Papers by Bradley Armour-Garb
In this book, Bradley Armour-Garb and James A. Woodbridge distinguish various species of fictiona... more In this book, Bradley Armour-Garb and James A. Woodbridge distinguish various species of fictionalism, locating and defending their own version of philosophical fictionalism. Addressing semantic and philosophical puzzles that arise from ordinary language, they consider such issues as the problem of non-being, plural identity claims, mental-attitude ascriptions, meaning attributions, and truth-talk. They consider 'deflationism about truth', explaining why deflationists should be fictionalists, and show how their philosophical fictionalist account of truth-talk underwrites a dissolution of the Liar Paradox and its kin. They further explore the semantic notions of reference and predicate-satisfaction, showing how philosophical fictionalism can also resolve puzzles that these notions appear to present. Their critical examination of fictionalist approaches in philosophy, together with the development and application of their own brand of philosophical fictionalism, will be of gre...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Philosophia Mathematica
Using ideas proposed in Aboutness and developed in ‘If-thenism’, Stephen Yablo has tried to impro... more Using ideas proposed in Aboutness and developed in ‘If-thenism’, Stephen Yablo has tried to improve on classical if-thenism in mathematics, a view initially put forward by Bertrand Russell in his Principles of Mathematics. Yablo’s stated goal is to provide a reading of a sentence like ‘The number of planets is eight’ with a sort of content on which it fails to imply ‘Numbers exist’. After presenting Yablo’s framework, our paper raises a problem with his view that has gone virtually unnoticed in the literature. If we are right, then Yablo’s version of if-thenism cannot succeed.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Synthese
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Philosophical Quarterly
Alethic pluralists often claim that accommodating certain alethic platitudes motivates rejecting ... more Alethic pluralists often claim that accommodating certain alethic platitudes motivates rejecting deflationism in favour of a pluralist inflationism about truth. Deflationists claim that the logical role of the truth predicate, viz providing something equivalent to variables for sentence-in-use positions and quantifiers governing them, is sufficient to account for the appeal to truth in the alethic platitudes. Surprisingly, however, most deflationists face an insufficiently acknowledged problem with respect to explaining how this mode of generalizing works. The standard substitutional or higher-order interpretations of sentential quantifiers and variables do not meet two desiderata that we claim any adequate account of them must satisfy. To address this issue, we review and extend A. N. Prior's adverbial understanding of sentential quantification, explain how it satisfies the desiderata, and respond to some objections. This shows that deflationists can accommodate and account for...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
Mystical experiences frequently precede decreases in human suffering or increased functioning. Th... more Mystical experiences frequently precede decreases in human suffering or increased functioning. Therapies that include the ingestion of psychoactive substances in supportive environments often lead to improvements that correlate with the magnitude of the mystical experiences generated. A close look at these phenomena from a philosophy of science perspective might put empiricists in a quandary. Arguments with critics of the import of these mystical experiences, prohibitionists, or others who are apprehensive about psychedelic-assisted treatments, might prove awkward or difficult given the tacit assertion that the mystical genuinely exists. The assumption might even dampen theorizing in ways that remain outside of theorists' awareness. The predicament might lack the epistemic humility ideal for good science as well. Nevertheless, abandoning the construct of mystical experiences would require ignoring compelling, replicated empirical work. We argue that a version of philosophical fi...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Inquiry, 2021
In ‘Alethic undecidability and alethic indeterminacy’, Jay Newhard (2020) proposes what he calls ... more In ‘Alethic undecidability and alethic indeterminacy’, Jay Newhard (2020) proposes what he calls an ‘alethic indeterminacy’ approach to the semantic paradoxes. In this paper, I explore his proposed...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Fictionalism in Philosophy, 2020
This volume aims to provide an indication of how the discussion of fictionalism has advanced over... more This volume aims to provide an indication of how the discussion of fictionalism has advanced over the past ten to fifteen years, in particular since the publication in 2005 of Mark Kalderon’s Fictionalism in Metaphysics. But the rise of fictionalism as a trend in metaontology raises a fundamental concern: Is fictionalism more than just a loose collection of ideas? How precisely should philosophers understand fictionalism? This introduction prepares readers for diving into the remainder of the volume by first confronting the question of how best to understand the idea of fictionalism and then providing brief summaries of the chapters.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Religious Studies, 1999
