Analysis and Metaphysics
ABSTRACTS
Analysis and Metaphysics
VOLUME 4 • NUMBER 1 • OCTOBER 2005
Analysis and Metaphysics
VOLUME 4 • NUMBER 2 • DECEMBER 2005
Analysis and Metaphysics
VOLUME 5 • NUMBER 1-2 • DECEMBER 2006
Analysis and Metaphysics
VOLUME 6, 2007
Analysis and Metaphysics
VOLUME 4 • NUMBER 1 • OCTOBER 2005
INTENTIONALITY, SKEPTICISM, AND OBJECT-DEPENDENT THOUGHT
WALTER OTT
ABSTRACT. No theory of intentionality can forestall skeptical doubts. The skeptic appeals to the claim that, for all a subject can tell, there is nothing that marks off a veridical experience from a falsidical one. We cannot hope for a view that rules such doubts out of court from the start. We should stop evaluating theories of intentionality on the basis of their tendency to give succor to the skeptic. Back to contents
IN WILLIAM PALEY'S SHADOW: DARWIN'S EXPLANATION OF DESIGN
FRANCISCO J. AYALA
ABSTRACT. If Darwin's explanation of the adaptive organization of living beings is correct, evolution necessarily follows as a consequence of organisms becoming adapted to different environments in different localities and to the ever changing conditions of any given environment, and as hereditary variations become available at a particular time that improve the organisms' chances of survival and reproduction. Back to contents
ADEVAR NECESAR A POSTERIORI
RICHARD SWINBURNE
ABSTRACT. Swinburne distinguishes between sentences, statements, and propositions, and notes that there are other possible understandings of 'what is said' by a token sentence, additional to those of the proposition and the statement. If 'what is said' is necessary, and you can know what it is, then you can know a priori that it is true. There are no necessary a posteriori truths, in the sense of 'necessary' as true in all possible worlds, which has been called the 'broadly logical' sense of 'necessary'. Back to contents
THE FUTURE OF HUMAN EVOLUTION
NICK BOSTROM
ABSTRACT. Evolutionary development is sometimes thought of as exhibiting an inexorable trend towards higher, more complex, and normatively worthwhile forms of life. This paper explores some dystopian scenarios where freewheeling evolutionary developments, while continuing to produce complex and intelligent forms of organization, lead to the gradual elimination of all forms of being that we care about. We then discuss how such catastrophic outcomes could be avoided and argue that under certain conditions the only possible remedy would be a globally coordinated policy to control human evolution by modifying the fitness function of future intelligent life forms. Back to contents
INTELEGERE SI TEORII ALE INTELESULUI
MARK SAINSBURY
ABSTRACT. The issues Sainsbury wishes to discuss lie within the hypothesis that a theory2 of meaning (that relates to language in general) should essentially involve consideration of theories1 of meaning (that relate to a single language, L); a philosophical account of meaning should proceed by considering the nature of theories of meaning. Sainsbury's only ultimate philosophical goal is to attain a philosophical understanding of the nature of meaning in general. What Sainsbury challenges is either the justification for or the correctness of certain constraints on theories of meaning that are required in the light of this ultimate aim. Back to contents
INTENSIONAL IDENTITIES
HARTLEY SLATER
ABSTRACT. Slater shows that Edelberg's problems result from using an inadequate theory of descriptions: an alternative theory of descriptions facilitates a better expression for Intentional Identity in the contexts Edelberg is concerned with. As this theory of descriptions needs more articulation than is commonly provided, Slater wants to show how it is to be developed and applied within Modal Logic. Back to contents
METAFIZICA ADECVARII REALISMULUI STIINTIFIC LA INDETERMINAREA REFERENTIALA
MARY KATE MCGOWAN
ABSTRACT. Scientific realism maintains that science seeks to uncover the one objective way that the world is. Although primarily a claim about the aim of science, it also presupposes a certain metaphysical claim about the nature of reality. Claiming that science seeks to describe the objective reality presupposes that there is such a reality. Scientific realism presupposes some form of metaphysical realism - the thesis that what things there are and what kinds of things there are is objectively determined. Back to contents
DESCOMPUNERI SI TRANSFORMARI: CONCEPTII ASUPRA ANALIZEI IN TRADITIILE FENOMENOLOGICA SI ANALITICA TIMPURII
MICHAEL BEANEY
ABSTRACT. The issue of analysis provides an ideal focus for investigating the relationships between what came to be seen in the twentieth century as the two main movements of Western philosophy ('analytic philosophy' and 'continental philosophy') and for assessing just what the divide was supposed to be. Beaney offers a framework for this investigation and considers the relationships between certain key figures in the early analytic and phenomenological traditions. Back to contents
WITTGENSTEIN'S PHILOSOPHICAL ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD, LANGUAGE AND LOGIC
GEORGE LAZAROIU
ABSTRACT. What Wittgenstein means by analysis generally understood can best be seen by contrasting it with 'explication'. The Tractatus has a 'therapeutic intent' to bring the reader to see the hopelessness of traditional philosophy and its problems. There are features of reality, or of languages's relation to reality, that cannot be expressed because the logical structure of language makes their expression impossible. Back to contents
STRAWSON ON TRUTH, MEANING AND UNDERSTANDING
MADALINA NICOLOF
ABSTRACT. Strawson notes that the meanings of the sentences of a language are largely determined by the semantic and syntactic rules or conventions of that language. The meaning of a sentence is a syntactic function of the meanings of its parts and their arrangement. Strawson tries to explain the foundation of the basic combination of predication on which our logic rests. Back to contents
THE ONTOLOGICAL STATUS OF MUSIC AND THE NATURE OF MUSICAL EXPERIENCE
LUMINITA POGACEANU
ABSTRACT. All components of musical experience are entirely different from those required for any other endeavor, listening connects us with the world in the most intimate way. Musical expression cannot be adequately explained as the disembodied perception of musical contour. Composers over the centuries have perpetually used the same emotive musical phrases in their music despite dramatic changes of various musical styles. Back to contents
HEIDEGGER'S HERMENEUTIC APPROACH TO FUNDAMENTAL ONTOLOGY
OANA GHERMAN
ABSTRACT. Heidegger's thought is that metaphysics is prior to logic, in that an understanding of logic is required to have an adequate theory of logic. Heidegger, while defining the act of synthesis, resorts to the field of pure sensibility, as a siege of the ecstatic temporality. Heidegger recognizes the importance of the finitude of human cognition and he traces the source of this finitude to human intuitional cognition. Back to contents
