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The emperor's new 'knows'In Gerhard Preyer & Georg Peter (eds.), Contextualism in philosophy: knowledge, meaning, and truth, Oxford University Press. 2005.
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2Language, Logic, and FormIn Dale Jacquette (ed.), A Companion to Philosophical Logic, Blackwell. 2006.This chapter contains sections titled: Sentential Connectives Quantifiers and Quantified Noun Phrases Proper Names and Individual Constants Adjectives Adverbs and Events Utterance Modifiers Logical Form as Grammatical Form Summary.
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18Speech Acts and PragmaticsIn Michael Devitt & Richard Hanley (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Language, Wiley-blackwell. 2006.This chapter contains sections titled: Performative Utterances Locutionary, Illocutionary, and Perlocutionary Acts Classifying Illocutionary Acts Communicative Speech Acts and Intentions Conversational Implicature and Impliciture Conventional Implicature The Semantic‐Pragmatic Distinction Applications of the Semantic‐Pragmatic Distinction.
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22Change in View: Principles of ReasoningPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 48 (4): 761-764. 1988.
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68Picoeconomics (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 55 (4): 981-983. 1995.There is a simple view of motivation on which desires are like pain-killers; they come in different strengths, and their strength determines their efficacy. That is, the stronger a desire the greater its motivational force and, when two desires conflict, the stronger one “wins out” over the weaker. This view makes it puzzling how anyone could ever exhibit “strength of will” and act on the weaker desire, even when it is a desire for something more highly valued than what is more strongly desired.…Read more
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Context DependenceIn Manuel García-Carpintero & Max Kölbel (eds.), The Continuum companion to the philosophy of language, Continuum International. 2012.
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Schiffer on Russell's Theory and Referential UsesIn Gary Ostertag (ed.), Meanings and Other Things: Themes From the Work of Stephen Schiffer, Oxford University Press. 2016.
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5Failed Reference and Feigned Reference: Much ado about NothingGrazer Philosophische Studien 26 (1): 359-374. 1985.Nothing can be said about a nonexistent object, but something can be said about the act of (unsuccessfully) attempting to refer to one or, as in fiction, of pretending to refer to one. Unsuccessful reference, whether by expressions or by speakers, can be explained straightforwardly within the context of the theory of speech acts and communication. As for fiction, there is nothing special semantically, as to either meaning or reference, about its language. And fictional discourse is just a distin…Read more
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The Semantics and Pragmatics of ReferenceIn Ernest Lepore & Barry C. Smith (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language, Oxford University Press. 2006.
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3Review of Fretheim & Gundel (1996): Reference and Referent Accessibility (review)Pragmatics and Cognition 6 (1-2): 335-338. 1998.
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118Language, Thought and Other Biological Categories: New Foundations for RealismPhilosophy of Science 52 (3): 477-478. 1985.
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Drawing More Lines: Response to Depraetere and SalkieIn Raphael Salkie & Ilse Depraetere (eds.), Semantics and Pragmatics: Drawing a Line, Springer Verlag. 2016.
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959Linguistic Communication and Speech ActsMIT Press. 1979.a comprehensive, somewhat Gricean theory of speech acts, including an account of communicative intentions and inferences, a taxonomy of speech acts, and coverage of many topics in pragmatics
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1A Rationale for ReliabilismIn Sven Bernecker & Fred I. Dretske (eds.), Knowledge: Readings in Contemporary Epistemology, Oxford University Press. 2000.
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35Burnham, Douglas and Ole Martin Skilleås. The Aesthetics of Wine. Malden, MA: Wiley‐Blackwell, 2012, ix + 227 pp., $119.95 cloth (review)Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 71 (4): 388-389. 2013.
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94Sometimes a Great Notion: A Critical Notice of Mark Crimmins’Talk About BeliefsMind and Language 8 (3): 431-441. 1993.Anyone weary of endless philosophical debate on belief reports will find welcome relief in this book. Talking not just about belief talk but about belief itself, it offers much that is new, interesting, and subtle. The central thesis, though interestingly and subtly developed, is not exactly new. It is a version of the “hidden indexical theory” (HIT) of..
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76Review: Robert J. Stainton: Words and Thoughts: Subsentences, Ellipsis, and the Philosophy of Language (review)Mind 117 (467): 739-742. 2008.
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216Knowledge in and out of contextIn Joseph Keim Campbell, Michael O.’Rourke & Harry S. Silverstein (eds.), Knowledge and Skepticism, Mit Press. pp. 105--36. 2007.In this chapter, the author offers another explanation of the variation in contents, which is explained by contextualism as being related to a variation in standards. The author’s explanation posits that the contents of knowledge attributions are invariant. The variation lies in what knowledge attributions we are willing to make or accept. Although not easy to acknowledge, what contextualism counts as knowledge varies with the context in which it is attributed. A new rival to contextualism, know…Read more
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26Replies to My CriticsCroatian Journal of Philosophy 13 (2): 217-249. 2013.I thank my critics for time, thought, and effort put into their commentaries. Since obviously I can’t respond to everything, I will try to address what strike me as the most important questions they ask and objections they raise. I think I have decent answers to some questions and decent responses to some objections, in other cases it seems enough to clarify the relevant view, and in still others I need to modify the view in question. One complication, which I won’t elaborate on, is that the vie…Read more
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498Frege's and Russell's views are obviously different, but because of certain superficial similarities in how they handle certain famous puzzles about proper names, they are often assimilated. Where proper names are concerned, both Frege and Russell are often described together as "descriptivists." But their views are fundamentally different. To see that, let's look at the puzzle of names without bearers, as it arises in the context of Mill's purely referential theory of proper names, aka the 'Fid…Read more
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119Terms of agreementEthics 105 (3): 604-612. 1995.Can two promises add up to an agreement? Not according to Margaret Gilbert. 1 She has forcefully challenged the orthodox view that an agreement is an exchange of promises. She works through an intricate series of examples of promise-exchanges and argues that none qualifies as an agreement. Assuming that she has not overlooked any plausible candidates, she concludes that agreements are essentially different. It seems, however, that her examples are all exchanges of promises only in an attenuated …Read more
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170GRICE, H. PAUL (1913-1988), English philosopher, is best known for his contributions to the theory of meaning and communication. This work (collected in Grice 1989) has had lasting importance for philosophy and linguistics, with implications for cognitive science generally. His three most influential contributions concern the nature of communication, the distinction betwen speaker's meaning and linguistic meaning, and the phenomenon of conversational implicature.
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106Refraining, Omitting, and Negative ActsIn Timothy O'Connor & Constantine Sandis (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Action, Wiley‐blackwell. 2010.This chapter contains sections titled: Ways of Failing to Do Something Refraining Omitting Negative Acts: Inaction as Action? References.
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