•  2
    Rationality and Free Will
    Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 23 47-52. 2018.
    It is evident that we identify problems and reason about and implement solutions. Doing this involves deliberation of choices. Doing this involves rationality and free will. However, determinism tells us that this is not the case and that free will is an illusion. I think that this is a mistake, but I also think that we do not have an adequate alternative for understanding rationality in the context of free, deliberative choice. In this short paper, I sketch some problems with the compatibility …Read more
  • Truth and Explanation
    Dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago. 1992.
    The concept of truth is thought to have a substantive explanatory role in various philosophical issues, e.g., realism, explanations of success. A proponent of this view typically holds that the explanatory role of truth requires that the concept be analyzed as a property of utterances or beliefs which ties these utterances or beliefs onto the world. Recently, this approach has been challenged by what I call the 'deflationary' view of truth. The deflationary view of truth is characterized by the …Read more
  •  15
    Truth, Deflationism, and Success
    The Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 6 85-91. 2007.
    Intuitively, the concept of truth occupies a substantive role in explaining the contribution of our linguistic utterances to the success of our ordinary actions. However, this claim has been denied recently by advocates of deflationary theories of truth. Although the technical details of the various deflationary theories differ, these theories agree in claiming that the concept of truth does not have a significant role in explaining success and that the utility of the truth predicate consists ma…Read more
  •  40
    Philosophical Tales (review)
    Teaching Philosophy 32 (4): 410-412. 2009.
  •  23
    Realism, Deflationism, and Success
    Proceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 15 75-81. 2008.
    Realism is often characterized by the claim that sentences are true or false in virtue of their ‘fit’ with reality. However, philosophers motivated by the deflationary view of truth argue that the formulation and defense of realism does not require a substantial conception of truth. The role of truth in stating and defendingrealism can be accounted for in terms of its being a device for expressing generalizations. I sketch the outline of an argument against this position. I begin with the deflat…Read more
  •  61
    Truth, Deflationism, and Success
    The Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 6 85-91. 2007.
    Intuitively, the concept of truth occupies a substantive role in explaining the contribution of our linguistic utterances to the success of our ordinary actions. However, this claim has been denied recently by advocates of deflationary theories of truth. Although the technical details of the various deflationary theories differ, these theories agree in claiming that the concept of truth does not have a significant role in explaining success and that the utility of the truth predicate consists ma…Read more