KANT, THE METAPHYSICS OF MORALS AND PRACTICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
SEVASTIAN BLENDEA
ABSTRACT. Anthropology as conceived by Kant is a broad-based inquiry into the nature of human beings in general, and a discipline that is empirical and pragmatic. Kant deals with some of the same themes and concepts of his critical philosophy, such as self-consciousness, taste, and the highest good. Back to contents
KANT'S TREATMENT OF MORAL CONFLICT
MIHAELA CISMARESCU
ABSTRACT. Kant argues that a good will is not good because of what it effects or accomplishes. Practical freedom of will is based on the transcendental freedom of will. The Kantian path to ethical transcendence suggests the content of the categorical imperative. Moral anthropology is a kind of self-cultivation in the service of justified hope. Back to contents
RULES OF LAW AND INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY
ION ZAULET
ABSTRACT. International society has the ultimate capacity to enable all societies to promote the ever-increasing well-being of themselves and their members. Morality is discontinuous between the domestic and international spheres. Law is the progression of legal ideas in the social world which mediates between the social forces which generate the law and the social events which the law generates. Back to contents
THE ANALYTICITY OF KANT'S PRINCIPLE OF RIGHT
GEORGE HODOROGEA
ABSTRACT. Kant rejects the thesis that rightness of actions is independent of agent's motives because motives are elements of act descriptions, while are taken into account in moral assessment of actions. The concept of right should include any unconditional demand for 'juridical legality' (an unconditional and supra-positive demand that individuals act in compliance with the fundamental demands of right). Back to contents
THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF PROCEDURAL JUSTICE
GHEORGHE STANESCU
ABSTRACT. The equity principle is especially compatible with modern anarchist theory, which generally views the development of state legal systems as the forced imposition of centralized control over societies with long-standing local norms. Mainstream legal scholars and authorities prefer to focus not on hard-to-define substantive justice but on procedural justice. Back to contents
RATIONALITATE SI STRUCTURA IN ECONOMIA POLITICA
CONSTANTIN LAPADAT
ABSTRACT. Economics has traditionally been more or less behaviouristic in orientation, preferring to build a picture of the human subject out of actions displayed rather than on a reflective or introspective basis. Economics has tended to be egocentrically reductionistic, assuming that the preferences which human agents seek to satisfy are, on the whole, self-concerned or egoistic desires. Back to contents
PSIHOLOGIE SI EPISTEMOLOGIE GENETICA
NICOLAE TANASESCU
ABSTRACT. Piaget thought that genetic epistemology could be distinguished from developmental psychology. As the prime concern of ordinary epistemology is to show how knowledge is possible, so the aim of genetic epistemology should be to show how the acquisition and growth of knowledge is possible. Baldwin characterizes an account of the acquisition of knowledge and understanding in development terms. Back to contents
THE RULE OF LAW AND THE CONSTITUTION
IONUT TOARTA
ABSTRACT. The most abstract and fundamental point of legal practice is to guide and constrain power of government. The Court should remain alert to developments in judicial procedures which further the defence of the rule of law. The role of the common law is to prevent the citizen from being subject to the arbitrary power of the state. Back to contents
KANT AND THE RATIONAL BASIS OF MORALITY
SEVASTIAN BLENDEA
ABSTRACT. Kant's idea of virtue as moral strength in opposing passions can be linked to his notion of freedom and self-governance. Kant provides extensive arguments concerning which particular representations must be understood as derived from our own cognitive capabilities, and arguments that such representations must be understood as transcendentally ideal. Back to contents
WITTGENSTEIN SI ARHITECTONICA MUZICALA A LUMII
LUMINITA POGACEANU
ABSTRACT. Wittgenstein tends to define a work of music in terms of an abstract sound pattern which is antecedent to its composition by any particular composer. Wittgenstein attempts to explain and justify the widespread descriptions of music in terms usually used to characterize human beings and he analyses the expressiveness of music as a compound of elements of convention and contour (music is unequivocally a language of the emotions). Back to contents
KANT: MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE OF DUTIES OF JUSTICE
CARMEN PALACEAN
ABSTRACT. Kant suggests that right only commands compliance when there is an empirical motivation, but he claims that right requires that all individuals who can enter into the civil condition ought to. Right would need to presuppose that there is a providential 'coincidence' between enlightened self-interest and the demands of right holds for all of its subjects. Back to contents
PEDAGOGIA CA TEORIE A EDUCATIEI
NICOLAE TANASESCU
ABSTRACT. Plato and Rousseau were at one in seeing education as part of an overarching political and social project. In the Republic, Plato is concerned with educating people in such a way that a just society is the outcome. Rousseau's work can be seen as the start of a pervasive interest in the details of child development in educational thought. Comenius' philosophy aimed at a grandiose reform of pedagogy in the spirit of modern didactic realism. Back to contents
THE LAW AS AN INSTRUMENT OF SOCIALIZATION
GHEORGHE STANESCU
ABSTRACT. When the procedurally correct application of law leads to unfair results, a procedural justice focus has little to offer beyond the generalization that people care more about procedures and the suggestion that authorities should redirect public attention from the result to the method. The most fundamental assumption in psychological jurisprudence is that law is intended to promote human welfare. Back to contents
IMPERIALISMUL ECONOMIC SI PROVOCAREA AMERICANA
CONSTANTIN LAPADAT
ABSTRACT. WTO Member States cannot impose local content or balancing requirements on foreign capital irrespective of their individual needs and concerns. The way to develop a free trade constituency is to engage the opposition and address their legitimate concerns. Normal domestic politics reigns with interest groups, including protectionist groups, having a voice in such decisions. Back to contents
KANT, HUMAN NATURE AND PRACTICAL RATIONALITY
ROBERTH SÜTÖ
ABSTRACT. Kant's doctrine of radical evil might result from the sheer difference between the moral law, which applies to all rational beings, and the actions of beings like us who are sensibly conditioned. We can derive our duties from the supreme principle and bad effects beyond our control cannot undermine moral worth when we have acted from duty. Back to contents
