Speaker: John Fischer, University of California Riverside
TIme: October 29, 2:30
News/Upcoming
Speakers: Peter Kung (Pomona College) and Masahiro Yamada (Claremont Graduate University)
Paper: Justification Without Vindication
Bootstrapping cases show that not all justified beliefs are created equal. Many justified beliefs have the following nice property: they allow you to use that belief to justifiedly infer other beliefs. But not all justified beliefs have this property. We discuss (some of) what this property consists in and examine it’s role in some recent arguments.
Upcoming/News
Speaker: Dr Geoff Bowe (Thompson River University, British Columbia)
Paper: Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus on Recollection
This paper begins by highlighting problems of plausibility with the theory of recollection as presented in Plato’s Meno. The absence of the theory of recollection in Plato’s Republic ought to raise some eyebrows. A better alternative to Socrates’ employment of the theory of recollection is offered based on Plato’s Republic and Plotinus’ exegetical accounts of Platonic psychology and epistemology at various points in the Enneads. I offer evidence from Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus that the theory of recollection, like so much analogical thinking in Plato is aimed at a lower level audience, and that Plato’s real epistemology is much richer and more coherent than the theory of recollection, despite its charms.
Upcoming/News
Speaker: Robin Jeshion
Title: The Significance of Names
As a class of terms, proper names are socially, cognitively, developmentally, and probably rationally, associated with significance. I will argue that in communication, proper names function as “abstract linguistic faces” of significance. Names are not just devices of direct reference affording common, stable ways of thinking and speaking about entities; and their associated mental names are not merely singular mental representations for long-term use. Proper names and their associated mental representations are, additionally, and by their nature, markers of significance. I’ll discuss how these ideas impinge upon and are supported by theories of singular thought and of the communicative transfer of singular thought.
Upcoming/News
The Philosophy Department Logic Lab is located in the basement of University Hall, UH 052 (x12667). This lab has computers with access to the Web. The official purpose of the logic lab is to provide students in logic, critical thinking and philosophy courses with computer assisted instruction in logic and critical thinking.
In addition to providing students with instruction in logic and critical thinking, the Logic Lab is a place for students and faculty to meet and discuss philosophical issues. Faculty, majors and interested students can find informal discussions taking place there about everything from abstract objects and formal logic to the existence of God and animal rights. Come by and see us sometime.
Here is the logic lab schedule for Fall 2010:
Monday 10-11:50, 12-1:20, 2:30-4:30
Tuesday 9:30-11, 12-5:30
Wednesday 10:40-11:50, 12-6
Thursday 9-11, 12-2
Friday 12-1:20
Students/News