• Pleonastic Explanations (review)
    Mind 114 (453): 97-111. 2005.
  •  34
    Of Course there are Fictional Characters
    Revue Internationale de Philosophie 262 (4): 615-630. 2012.
    I argue that there is no straightforward inference from there being fictional characters to any interesting form of realism. One reason is that “fictional” may be an intensional operator with wide scope, depriving the quantifier of its usual force. Another is that not all uses of “there are” are ontologically committing. A realist needs to show that neither of these phenomena are present in “There are fictional characters”. Other roads to realism run into difficulties when negotiating the role t…Read more
  •  6
    Facts and Free Logic
    ProtoSociology 23 122-130. 2006.
  •  2
    First Published in 1979. Paperback 1985. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informal company. This is an overview of Russell's philosophy, focussing in particular on his earlier work. Carter headings: Meaning; Names; Descriptions; The Perfect Language; Knowledge; Ontology; Mathematics
  •  100
    Review: Vagueness, Ignorance, and Margin for Error (review)
    British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 46 (4). 1995.
    Review of Williamson: Vagueness.
  •  136
    Paradoxes
    Cambridge University Press. 1988.
    A paradox can be defined as an unacceptable conclusion derived by apparently acceptable reasoning from apparently acceptable premises. Many paradoxes raise serious philosophical problems, and they are associated with crises of thought and revolutionary advances. The expanded and revised third edition of this intriguing book considers a range of knotty paradoxes including Zeno's paradoxical claim that the runner can never overtake the tortoise, a new chapter on paradoxes about morals, paradoxes a…Read more
  •  10
    Thought and Ontology (edited book)
    Franco Angeli. 1997.
  • Russell-Arg Philosophers
    Routledge. 1979.
    First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company
  •  130
    Sainsbury and Tye present a new theory, 'originalism', which provides natural, simple solutions to puzzles about thought that have troubled philosophers for centuries. They argue that concepts are to be individuated by their origin, rather than epistemically or semantically. Although thought is special, no special mystery attaches to its nature.
  •  74
    Paderewski Variations
    Dialectica 64 (4): 483-502. 2010.
    How successful are Fregean theories compared with guise-theoretic Millian theories in dealing with a range of problematic propositional attitude ascriptions? The range considered is roughly that of Paderewski puzzles and their relatives. I argue that these fall into two categories: in one category, the Fregean theory looks to be under pressure from guise-theoretic rivals, though I argue that Fregeans can, to advantage, borrow some guise-theoretic machinery. Concerning the other category, which i…Read more
  • Departing from Frege. Essays in the Philosophy of Language
    Erkenntnis 62 (1): 137-144. 2005.
  •  32
    Warrant‐Transmission, Defeaters and Disquotation
    Philosophical Issues 10 (1): 191-200. 2000.
  • Reference without Referents
    Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 68 (2): 428-428. 2005.
  •  57
    This text argues that we must depart considerably from Frege's own views if we are to work towards an adequate conception of natural language.
  •  66
    Moral dilemmas
    Think 8 (22): 57-63. 2009.
    Could it be that one morally ought to do something morally bad? Some people think the answer is obviously ‘No’. Indeed, these theorists may say, it is contradictory to suppose that one morally ought to do something morally bad. Others hold that it is not a contradiction but a sad fact of life that one may be morally required to do something morally bad. This latter position is the one I'll be supporting. If it's the right view, it really matters in practical affairs. For example, almost everyone…Read more
  • Facts and Free Logic
    ProtoSociology 23. 2006.
  •  20
    Beyond Belief
    The Philosophers' Magazine 77 76-81. 2017.
  •  6
    Language and meaning
    In John Shand (ed.), Central Issues of Philosophy, Wiley-blackwell. 2009.
  •  8
    Frege is now regarded as one of the world's greatest philosophers, and the founder of modern logic. Mark Sainsbury argues that we must depart considerably from Frege's views if we are to work towards an adequate conception of natural language. This is an outstanding contribution to philosophy of language and logic and will be invaluable to all those interested in Frege and the philosophy of language.
  • Mind and Content
    with Simon Blackburn and Mind Association
    Oxford University Press for the Mind Association. 1991.
  •  11
    I_– _R.M. Sainsbury
    Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 73 (1): 243-269. 1999.
  •  304
    I—R. M. Sainsbury and Michael Tye: An Originalist Theory of Concepts
    Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 85 (1): 101-124. 2011.
    We argue that thoughts are structures of concepts, and that concepts should be individuated by their origins, rather than in terms of their semantic or epistemic properties. Many features of cognition turn on the vehicles of content, thoughts, rather than on the nature of the contents they express. Originalism makes concepts available to explain, with no threat of circularity, puzzling cases concerning thought. In this paper, we mention Hesperus/Phosphorus puzzles, the Evans-Perry example of the…Read more
  •  20
    Logika filozoficzna
    Roczniki Filozoficzne 55 (2): 155-222. 2007.
  •  101
    Empty Names
    The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 6 57-66. 2000.
    This paper explores the idea that a name should be associated with a reference condition, rather than with a referent, just as a sentence should be associated with a truth condition, rather than with a truth value. The suggestion, to be coherent, needs to be set in a freelogical framework (following Burge). A prominent advantage of the proposal is that it gives a straight-forward semantics for empty names. A problem discussed in this paper is that of reconciling the rigidity of names with seemin…Read more
  •  25
    Call for Papers for'SORITES'SORITES is a new refereed all-English electronic international quarterly of analytical philosophy
    with Jorge Gracia, Terence Horgan, Victoria Iturralde, Manuel Liz, Peter Menzies, Carlos Moya, Philip Pettit, Graham Priest, and Peter Simons
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 73 (2). 1995.