ETICA PARADIGMEI LEGALISTE IN DREPTUL INTERNATIONAL
ION ZAULET
ABSTRACT. International law takes its project as governance, while comparative law stakes out the ground of cultural understanding. The division of international legal society into independent international and national realms is historically contingent, reflecting a certain view of the world legal order that found acceptance at a certain moment in the history of ideas. Back to contents
EDUCATIE SI ACTIVISM PEDAGOGIC
GEORGETA PREDESCU
ABSTRACT. Dewey reinforces Rousseau's childcentredness with the Baconian thought that what the child should be centring on are problems and practice. Education is a thoroughly classical concept, which since the time of Socrates and Aristotle has never entirely disappeared in institutions of learning. Education should involve the formation of habits of behaviour and learning, habits which are not in any obvious sense natural. Back to contents
Analysis and Metaphysics
VOLUME 4 • NUMBER 2 • DECEMBER 2005
SOME QUESTIONS OF ONTOLOGY
HENRY LAYCOCK
ABSTRACT. 'Individual' Laycock uses as a convenient term for any putative distinct object of reference, whether concrete or abstract, whether particular or universal. Generally, being concrete is closely related to being extended and, specifically, to solidity. Particulars Laycock takes to be standardly distinct, concrete, countable individuals, whose identity is bound up with their spatio- temporal continuity, and which may both come to be and cease to be in very familiar ways. Back to contents
WHAT IF THINGS WERE DIFFERENT? (DELIBERATIONS REGARDING COUNTERFACTUAL CONDITIONALS AND NONEXISTENT WORLDS)
NICHOLAS RESCHER
ABSTRACT. A recourse to the epistemic priorities that govern our commitments to claims about the world is quite sufficient to deal satisfactorily with counterfactuals. We need not look outside this world of ours to other possible worlds but need only look inside to the epistemic priority status of our cognitive commitments. There is no need to enter into the problematic contemplation of the actuality of other, nonexistent worlds of which we cannot really make proper sense. Back to contents
DESIRE, TIME, AND ETHICAL WEIGHT
NICK BOSTROM
ABSTRACT. We want more than we can have. So we must somehow weigh our desires in order to determine which of them it is most important that we satisfy. All that an egoist of the present moment has to do is to introspectively ascertain these parameters, calculate (or intuitively estimate) the expected utility of the various choices, and then pick the one with the highest expected utility. Back to contents
FILOSOFIA RELIGIEI (EXISTENTA SI NATURA LUI DUMNEZEU)
RICHARD SWINBURNE
ABSTRACT. The philosophy of religion, as this is understood in the modern empiricist Anglo-American tradition of philosophy, is an examination of the meaning and justification of central religious claims. Most religions make claims about the cause of the existence of things, about the most fundamental principles governing the world, and about the purpose of human life. They claim that there is a God, that he intervenes in history from time to time; that after humans die, they have a new life, that God has revealed certain important truths to the Christian church or in the Quran, and so on. Back to contents
INDETERMINAREA CUANTICA SI ARGUMENTUL WITTGENSTEINIAN AL LIMBAJULUI PRIVAT
DALE JACQUETTE
ABSTRACT. The demand for 'criteria of correctness' to identify recurring particulars in Wittgenstein's private language argument favors an idealist interpretation of quantum phenomena. The indeterminacy principle in quantum physics and the logic of the private language argument share a common concern with the limitations by which microphysical or sensation particulars can be reidentified. Wittgenstein's criteria for reidentifying particular recurrent private sensations are so general as to apply with equal force to quantum particulars, and to support the idealist thesis that quantum phenomena are themselves essentially mental or dependent on mental occurrences. Back to contents
NUME, NUME FICTIVE SI 'REALMENTE'
MARK SAINSBURY
ABSTRACT. Fictional names pose at least two kinds of problem: how, if at all, do they mean anything? And how, if at all, do they affect the truth or other semantic value of sentences in which they occur? Answering the first question is especially difficult if one holds both of the two opinions (1) that all genuine names have bearers and (2) that fictional names do not. Sainsbury takes for granted one of the views that lead to this difficulty, namely that many fictional names lack bearers. Back to contents
MEANING, TRUTH, AND ONTOLOGY
GEORGE LAZAROIU
ABSTRACT. Davidson thinks of meaning as determined by what individual speakers do with their words in communication. Davidson takes the idea that a formalization of what a theory of truth is explains something. Quine distinguishes between singular terms and general terms, and speaks of different 'positions' which terms may occupy in sentences, notably of referential and of predicative position. Back to contents
THE ART OF PLATO AND SOCRATES' MISSION
OANA GHERMAN
ABSTRACT. Plato's dialogues provide us with two cases in which citizens become recruited as instruments of the state in carrying out unjust legal judgments made by the state. The claim that Socrates would violate a legally valid law proscribing philosophizing must provide an explanation of how such a law might be worded in a way that makes such a law conceivable in democratic Athens. Back to contents
LOGICAL FORM AND LANGUAGE
MADALINA NICOLOF
ABSTRACT. Frege's conception of the universal applicability of modern mathematical logic and its singular role in displaying the structure of genuinely objective judgment were the primary concerns of much of twentieth-century philosophy. Quine discredits a certain group of non-extensional notions, which includes those of logical necessity, logical impossibility, and synonymity or identity of meaning. Back to contents
TAKING RIGHTS SERIOUSLY AND THE DUTIES OF JUSTICE
ILIE PASCU
ABSTRACT. Hart claims that while sanctions might mark circumstances in which people are obliged to conform, they have an obligation only when subject to a practiced social rule requiring an act or omission. Rawls states that as economic systems develop and basic material needs are met, beyond this point the fundamental interest in determining our plan of life eventually assumes a prior place. Back to contents
THE VALUES AND AIMS OF MUSIC EDUCATION
LUMINITA POGACEANU
ABSTRACT. Adorno argues that in authentic art affirmation becomes the cipher of despair and the purest negativity of content contains a grain of affirmation. Schulz writes that expressive performance consists in the complete representation of the character and expression of the work. A refrain in a narrative retains its autonomy yet plays an indispensable role in the development of a narrative, even a generative one (Butterfield). Back to contents
LIBERAL EQUALITY AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
