Traditions

AI Offers us Comfort in Some Difficult Situations

Recipient’s Name], ¶ I hope this letter finds you during this tender time, where the weight of emotions may feel overwhelming. It is with utmost empathy that I reach out to you after learning about your recent miscarriage. Please know that you are not alone in this journey, and I am here to offer support and care in any way I can. ¶ As you navigate the path of healing and finding solace, I wanted to share a gentle suggestion that may bring some comfort to your life. Consider the companionship of a guinea pig. These small, adorable creatures possess an innate ability to provide warmth, companionship, and a sense of calm during challenging moments. ¶ A guinea pig can offer a soothing presence, their gentle squeaks and soft fur bringing a touch of joy to your days. They have an endearing nature that allows for moments of connection and quiet understanding. Caring for a guinea pig can create a sense of routine, providing a purpose and a new focus during this period of healing. ¶ However, it’s essential to give yourself time to process your emotions and gauge your readiness for taking on the responsibility of caring for a pet. Reflect on whether you feel emotionally prepared to provide the necessary love, attention, and care that a guinea pig deserves. Taking the time to heal and nurture yourself is of utmost importance. ¶ If you do choose to welcome a guinea pig into your life, I encourage you... -

Generics: Inference & Accommodation

Generic claims, such as Birds fly, Men are violent, and Mosquitos carry Ross River Fever, seem pervasive across human thought and talk. We use generic claims to express our understanding of the world around us and our place in it. These generic claims are useful even though they admit exceptions. We can agree that birds fly, even though emus don’t. Mosquitos carry Ross River Fever, but not those in Africa. And you can agree that men are violent while conceding that not all men are, or even that most are. Generics remain important in our thought and talk in the presence of these counter-instances. Generic claims express rules of thumb, ways to see the world around us, and they provide heuristics for navigating that world.... -

APA Member Interview: Logan Daly

Logan Daly is a graduate student at West Chester University and is pursuing his M.A. in philosophy. His academic work focuses on synthesizing Christianity with philosophy in a way that benefits both parties. His master’s thesis is a comparative analysis of Hannah Arendt and Christian thought. What is your favorite... -

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Latest links… ¶ Publish or perish: high school edition — some high schoolers (whose parents can afford it) are producing “published” “research” to get into college (via Andy Lamey) “Phenomenal realism seems so obviously plausible [but] it has so little going for it apart from its obviousness” — this makes it... -

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Generics: Inference & Accommodation Generic claims, such as Birds fly, Men are violent, and Mosquitos carry Ross River Fever, seem pervasive across human thought and talk. We use generic claims to express our understanding of the world around us and our place in it. These generic claims are useful even though they admit exceptions. We can agree that birds fly, even though emus don’t. Mosquitos carry Ross River Fever, but not those in Africa. And you can agree that... Consequently.org -

PY4601: Paradoxes py4601: Paradoxes is an honours Philosophy module at the University of St Andrews. It’s coordinated by my colleague, Patrick Greenough, and I’m teaching a small slice at the end on the liar paradox. If you’d like to see what I am covering, you can see some slides and notes here. Here’s what we’re covering in the whole module: A paradox is a plausible argument for an absurd conclusion. Better still: a paradox is an apparently... Consequently.org -

Kicking off Semester 2 in St Salvator's Chapel I grew up in Australia: my university training and my initial academic positions took place in the explicitly secular institution of the Australian university. So, it’s an uncanny experience to arrive in St Andrews to become a part of a university in a town marked by martyrdom, in which the Chaplaincy plays a central and visible role. University functions, including graduations, are opened with prayers in Latin. There are regular services in Chapel, including graduation... Consequently.org -

Come and See! (John 1:29-42) I normally don’t speak from notes, but I do know that if I get up in front of a group to speak, my natural duration is the lecture, and at 45 to 50 minutes, that just won’t do for a sermon at chapel. To prevent an over-long talk, I took the time to write things down, and edit it to an appropriate length. Now that I have it, I may as well share the text... Consequently.org -

Collection Frames: What, How and Why? Abstract: In this talk, I give a breezy introduction to Collection Frames (joint work with Shawn Standefer), with an emphasis on how they are technically equivalent to, but conceptually simpler than Routley–Meyer ternary relational frames. The talk is an online presentation at the New Directions in Relevant Logic Online Workshop. The slides for the talk are available here. Consequently.org -

PY4638: Philosophy of Religion py4638: Philosophy of Religion aims to provide a philosophical understanding of the phenomenon of religion and its relation to other central human activities, studying such topics as religious and cultural diversity, religious experience, belief and justification, faith and reason, religious language, religion and metaphysics, or religion and science. In 2022, we will be exploring one important topic in the philosophy of religion from three different perspectives. We will explore the notion that ultimate reality—or God—is... Consequently.org -

PY3100: Reading Philosophy 1—Texts in Language, Logic, Mind, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Science py3100: Reading Philosophy 1–Texts in Language, Logic, Mind, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Science is designed to develop the philosophical skills students have acquired over the first two years of their philosophy study, and acquaint them with key works in core areas of philosophy. The module involves close study of philosophical texts – historical and contemporary – that address a variety of topics within metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophies of logic and language, mind and science. Students will... Consequently.org -

