The Semantics of Rigid Designation

Frege's thesis that each singular term has a sense that determines its reference and serves as its cognitive value has come to be widely doubted. Saul Kripke argued that since names are rigid designators, their referents are not determined by senses. David Kaplan has argued that the rigid designation of indexical terms entails that they also lack referent–determining senses. Kripke's argument about names and Kaplan's argument about indexical terms differ, but each contains a false premise. The referents of both names and indexical terms are determined by reflexive senses. It is reflexive sense that makes these terms rigid designators.     

Rigid Designation and Anaphoric Theories of Reference

Few philosophers today doubt the importance of some notion of rigid designation, as suggested by Kripke and Putnam for names and natural kind terms. At the very least, most of us want our theories to be compatible with the most plausible elements of that account. Anaphoric theories of reference have gained some attention lately, but little attention has been given to how they square with rigid designation. Although the differences between anaphoric theories and many interpretations of the New Theory of reference are substantial, I argue that rigid designation and anaphoric theories can be reconciled with one another and in fact complement one another in important ways.     

从严格指示词看同一的必然性

一同一陈述是必然的 作为一种特殊的模态种类的命题,同一陈述指的是,任何命题,其中的事物a和事物b同一,这里a和b可以是任何事物.某些同一陈述是事实上真的,某些是事实上假的,某些则是明显地必然真的.     

Informative Aboutness

Pretheoretically, (B) ‘all believers are immortal’ is about all believers, but (1) B is not about any unbeliever. Similarly, (M) ‘all mortals are unbelievers’ is not about any immortal, but (2) M is about all mortals. But B and M are logically equivalent universal generalizations, so arguably they are about exactly the same objects; by (2), they are about those mortals who are unbelievers, contradicting (1). If one responds by giving up (1), is there still a sense in which B treats unbelievers differently from believers? I argue that there is. B is uninformative about unbelievers but informative about believers, in the following sense: for any object o, the information that B provides only about o—namely, ‘o is a believer only if o is immortal’—is entailed (and thus rendered redundant) by ‘o is an unbeliever’ but not by ‘o is a believer’.     

Actuality and World-Indexed Sentences

Some logical properties of modal languages in which actuality is expressible are investigated. It is argued that, if a sentence like 'Actually, Quine is a distinguished philosopher' is understood as a special case of world-indexed sentences (the index being the actual world), then actuality can be expressed only under strong modal assumptions. Some rival rigid and indexical approaches to actuality are discussed. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

印尼留学生汉语主动句被动句命题表征项目顺序

采用句子-图形验证任务初步探讨了不同汉语水平的印尼留学生理解汉语主动句、被动句所形成的命题表征中的项目顺序特点。结果表明,初级汉语水平印尼留学生理解汉语主动句、被动句后所建构的命题表征中项目顺序均为“受事→施事”;中级汉语水平印尼留学生理解汉语主动句所形成的命题表征项目顺序为“施事→受事”,而其理解汉语被动句所形成的命题表征项目顺序为“受事→施事”。母语主动句、被动句的理解特点影响印尼留学生汉语主动句、被动句命题表征项目顺序;这种影响作用与其汉语水平有一定的关系。     

住院用药医嘱点评软件功能的设计

为了提升临床药师点评住院用药医嘱的工作效率,保障住院用药医嘱点评工作的准确性和及时性,从而对住院用药医嘱起到监督和规范的作用.通过研究国内外合理用药软件和处方点评软件的功能,结合国内医疗机构处方点评的工作模式和需求,设计出满足临床合理用药需求的住院医嘱点评软件.经过设计的住院医嘱点评软件的功能主要包括：信息自主维护模块、信息查询模块、住院用药医嘱点评模块、点评结果统计模块、药品使用情况统计模块.经过设计的住院医嘱点评软件的功能更加完善,为临床合理用药提供依据.     

