Category Archives: Philosophy
funny old fruit
Ken writes: Did you know that if you take an apple and plant the pips you’ll get a tree, but not one of the same variety as you planted. You won’t get a granny smith or a braeburn or whatever. … Continue reading
Filed under Ken, Lucky Dip, Philosophy
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Ken writes: I’ve just realised that, as well as being the number of our house, and the number of varieties of Heinz sauce, it is also central to the example at the heart of Kripke’s argument for scepticism about meaning … Continue reading
Filed under Ken, Philosophy
Some more thoughts on Behaviourism
Ken writes: I’ve been trying for some time to write a post on Behavourism because it’s something that holds a perennial fascination for me. I have a number of B F Skinner’s books on the go About Behaviourism, Science and … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy, Words and books and cultural stuff
Uncharacteristically philosophical post from Dot
Dot writes: this is trespassing on Ken’s territory: possibly not philosophy, but getting there. (I’m not sure where philosophy starts but Ken has a strong sense of where its borders are and when people have failed to cross them. “That … Continue reading
Filed under Lucky Dip, Philosophy
Ever-present metonymy?
Ken writes: I think natural language semantics is a bit of a fool’s errand, at least as it is conceived and practiced throughout most of the world’s linguistics and philosophy departments. One encounters a myriad of little proofs of this … Continue reading
Filed under Ken, Philosophy, Words and books and cultural stuff
Moral emotions
Dot writes: I’ve just read an article on the ‘hostility triad’ of moral emotions and their relationship to different types of moral codes (I’m having a research day – oh happy day…): Paul Rozin et al., ‘The CAD Trial Hypothesis: … Continue reading
Live from New York
Ken writes: I’m in New York at the moment mixing business with pleasure meeting old friends from gradschool and attending a philosophy conference at the Marriott Marquis in the middle of Times Square (I’m not actually staying on site. I’m … Continue reading
Filed under Ken, Philosophy
Paradox
Ken writes: If God does not exist, then it’s not the case that if I pray my prayers will be answered. I do not pray. Therefore God exists. I came across this today in discussion of the paradoxes of material … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
Boghossian on the Sceptical Solution
I have been reading a couple of densely argued, complex and interesting papers by Paul Boghossian, “The Rule Following Considerations” (Mind 98 (1989): 507-49) and “The Status of Content” (Philosophical Review 99 (1990): 157-84). I thought it might help me … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
Simple and Complex Translation Schemes and Quine’s Argument for the Indeterminacy of Translation
Ken writes (a philosophy related post from my other blog): Might a translator have good reason to favour a complex and context-dependent translation scheme over a simple and context-independent one? For example, would a translator, or more particularly someone constructing … Continue reading
Filed under Ken, Philosophy