In his famous Wager, Blaise Pascal attempted to adduce prudential grounds on which to base a beli... more In his famous Wager, Blaise Pascal attempted to adduce prudential grounds on which to base a belief in God. His argument founders, however, on the notorious ‘Many Gods Problem’ the problem of selecting among the many equi-probable gods on offer. Lycan and Schlesinger try to treat the Many Gods Problem as a problem of empirical over-determination, attempting to overcome it using methodologies familiar from empirical science. I argue that their strategy fails, but that the Many Gods Problem can be solved (or dissolved) nevertheless. The solution I offer both avoids the problem faced by Lycan and Schlesinger, and does so while respecting the original Pascalian intuitions to a greater extent than any solutions thus far proffered.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Philosophy Compass, 2012
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Philosophia Mathematica, 2011
Abstract In a recent paper in this journal, Mark Balaguer develops and defends a new version of m... more Abstract In a recent paper in this journal, Mark Balaguer develops and defends a new version of mathematical fictionalism, what he calls 'Hermeneutic non-assertivism', and responds to some recent objections to mathematical fictionalism that were launched by John Burgess and others.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
History and Philosophy of Logic, 2008
Introduction 1. Transparent disquotationalism 2. Is the Liar sentence both true and false? 3. Spi... more Introduction 1. Transparent disquotationalism 2. Is the Liar sentence both true and false? 3. Spiking the field artillery 4. Variations on a theme by Yablo 5. A minimalist critique of Tarski on truth 6. Minimalism, epistemicism, and paradox 7. Minimalists about truth can (and should) be epistemicists, and it helps if they are revision theorists too 8. Minimalism, deflationism, and paradoxes 9. Do the paradoxes pose a special problem for deflationism? 10. Semantics for deflationists 11. How significant is the Liar? 12. The deflationists' axioms for truth 13. Naive truth and sophisticated logic 14. Anaphorically unrestricted quantifiers and paradoxes
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Analysis, 2001
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Analysis, 2011
Abstract In 'Withdrawal and contextualism', Jonathan Adler (2006) provi... more Abstract In 'Withdrawal and contextualism', Jonathan Adler (2006) provides an argument which, if successful, undermines what contextualists take to be prime support for their view. Given the popularity of contextualist (and related) positions in epistemology, together with the fact that, thus far, no one has challenged Adler's argument, a critical assessment therefore presses. In this article, after briefly reviewing Adler's argument, I show that it fails. My reason for taking his argument to fail will then provide novel support for contextualism, ...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Analysis, 2011
Abstract In 'A Consistent Way with Paradox', Laurence Goldstein (2009) clarifies his so... more Abstract In 'A Consistent Way with Paradox', Laurence Goldstein (2009) clarifies his solution to the liar, which he touts as revenge immune. In addition, he (Ibid.) responds to one of the objections that Armour-Garb and Woodbridge (2006) raise against certain solutions to the open pair and argues that his proffered solution to the liar family of paradoxes undermines what they (Ibid.) call the dialetheic conjecture. In this paper, after critically evaluating Goldstein's response to AG &W, I turn to his proposed solution to the liar paradox, where I ...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Synthese, 2004
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Law of Non-Contradiction, 2004
The aim of this book is to present a comprehensive debate about the Law of Non-Contradiction (LNC... more The aim of this book is to present a comprehensive debate about the Law of Non-Contradiction (LNC), from discussions as to how the law is to be understood, to reasons for accepting or re-thinking the law, and to issues that raise challenges to the law, such as the Liar Paradox, and a ‘dialetheic’ resolution of that paradox. The essays in this collection address the ‘Law of Non-Contradiction’ (LNC), and the challenges posed to it by contemporary dialetheism (the view that some contradictions are true). After an introduction that puts the individual essays in the collection into perspective, and an essay setting up the debate, the discussion is structured around four topics: (i) what exactly is the LNC? (ii) methodological issues surrounding challenges to the LNC and similar apparently fundamental logical laws; (iii) arguments against the LNC; and (iv) arguments for the LNC.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Noûs, 2010
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Papers by Bradley Armour-Garb