GEORGE HODOROGEA
ABSTRACT. Rawls embraces two views of justice, a general conception that is supposed to be valid at all times, and a special conception that is valid under modern social conditions. According to Dworkin, law is not to be understood as trying to communicate anything at all; a subject considering his legal duties is not listening to the law. Rawls attacks the idea that notions of merit or deservingness should be included among the values that the principles of justice should assert as fundamental. Back to contents
THE PECULIARITY OF RAWLS' CONTRACTUAL PROCEDURE
SEVASTIAN BLENDEA
ABSTRACT. Rawls claims that we should take societies' existence as given, a fact of life for each individual. The original position is constructed such that it restricts the possible range of choices the parties in it can make in a way that models certain fairness conditions. The Rawls of Political Liberalism must confine the principles of justice to principles for the institutions of the basic structure. Back to contents
AUTONOMIE SI COMUNITATE
CARMEN PALACEAN
ABSTRACT. By recasting Kant's constructivism, Rawls aims at the normativity of practical reason in a contractarian context. The duty of justice requires us to support and comply with just institutions that apply to us. Raz holds that obligations are categorial reasons for actions that are protected by exclusionary reasons not to act on some of the competing reasons to the contrary. Back to contents
'JUSTICE AS FAIRNESS', A THEORY OF TOLERATION
ILIE PASCU
ABSTRACT. In Political Liberalism, Rawls argues that justice as fairness should not be seen as uniquely grounded in a particular comprehensive conception of right. Rawls's political constructivism can be better understood in the very terms of its critical account of the foundations of a theory of justice. Rawls uses the procedural representation of the categorical imperative so as to construct the content of a political conception of justice in order to represent their societal interests. Back to contents
ARE WORKS OF MUSIC TYPES OF PERFORMANCE OR ARE THEY CONTINUANTS?
LUMINITA POGACEANU
ABSTRACT. Lerdahl develops the idea that relationships between chords and between pitch-classes may be represented by the concept of distance. Goehr argues that regulative concepts differ from constitutive ones: the latter constitute the fabric of a practice; they provide the rules of the game. Elliott writes that the nature of music is defined according to its function in providing certain values. Back to contents
RAWLSIAN PLURALISM, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND INDIVIDUAL ETHICS
GEORGE HODOROGEA
ABSTRACT. In Political Liberalism, Rawls says that all modern societies show continuing differences about basic matters of value and the ultimate meaning of life. Liberal states are to exhibit due respect towards decent non-liberal societies by viewing them as authentic sources of the law of peoples. Rawls recognizes that very low levels of well-being can make the achievement of a stable and politically just state impossible. Back to contents
RUSSELL ON REFERRING
SEVASTIAN BLENDEA
ABSTRACT. Russell writes that genuine proper names would refer to something without ascribing any properties to it. Whatever the standards of coherence may be, it seems likely that alternative sets of propositions will meet them. The type of expression that comes closest to performing the function of the referential use of definite descriptions turns out to be a proper name. Back to contents
THE FUNCTIONING OF MONEY AND THE MONEY ECONOMIC SYSTEM
LILIANA CIMBROLA
ABSTRACT. Real money is a function of nominal money, and the effect of changing prices on the nominal budget of the individual financier/consumer is knowable only by the individual. Salvary argues that nominal money prices, specific price changes, and rates of return on nominal money guide the output decisions for the physical quantities. The preponderance of empirical evidence supports the view that money is an endogenous variable. Back to contents
MONEY DEMAND AND MONETARY POLICY
CONSTANTIN LAPADAT
ABSTRACT. The expected rate of return on capital adjusts to the interest rate in equilibrium through variations in the scale of investment. Uncertainty about the future resale price means that traders lack a terminal value from which to backwardize. Money has utility because it is a 'wealth-unit ready to be activated'; it also has the property of being the most easily adjusted asset in case an excess quantity accumulates. Back to contents
MONETARY POLICY AS A PROCESS OF SEARCH
GABRIELA BOBORA
ABSTRACT. Reisman demonstrates how the negative effects of multiple controls feed into one another and multiply the chaos. Schumpeter sunders capital completely from its embodiment in capital goods, and limits the concept to only a money fund used to purchase those goods. Von Mises argues that only free-market prices could accurately represent the value of goods foregone, and that without such prices, rational economic calculation is impossible. Back to contents
MONETARY POLICY AND THE VALUE OF MONEY
LILIANA CIMBROLA
ABSTRACT. Garrison demonstrates the relevance of capital-based macro- economics beyond its application to the business cycle by discussing a variety of fiscal and regulatory issues. The marginal-productivity theory of factor pricing implies that the price of any factor is determined by the marginal value product of that factor. Money must be analyzed in a general theory of value; the value of money is determined in all markets where money is exchanged. Back to contents
MONETARY POLICY AND PRICE LEVEL STABILITY
CONSTANTIN LAPADAT
ABSTRACT. Jevons writes that since money has to be exchanged for valuable goods, it should itself possess value, and it must therefore have utility as the basis of value. The monetarists place the emphasis on the level of the money supply in the determination of price level changes and monetary control is exercised. Back to contents
MACROECONOMIC POLICIES IN INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES
GABRIELA BOBORA
ABSTRACT. Menger develops a table showing assumed cardinal values for the declining marginal utilities of ten economic goods as envisioned by some economic man. Montiel argues that while macroeconomic policies in Indus- trialized countries often relate to business cycle developments, policy makers in emerging economies are compelled to spend much more time on irregular episodes of financial instability. Back to contents
Analysis and Metaphysics
VOLUME 5 • NUMBER 1-2 • DECEMBER 2006
DE LA IDENTITATE MENTALA/FIZICA LA DUALISMUL SUBSTANTEI
RICHARD SWINBURNE
ABSTRACT. Our normal understanding of ourselves which I analyze in this paper is that parts of our bodies (arms, legs, and so on) are parts of ourselves; and so we must think of whole bodies also as parts of ourselves. But, given that bodies are only contingent parts of human beings, we can think instead of ourselves merely as souls causally connected to bodies. Back to contents
HOW MANY WITTGENSTEINS?
