Collection on Early Analytic Philosophy

Moritz and I have edited a special issue of the Grazer Philosophische Studien with essays on early analytic philosophy. The essays are published in honour of Wolfgang Künne.

If you have access to Ingenta, you can read the papers here.

Contents
I.	Truth and Assertion
1.	Ian Rumfitt: Truth and the Determination of Content: Variations on Themes from Frege’s Logische Untersuchungen
2.	Manuel García-Carpintero: Truth-Bearers and Modesty
3.	Edgar Morscher: Logical Truth and Logical Form
4.	Mark Siebel: “It Falls Somewhat Short of Logical Precision.” Bolzano on Kant’s Definition of Analyticity
II.	Concepts and Propositions
5.	Hans-Johann Glock: A Cognitivist Approach to Concepts
6.	Andreas Kemmerling: Thoughts without Parts: Frege’s Doctrine
7.	Stephan Krämer: Bolzano on the Intransparency of Content
8.	Nick Haverkamp: Nothing but Objects
III.	Cognition and Volition
9.	Peter Simons: Cognitive Operations and the Multifarious Reifications of the Unreal
10.	Kevin Mulligan: Meaning Something and Meanings
11.	John Hyman: Wittgenstein on Action and the Will
IV.	Reference and Existence
12.	David Wiggins: Platonism and the Argument from Causality
13.	Tobias Rosefeldt: Frege, Pünjer, and Kant on Existence
14.	Robert Schwartzkopff: Numbers as Ontologically Dependent Objects. Hume’s Principle Revisited
15.	Mark Textor: Sense-Only-Signs: Frege on Fictional Proper Names

New Job Announcement

The department of philosophy at the University of Hamburg proposes to appoint a post-doc research associate affiliated with the chair for philosophy of language. It is a temporary position for three years, with a possible renewal for another three years.

Applicants must have a research focus in the philosophy of language and/or metaphysics. It is desirable that candidates are able and willing to cooperate with my research project on nominalizations (see the post below).

The job also involves teaching obligations (5 hours per week per semester) and administrative duties. The ability to speak German is not required.

The deadline for applications is the end of May. The appointed candidates should start as soon as possible, the preferable starting date is the 1st of July. For more information on the posts, see the further particulars:

1. Postdoc position – further particulars
2. Nominalizations – Project Description.

Recent Update: Jobs

*** Important ***: due to problems with the administration of the university, I had to set a new deadline; it is now the 2nd of May. I now posted updated versions of the further particulars which contain the new deadline, and which also contain some minor corrections (marked in yellow).

Jobs – Updated

I propose to appoint three research associates in the project Nominalisations. The posts are fixed-term, non-renewable posts for a period of three years. They differ with respect to designation and salary:

1. Postdoc position (salary TV-L 13, full-time)
2. Doctoral position (salary TV-L 13, half-time)
3. Unspecified researcher position (salary TV-L 13, half-time)

Important. Due to problems with the administration of the university, I had to set a new deadline. The deadline for applications now is the 2nd of May 2011.

The appointed candidates should start as soon as possible, the preferable starting date is the 1st of June. For more information on the posts, see the respective further particulars which will be published soon. Please note that some details (in particular, the dates) may be in need of minor changes due to administrative needs.

The research project deals with different questions form the philosophy of language, ontology, and meta-ontology, which are relted to the use of nominalized expressions in natural language. It is a collaboration between linguists and philosophers from Germany and France, directed by Friederike Moltmann and me. An outline of the project can be downloaded below.

Downloadable files (note that these are updated versions from the 21st of April, containing the new deadline and some minor corrections, marked in yellow):

1. Postdoc position – further particulars
2. Doctoral position – further particulars
3. Researcher position – further particulars
4. Nominalizations – Project Description.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me (click here).

Finally note that another postdoc position (for three years, possible renewal for another three years) will be announced soon. It is a temporary lecturership at the university of Hamburg.

Benjamin

Ch … ch … ch … ch …

We sadly have to announce that Miguel and Moritz are no longer members of phlox. They left for good reasons: Miguel took up a position as the assistant of Thomas Spitzley, and Moritz took up a postdoc position in the PERSP project in Barcelona. Congratulations! But phlox won’t be the same without them (not only because their departure equals a shrinkage of 40%).

There are more changes to come. Today, I accepted a professorship in Hamburg and I will move there in April. Phlox won’t thereby cease to exist, but it will change its location and follow me to Hamburg.

Last but not least, I will hopefully soon be able to publish some job ads for doctoral and postdoctoral positions. Firstly, there will be a regular postdoc-position from the department for philosophy. Secondly, there will be a postdoc-position and two doctoral positions in a new research project on nominalisations which I will direct together with Friederike Moltmann (Paris). It will discuss both linguistic and philosophical aspects of nominalisations; on the philosophical side, several issues in ontology, meta-ontology, and the philosophy of language and logic will be covered. So, if you are interested, or if you know someone who might be interested, stay tuned.

Benjamin

Because II

Our conference on grounding & non-causal explanation takes place at the Humboldt University from the 30^th of August to the 1^st of September 2010. Speakers include Kit Fine, Stephen Yablo, Paul Audi, Ross Cameron, Chris Daly, Carrie Jenkins, and others. Visit the homepage of the conference for more information, including early versions of some of the papers to be presented.

Phloxshop III – Nothing But the Truth

Phloxshop III takes place on August 12 and 13 at Humboldt University in Berlin. The speakers are:

Arvid Båve (Stockholm)

Stefano Caputo (Turin)

Marian David (Notre Dame)

Volker Halbach (Oxford)

Max Kölbel (Barcelona)

David Liggins (Manchester)

Adolf Rami (Göttingen)

Peter Schulte (Erlangen)

For more information and a detailed programme click here.

Conferences (and CFP)

Conference: Because II

At the end of August 2010, we’ll have a conference on grounding and non-causal explanation. There are six slots for submitted papers. Click here for more information and a Call for Papers.

Phloxshop III: Nothing But the Truth

We have a workshop upcoming on truth and truthmaking, in August 2010. Click here for more information.

Lemmon-style natural deduction proofs in LaTeX

Recently I had to typeset a natural deduction argument in . I looked around for a package that does it, but couldn’t find any (which doesn’t mean that it’s not there somewhere). So, I wrote one myself. It doesn’t do fancy things, but at least it figures out the width the various columns should have by itself and a few other things that are described in the ‘manual‘ (which, admittedly, sounds a bit grand).

So, in case you have always wanted a package that typesets natural deduction proofs, you’re very welcome to try it. The file can be downloaded here (you should use “save link as”, since opening it with Word et al. will change the formatting). Currently, the file has a “.doc” extension, since WordPress did not let me upload it with its proper one. It should be renamed to “ND.sty” (lose the “.doc” extension). Then you can simply copy the file either to your local texmf folder or to the folder of the document in which it is to be used, and load the package with “\usepackage{ND}” in the preamble of your document.

A word of caution. I’m not a expert and I haven’t extensively tested the  package (unfortunately, I don’t need to typeset too many natural deduction proofs), so it probably does some things it shouldn’t. In particular, it may give you unexpected (and unexplained) error messages. But that should be about it. Happy ing.

Mules for nonbelievers

Probably you know the situation: you tell some of your students or friends about some of the things philosophers think about. You want to make it vivid and you mention some of the famous counterexamples to famous theories – but all you earn is a frown or laughter. Just because the examples may, admittedly, seem a little, tiny little bit far-fetched.

But there’s a remedy now; just provide the next ignoramus with the following link:

Cleverly disguised …

So, who’s got the weird fantasy now?