AI isn’t the problem—ignorant commentary is. If you don’t understand semiotics, Wittgenstein’s language games, or Derrida’s différance, you’ve failed the test. Licence revoked.
AI isn’t the problem—ignorant commentary is. If you don’t understand semiotics, Wittgenstein’s language games, or Derrida’s différance, you’ve failed the test. Licence revoked.
Check out my new paper!
Bad Practices: Unintended Consequences of Practice-Based Theories of Reference
I argue against a recent view about the reference of proper names (held by two people who have supervised me) and discuss the wider implications of this for metasemantics.
I'm running a conference!
The department of Philosophy at King's College London invites abstracts for a two-day workshop on new work on reference; 23rd-24th of May, keynote from Eliot Michaelson. We accept submissions on all aspects of reference, broadly construed.
Deadline April 20th.
More information submission: https://forms.gle/zos68X8rki43puyT9
(Co-organised w/ Sam Kang, Juuso Rantanen, Uni of Lund.)
We invite applications for two fully funded #PhD positions in a project on "multimodal argumentation" (https://sites.google.com/rug.nl/multimodal/home) - especially interesting for applicants with an interest in #DiscourseAnalysis, #linguistics, and/or the #philosophy of #argumentation and #language.
For more info, see https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?details=00347-02S000B82P and https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?details=00347-02S000B83P
Who else is going to PhiLang2025? #philosophy #philosophyoflanguage
(context: I am going -- excited!)
I'm half-joking, but I have always been convinced that there is something unintentionally puzzling (from the standpoint of philosophy of language) about the following line from Bob Marley's "Smoke Two Joints" -
"I smoke two joints before I smoke two joints, and then I smoke two more"
Did Marley smoke four total joints, referencing the latter two twice? Or did he smoke six total joints? It turns on what point of time the "then" refers back to.
Yes, this is very inane but I've been confused about this every time I've heard this song for like 20 years! I need a linguist or philosopher of language to sort this out for me.
Philosophy of language/linguistics question. Is there a name for a speech act which applies simultaneously for both metaphorical and literal aspect in a situation? E.g., “put a lid on it” said to someone who is distracted by a conversation while cooking. I’m 100% certain Mastodon will have someone who knows the answer! #linguistics #PhilosophyOfLanguage #speech #pragmatics #semiotics #LanguagePhilosophy #CognitiveScience #Sociolinguistics
Linguists and philosophers - where is *the* place or places to look for a nice explanation of Kratzerian semantics and in particular talk of ordering sources for worlds?
(Something fitting for an audience of beginning grad students in philosophy!)
Moon of Enlightenment, from the series Twelve Aspects of the Moon
About 1885-92
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
Japanese, 1839–1892
Art Institute of Chicago
>>"Big Belly" or "Cloth Bag" Budai, known as Hōtei in Japan, was a tenth-century monk who wandered around Siming (modern Ningbo) in China with his walking staff, begging for alms to place in his sack. Eccentric and given to puzzling pronouncements, he was thought to be an earthly incarnation of Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future. Hōtei was a favorite subject in Zen ink painting. Easily recognizable, he personified the pure nature and intuitive experience necessary for enlightenment. Hōtei points at the cloud to teach us that truth cannot be rationally taught. << (NY Metropolitan Museum of Art)
As well as being struck by the composition, are you reminded of some fool that you know?
If you really want to dig deep into the philosophy here:
http://nhuir.nhu.edu.tw/retrieve/55344/the+finger+pointing.pdf
#Art #JapaneseArt #TsukiokaYoshitosh #Hotei
#Zen #Chan #BuddhistPhilosophy #PhilosophyOfLanguage
The kanji for 4 takes five strokes to write 四
The kanji for 5 takes four strokes 五
Eat your hearts out, structuralists :)
My review of Beyond Concepts here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5247860291
Philosophy of Language; War; Conversational Implicature
In other words, translation is easier among concepts which more readily hook onto the actual world, not just the exclusively human cultural world. Entertaining a diversity of thought in this way is thus tremendously helpful in separating worldly wheat from cultural chaff.
#HankGreen (#SciShow) - Why Some #People Don't Have an Inner #Monologue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRLkDafQbP8&ab_channel=SciShow
Harry G. #Frankfurt just died.
A man who introduced into #philosophy and #rhetoric the essential distinction between mere #lie and full blown #bullshit. He will be taught and fondly remembered.
Eric Mandelbaum won the #SPP2023 Stanton Prize.
Eric thought Noam Chomsky might attend. So Eric's prize talk was about #propaganda: if it’s getting worse and the (bounded) rationality of our response to it.
It was very Eric—i.e., very Fodorian and very funny.
Chaz Firestone’s introduction of Eric was immaculate (https://www.ericmandelbaum.com/talks).
Eric’s work (including recent ventures into empirical research) is on gScholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8jXQhvMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao