Interpreting Phrases in Philosophy Papers

Ever wondered what philosophers really mean when they speak in obscure phrases? Use this list to achieve better understanding.

"Although there are no definite answers to these questions ..."
My original hypothesis was wrong, but I still want to get published.

"Additional work is required to establish principle P."
I was unable to conjure up any genuine counterexamples to principle P.

"Of great theoretical and practical importance"
It is interesting to me or else I want it to be interesting to somebody with money who can fund some release time from teaching.

"It has long been known that ..."
I don't know the original reference.

"It is believed that ..."
I believe this (and either no one agrees with me or else I didn't consult anyone).

"It is generally believed that ..."
I believe this and at least one other person agrees with me.

"This example was originally due to NN"
NN came up with it in a bar at 3 a.m. in the morning at the last APA meeting. And if it doesn't work, I don't want to be blamed.

"I do not think the proposal succeeds"
And I have no reason to think it doesn't succeed.

"Nothing of substance hinges on this simplification"
I don't know how to deal with more complex cases.

"I know of no decisive evidence against theory T"
I know of plenty of evidence against it but in philosophy no evidence is decisive.

"I have no knock-down objections to principle P but I do have a couple of worries about it"
I have no evidence against principle P, just a couple of nitpickings that are not going to lead anywhere.

"I hope nevertheless that a more unified account will emerge from these considerations."
I have no new results to report but I need to get tenure so I will offer a better way to word some well-established principles.

"This view is not as counterintuitive as it first appears."
This view is counterintuitive, alright, but I am going to try to convince you that it is not.

"The aim of this paper is to show that NN's original theory is flawed"
NN has since revised his theory. But my counterexamples undermine only the original proposal.

"NN is therefore vulnerable to the criticism that P."
NN presented a knock-down objection to my theory at the last APA meeting; now, I'm going to show him who's the boss.

"Virtually everything that has just been said carries over to the case at hand."
You work it out. I am not sure how to.

"NN's brilliant insight that ..."
NN is a friend of mine who is considering me for a position in his department, and he proposed that ...

(HT: Dr. Free-Ride, who offers an interpretation of scientific phrases)

Save the Internet

Matt Bell brought this site to my attention. The site is devoted to the protection of network neutrality. What is network neutrality? Save the Internet explains:

Network Neutrality — or "Net Neutrality" for short — is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet.

Put simply, Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination.

Net Neutrality is the reason why the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online. It protects the consumer's right to use any equipment, content, application or service on a non-discriminatory basis without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data — not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.

If you want to help protect network neutrality, sign Save the Internet's petition, or simply check out the site.

New Semantics Journal

Kai von Fintel and David Beaver recently announced that they are going to start a new semantics journal called Semantics and Pragmatics. S & P will be open access, which means that there will be free online access to published articles. von Fintel and Beaver have also started a new blog devoted to the project. Speaking of which, Beaver just reported that S & F has been officially accepted as an "affiliated journal of the Linguistic Society of America as part of their eLanguage initiative". So, if you're working in semantics, there are now two respectable open access journals where you can send your work, the other being Philosophers' Imprint.

Call for Papers: Context, Perspective and Relativity

Context-Dependence, Perspective and Relativity in Language and Thought

Paris, Ecole Normale Supérieure, November 9-11, 2007

Keynote Speakers:

James Higginbotham (USC)
John MacFarlane (Berkeley)
John Perry (Stanford)
François Recanati (CNRS)
Jason Stanley (Rutgers)
Robert Stalnaker (MIT)

Submissions are invited for 30 min. talks. Only half a dozen slots are available for submitted contributions. Submissions should be sent in the form of an extended abstract (800-1000 words) to: relativism2007@gmail.com. Submission deadline: September 5, 2007.

Notification of acceptance: September 25, 2007. Authors of accepted contributions are responsible for their own travel and accommodation arrangements. (A list of hotels will be provided.) There are no registration fees.

The conference is sponsored by Institut Jean-Nicod and by Ecole Normale Supérieure (Department of Philosophy and Department of Cognitive Studies).

Organizers:

François Recanati (CNRS/Institut Jean Nicod)
Isidora Stojanovic (CNRS/Institut Jean Nicod)
Neftali Villanueva (Institut Jean Nicod)

Second Call for Papers: The Iowa Philosophical Society Meeting

Call for Papers: The Iowa Philosophical Society Meeting

When: Saturday, Oct.20, 2007
Where: Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA

Keynote Address by Paul Boghossian (NYU)

Papers should be prepared for approximately a
20 minute presentation. Submission deadline: Sept. 15, 2007.

