Search Results

Essentialism, Semantic Theory, and Natural Kinds

Penelope Mackie

in How Things Might Have Been: Individuals, Kinds, and Essential Properties

Following Nathan Salmon and D. H. Mellor, this chapter argues that natural kind essentialism of the type advocated by Kripke and Putnam is not an inevitable consequence of the adoption of an ... More

Following Nathan Salmon and D. H. Mellor, this chapter argues that natural kind essentialism of the type advocated by Kripke and Putnam is not an inevitable consequence of the adoption of an anti-descriptivist semantic theory of natural kind terms. It attempts to clarify various issues about the characteristics of natural kind essentialism and its relation to semantic theory, as well as reinforcing the distinction made earlier in the book between essentialism about individuals and essentialism about natural kinds. The author remains agnostic on the question of the truth of essentialism about natural kinds, but suggests reasons for scepticism about its plausibility in comparison with some weaker views, such as the theory that a natural kind has a Lockean ‘real essence’ which need not belong to the kind in all possible worlds.Less

Origin Properties and Individual Essences

Penelope Mackie

in How Things Might Have Been: Individuals, Kinds, and Essential Properties

Graeme Forbes has argued that many ordinary persisting things (including people, animals, and plants) can be attributed non-trivial individual essences that include distinctive features of their ... More

Graeme Forbes has argued that many ordinary persisting things (including people, animals, and plants) can be attributed non-trivial individual essences that include distinctive features of their origins. According to Forbes, this enables us to interpret de re modal claims about such individuals in terms of identity across possible worlds without embracing ‘bare identities’. This chapter considers various problems that Forbes’s proposal confronts, and concludes that there are no plausible candidates for non-trivial individual essences of the type that his theory requires. A version of Chisholm’s Paradox about identity across possible worlds, and of the ‘Four Worlds Paradox’ identified by Nathan Salmon are discussed.Less

Analogy and Symmetry

Paul F. A. Bartha

in By Parallel Reasoning: The Construction and Evaluation of Analogical Arguments

This chapter has two purposes. First, it explores the connection between analogical reasoning and symmetry to provide a second justification for the argument form, independent of the one offered in ... More

This chapter has two purposes. First, it explores the connection between analogical reasoning and symmetry to provide a second justification for the argument form, independent of the one offered in chapter 7. The chapter proposes that good analogical arguments are sanctioned by norms of symmetry and Reflection, as expounded by van Fraassen. This idea is elaborated first in a nonprobabilistic setting and then in a probabilistic framework. It is argued that a psychological construal of the relationship between symmetry and probability, as championed by de Finetti and others, is inadequate. The second objective of the chapter is to integrate analogical arguments into a Bayesian model of theoretical confirmation by refining Salmon's idea that analogical arguments contribute to establishing non‐negligible prior probability for hypotheses.Less

Union Finance and Diplomacy, 1861–1865

Jay Sexton

in Debtor Diplomacy: Finance and American Foreign Relations in the Civil War Era 1837-1873

This chapter presents the twofold international objectives of the Union: to obtain financial and material support abroad while blocking European powers from recognizing and assisting the Confederacy. ... More

This chapter presents the twofold international objectives of the Union: to obtain financial and material support abroad while blocking European powers from recognizing and assisting the Confederacy. It discusses that Salmon P. Chase inherited in early 1861 a Treasury Department that had run a deficit of more than $7 million the previous year. It shows some of the Treasury decisions that Chase made. It also examines Belmont as an excellent Union agent sent to Europe during the war. It assesses the ways on how the U.S. secured financial support in Europe. It presents some of the Union efforts in Europe to minimize and European financial and material support for the Confederacy.Less

Roads Not Taken

R. M. Sainsbury and Michael Tye

in Seven Puzzles of Thought and How to Solve Them: And How to Solve Them: An Originalist Theory of Concepts

This chapter reviews some theories we do not adopt: two versions of Fregeanism, and two versions of Millianism.

Causal Relevance and Manipulation

Carl F. Craver

in Explaining the Brain

This chapter presents a view of causal relevance that accommodates the mechanistic fragility and historical contingency of neuroscientific generalizations but that nonetheless satisfies constraints ... More

This chapter presents a view of causal relevance that accommodates the mechanistic fragility and historical contingency of neuroscientific generalizations but that nonetheless satisfies constraints (E1)-(E5). It reviews the limitations of two alternative accounts of causation — Stuart Glennan's mechanical account, and Wesley Salmon and Philip Dowe's transmission account. An example from the contemporary neuroscience of learning and memory is used to defend Woodward's view that the causal relevance relations in neural mechanisms are relationships that can potentially be used for the purposes of manipulation and control.Less

Cross-Dressing in the Birth Room: Gender Trouble and Cultural Boundaries

David. Cressy

in Travesties and Transgressions in Tudor and Stuart England: Tales of Discord and Dissension

