New Essays on the Nature of Propositions

New Essays on the Nature of Propositions
Author: David Hunter
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 499
Release: 2017-10-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317510275

These are exciting times for philosophical theorizing about propositions, with the last 15 years seeing the development of new approaches and the emergence of new theorists. Propositions have been invoked to explain thought and cognition, the nature and attribution of mental states, language and communication, and in philosophical treatments of truth, necessity and possibility. According to Frege and Russell, and their followers, propositions are structured mind- and language-independent abstract objects which have essential and intrinsic truth-conditions. Some recent theorizing doubts whether propositions really exist and, if they do, asks how we can grasp, entertain and know them? But most of the doubt concerns whether the abstract approach to propositions can really explain them. Are propositions really structured, and if so where does their structure come from? How does this structure form a unity, and does it need to? Are the representational and structural properties of propositions really independent of those of thinking and language? What does it mean to say that an object occurs in or is a constituent of a proposition? The volume takes up these and other questions, both as they apply to the abstract object approach and also to the more recently developed approaches. While the volume as a whole does not definitively and unequivocally reject the abstract objection approach, for the most part, the papers explore new critical and constructive directions. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy.

Reason, Metaphysics, and Mind

Reason, Metaphysics, and Mind
Author: Alvin Plantinga
Publisher: OUP USA
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2012-02-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 019976686X

Each of the essays in this volume engages with some particular aspect of philosopher Alvin Plantinga's views on metaphysics, epistemology, or philosophy of religion.

Nominalism about Properties

Nominalism about Properties
Author: Ghislain Guigon
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2015-02-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317532252

Nominalism, which has its origins in the Middle Ages and continues into the Twenty-First Century, is the doctrine that there are no universals. This book is unique in bringing together essays on the history of nominalism and essays that present a systematic discussion of nominalism. It introduces the reader to the distinction between particulars and universals, to the difficulties posed by this distinction, and to the main motivations for the rejection of universals. It also describes the main varieties of nominalism about properties and provides tools to understand how they developed in the history of Western Philosophy. All essays are new and are written by experts on the topic, and they advance the discussion about nominalism to a new level.

Metasemantics

Metasemantics
Author: Alexis Burgess
Publisher:
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2014
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0199669597

Metasemantics comprises new work on the philosophical foundations of linguistic semantics, by a diverse group of established and emerging experts in the philosophy of language, metaphysics, and the theory of content. The science of semantics aspires to systematically specify the meanings of linguistic expressions in context. The paradigmatic metasemantic question is accordingly: what more basic or fundamental features of the world metaphysically determine these semantic facts? Efforts to answer this question inevitably raise others. Where are the boundaries of semantics? What is the essence of the meaning relation? Which framework should we use for semantic theorizing? What are the intrinsic natures of semantic values? Are the semantic facts metaphysically determinate? What is semantic competence? Metasemantic inquiry has long been recognized as a central part of the philosophy of language, but recent developments in metaphysics and semantics itself now allow us to approach these classic questions with an unprecedented degree of precision. The essays collected here provide promising new perspectives on old problems, pose questions that suggest novel research projects, and taken together, greatly sharpen our understanding of linguistic representation.

New Thinking about Propositions

New Thinking about Propositions
Author: Jeffrey C. King
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191502707

Philosophy (especially philosophy of language and philosophy of mind), science (especially linguistics and cognitive science), and common sense all sometimes make reference to propositions—understood as the things we believe and say, and the things which are (primarily) true or false. There is, however, no widespread agreement about what sorts of things these entities are. In New Thinking about Propositions, Jeffrey C. King, Scott Soames, and Jeff Speaks argue that commitment to propositions is indispensable, and that traditional accounts of propositions are inadequate. They each then defend their own views of the nature of propositions.

Resemblance Nominalism

Resemblance Nominalism
Author: Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2002-07-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199243778

Gardeners, poets, lovers, and philosophers are all interested in the redness of roses; but only philosophers wonder how it is that two different roses can share the same property. Are red things red because they resemble each other? Or do they resemble each other because they are red? Since the 1970s philosophers have tended to favour the latter view, and held that a satisfactory account of properties must involve the postulation of either universals or tropes. But Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra revives the dormant alternative theory of resemblance nominalism, showing first that it can withstand the attacks of such eminent opponents as Goodman and Armstrong, and then that there are reasons to prefer it to its rival theories. The clarity and rigour of his arguments will challenge metaphysicians to rethink their views on properties.

Natural Propositions

Natural Propositions
Author: Frederik Stjernfelt
Publisher:
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2014-04-18
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780988744967

Natural Propositions is about the desirable consequence of Charles Peirce's conception of propositions; namely, that they are no strangers to a naturalist world-view and thus form natural inhabitants of reality. This is because propositions---in Peirce's generalization: Dicisigns---do not depend upon human language nor upon human consciousness or intentionality, contrary to most standard assumptions. In addition to a careful consideration of Peirce's work, the book includes numerous examples of Dicisigns in nature as firefly signaling and vervet monkey alarm calls.

Photography and Philosophy

Photography and Philosophy
Author: Scott Walden
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2010-03-29
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 1444335081

This anthology offers a fresh approach to the philosophical aspects of photography. The essays, written by contemporary philosophers in a thorough and engaging manner, explore the far-reaching ethical dimensions of photography as it is used today. A first-of-its-kind anthology exploring the link between the art of photography and the theoretical questions it raises Written in a thorough and engaging manner Essayists are all contemporary philosophers who bring with them an exceptional understanding of the broader metaphysical issues pertaining to photography Takes a fresh look at some familiar issues - photographic truth, objectivity, and realism Introduces newer issues such as the ethical use of photography or the effect of digital-imaging technology on how we appreciate images

Propositions in the Making

Propositions in the Making
Author: Roland Faber
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2019-11-13
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1793612579

How do we make ourselves a Whiteheadian proposition? This question exposes the multivalent connections between postmodern thought and Whitehead’s philosophy, with particular attention to his understanding of propositions. Edited by Roland Faber, Michael Halewood, and Andrew M. Davis, Propositions in the Making articulates the newest reaches of Whiteheadian propositions for a postmodern world. It does so by activating interdisciplinary lures of feeling, living, and co-creating the world anew. Rather than a “logical assertion,” Whitehead described a proposition as a “lure for feeling” for a collectivity to come. It cannot be reduced to the verbal content of logical justifications, but rather the feeling content of aesthetic valuations. In creatively expressing these propositions in wide relevance to existential, ethical, educational, theological, aesthetic, technological, and societal concerns, the contributors to this volume enact nothing short of “a Whiteheadian Laboratory.”