Semantic Singularities: Paradoxes of Reference, Predication, and Truth

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Keith Simmons, Author

Oxford University Press, 2018

This book aims to provide a solution to the semantic paradoxes. It argues for a unified solution to the paradoxes generated by our concepts of denotation, predicate extension, and truth. The solution makes two main claims. The first is that our semantic expressions 'denotes', 'extension' and 'true' are context-sensitive. The second, inspired by a brief, tantalizing remark of Godel's, is that these expressions are significant everywhere except for certain singularities, in analogy with division by zero. A formal theory of singularities is presented and applied to a wide variety of versions of the definability paradoxes, Russell's paradox, and the Liar paradox. Keith Simmons argues that the singularity theory satisfies the following desiderata: it recognizes that the proper setting of the semantic paradoxes is natural language, not regimented formal languages; it minimizes any revision to our semantic concepts; it respects as far as possible Tarski's intuition that natural languages are universal; it responds adequately to the threat of revenge paradoxes; and it preserves classical logic and semantics. Simmons draws out the consequences of the singularity theory for deflationary views of our semantic concepts, and concludes that if we accept the singularity theory, we must reject deflationism.

The Return of Work in Critical Theory

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Nicholas H. Smith, Author

Colombia University Press, 2018

From John Maynard Keynes’s prediction of a fifteen-hour workweek to present-day speculation about automation, we have not stopped forecasting the end of work. Critical theory and political philosophy have turned their attention away from the workplace to focus on other realms of domination and emancipation. But far from coming to an end, work continues to occupy a central place in our lives. This is not only because of the amount of time people spend on the job. Many of our deepest hopes and fears are bound up in our labor—what jobs we perform, how we relate to others, how we might flourish.

The Return of Work in Critical Theory presents a bold new account of the human significance of work and the human costs of contemporary forms of work organization. A collaboration among experts in philosophy, social theory, and clinical psychology, it brings together empirical research with incisive analysis of the political stakes of contemporary work. The Return of Work in Critical Theory begins by looking in detail at the ways in which work today fails to meet our expectations. It then sketches a phenomenological description of work and examines the normative premises that underlie the experience of work. Finally, it puts forward a novel conception of work that can renew critical theory’s engagement with work and point toward possibilities for transformation. Inspired by Max Horkheimer’s vision of critical theory as empirically informed reflection on the sources of social suffering with emancipatory intent, The Return of Work in Critical Theory is a lucid diagnosis of the malaise and pathologies of contemporary work that proposes powerful remedies.

Recent appointments for UConn Philosophy Graduate Students

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  • Emma Bjorngard-Basayne has accepted a position as Academic Advisor & Program Coordinator in the UConn School of Business in Stamford starting summer, 2018.

 

  • Ralph DiFranco has accepted a position as Instructor in Philosophy at Auburn University starting fall, 2018.

 

  • Hanna Gunn has accepted a position as Mellon Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University starting fall, 2018.

 

  • Alycia LaGuardia-LoBianco has accepted a position as Resident Fellow in the Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the United States Naval Academy starting fall, 2018.

 

  • Thomas Meagher has accepted a position as Postdoctoral W.E.B. Du Bois fellow at UMass-Amherst, summer 2018; thereafter he will take a position as Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Political Science, Quinnipiac University, starting fall, 2018.

 

  • Andrew Tedder has accepted a two year post-doctoral position at the Institute for Computer Science at the Czech Academy of Sciences as part of the research project Non-Classical Logical Models of Information Dynamics (NOCLID) starting fall, 2018.

Know Thyself: The Value and Limits of Self-Knowledge

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Mitchell S. Green, Author

Routledge, 2017

Know Thyself: The Value and Limits of Self-Knowledge takes the reader on tour of the nature, value, and limits of self-knowledge. Mitchell S. Green calls on classical sources like Plato and Descartes, 20th-century thinkers like Freud, recent developments in neuroscience and experimental psychology, and even Buddhist philosophy to explore topics at the heart of who we are. The result is an unvarnished look at both the achievements and drawbacks of the many attempts to better know one’s own self.

Key topics in this volume include:

    • Knowledge – what it means to know, the link between wisdom and knowledge, and the value of living an "examined life"
    • Personal identity – questions of dualism (the idea that our mind is not only our brain), bodily continuity, and personhood
    • The unconscious — including the kind posited by psychoanalysis as well as the form proposed by recent research on the so-called adaptive unconscious
    • Free will – if we have it, and the recent arguments from neuroscience challenging it
    • Self-misleading – the ways we willfully deceive ourselves, and how this relates to empathy, peer disagreement, implicit bias, and intellectual humility
    • Experimental psychology – considerations on the automaticity of emotion and other cognitive processes, and how they shape us

This book is designed to be used in conjunction with the free ‘Know Thyself’ MOOC (massive open online course) created through collaboration of the University of Connecticut's Project on Humility and Conviction in Public Life, and the University of Edinburgh’s Eidyn research centre, and hosted on the Coursera platform (https://www.coursera.org/learn/know-thyself). The book is also suitable as a text for interdisciplinary courses in the philosophy of mind or self-knowledge, and is highly recommended for anyone looking for a short overview of this fascinating topic.

The Journal of Philosophical Research has a new home!

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The Journal of Philosophical Research is under new editorial leadership with Heather Battaly as Editor-in-Chief, and Raja Halwani, Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa, Peter Ross, Lynne Tirrell, and Liezl van Zyl as Associate Editors. JPR has a new home at the University of Connecticut.

JPR has three main aims.

  • We are committed to publishing first-rate articles on a wide range of topics. We encourage original submissions in all areas of Philosophy.
  • We are committed to providing authors with substantive and useful comments.
  • We are committed to the mission of non-profit publishing. Our publisher is the Philosophy Documentation Center.

For further information about JPR, or to submit a paper, please see the links below.

https://www.pdcnet.org/jpr/Submission-Guidelines

https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/jphilr

Welcome Lynne Tirrell

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We are delighted to announce that Professor Lynne Tirrell will be joining our department in the fall of 2017 and will also be affiliated with the UConn Human Rights Institute. Lynne is a leading researcher in the area of socially applied yet technically adept philosophy of language. Indeed, she may be said to have founded this burgeoning sub-field. Her pathbreaking paper, “Genocidal Language Games” is taught all over the U.S. in philosophy graduate programs, undergraduate programs, and even in prisons. In an unprecedented way she has combined detailed, theoretical work on language with the human reality of monstrous events. She has related work on transitional justice and apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation, as well as work on metaphor, storytelling, pornography, and feminist theory. Tirrell has done extensive service as the chair of the American Philosophical Association Committee on Public Philosophy. She is also an Associate Editor for the newly revitalized Journal of Philosophical Research.