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124Not the optimistic typeCanadian Journal of Philosophy 43 (5): 575-589. 2013.In recent work, Peter Hanks and Scott Soames argue that propositions are types whose tokens are acts, states, or events. Let’s call this view the type view. Hanks and Soames think that one of the virtues of the type view is that it allows them to explain why propositions have semantic properties. But, in this paper, we argue that their explanations aren’t satisfactory. In Section 2, we present the type view. In Section 3, we present one explanation—due to Hanks (2007, 2011) and Soames (2010)—of …Read more
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131What’s So Good About Non-Existence?: An Alternative Explanation of Four Asymmetrical Value JudgmentsJournal of Value Inquiry 49 (1-2): 81-94. 2015.There are cases where many think it would have been better for some child never to have been born. We can imagine a life characterized exclusively by suffering, never containing even the briefest moment of pleasure. The life goes exceedingly poorly – so poorly, we think, that it would have been better for the child never to have been. However, most of us think that many lives are not of this sort. Many lives are at least all right: the good moments outweigh the bad, and so it’s not better for th…Read more
Brian McLean
Ohio State University
Epic Systems
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Ohio State UniversityLecturer
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Epic SystemsTechnical Problem Solver
Columbus, Ohio, United States of America