This chapter starts with the extraordinary case from 1633 of a young male servant discovered in female disguise in a gender-segregated environment, the birth room. The midwife, her daughter, and the ... More

This chapter starts with the extraordinary case from 1633 of a young male servant discovered in female disguise in a gender-segregated environment, the birth room. The midwife, her daughter, and the servant himself testified before the Oxford archdeaconry court. Other discourses that shed some light on this case include godly reformist complaints against cross-dressing, scenes of male cross-dressing on the early modern stage, and kindred cases from the archives. An issue of the time was whether cross-dressing was an abomination unto the Lord, whether it undermined gender boundaries, or whether it was harmless fun. These are matters more commonly treated by literary scholars than historians, so problems of interdisciplinary discourse also arise. The story described in this chapter illuminates social and legal responses to deviant behaviour.Less

Karaite Commentaries on the Song of Songs from Tenth-Century Jerusalem

Frank Daniel

in With Reverence for the Word: Medieval Scriptural Exegesis in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

For both Jews and Christians, the Song of Songs posed a special problem. If its Solomonic authorship assured its scriptural standing, its frank eroticism demanded allegorization. In its depiction of ... More

For both Jews and Christians, the Song of Songs posed a special problem. If its Solomonic authorship assured its scriptural standing, its frank eroticism demanded allegorization. In its depiction of love lost and regained, Jews discovered a parable for the historical relationship between God and Israel, one that sat well with such other biblical passages as Hosea 1–2, Isaiah 54:4–7, Jeremiah 2:2, and Ezekiel 16. But the allegory still required interpretation. Determining the significance of its elaborate symbolism and fashioning a coherent reading of the work as a whole would engage many Jewish exegetes in the Middle Ages—and this even before the philosophers and kabbalists began to read the Song of Songs in new ways during the 12th and 13th centuries. Two Jewish commentaries on the Song survive from 10th-century Jerusalem. Written in Judeo-Arabic by the Karaites Salmon b. Jeroham and Japheth b. Eli, both include substantial introductory observations on the nature of biblical song and incorporate full Arabic translations and verse-by-verse exegesis.Less

Indefinite Identities

André Gallois

in Occasions of Identity: A Study in the Metaphysics of Persistence, Change, and Sameness

This chapter discusses the indefinite identity problem posed by the ship of Theseus puzzle. It provides an alternative solution to the puzzle that will prove that the ORIGINAL is identical with the ... More

This chapter discusses the indefinite identity problem posed by the ship of Theseus puzzle. It provides an alternative solution to the puzzle that will prove that the ORIGINAL is identical with the REPLACEMENT. It also analyses the applicability of the argument devised by Gareth Evans and Nathan Salmon to the problem of indefinite identity. The Evans-Salmon argument is a reductio designed to show that reasonable assumptions about identity together with the assumption that the ORIGINAL is identical with the REPLACEMENT lead to a contradiction.Less

Vagueness

Katherine Hawley

in How Things Persist

Being familiar with an object or a place can be given empirical investigation on the vague changes that are occurring, especially in the case of not entirely knowing how a restaurant transformed. ... More

Being familiar with an object or a place can be given empirical investigation on the vague changes that are occurring, especially in the case of not entirely knowing how a restaurant transformed. Aside from the example of an object, the word ‘vague’ is also argued to relate to state of affairs but the idea that the world is vague can be explained by ontic and semantic indeterminacy. The Evans-Salmon argument is taken into consideration pointing out Gottfried Leibniz's law and its contrapositive. Accounts of vagueness in relation to people are in a way relating to persistence as it is being confronted in the contradiction of a person's sense of survival. This is further detailed by having two candidates undergo experience in a cabinet to see who emerges and who is conscious while being in the cabinet.Less

Non-Conditional Disputations

Terence Parsons

in Indeterminate Identity: Metaphysics and Semantics

This chapter discusses a number of attempts to prove that there can be no such thing as indeterminate identity. The arguments discussed here are limited to ones that do not turn on the logic or ... More

This chapter discusses a number of attempts to prove that there can be no such thing as indeterminate identity. The arguments discussed here are limited to ones that do not turn on the logic or semantics of conditionals. Various objections to indeterminate identity are not conclusive. Quine's doctrine ‘No entity without identity’ rules out only entities for which identity does not make sense. Even if bivalence is maintained within each science, identity puzzles may still arise where sciences overlap. Salmon's argument based on ordered pairs is either a version of Evans's argument or a challenge to indeterminate set. Sometimes puzzles arise from reading sentences non-literally. A sentence may be read supervaluationally or super-resolutionally. The discussion also reviews Williamson's refutation of non-bivalence, Cook's building, and Noonan's argument against an example of indeterminate identity.Less

Vague Identity (1988)

Robert C. Stalnaker

in Ways a World Might Be: Metaphysical and Anti-Metaphysical Essays

Nathan Salmon has argued that the identity relation cannot be vague nor semantically indeterminate. Although this is a sound argument, what this shows may be misleading, particularly about identity ... More

