Gila Sher BY Chen BoPhilosophical Forum 50 (1): 3-57. 2019.Gila Sher interviewed by Chen Bo: I. Academic Background and Earlier Research: 1. Sher’s early years. 2. Intellectual influence: Kant, Quine, and Tarski. 3. Origin and main Ideas of The Bounds of Logic. 4. Branching quantifiers and IF logic. 5. Preparation for the next step. II. Foundational Holism and a Post-Quinean Model of Knowledge: 1. General characterization of foundational holism. 2. Circularity, infinite regress, and philosophical arguments. 3. Comparing foundational h…Read more
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276A Descriptivist Refutation of Kripke's Modal Argument and of Soames's DefenceTheoria 78 (3): 225-260. 2012.This article systematically challenges Kripke's modal argument and Soames's defence of this argument by arguing that, just like descriptions, names can take narrow or wide scopes over modalities, and that there is a big difference between the wide scope reading and the narrow scope reading of a modal sentence with a name. Its final conclusions are that all of Kripke's and Soames's arguments are untenable due to some fallacies or mistakes; names are not “rigid designators”; if there were rigid de…Read more
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154Proper Names, Contingency A Priori and Necessity A PosterioriHistory and Philosophy of Logic 32 (2). 2011.After a brief review of the notions of necessity and a priority, this paper scrutinizes Kripke's arguments for supposedly contingent a priori propositions and necessary a posteriori propositions involving proper names, and reaches a negative conclusion, i.e. there are no such propositions, or at least the propositions Kripke gives as examples are not such propositions. All of us, including Kripke himself, still have to face the old question raised by Hume, i.e. how can we justify the necessity a…Read more
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139Philosophy as a Cognitive EnterpriseIn Evandro Agazzi, Andreas Arndt & Hans-Peter Hans-Peter (eds.), Interpretations of a Common World: from Antiquity to Modernity:Essays in honour of Jure Zovko, Lit Verlag. pp. 257-291. 2022.Philosophy is a cognitive enterprise. In multiple senses, it is continuous with other sciences (including natural sciences, social sciences, and Humanities). (1) As far as its subject matter is concerned, like other sciences, philosophy is also a part of the overall efforts of human beings to understand the world in which we live. (2) In terms of their methodologies, there is no substantive difference between philosophy, common sense, and science. Just as scientific methodology is the refinement…Read more
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108The debate on the Yan-yi relation in chinese philosophy: Reconstruction and commentsFrontiers of Philosophy in China 1 (4): 539-560. 2006.The debate on the yan-yi relation was carried out by Chinese philosophers collectively, and the principles and methods in the debate still belong to a living tradition of Chinese philosophy. From Yijing (Book of Changes), Lunyu (Analects), Laozi and Zhuangzi to Wang Bi, "yi" which cannot be expressed fully by yan (language), is not only "idea" or "meaning" in the human mind, but is also some kind of ontological existence, which is beyond yan and emblematic symbols, and unspeakable. Thus, the deb…Read more
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95Justification of Induction: Russell and Jin Yuelin. A Comparative StudyHistory and Philosophy of Logic 33 (4): 353-378. 2012.Jin Yuelin (1895?1984), a Chinese logician and philosopher, is greatly influenced by Hume's and Russell's philosophies. How should we respond to Hume's problem of induction? This is an important clue to understand Jin's whole philosophical career. The first section of this paper gives a brief historical review of Russell and Jin. The second section outlines Hume's skeptical arguments against causality and induction. The third section expounds Russell's justification of induction by discussing hi…Read more
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93Six Groups of Paradoxes in Ancient China From the Perspective of Comparative PhilosophyAsian Philosophy 24 (4): 363-392. 2014.This paper divides the sophisms and paradoxes put forth by Chinese thinkers of the pre-Qin period of China into six groups: paradoxes of motion and infinity, paradoxes of class membership, semantic paradoxes, epistemic paradoxes, paradoxes of relativization, other logical contradictions. It focuses on the comparison between the Chinese items and the counterparts of ancient Greek and even of contemporary Western philosophy, and concludes that there turn out to be many similar elements of philosop…Read more
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88Xunzi’s Politicized and Moralized Philosophy of LanguageJournal of Chinese Philosophy 36 (1): 107-139. 2009.No Abstract
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78Thinking Deeply, Contributing Originally: An Interview with Timothy Williamson (Special Contribution)Annals of the Japan Association for Philosophy of Science 18 57-87. 2009.
