Monthly Archives: December 2007
Three cheers for Radio 3
People grumble that it isn’t what it was, but the output on BBC Radio 3 remains pretty amazing, and these days there is the great bonus of being able to “listen again” via the web for up to a week. … Continue reading
Absolute Generality 15: Lavine on the problems
Shaughan Lavine’s is one of two fifty-page papers in Absolute Generality (I’m not sure that the editors’ relaxed attitude to overlong papers does either the authors or the readers a great service, but there it is). In fact, the paper … Continue reading
Blog roll … and thanks to Monica Vitti
I’ve added a link alongside to Tim Gower’s blog (thanks to Carrie Jenkins for recommending it), and I’ve removed links to a couple of seemingly dormant blogs. I’m a bit staggered to find that the number visitors to this blog … Continue reading
Absolute Generality 14: A rule for ‘everything’
The final section of McGee’s paper is called “A rule for “everything”‘. He argues that “the semantic values of the quantifiers are fixed by the rules of inference”. The claim rests on noting that (i) two universal quantifiers governed by … Continue reading
Logic tests
A few weeks back, I was asked to put together a twenty minute logicky multiple choice test for undergraduates applying to Cambridge to read philosophy. I had better not say much here at all, but I think I managed to … Continue reading
Absolute Generality 13: Skepticism about the quantifiers in particular
In Sec. 2 of his paper, McGee reviews a number of grounds that might be offered for skepticism about absolutely unrestricted quantification. But he doesn’t take the classic indefinite extensibility argument very seriously — indeed he doesn’t even mention Dummett, … Continue reading
Absolute Generality 12: McGee on semantic scepticism
I was intending to look at the papers in Absolute Generality in the order in which they are printed. But Glanzberg’s piece is followed by a long one by Shaughan Lavine which is in significant part a discussion of Vann … Continue reading
Meanwhile, in Iraq, …
the situation of many women much improves. Of course. What does one say?
Absolute Generality 11: Indefinitely expanding?
I mentioned that Glanzberg’s paper focuses on Williamson’s version of Russell’s paradox for interpretations. I can’t say that I find that version very illuminating, but there it is. But it does shape Glanzberg’s discussion, and he tells the story about … Continue reading
Mathematical Knowledge
Another day, another new book to mention. My current and recent colleagues Mary Leng, Alexander Paseau, and Michael Potter have edited revised versions of some of the papers from the 2004 conference held here in Cambridge on Mathematical Knowledge. It … Continue reading