Saul Kripke (1940-2022)
The last of the 20th century’s bona fide greats. New York Times profile from 1977 metaphyicsmodalityNaming and Necessityphilosophical logicPhilosophySaul Kripke
Tag Archive Browsing Tag: philosophical logic
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Happy Birthday to Susan Haack
Festschrift for Susan Haack on the occasion of her 75th birthday. Charles Sanders PeirceEpistemologyfeminismphilosophical logicpolitical correctnesspragmatismsusan haacktestimony
David Wiggins
Born on this day — a true gentleman in every sense. If ever Wiggins was miffed that I preferred to talk to him about his metaphysics rather than his ethics, he never let on. Sameness and Substance Renewed (2001) and its two precursors, 1967’s Identity and Spatio-Temporal Continuity and 1980’s Sameness and Substance, jointly remain one of my favourite reads. See discussion of…
Bertrand Russell: Science and philosophy
My chum and Russell scholar par excellence has this piece in the TLS. As Wittgenstein sums up Russell’s insight, “Philosophy aims at the logical clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity”. Something similar might be said of science as well. Analytic philosophyAndrew Irvinebertrand russellLiberalismphilosophical logicPhilosophyscience
Nicholas Rescher
A belated birthday greeting to Nick still going strong at eighty-nine. Nick is one of the most prolific, wide-ranging, insightful, eclectic and kindest philosophers I have known. See Michele Marsonet’s Internet Enclyclopedia of Philosophy entry for Nick. ConservatismEpistemologyIdealismmetaphysicsMichele Marsonetnicholas rescherphilosophical logicPhilosophyPhilosophy of sciencepragmatism
Academic Hacks
The pun of the headline was unintended. Anyway, here is a short interview with Susan in Psychology Today — BTW, I highly recommend her Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate. The quote below captures the bind that befalls many humanities academics and is therefore a major driver of their hackery — ostrich-ism: So, in the crudest career terms, yes,…
Continuants: Their Activity, Their Being, and Their Identity
One of my favourite living philosophers (if not the favourite) is David Wiggins. He was my tutor for ethics but not unfortunately for metaphysics which by then had become a secondary interest for him. Great to see that he has just released a new book gathering several of his most important essays on identity in one volume.…
The Web of Belief
While doing some work on Quine I came across Quine and Ullian’s minor classic The Web of Belief which has been made freely available online. (Another great portrait by Steve Pyke as with the previous post on Parfit). Analytic philosophyJ. S. Ullianphilosophical logicpragmatismquinesteve pykeweb of belief
Susan Haack’s Five Answers on Philosophy of Logic
As some will know Susan is my other philosophical “based mom”. (click image for pdf) Epistemologyphilosophical logicPhilosophysusan haack
Identity, Individuation and Substance
After a long break from writing on metaphysics the wonderful David Wiggins has a freely available paper published in the European Journal of Philosophy. Sameness and Substance remains one of the most satisfying (and most difficult) reads I’ve ever experienced. Forty four years ago I published a short monograph called Identity and Spatio-Temporal Continuity, henceforth ISTC…
manwithoutqualities 