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65Social Constructivism of Language and MeaningCroatian Journal of Philosophy 15 (1): 87-113. 2015.To systematically answer two questions “how does language work?” and “where does linguistic meaning come from?” this paper argues for SocialConstructivism of Language and Meaning which consists of six theses: the primary function of language is communication rather than representation, so language is essentially a social phenomenon. Linguistic meaning originates in the causal interaction of humans with the world, and in the social interaction of people with people. Linguistic meaning consists in…Read more
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59Hume’s Conceivability Arguments ReconsideredAxiomathes 29 (5): 541-559. 2019.This paper examines Hume’s formulations and uses of the conceivability principle and the inconceivability principle. In Hume’s works, we identify different versions of CP and ICP, including proper CP, proper ICP, the weak versions of CP and ICP, the epistemic versions of CP and ICP, and show that Hume not only expresses ICP, but also really maintains it. Assuming an axiomatic characterization of modalities, we argue that if there is a sharp distinction between levels of modalities, then Hume’s c…Read more
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47The debate on the yan–yi relation in Chinese philosophy: reconstruction and commentsFrontiers of Philosophy in China 1 (4): 539-560. 2006.The debate on the yan-yi relation was carried out by Chinese philosophers collectively, and the principles and methods in the debate still belong to a living tradition of Chinese philosophy. From Yijing, Lunyu, Laozi and Zhuangzi to Wang Bi, "yi" which cannot be expressed fully by yan, is not only "idea" or "meaning" in the human mind, but is also some kind of ontological existence, which is beyond yan and emblematic symbols, and unspeakable. Thus, the debate on the yan-yi relation refers firstl…Read more
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44Quine’s Disquotationalism: A Variant of Correspondence TheoryPhilosophical Forum 51 (2): 93-113. 2020.The Philosophical Forum, EarlyView.
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43Kripke’s Epistemic Argument Against Descriptivism RevisitedJournal of Chinese Philosophy 40 (3-4): 544-562. 2013.Kripke's epistemic argument against descriptivism is reconstructed as follows. Premise 1: if descriptivism is correct, then “N is the F” should be knowable a priori; Premise 2: in fact, “N is the F” is not knowable a priori; Conclusion: descriptivism is wrong. This article accepts P2 of the argument as true, but rejects P1 by arguing for the evolution of language and the growth of meaning; so it concludes that the argument fails. It also criticizes Kripke's conception of “a priori,” and interpre…Read more
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38Kripke’s Semantic Argument against Descriptivism ReconsideredCroatian Journal of Philosophy 13 (3): 421-445. 2013.There are two problematic assumptions in Kripke’s semantic argument against descriptivism. Assumption 1 is that the referential relation of a name to an object is only an objective or metaphysical relation between language and the world; it has nothing to do with the understanding of the name by our linguistic community. Assumption 2 is that descriptivism has to hold that, if name a has its meaning and the meaning is given by one description or a cluster of descriptions, the description should s…Read more
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34The Nature of Logical Knowledge: An Unfinished Agenda of Quine's PhilosophyPhilosophical Forum 45 (3): 217-249. 2014.
