•  61
    Why Time Travellers (Still) Cannot Change the Past
    Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 71 (70th Anniversary Issue on Metaph): 677-94. 2015.
    In an earlier paper I argued that time travellers cannot change the past: alleged models of changing the past either fall into contradiction or else involve avoiding, not changing, the past. Goddu has responded to my argument, maintaining that his hypertime model involves time travellers changing (not avoiding) the past. In the present paper I first discuss what would be required to substantiate the claim that a given model involves changing rather than avoiding the past. I then consider Godd…Read more
  •  59
    A common objection to theories of vagueness based on fuzzy logics centres on the idea that assigning a single numerical degree of truth -- a real number between 0 and 1 -- to each vague statement is excessively precise. A common objection to Bayesian epistemology centres on the idea that assigning a single numerical degree of belief -- a real number between 0 and 1 -- to each proposition is excessively precise. In this paper I explore possible parallels between these objections. In particular…Read more
  •  32
    Different formal tools are useful for different purposes. For example, when it comes to modelling degrees of belief, probability theory is a better tool than classical logic; when it comes to modelling the truth of mathematical claims, classical logic is a better tool than probability theory. In this paper I focus on a widely used formal tool and argue that it does not provide a good model of a phenomenon of which many think it does provide a good model: I shall argue that while supervaluationis…Read more
  •  21
    Review of Dominic Hyde Vagueness, Logic and Ontology (Ashgate, 2008) (review)
    Bulletin of Symbolic Logic 16 (4): 531-533. 2010.
  •  10
    ‘What it Makes Sense to Say’: Wittgenstein, rule‐following and the nature of education
    Educational Philosophy and Theory 37 (3): 425-430. 2005.
    In his writings Jim Marshall has helpfully emphasized such Wittgensteinian themes as the multiplicity of language games, the deconstruction of ‘certainty,’ and the contexts of power that underlie discursive systems. Here we focus on another important legacy of Wittgenstein's thinking: his insistence that human activity is rule‐governed. This idea foregrounds looking carefully at the world of education and learning, as against the empirical search for new psychological or other facts. It reminds …Read more