DAVID G. STERN
ABSTRACT. The paper maps out and responds to some of the main areas of disagreement over the nature of Wittgenstein's philosophy: (1) Between defenders of a "two Wittgensteins" reading (which draws a sharp distinction between early and late Wittgenstein) and the opposing "one Wittgenstein" interpretation. (2) Among "two-Wittgensteins" interpreters as to when the later philosophy emerged, and over the central difference between early and late Wittgenstein. (3) Between those who hold that Wittgenstein opposes only past philosophy in order to do philosophy better and those who hold that Wittgenstein aimed to bring an end to philosophy and teach us to get by without a replacement. I begin by summarizing and responding to these debates over the nature of Wittgenstein's philosophy and his philosophical methods. My reply turns on the point that each of these debates depends on some deeply un-Wittgensteinian, and quite mistaken, assumptions. Back to contents
A HISTORY OF TRANSHUMANIST THOUGHT
NICK BOSTROM
ABSTRACT. If either superintelligence, or molecular nanotechnology, or uploading, or some other technology of a similarly revolutionary kind is developed, the human condition could clearly be radically transformed. Even if one believed that the probability of this happening any time soon is quite small, these prospects would nevertheless merit serious attention in view of their extreme impact. However, transhumanism does not depend on the feasibility of such radical technologies. Back to contents
SARTRE'S THEORY OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EGO
CARMEN PETCU
ABSTRACT. Sartre argues that perceptual experience has an active dimension, in that it is a way of interacting and dealing with the world. Sartre considers our talk of character traits to refer not to present facts about a person, but to that person's past behaviour. Sartre considers action to be free in a sense that requires the falsehood of all forms of psychological determinism. Back to contents
WITTGENSTEIN'S CONTRIBUTION TO MUSICAL AESTHETICS
LUMINITA POGACEANU
ABSTRACT. Wittgenstein's principle concern is to expand the notion of linguistic understanding (Dammann). Although we understand music in a similar way as we understand language, music is not a language because we still cannot communicate through music as we can through language. Wittgenstein emphasizes the role of performance in the understanding of music and introduces an "intransitive" concept of expression. Back to contents
DERRIDA AND THE METAPHYSICS OF LANGUAGE
MADALINA NICOLOF
ABSTRACT. Derrida remarks that exteriority and alterity are concepts which by themselves have never surprised philosophical discourse; the call to recognize failure as an "internal and positive condition" ultimately leads to a structural critique of language's conditions of possibility. Derrida aims to reach the point of a certain exteriority in relation to the totality of the age of logocentrism. The particular sciences and regional ontologies are subordinated to general ontology, and then to fundamental ontology. Back to contents
HEGEL, HUMAN FINITUDE, AND CONTINGENCY
OANA GHERMAN
ABSTRACT. Hegel develops his own distinctive understanding of absolute knowledge as the product of a dialectical process of mediation and self-differentiation. Hegel conceives individual action as being necessarily embedded in a people's set of practical, ethical, and political institutions. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit is implicitly in that, throughout it, ontological claims are paired with epistemological stances (Russon). Back to contents
PUTNAM ON MEANING AND REALITY
ADRIAN CONSTANTINESCU
ABSTRACT. Putnam does not accept meanings as entities that fix reference but takes them to be largely determined by causal connections. Putnam explains how a particular reference relation gets attached to our words; to say that what does the attaching is the fact that certain sentences are true is flagrantly circular. Putnam devises science fiction cases, from the robot cat case to the twin earth case, that are counter examples to the traditional theory of meaning. Back to contents
MERLEAU-PONTY, SKLAR, AND PLURALIST ONTOLOGIES
CARMEN PETCU
ABSTRACT. Merleau-Ponty claims that the phenomenal field places a fundamental difficulty in the way of any attempt to make experience directly and totally explicit. Sklar holds that the explanatory and predictive methods of science constitute a diverse plurality; science itself declares the continuous fluids of hydrodynamics to be merely "useful fictions". Sklar speaks of flowing fluids as continuous media. Back to contents
AN APPLICATION OF THE DUMMETTIAN MODEL OF COMMUNICATION TO JOURNALISM (I)
GEORGE LAZAROIU
ABSTRACT. Dummett claims that, on a holistic view, no model for the individual content of a sentence can be given; the way the truth of logically complex statements are determined in classical model theory is important. Habermas describes a normative role for journalists and media practitioners in relation to genuine public opinion. In a normative sense, journalism is regarded as an essential part in the processes of democracy and social change (Hanitzsch et al.). Back to contents
PERSPECTIVES ON MEDIA EFFECTS
ANDREI CARPENEANU
ABSTRACT. Media framing is to select some aspect of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text (Entman). Television has displaced traditional sources of socialization such as: the family, the church, and school (Gerbner). Communications technology always influences human organization (O'Neill). The public is not part of the working culture of a journalist (Carey). Back to contents
A HISTORY OF TRANSHUMANIST THOUGHT
ELENA PARASCHIV
ABSTRACT. Institutions in democratic societies will better serve the public if they operate in accordance with democratically determined ethical principles (Thompson). From our understanding of instrumental relations among both animate and inanimate things, we have a sense of what it is to treat someone merely as a means (Audi). Rawls assumes that a democratic society is to be viewed as a complete and closed social system. Back to contents
RAWLS'S CONCEPTION OF PUBLIC JUSTIFICATION AND THE IDEAL STATES SYSTEM
ELENA-MARIA TUDOR
ABSTRACT. Rawls notes that outlaw states are aggressive and dangerous. Naticchia notes that Rawls produced two versions of the law of peoples that defend basic human rights as a minimum requirement of a just law of peoples. Rawls restricts membership of the original position to compatriots so that the scope of the chosen difference principle is limited to domestic society (Kamminga). Back to contents
JUSTICE THROUGH PUNISHMENT
GAVRIL PARASCHIV
ABSTRACT. Garland maintains that the welfare penal mode is muted in favour of a punitive, expressive, risk conscious penal mode. Fagan examines how the spatial effects of crime impact a neighborhood's economic well-being, its social norm structure, family life, and the willingness of its members to support the political process. Dominant groups within market economics used penal sanctions when the interests of these elites were threatened (Ruddell). Back to contents
