Abstract. 鈥� Practices of concept-revision among scientists suggest that concepts can be improved. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union revised the concept PLANET so that it excluded Pluto, and insisting that the result was an improvement. But what could it mean for one concept or conceptual scheme to be better than another? Here we draw…
Abstract: Mereological atomism is the thesis that everything is ultimately composed of atomic parts. Typically, this thesis is characterized by an axiom stating, more simply, that everything has atomic parts. The present paper argues that the success of the standard characterization crucially depends both on how the notion of composition is related to the notion…
Abstract. 鈥斅營n this paper I argue that聽concepts fall into distinct kinds according to such things as their direction of determination, their modal range, and the nature of their referents. Such properties determine a given concept’s eligibility for genuine revision.聽As a result, different kinds of concepts require different treatment in the context of conceptual engineering. Understanding…
Title: Quotative 鈥楤e Like鈥� (joint work with Andreas Stokke (Uppsala)) Abstract:聽 There are a variety of familiar ways of talking about our mental states and speech acts, such as direct discourse (as in, ‘Ellen said, 鈥淚’m leaving now!鈥濃��), indirect discourse (as in, 鈥楨llen thought that she would leave鈥�). DD and ID continue to raise difficult…
Title: On Numbers as Kinds Abstract: I discuss the neo-aristotelian ontology presented in Lowe (2006), drawing particular attention at Lowe鈥檚 notions of objects and pluralities, and his conception of natural numbers as universals. I argue that Lowe鈥檚 treatment of numbers and pluralities is useful to those who believe that non-individual entities exist and can be…
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