Semantic trees for Dummett's logic LC

The aim of this paper is to provide a decision procedure for Dummett's logic LC, such that with any given formula will be associated either a proof in a sequent calculus equivalent to LC or a finite linear Kripke countermodel.     

Dummett's intuitionism is not strict finitism

Michael Dummett's anti-realism is founded on the semantics of natural language which, he argues, can only be satisfactorily given in mathematics by intuitionism. It has been objected that an analog of Dummett's argument will collapse intuitionism into strict finitism. My purpose in this paper is to refute this objection, which I argue Dummett does not successfully do. I link the coherence of strict finitism to a view of confirmation — that our actual practical abilities cannot confirm we know what would happen if we could compute impracticably vast problems. But to state his case, the strict finitists have to suppose that we grasp the truth conditions of sentences we can't actually decide. This comprehension must be practically demonstrable, or the analogy with Dummett's argument fails. So, our actual abilities must be capable of confirming that we know what would be the case if actually undecidable sentences were true, contradicting the view of confirmation. I end by considering objections.I especially want to thank Alex George and Philip Kitcher for their help on this paper. I'd also like to thank the members of the Propositional Attitudes Task Force, Jane Braaten, Jay Garfield, Lee Bowie, Murray Kitely and Tom Tymoczko. My thanks also to Peter Godfrey-Smith and the anonymous reviewers of Synthese, one of whom was particularly helpful.     

达米特的辩护主义真理观

达米特从反实在论出发,通过探讨真概念与语义理论的关系、真与意义的关系,提出了一种弱化的真概念。通过将真理理解为人们对于陈述句的一种辩护的能力,提出了一种辩护主义的真理观。主张把“语力”因素作为语义理论的支柱,把语句的真值条件与这种语言的使用实践紧密联系起来,体现了语言哲学中的语用学转向,也体现出解释学对分析哲学的影响和渗透。达米特的辩护主义真理观尽管存在理论上的缺陷并引起较大争论,但它以一种全新的视角来理解真理,在学术界产生了重要的影响。     

Disenchantment and transcendence

The Journal of Value Inquiry -     

Psychiatry and transcendence

In the relationship which over the years has developed between psychiatry and religion, a common philosophical view of the human person has not always been in evidence. From a Catholic perspective this paper proposes a view which underscores the attribute oftranscendence in the person and accounts for that reality too often shunned by psychiatry, namely, a person'sspiritual life.     

Quest for transcendence

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Friendship and transcendence

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Sisyphus,happiness and transcendence

What is the relation between transcendence and happiness? What type of transcendence can still be part of the concept happiness in our modern age? To answer these questions, I analyse the myth of Sisyphus from the existentialist perspective of Albert Camus, and investigate whether Sisyphus is (or can be) ‘truly’ happy and what role transcendence plays in this kind of happiness. This prompts a question about the relation between the concepts transcendence, meaning of life, and happiness. Taking Sisyphus as an exemplar, I argue that, although our contemporary culture has a flattening tendency regarding transcendence, various types of transcendence remain inextricably related to happiness.     

Ego transcendence in postmodern perspective

Based on the author's previous specification of the conventional ego mind as the primary barrier to “realization of the ground of consciousness,” postmodern perspectives on the ego mind barrier are compared with premodern and modern approaches. Postmodernists view the ego as a socio‐linguistic construct. Modern assumptions of consistent subjectivity and a unitary self or identity are rejected, and reduction of the ego mind barrier to transcendence is seen to follow from exploration of alternative self‐concepts. This perspective is manifest in theories of “possible selves” and in the contrast between formulations such as the “saturated self vs. the “empty self.” Though forms of ego transcendence likely in postmodern cultures will differ from those in premodern cultures, many of the same functions will be served, as may be observed in such phenomena as “ecomysticism.”     

论道教超越尘世的契道之乐

道教历来将“至乐”作为修道的审美愉悦来追求,虽其美学思想上祖述道家,但其哲学思想上却本先秦神仙家和巫鬼文化。道教对“至乐”的界定、对“苦乐”转化的阐发、对“乐怒”关系的分析以及追求“至乐”的方法和途径,又与道教修炼直接相关。因此,从其宗教思想中抽取其传统美学思想精神,从其审美论述中掌握宗教神学思想内核,正是笔者研究的出发点。