Send abstracts of approximately 300 words to:

John Lemos at jlemos@coe.edu, or you may send them by regular mail to:

John Lemos
Dept. of Philosophy
Coe College
Cedar Rapids, IA 52402

Announcement: Hintikka Conference

The Epistemology and Methodology of Jaakko Hintikka - a symposium in Hintikka's honor

November 16-17, 2007.
Roskilde University, Denmark

Sponsored by PHIS – The Danish Research School in Philosophy, History of Ideas and History of Science

Jaakko Hintikka's philosophical writings are some of the most lucid, enlightening and influential of the 20th century philosophy. They range from his pioneering work in epistemic logic over his interpretations of important historical figures like Aristotle, Descartes, Kant and Peirce, to his work on the philosophy of science and logic. A common denominator for his writings across the board is his special take on inquiry in both epistemological and methodological terms. In November 2007, Hintikka's collected papers on epistemology, entitled Socratic Epistemology, will be released with Cambridge University Press and what better occasion than this to reflect upon the epistemology and methodology of Jaakko Hintikka.

Invited Speakers

Adam Didrichsen
Vincent F. Hendricks
Jaakko Hintikka
Stig Andur Pedersen
Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen
Robert Stalnaker
Frederik Stjernfelt
Tim Williamson

The symposium is organized in such a way that there will be ample time for questions and answers, and thus the meeting furnishes a unique opportunity for PhD-students to get a thorough introduction to an important branch of contemporary philosophy.

Program
Saturday, November 17
09:30 – 10:00
Registration / Coffee
10:00 – 11:30
Jaakko Hintikka
11:45 – 13:15
Vincent F. Hendricks
13:15 – 14:00
Lunch
14:00 – 15:30
Robert Stalnaker
15:30 – 16:00
Coffee
16:00 – 17:30
Adam Didrichsen

Sunday, November 18
09:30 – 10:00
Coffee
10:00 – 11:30
Stig Andur Pedersen
11:45 – 13:15
Frederik Stjernfelt
13:15 – 14:00
Lunch
14:00 – 15:30
Tim Williamson
15:30 – 16:00
Coffee
16:00 – 17:30
Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen

Program and Organizing Committee
Vincent F. Hendricks
Frederik Stjernfelt
Stig Andur Pedersen

UPDATE: Note that the dates for the symposium are November 16-17, 2007, NOT November 17-18, as originally announced.

Some Links

Thom Brooks reports that the ESF, who recently published a new ranking of philosophy journals, has no plans to produce "journal rankings in other areas, such as the social sciences". As Thom notes, this is odd, if the aim is to give weight to such rankings in decisions about funding for grant proposals.

Brian Frances has an interesting post on second-order logic and Godel's first incompleteness theorem.

Michael Cholbi is curious to know from readers how the American Philosophical Association's Committee on the Teaching of Philosophy can "help its members as teachers".

Ivana Simic has opened a discussion of The Cautious Man Problem over at The Florida Student Philosophy Blog.

Joe Salerno has a new human rights and atrocities page.

Women in Philosophy Wiki

Noelle McAfee has created a women in philosophy wiki. If you consider yourself a woman in philosophy, you can add yourself to the list. Students and job seekers are welcome.

(Via Feminist Philosophers)

Parallel Earth Simulator

Possible world semantics put to good use, or The US military's new "war game"? From Slashdot:

The US Department of Defense (DOD) may already be creating a copy of you in an alternate reality. Putting supercomputers to an innovative use, the military is simulating our planet in an effort to predict the outcome of different scenarios. They might run tests to see how long 'you' can go without food or water, or how 'you' will respond to televised propaganda. Billions of nodes are created in the system, intended to reflect every man, woman, and child. 'Called the Sentient World Simulation (SWS), it will be a "synthetic mirror of the real world with automated continuous calibration with respect to current real-world information", according to a concept paper for the project. Simulex is the company developing these systems, and they list pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and defense contractor Lockheed Martin among their private sector clients. The U.S. military is their biggest customer, apparently now running the most complex version of the system. JFCOM-9 is now capable of running real-time simulations for up to 62 nations, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and China. The simulations gobble up breaking news, census data, economic indicators, and climactic events in the real world, along with proprietary information such as military intelligence.

(Thanks to Ben Ricker for the link)

The Reasoner 1(3)

The Reasoner - issue 1(3) is now available. Joe and I wrote a short note for this month's issue, which discusses Timothy Williamson's line against non-trivial counterpossibles and replies to Alan Baker.

Hendricks and Stjernfelt on DR2

Vincent Hendricks and Frederik Stjernfelt will appear tonight on DR2's Deadline at 10:30 p.m., where they will discuss their new book Tal en Tanke.

UPDATE: Here is the link to the show.

Philosophers' Carnival # 49

... is here.

The Best Philosophy Journals

Via The Brooks Blog:

Best philosophy journals according to the European Science Foundation (incomplete list):

A
American Philosophical Quarterly
Analysis
Australasian Journal of Philosophy
Biology and Philosophy
British Journal for the History of Philosophy
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
Economics and Philosophy
Ethics
Journal of Philosophy
Kantian Review
Kant-Studien
Law and Philosophy
Linguistics and Philosophy
Midwest Studies in Philosophy
Mind
Mind and Language
Monist
Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic
Nous
Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy
Pacific Philosophical Quarterly
Philosophical Perspectives (Nous Supplement)
Philosophical Quarterly
Philosophical Review
Philosophical Studies
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research
Philosophy and Public Affairs
Philosophy of Science
Phronesis
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society
Social Philosophy and Policy
Synthese

