Cover of Thought: A Journal of Philosophy
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1. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy: Volume > 1 > Issue: 2
John Divers, Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins, Crispin Wright Editorial
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original articles
2. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy: Volume > 1 > Issue: 2
Alexander R. Pruss Infinite Lotteries, Perfectly Thin Darts and Infinitesimals
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One of the problems that Bayesian regularity, the thesis that all contingent propositions should be given probabilities strictly between zero and one, faces is the possibility of random processes that randomly and uniformly choose a number between zero and one. According to classical probability theory, the probability that such a process picks a particular number in the range is zero, but of course any number in the range can indeed be picked. There is a solution to this particular problem on the books: a measure that assigns the same infinitesimal probability to each number between zero and one. I will show that such a measure, while mathematically interesting, is pathological for use in confirmation theory, for the same reason that a measure that assigns an infinitesimal probability to each possible outcome in a countably infinite lottery is pathological. The pathology is that one can force someone to assign a probability within an infinitesimal of one to an unlikely event.
3. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy: Volume > 1 > Issue: 2
Alexis Burgess A Puzzle about Identity
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4. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy: Volume > 1 > Issue: 2
Palle Yourgrau Kripke’s Frege
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In a recent essay, "Frege’s Theory of Sense of Reference: Some Exegetical Notes", Saul Kripke shows that in addition to being an astute critic of Frege, he is also an insightful interpreter. Kripke’s Frege emerges as a closet Russellian, who, like Russell, relies heavily on a doctrine of acquaintance. Is Kripke right? Where exactly does his approach resemble, and where depart from earlier interpretations, and what should one take away about whether or not Frege really was a Russellian and the effect this has on his theory?
5. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy: Volume > 1 > Issue: 2
Giuseppe Spolaore Not Just a Coincidence. Conditional Counter-examples to Locke’s Thesis
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So-called Locke’s thesis is the view that no two things of the same kind may coincide, that is, may be completely in the same place at the same time. A number of counter-examples to this view have been proposed. In this paper, some new and arguably more convincing counter-examples to Locke’s thesis are presented. In these counter-examples, a particular entity (a string, a rope, a net, or similar) is interwoven to obtain what appears to be a distinct, thicker entity of the same kind. It is argued that anyone who subscribes to certain standard metaphysical arguments, which are generally taken for granted in the debate about Locke’s thesis, is virtually compelled to accept the counter-examples.
6. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy: Volume > 1 > Issue: 2
Brian Rabern Propositions and Multiple Indexing
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It is argued that propositions cannot be the compositional semantic values of sentences (in context) simply due to issues stemming from the compositional semantics of modal operators (or modal quantifiers). In particular, the fact that the arguments for double indexing generalize to multiple indexing exposes a fundamental tension in the default philosophical conception of semantic theory. This provides further motivation formaking a distinction between two sentential semantic contents—what (Dummett 1973) called ‘‘ingredient sense’’ and ‘‘assertoric content’’.
7. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy: Volume > 1 > Issue: 2
Agustín Vicente Burge on Representation and Biological Function
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In Origins of Objectivity, Burge presents three arguments against what he calls ‘deflationism’: the project of explaining the representational function in terms of the notion of biological function. I evaluate these arguments and argue that they are not convincing.
8. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy: Volume > 1 > Issue: 2
Harold Noonan, Mark Jago The Accidental Properties of Numbers and Properties
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According to genuine modal realism, some things (including numbers and properties) lack distinct counterparts in different worlds. So how can they possess any of their properties contingently? Egan (2004) argues that to explain such accidental property possession, the genuine modal realist must depart from Lewis and identify properties with functions, rather than with sets of possibilia. We disagree. The genuine modal realist already has the resources to handle Egan’s proposed counterexamples. As we show, she does not need to amend her analysis of possibility statements, or her theory of what properties are.
9. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy: Volume > 1 > Issue: 2
Andreas Kapsner Strong Connexivity
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Connexive logics aim to capture important logical intuitions, intuitions that can be traced back to antiquity. However, the requirements that are imposed on connexive logic are actually not enough to do justice to these intuitions, as I will argue. I will suggest how these demands should be strengthened.
10. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy: Volume > 1 > Issue: 2
Michael G. Titelbaum An Embarrassment for Double-Halfers
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‘‘Double-halfers’’ think that throughout the Sleeping Beauty Problem, Beauty should keep her credence that a fair coin flip came up heads equal to 1/2. I introduce a new wrinkle to the problem that shows even double-halfers can’t keep Beauty’s credences equal to the objective chances for all coin-flip propositions. This leaves no way to deny that self-locating information generates an unexpected kind of inadmissible evidence.
11. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy: Volume > 1 > Issue: 2
Ray Buchanan Meaning, Expression, and Evidence
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Grice’s (1957) analysis of non-natural meaning generated a huge industry, where new analyses were put forward to respond to successively more complex counterexamples. Davis (2003) offers a novel and refreshingly simple analysis of meaning in terms of the expression of belief, where (roughly) an agent expresses the belief that p just in case she performs a publicly observable action with the intention that it be an indication that she occurrently believes that p. I argue that Davis’s analysis fails to capture the essentially overt nature of our meaning-intentions, and with it, a plausible sufficient condition for meaning.