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34The new correspondence theory of truth without the concept of factPhilosophical Forum 54 (4): 261-286. 2023.Traditional correspondence theory of truth with the concept of fact encounters many serious difficulties, main one of which is that it is too difficult to explain clearly the concept of ‘fact’ and how propositions ‘correspond’ to facts. This does not mean that we should abandon the traditional correspondence theory of truth and turn to some other type theories of truth. In order to guarantee the objectivity of truth, any reasonable theory of truth must adhere to the core insight of the tradition…Read more
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32How to Account for the Falsehood of an Affirmative Proposition and the Truth of a Negative PropositionAxiomathes 33 (4): 1-26. 2023.There are two versions of the correspondence theory of truth: the object-based correspondence theory and the fact-based correspondence theory. Some scholars have put forward their objections to my rejection of the concept of a fact and their defence of that concept. But their arguments are not cogent, since they haven’t clarified the relation between facts and propositions, haven’t successfully argued for the necessity and feasibility of introducing the concept of a fact, and haven’t provided an…Read more
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28Refutation of the Semantic Argument against DescriptivismProtoSociology 31 16-37. 2014.There are two problematic assumptions in Kripke’s semantic argument against descriptivism. Assumption 1 is that the referential relation between a name and its bearer is only a metaphysical relation between language and the world; it has nothing to do with our public linguistic practice. Assumption 2 is that if name N has its meaning and the meaning is given by one description or a cluster of descriptions, the description(s) should supply the necessary and sufficient condition for determining w…Read more
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25Two different approaches to philosophy a critical reflection on contemporary Chinese philosophyAsian Philosophy 28 (3): 197-214. 2018.ABSTRACTBy means of critical reflection on the current situation of Chinese philosophy, this article aims to clarify two different approaches to philosophy. One is for scholars to focus on original texts and thought tradition, concerned with interpretation and inheritance; even in this way, scholars can achieve theoretical innovation through creative interpretation. The other is for researchers to face up questions from academics and from reality, and mainly to do theoretical creation in philoso…Read more
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20Socio-historical Causal DescriptivismCroatian Journal of Philosophy 16 (1): 45-67. 2016.This paper argues for a hybrid and alternative theory of names—Socio-historical Causal Descriptivism, which consists of six claims: (1) the referring relation between a name and an object originates from a generalized “initial baptism” of that object. (2) The causal chain of the name N firstly and mainly transmits informative descriptions of N’s bearer. (3) The meaning of N consists of an open-ended collection of informative descriptions of N’s bearer acknowledged by a linguistic community. (4) …Read more
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20Russell and Jin Yuelin on Truth: A Comparative StudyContemporary Chinese Thought 52 (1-2): 43-78. 2021.Jin Yuelin’s logical and philosophical thought was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Bertrand Russell. The same influence existed also in the case of his view on truth, which was considerably close to the views maintained by Russell in his phase of logical atomism. In their investigations, Russell and Jin not only focused on similar topics, but also occupied similar philosophical positions, such as realism in the domain of ontology, empiricism in epistemology, and the correspondence theory …Read more
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17Russell and Jin Yuelin on Facts: From the Perspective of Comparative PhilosophyPhilosophy East and West 69 (4): 929-950. 2019.Jin Yuelin 金嶽霖 was a Chinese philosopher and logician. From 1914 to 1920 he studied at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, and received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia in 1920. From 1921 until 1925, he studied in Europe and visited Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy, among other countries. During these years, he studied at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences and at the University of Cambridge. At the end of 1925, Jin returned to China and…Read more
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17The KK Principle and the Strong Notion of Knowledge: Hintikka’s Arguments for KK RevisitedHistory and Philosophy of Logic 1-17. forthcoming.In his Knowledge and Belief (1962), Hintikka establishes his system of epistemic logic with the KK (Knowing that One Knows, in symbols, Kp→KKp) principle (KK for short). However, his system of epistemic logic and the KK principle are grounded upon his strong notion of knowledge, which requires that knowledge is infallible, that is, it makes further inquiry pointless, and becomes ‘discussion-stopper’; knowledge implies truth, to wit, cognitive agents will not be mistaken in their knowledge; cogni…Read more
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1670 Years of Logic in China: 1949-2019Asian Studies 10 (2): 19-79. 2022.This article outlines the history of logic in China from 1949 to 2019. Firstly, it presents a rough picture of Chinese logic before 1949 using broad brushstrokes. Secondly, it divides the whole process of development into two stages. In the first 30 years from 1949 to 1979, Chinese logic made some achievements, but also went along some detours, and its overall situation was unsatisfactory. In the latter 40 years from 1979 to 2019, due to Deng Xiaoping’s reform and opening up, many Chinese logici…Read more
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11Epistemic Logic with Evidence and Relevant AlternativesIn Hans van Ditmarsch & Gabriel Sandu (eds.), Jaakko Hintikka on Knowledge and Game Theoretical Semantics, Springer. pp. 535-555. 2018.Starting with Jaakko Hintikka’s seminal work, epistemic logic has now grown up to a huge academic industry. When we look back to its history, however, there is a practical paradox. While Hintikka’s original purpose was to facilitate epistemological discussion, most subsequent work of epistemic logic has been done outside of philosophy, and has been ignored by most mainstream epistemologists. At the current point, one might naturally wonder, does epistemic logic still have something to do with ep…Read more
Renmin University of China
PhD, 1994
Areas of Specialization
4 more
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Philosophy of Language |
History of Logic |
Knowledge |
American Pragmatism |
David Hume |
Gottlob Frege |
W. V. O. Quine |
Bertrand Russell |