B
Ancient Philosophy
Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie
Argumentation
Asian Philosophy
Canadian Journal of Philosophy
Croatian Journal of Philosophy
Environmental Ethics
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice
European Journal of Philosophy
Faith and Philosophy
Grazer Philosophische Studien
Inquiry
International Journal of Philosophical Studies
International Journal for Philosophy of Religion
Journal of Applied Philosophy
Journal of Consciousness Studies
Journal of Ethics
Journal of Medical Ethics
Journal of Moral Philosophy
Journal of Political Philosophy
Journal of Value Inquiry
Legal Theory
Logique et Analyse
Metaphilosophy
Metaphysica
Minds and Machines
Modern Schoolman
Nietzsche Studien
Philosophia
Philosophical Issues (Nous Supplement)
Philosophical Papers
Philosophical Topics
Political Theory
Ratio
Res Publica
Review of Metaphysics
Social Theory and Practice
Southern Journal of Philosophy
Utilitas

C
Analyse und Kritik
Critique
Danish Yearbook of Philosophy
Das Argument
Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie
Environmental Values
Ethical Perspectives
Fisosofisk Tidskrift
Filozoficky casopis
Hegel-Jahrbuch
LOGOS
Philosophica
Philosphical Investigations
Philosophie
Philosophy
Prima Philosophia
Reports on Philosophy
Sats
Studia Philosophica
Studies in East European Thought
Teorema
Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society

In my opinion, the list is fairly accurate as far as the mainstream journals go, though I think it would have been better to divide the A and B groups into more categories. Thom Brooks has some reasonable complaints (mostly) about the ranking of specialty journals.

UPDATE: There is an interesting discussion of the ESF's ranking of philosophy journals over at Leiter Reports.

FURTHER UPDATE: Noelle McAfee has expressed some worries about this ranking, which are well worth checking out. Also, there is an interesting discussion of ESF's ranking over at Knowledge and Experience.

Digby Wins Progressive Blogger Award

Joe Wilson, Digby, Rick Perlstein

No one knew the progressive blogger Digby's real identity -- until today, where she received the Progressive Blogger Award at the Take Back America conference. You can listen to her speech here.

New Paper

I have uploaded this paper on two-dimensionalism to my website. The paper is scheduled to appear in American Philosophical Quarterly, October 2007.

Around the Blogosphere

Joe has published a summary of our Williamson-on-counterpossibles note.

As Robbie points out, a number of 1-year positions are available at Leeds. If you are a recent Ph.D. and didn't land a permanent job yet, this seems like a nice opportunity.

Carrie Jenkins will appear on Philosophy Talk on August 12th.

Over at Feministe, Roy argues that children constitute an oppressed group.

Norman Finkelstein: Tenure Denied

The much-discussed Norman Finkelstein case ends dramatically with denial of tenure.

Finkelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors and a Princeton graduate, was denied tenure at DePaul for exposing the exploitation of Jewish suffering. Finkelstein has published several book-length critiques of issues relating to the Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Finkelstein discusses, among other things, how prominent spokesmen for the Holocaust have turned the Holocaust into a money-making Industry. Elie Wiesel, a spokesperson for the Holocoast, charges a standard fee of $25,000 for revealing the secrets of the Holocoast, while real survivors such as Finkelstein's mother (a survivor of Majdanek camp and slave labor camps) received only $3,500 in compensation.

Finkelstein posted a letter from Depaul's president Dennis Holtschneider on his website two days ago. The letter alleges that tenure was denied because Finkelstein's scholarship is "deliberately hurtful" and clashes with the work of other scholars.

(Thanks to Matt Bell for the links)

UPDATE: Leiter has published a report covering the case. The petition mentioned by Leiter can be found here. There is also a student petition in support of Finkelstein.

Richard Rorty, 1931-2007

Reports are coming out that Richard Rorty died yesterday, June 8, 2007. Rorty was a leading figure in American Philosophy and Pragmatism (via Leiter).

UPDATE: Other memorial notices and obituaries can be found at TMP Cafe, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, WVEC, New York Times, and Progressive.

Pics from St. Andrews

Elizabeth Barnes has put some great photos from the St. Andrews adjectives conference and the metaphysics conference preceding it online. However, I think I remember people's "reactions to relativism" slightly differently. Re-interpretation:











Ross Cameron and Robbie Williams' reactions to the lack of metaphysics at the adjectives conference.











... and Jason Stanley's rejoinder. Ross wonders whether he went too far. Chris Kennedy and John Hawthorne execute their rights to remain silent.











Peter Ludlow, giving Jason the stare-down stink eye. Robbie, trying to keep his cool.











Jonathan Schaffer: "Robbie, don't you know how big contrastivism is going to be in a few years?!" [Robbie, smiling knowingly. Ross, showing signs of skepticism].











John Hawthorne at 2AM: "Arrrggg, I am on the program at 9 AM in the morning, and I still haven't worked out what to say."











Jonathan and I, illustrating the size of the claws of Australian Magpies.











Breakfast: Ross' reaction to White Pudding.

Philosophers' Carnival # 48

... is here.