DETERMINANTS OF EQUITY ACCOUNTING DISCLOSURES
LUMINITA IONESCU
ABSTRACT. Future research on the connection between governance use and capital markets use of financial accounting information is important for developing a more complete understanding of the effects of financial accounting information on economic performance (Bushman and Smith). The accountability paradigm of progressive public administration puts heavy stress on two basic management doctrines (Hood). Back to contents
DISCLOSURE IN BANKING, MONETARY POLICY, AND E-BANKING TECHNOLOGIES
DORIN DOBRISAN
ABSTRACT. Tadesse finds that disclosure regulation fosters banking system stability: banking systems are more likely to be stable in countries with regulations that require more comprehensive, more informative, more timely and more credible disclosure. Svensson demonstrates that optimal policy projections can easily be derived directly with simple numerical methods, without reference to any optimal targeting rule. Back to contents
Analysis and Metaphysics
VOLUME 6, 2007
MULTIPLE CONCLUSIONS
GREG RESTALL
ABSTRACT. I argue for the following four theses: (1) Denial is not to be analyzed as the assertion of a negation. (2) Given the concepts of assertion and denial, we have the resources to analyze logical consequence as relating arguments with multiple premises and multiple conclusions. Gentzen's multiple conclusion calculus can be understood in a straightforward, motivated, non-question-begging way. (3) If a broadly anti-realist or inferentialist justification of a logical system works, it works just as well for classical logic as it does for intuitionistic logic. The special case for an anti-realist justification of intuitionistic logic over and above a justification of classical logic relies on an unjustified assumption about the shape of proofs. Finally, (4) this picture of logical consequence provides a relatively neutral shared vocabulary which can help us understand and adjudicate debates between proponents of classical and non-classical logics. Back to contents
TRANSHUMANISM: THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS IDEA?
NICK BOSTROM
ABSTRACT. Transhumanists advocate increased funding for research to radically extend healthy lifespan and favor the development of medical and technological means to improve memory, concentration, and other human capacities. The enhancements that transhumanists advocate - longer healthy lifespan, better memory, more control over emotions, etc. - would not deprive people of the capacity for moral agency. Despite the occasional rhetorical overreaches by some of its supporters, trasnhumanism has a positive and inclusive vision for how we can ethically embrace new technological possibilities to lead lives that are better than well. Back to contents
W.V. QUINE ON THE ANALYTIC–SYNTHETIC DISTINCTION
ARTHUR SULLIVAN
ABSTRACT. Quine's web of belief is influenced by, and encompasses, the entire scope of reality. It is established with a minimalist vocabulary, and is an efficient and integral vehicle toward his metaphysical end unambiguous ontological commitment, which leads to a somewhat bleak but rigorous membership in the world. Physical objects exhaust the domain of substance, and man becomes a mere four dimensional physical object. All states of mind are psychologized, or reduced to their impact on behaviour. Effectively, idealist criticisms have not simply been taken note of, but idealism has been hijacked, and the result is a new kind of empiricism and an original view of the world. Back to contents
THE LAW OF CONSERVATION OF MASS AND ENERGY IS UNWARRANTED
AMIR HOROWITZ
ABSTRACT. The fear that interactionist dualism is committed to denying the law of conservation of mass and Energy is thought to lead this metaphysical position ? and in turn dualism in general, many believe ? to a bankruptcy. Interactionist dualism has enormous difficulties, but, I shall argue, its (alleged) violation of the law of the conversation of mass and energy is not one of them. For to the extent that this law is interpreted in a way according to which it may be taken to undermine interactionist dualism, it does not have the empirical support required for acceptance. We only have evidence for the claim that physical-physical interactions preserve energy, and if ? as dualists maintain ? the physical is not everything there is, this claim is of no relevance to the stronger claim that energy is always preserved. Back to contents
FACTS AND WORLD
HAGIT BENBAJI
ABSTRACT. An identity theory of truth takes a proposition to be true if and only if it is identical with a fact. Although facts are constituted by senses they are still, according to McDowell, occupants of the world. This is possible, simply because the world is a whole of conceptual contents. The crunch of my reply to Dodd, in his terms, is that to admit that there is no gap between thought and the world, is to admit that there is no ontological gap between thought and the world. Back to contents
SIMULTANEITATE COSMICA
RICHARD SWINBURNE
ABSTRACT. Einstein gave good, but not compelling grounds for supposing that the concept of absolute simultaneity would have no application in a universe empty of matter and so governed entirely by the laws of Special Relativity. There is absolute simultaneity in our homogeneous and isotropic universe of galaxies receding from each other with a metric described by the Robertson-Walker line element. "Cosmic Time" provides a correct standard of absolute simultaneity. Back to contents
MULTIMEDIA LOGIC AND NEWS COMPREHENSION
GEORGE LAZAROIU
ABSTRACT. Herman and Chomsky affirm that the mass media are not a solid monolith on all issues. Inoue and Kawakami point out that television news viewing is an important factor for receiving news events faster regardless of news category. Thompson et al. say that news stories that focus on gangs have influenced attitudes and opinions by providing vivid public images of gang crime and criminals. Altheide and Michalowski claim that words are powerful when they become symbolic frames that direct discursive practices. Back to contents
GRICE ON MEANING AND USE
ADRIAN CONSTANTINESCU
ABSTRACT. Grice aims to determine how any distinction between meaning and use is to be drawn, and where lie the limits of its philosophical utility. Grice states that the question about the distinction between natural and non-natural meaning is what people are getting at when they display an interest in a distinction between "natural" and "conventional" signs. Grice observes that what a word means in a language is to say what it is in general optimal for speakers of that language to do with that word. Neale notices that Grice proposes to handle conventional implicatures by supposing them to stem from uses of conventional devices signaling the performance of "higher-order" speech acts parasitic upon the performance of "ground-floor" speech acts. Back to contents