Classical Logic and Intuitionistic Logic: looking both ways Abstract: We know a great many technical results concerning the relationship between classical logic and intuitionistic logic, whether in the propositional, first-order or higher-order languages. We also know quite a lot about the relationship between intuitionistic and classical theories. In this talk, I will explore some of what these results might mean, from the perspective of partisans of one side or other of the divide, and what kinds of pluralism might be tenable, in the... Consequently.org -

True Contradictions? Why, and Why Not? Abstract: In this talk, I introduce the difference between paraconsistency (adopting a logic for which a contradiction need not entail everything) and dialetheism (the notion that there are true contradictions), and I explain some reasons why one might take there to be true contradictions. I focus on Jc Beall’s recent work on contradictory Christology as one such motivation, and discuss some attractions of the view, as well as some shortcomings to be further explored. The... Consequently.org -

Collection Frames for Distributive Substructural Logics We present a new frame semantics for positive relevant and substructural propositional logics. This frame semantics is both a generalization of Routley–Meyer ternary frames and a simplification of them. The key innovation of this semantics is the use of a single accessibility relation to relate collections of points to points. Different logics are modeled by varying the kinds of collections used: they can be sets, multisets, lists or trees. We show that collection frames on... Consequently.org -

Proofs and Models in Philosophical Logic This is a short book, in the Cambridge Elements series in Philosophical Logic. This is a general introduction to recent work in proof theory and model theory of non-classical logics, with a focus on the application of non-classical logic to the semantic paradoxes and (to a lesser extent), the sorites paradox. After a short introduction motivating general notions of proof and of models, I introduce and motivate a simple natural deduction system, and present the... Consequently.org -

PY4634: Philosophical Logic py4638: Philosophical Logic focuses on some of the main philosophical questions that have been raised concerning the central notions of logic. We’ll be examining contemporary debates on notions such as logical consequence, the normative status of logic, its epistemology, the meaning of the logical constants, logical pluralism, and higher-order logics. Consequently.org -

Proofs with Star and Perp: pluralism and proofs for different logics Abstract: In this talk, I show how to incorporate insights from the model-theoretic semantics for negation (insights due the late J. Michael Dunn, among others), into a properly proof-theoretic understanding of the semantics of negation. I then discuss the different ways a logical pluralist may understand the underlying accounts of proofs and their significance. The talk is a presentation at the Current Debates in the Philosophy of Logic Seminar, European Network for the Philosophy of... Consequently.org -

Worlds: Possible and Impossible Abstract: In this talk, I reflect on the role of worlds–possible worlds and impossible worlds—both in the semantics of various kinds of languages and logics, and in broader issues in metaphysics. I will argue that, given very modest assumptions concerning the role of worlds in semantics, that any defender of possible worlds in such a role should be equally comfortable with impossible worlds. However, this argument for impossible worlds does not transfer straightforwardly to logically... Consequently.org -

Comparing Rules for Identity in sequent systems and natural deduction Abstract: It is straightforward to treat the identity predicate in models for first order predicate logic. Truth conditions for identity formulas are given by a natural clause: a formula s = t is true (or satisfied by a variable assignment) in a model if and only if the denotations of the terms s and t (perhaps relative to the given variable assignment) are the same. On the other hand, finding appropriate rules for identity in... Consequently.org -

Natural Deduction with Alternatives: on structural rules, and identifying assumptions Abstract: In this talk, I will introduce natural deduction with alternatives, explaining how this framework provides a simple, well-behaved, single conclusion natural deduction system for a range of logical systems, including classical logic, (classical) linear logic, relevant logic and affine logic, in addition to the familar intuitionistic restrictions of these systems. Each of these proof systems have identical connective rules. As we expect in substructural logics, different logical systems are given by varying the structural rules in play. The distinctly... Consequently.org -

Platonism, Nominalism, Realism, Anti-Realism, Reprentationalism, Inferentialism and all that My usual talk (a close-up view of the Old Quad and Arts West at the University of Melbourne). Abstract: In this talk, I will place contemporary research in philosophical logic in a wider historical and philosophical context, showing how recent work in logic connects to the rivalry between Platonism and Nominalism, or realism and anti-realism in metaphysics, and between representationalism and inferentialism in the the philosophy of language. Along the way, I will touch on... Consequently.org -

Comparing Rules for Identity in Sequent Systems and Natural Deduction Abstract: It is straightforward to treat the identity predicate in models for first order predicate logic. Truth conditions for identity formulas are straightforward. On the other hand, finding appropriate rules for identity in a sequent system or in natural deduction leaves many questions open. Identity could be treated with introduction and elimination rules in natural deduction, or left and right rules, in a sequent calculus, as is standard for familiar logical concepts. On the other... Consequently.org -

UNIB10002: Logic, Language and Information UNIB10002: Logic, Language and Information is a University of Melbourne undergraduate breadth subject, introducing logic and its applications to students from a wide range of disciplines in the Arts, Sciences and Engineering. I coordinate this subject with my colleague Dr. Jen Davoren, with help from Prof. Lesley Stirling (Linguistics), Dr. Peter Schachte (Computer Science) and Dr. Daniel Murfet (Mathematics). The subject is taught to University of Melbourne undergraduate students. Details for enrolment are here. Consequently.org -