The dominant view about the semantics of proper names is probably Millianism. According to Millianism, the meaning (i.e., semantic value) of proper names is just their referent. Most Millians cash out their view in terms of singular Russellian propositions. (A Russellian proposition is an ordered tuple containing the objects and properties …
The NY Times has an insightful article describing Italians’ current unhappiness with themselves and their country. They see Italy declining, but they don’t see any way to stop the decline.In the 1990s Italians had an opportunity to go in a different direction. There were a number of ballot measures (“referendums”) that would have …
On November 29 and 30, I attended the workshop on Modeling, Simulation and Computational Science organized by Anna-Mari Rusanen and Tarja Knuuttila in Helsinki, Finland. I found it excellent. There were philosophers, physicists, and cognitive scientists talking to one another about computational models and computational explanations. I felt people were genuinely …
Here.
Citizendium is a project for a more sophisticated version of Wikipedia. It seems to be a worthwhile cause, but it requires the volunteer effort of specialists. Below is an email circulated by Larry Sanger, who is behind the Citizendium effort. I’d be interested in hearing your opinions about the feasibility of such a project.—
Here.
Pretty cool stuff.