HEIDEGGER AND THE ONTOLOGICAL DIMENSION OF INTENTIONALITY
OANA GHERMAN
ABSTRACT. As Heidegger puts it, the "world" unfolds as a set of possibilities that can be explored and nature becomes a set of potentialities that can be utilized for human ends. Dix uses Heidegger's phenomenology to say that man is naturally predisposed towards falling, thus creating an inauthentic life (only continual resistance to falling can bring one out of the default state of inauthenticity into an authentic mode of living). Livingston states that we can begin to understand Heidegger's remarks on the connection between machination and lived-experience by understanding their place in the complex organization of Beiträge as a whole. Moran maintains that Heidegger is developing Husserl, focusing in particular on the ontological dimension of intentionality. Back to contents
REASONS AND RATIONALITY IN GRICE'S THEORY OF MEANING
MADALINA NICOLOF
ABSTRACT. Davies writes that the use of the word "cooperative" seems to lead to a confusion between Grice's technical notion and the general meaning associated with the lexeme cooperation. Bach stresses that standardization is different not only from what Grice called "particularized" conversational implicature but also from conventional implicature and other sorts of conventionalization, such as dead metaphor and idiomatization. Allott claims that as far as Grice is concerned, making sense of utterances counts as reasoning, whether it is conscious or not, and whether it involves heuristics or not. Wharton points out that Grice's notion of what is said is to have coincided with the proposition expressed by the speaker, or the truth-conditional content of an utterance. Neale et al. hold that Grice provides systematic attempts to say precisely what meaning is by providing a series of ever more refined analyses of the utterer's meaning, sentence meaning, and what is said. Back to contents
THE IMPORTANCE OF MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS ON THE FORMATION OF SOCIAL REALITY
GEORGE LAZAROIU
ABSTRACT. Deuze argues that the ensemble of technological and organizational attributes is a bit clearer to observe and define than the institutional structures of convergent news media. Harcup and O'Neill think that the involvement of an elite organization may generate news coverage of an event that may have been ignored had it involved a non-elite organization. As Quinn emphasizes, massive changes in content (caused by the availability of information in digital form) will produce massive changes in society's response to the issues of copyright, defamation, censorship and privacy. Back to contents
WITTGENSTEIN AS DAVIDSON ON METAPHOR
SAMUEL C. WHEELER III
ABSTRACT. This essay has five parts: First, I explain some fundamental agreements between Davidson and Wittgenstein. I argue that Donald Davidson's views and Wittgenstein's views in the Investigations arise from some of the same fundamental insights. Second, I discuss Davidson's account of metaphor and the agreement between Davidson and Wittgenstein on some of the "facts" about metaphor. Third, I discuss how Davidson's conception of metaphor can be extended to deal with metaphor as a phenomenon in historical linguistics. Through a discussion of Davidson's account of language acquisition, I suggest how an account of the interrelationship between the idiolect and the common language, taking Derridean and Wittgensteinian considerations into account, can lead to an expanded Davidsonian account of metaphor and language. Language as idiolect and language as text turn out to be inextricably intertwined, so that indeterminacies in the common language become indeterminacies in the idiolect. Fourth, in order to show how such a conception could still be essentially Davidsonian in making truth and truth-definition central, I propose a Davidsonian account of truth that acknowledges in principle unknowable truth-values. This would allow Davidson to deal with metaphorical indeterminacies in the same way that he could deal with several other kinds of indeterminacy. I argue that this theory is compatible with everything Wittgenstein asserts, except for being a theory. Fifth, I argue that Wittgenstein could and should adopt this extended and adapted Davidsonian line, if he rethought some of his assumptions about truth, the use of "true," and the proper role of a theory of logical form. Back to contents
META-ETHICS AND ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE FROM WITTGENSTEIN TO DEONTIC LOGIC SYSTEMS
MAURILIO LOVATTI
ABSTRACT. In this paper, partly historical and partly theoretical, after having shorting outlined the development of meta-ethics in the 1900's, starting from Wittgenstein's Tractatus, I argued it is possible to sustain that emotivism and intuitionism are unsatisfactory ethical conceptions, while, on the contrary, reason plays an effective role both in ethical discussions and in choices. There are some characteristics of the ethical language (prescriptivity, universalizability and predominance) that cannot be eluded (pain the non significativity of the same language) by those who want to morally reason. These characteristics can be found whether or not all possible ontological-metaphysics foundations of morals are taken into account. Furthermore, the deontic logic systems allow the formalization of ethical theories and ? at least in principle ? a rigorous critical discussion of the same, but obviously nothing can be affirmed on the value of truth of the axioms of a system. In the deontic logic systems, Hume's law is assumed as an implicit result of inferential (conventional) rules. The acceptance of Hume's law as a logical-linguistic thesis does not involve the cancellation of values (nihilism) or ethical relativism or indifferentism. Back to contents
WITTGENSTEIN AND PHILOSOPHY AS THERAPY
MICHAEL A. PETERS
ABSTRACT. For Wittgenstein when we see a problem clearly or with clarity the problem disappears. This suggests that the process of philosophical is akin to certain kinds of therapy that which brings us relief from an incessant questioning, but only through a patient and painstaking process of linguistic analysis that attends to the detail through actual examples. For Wittgenstein clarity takes on an ethical and therapeutic aspect that brings both peace and contentment. This notion of clarity is not just a means for resolving puzzles, contradictions, confusions, or attaining conceptual clarity but becomes a meta-level goal that guides his whole therapeutic conception of philosophy. Back to contents
ONTOLOGY AS SINLOSS
GREGORY LANDINI
ABSTRACT. This paper investigates Russell's logical atomist views on the nature of ontology and compares them with those of Wittgenstein, Carnap and Quine. It is argued that although Russell rejected Wittgenstein's Doctrine of Showing his conception of philosophy as an eliminativistic analysis provides a new perspective on Wittgenstein's thesis and on the debate between Carnap and Quine on ontology. Back to contents