Conditional Reinforcers and Informative Stimuli in A Constant Environment

Five pigeons responded on steady-state concurrent variable-interval variable-interval schedules of food presentation in which half of the foods were removed and replaced with nonfood stimuli. Across conditions, the stimuli were either paired or unpaired with food, and the correlation between the ratio of food deliveries on the two alternatives and the ratio of nonfood stimuli was either −1, 0, or +1. Neither the pairing of stimuli with food, nor the correlation between stimuli and food, affected generalized-matching performance, but paired stimuli had a demonstrable effect at a local level of analysis. This effect was independent of the food–stimulus correlation. These results differ from results previously obtained in a frequently changing environment. We attribute this difference in results to differences in the information value of response-contingent stimuli in frequently changing versus relatively constant environments, as well as to differences between forward pairing and simultaneous pairing of the stimuli with food.     

Practical Moore Sentences*

I discuss what I call practical Moore sentences: sentences like ‘You must close your door, but I don't know whether you will’, which combine an order together with an avowal of agnosticism about whether the order will be obeyed. I show that practical Moore sentences are generally infelicitous. But this infelicity is surprising: it seems like there should be nothing wrong with giving someone an order while acknowledging that you do not know whether it will obeyed. I suggest that this infelicity points to a striking psychological fact, with potentially broad ramifications concerning the structure of norms of speech acts: namely, when giving an order, we must act as if we believe we will be obeyed.     

住院用药医嘱点评软件功能的设计

为了提升临床药师点评住院用药医嘱的工作效率,保障住院用药医嘱点评工作的准确性和及时性,从而对住院用药医嘱起到监督和规范的作用.通过研究国内外合理用药软件和处方点评软件的功能,结合国内医疗机构处方点评的工作模式和需求,设计出满足临床合理用药需求的住院医嘱点评软件.经过设计的住院医嘱点评软件的功能主要包括:信息自主维护模块、信息查询模块、住院用药医嘱点评模块、点评结果统计模块、药品使用情况统计模块.经过设计的住院医嘱点评软件的功能更加完善,为临床合理用药提供依据.     

The Informative Analysis of Individual Trend Curves

Additive and non-additive models for an individual trend curve are examined, and five methods for fitting these to a set of individuals are described. It is suggested that classical fitting methods are more informative than latent curve methods, and commonly preferable. A limited study of the effect of time-structure is reported, and results on the relationship between a non-additive model and the approximating additive model are given.     

Personal Identity and National Identity: An Analogy

Simone Weil writes in one of her notebooks: “When one arrives at the absolute one can only express oneself by identities … – For identity alone expresses the unconditioned” (Cahiers, in Œuvres complètes, t. VI, vol. 4 (Paris: Gallimard, 2006), 113). Thus, it is that “the good is the good”, one and the same, unconditionally. Certainly, an individual is unique, a nation is equally so. Nevertheless, personal identity – or “character” – and the identity of a nation are not absolutes. When we wish to treat them as absolutes, we ignore the fact that the “person,” as well as the “nation”, only exists within relationships that they are subject to exterior circumstances and that their identity is situated in time. Is one correct to suppose that the character of an individual or the identity of the nation are “invariables that one continues to find throughout various manifestations”, (“Notes sur le caractère”, Écrits de Marseille, in Œuvres complètes, Op. cit., t. IV, vol. 1 (2008), 87) observed or probable? We hypothesize here that one can apply to national identity what Simone Weil wrote about the notion of character, in notes composed in Marseille and in her commentary on the Our Father (“À propos du Pater”, ibid., 337-345).     

Fatal Heyting Algebras and Forcing Persistent Sentences

Hamkins and L?we proved that the modal logic of forcing is S4.2. In this paper, we consider its modal companion, the intermediate logic KC and relate it to the fatal Heyting algebra H _ZFC of forcing persistent sentences. This Heyting algebra is equationally generic for the class of fatal Heyting algebras. Motivated by these results, we further analyse the class of fatal Heyting algebras.