Nathan Salmon has argued that the identity relation cannot be vague nor semantically indeterminate. Although this is a sound argument, what this shows may be misleading, particularly about identity across time and across possible worlds. This paper attempts to clarify the conclusion of this argument - about what kind of semantic indeterminacy it excludes and what kind it permits.Less

Rigidity – Associated Arguments in Support of Theoretical Identity Statements: on their Significance and the Cost of their Philosophical Resources

LaPorte Joseph

in Rigid Designation and Theoretical Identities

This chapter argues that arguments making use of rigidity to support theoretical identity statements like ‘water = H2O’ are significant if convincing and that they are convincing. The arguments enjoy ... More

This chapter argues that arguments making use of rigidity to support theoretical identity statements like ‘water = H2O’ are significant if convincing and that they are convincing. The arguments enjoy considerable interest for little cost. Specific objections that the chapter addresses are that theoretical identity statements like ‘water = H2O’ are uninformative because of the rigidity of the designators, that support for theoretical identity statements really appeals to deeper mechanisms than rigidity (especially Millianism), that the designators in theoretical identity statements are not really rigid (de facto or de jure), and that rigidity-based arguments supporting theoretical identity statements rely on controversial essentialist intuitions (a tradition inspired by Nathan Salmon, although his actual position is plausible and not so potent as the position of the tradition stemming from him, which I address).Less

The Treasury's Part in Confiscation

John Syrett

in The Civil War Confiscation Acts: Failing to Reconstruct the South

The Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, had the greatest anti-slavery and radical reputation of the men Lincoln chose for the Cabinet. The first indication of Chase's cautious attitude toward ... More

The Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, had the greatest anti-slavery and radical reputation of the men Lincoln chose for the Cabinet. The first indication of Chase's cautious attitude toward using confiscation for abolition came in the fall of 1861. Chase was under pressure almost from the start of the war to establish a system that regulated and facilitated trade, particularly cotton, in the South. Treasury officials had no authority to direct agents to seek out confiscable property. Treasury agents generally relied upon the military to supply them with information about abandoned and confiscable property, but the military's knowledge of this property was incomplete since they occupied only some areas within a Special Agency. Commodore, a famous stallion worth at least sixteen thousand dollars, was the most valuable piece of property the military turned over to Treasury agents.Less

Building a Union of Banks: Salmon P. Chase and the Creation of the National Banking System

Michael T. Caires

in New Perspectives on the Union War

This essay discusses the relationship between the Republicans’ antebellum economic agenda and the events of the Civil War. The essay appears to begin aligned with the big argument that the ... More

This essay discusses the relationship between the Republicans’ antebellum economic agenda and the events of the Civil War. The essay appears to begin aligned with the big argument that the Republicans were intent on changing the national economy, and the war provided a useful opportunity to do so.Less

Introductory Overview

Douglas G. Goodin

in Climate Variability and Ecosystem Response in Long-Term Ecological Research Sites

Timescale is the organizing framework of this volume. In various sections, we consider the effects of climate variability on ecosystems at timescales ... More

Timescale is the organizing framework of this volume. In various sections, we consider the effects of climate variability on ecosystems at timescales ranging from weeks or months to centuries. In part III, we turn our attention to interdecadal-scale events. The timescales we consider are not absolutely defined, but for our purposes we define the interdecadal scale to encompass effects occurring with recurring cycles generally ranging from 10 to 50 years. A recurring theme in many of the chapters in this section is the effect on ecosystem response of teleconnection patterns associated with recognized quasi-periodic atmospheric circulation modes. These circulation modes include the well-known El Niño– Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, which is generally thought to recur at shorter, interdecadal timescales but also includes some longer-term periodicities. Several other climate variability modes, including the Pacific North American index (PNA), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and North Pacific index (NP) also show strong interdecadal scale signatures and figure prominently in the chapters of part III. McHugh and Goodin begin the section by examining the climate record at several North American LTER sites for evidence of interdecadal-scale fluctuation. They note that interdecadal-scale contributions to climate variability can best be described in terms of two types of variation: (1) discontinuities in mean value, and (2) the presence of trends in the data. Evaluation of interdecadal periodicities in LTER data is complicated by the relatively short time series of observations available. McHugh and Goodin approach the problem mainly through the use of power spectrum analysis, a widely used tool for evaluating the periodicity in a time series of data. Principal components analysis is used to decompose the time series of growing-season climate data for each of the LTER sites into their principal modes of variability. These modes are then subjected to power spectrum analysis to evaluate the proportions of the variance in the data occurring at various timescales. McHugh and Goodin’s results suggest that significant effects on precipitation and temperature at interdecadal timescales are uncommon in these data, although significant periodicities at both shorter and longer frequencies do emerge from the data (a finding of relevance to other sections of this volume). Less