VICO, WITTGENSTEIN, BAKHTIN AND THE BACKGROUND: "WHAT IS THERE BEFORE ANYTHING IS"
JOHN SHOTTER
ABSTRACT. To live within a community which one senses as being one's own, as 'mine' as well as 'yours', as 'ours' rather than 'theirs', a community both to which and for which one feels answerable, one must be more than just a routine participant in it; one must in a real sense also be able to play a part in its creative reproduction and sustenance. Rather than just drawing upon its resources, one must also participate in those moments in a community's practices relevant to one's life, that are aimed at their critical evaluation and creative reproduction. One must be able to express from one's own position of involvement in a practice, one's own sense of its proper functioning. Back to contents
WITTGENSTEIN, IDEALISM AND PHILOSOPHY
MATTHEW J. DENSLEY
ABSTRACT. For the early Wittgenstein, the limits of what makes sense make manifest the unspeakable truth of idealism: that the limits of language are the limits of the world. An influential interpretation also finds an implicit commitment to idealism in his mature thought. I argue that his views on philosophy, while based on some major assumptions about the nature of language and philosophical method, are neither unjustified, nor incoherent. On the contrary, not only does his conception of language support his anti-theoretical views, they also rule out both conceptual idealism, and conceptual realism. This conception of language leads him to a radical conceptual relativism, without thereby being committed to either a pre-conceptualised reality or supra-conceptualised view from nowhere. Back to contents
PICTURING, SHOWING, AND SOLIPSISM IN WITTGENSTEIN'S TRACTATUS LOGICO-PHILOSOPHICUS
PETE MANDIK
ABSTRACT. I attempt to show how Wittgenstein's Tractatarian views on solipsism follow from a certain construal and elaboration of the picture theory of intentionality or aboutness. I do this by first reconstructing Wittgenstein's famous distinction between showing and saying in terms of the key notion of the picture theory: that aboutness is equivalent to resemblance. I interpret the distinction between showing and saying as a distinction between two different ways that facts can manifest intentionality. It is only with this construal of the distinction in hand that Wittgenstein's remarks on solipsism can be properly understood. Back to contents
WITTGENSTEIN'S METHOD FOR UNDERSTANDING UNDERSTANDING PRAXEOLOGICALLY
TIMOTHY KOSCHMANN
ABSTRACT. Wittgenstein employed a method of "grammatical analysis" to investigate how expressions such as 'to know.' 'to understand,' 'to feel' are actually used and understood. His analysis in the Philosophical Investigations of a conversation concerning the generation of a number series is one of Wittgenstein's most elaborate. In it, he walks us through a process of re-thinking understanding. Throughout, Wittgenstein employs a praxeological approach. It is praxeological, not just because he requires us to look to practices of language use, but also because he guides us in seeing through a practice of modeled reasoning. There is more work to be done, however, before we will be in a position to really understand understanding-in-use. Back to contents
WAISMANN'S CRITIQUE OF WITTGENSTEIN
ANTHONY BIRCH
ABSTRACT. Friedrich Waismann, a little-known mathematician and onetime student of Wittgenstein's, provides answers to problems that vexed Wittgenstein in his attempt to explicate the foundations of mathematics through an analysis of its practice. Waismann argues in favor of mathematical intuition and the reality of infinity with a Wittgensteinian twist. Waismann's arguments lead toward an approach to the foundation of mathematics that takes into consideration the language and practice of experts. Back to contents
WITTGENSTEIN: MEANING AND REPRESENTATION. WHAT DOES HE MEAN?
BRENT SILBY
ABSTRACT. For Wittgenstein, all aspects of the human mind are inescapably dependent upon the use of language. A cartesian view would maintain that thoughts and representation are possible without language, but Wittgenstein does not agree. In this paper I will describe Wittgenstein's theories of consciousness and representation. One of the central goals for Wittgenstein was to account for meaning. Wittgenstein offers two accounts of human consciousness. I will describe the early view, which was contained in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. I will then explain his later thoughts. Although Wittgenstein changed his mind and refuted his early work, there is a central claim in all of Wittgenstein's work. Back to contents
WITTGENSTEIN'S LETTERS TO RUSH RHEES, OR PLAGIARISM, POSITIVISM AND A FIRE-POKER
ALFRED SCHMIDT
ABSTRACT. He was arguably the most important Austrian philosopher of our century: Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889?1951), whose works, including his well-known Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, continues to present us with many a riddle. Meanwhile, Wittgenstein was not just a publisher of studies, essays and aphorisms on linguistic and epistemological theory ? he was also a committed letter-writer. Back to contents
WITTGENSTEIN'S PRIVATE LANGUAGE ARGUMENT AND SELF CONSCIOUSNESS
MARK ADDIS
ABSTRACT. The private language argument in Wittgenstein has important implications for how self consciousness should be characterised. Some recent cognitivist theories claim that the self is really the sense of being a mental presence whilst the body is merely a container for these vital mental attributes. The cognitivist perspective emphasizes that mental states are internal to the mind thereby promoting the notion that the self is separate from the body. The private language argument is used to critique cognitivism through an examination of the notion of privacy which this conception of mental states depends upon. The assumption that the mental is essentially private leads to the supposition that it is intelligible to attribute self consciousness to either minds or bodies. On Wittgenstein's view new theories of the self are not required but a grammatical investigation into the employment of 'self consciousness' and its cognates (including their psychological and neuroscientific uses) is. Back to contents
WITTGENSTEIN'S MUSIC, MUSIC'S WITTGENSTEIN, AND JOSEF LABOR
GRANT CHU COVELL
ABSTRACT. Ludwig Wittgenstein rejected the contemporary music of his time (Strauss, Mahler, Schoenberg, et al.) in favor of older, classically constructed and generally more conservative music (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Josef Labor). The reasons for his preference are not immediately evident given his adventurous thinking, however, his attraction to music which worked within a solidly established system of rules does make sense. Additionally, a brief list of compositions which have set Wittgenstein's words and a short discography of Josef Labor's music. Back to contents
COMMUNAL PRAXIS AND NORMATIVITY
NORMAN LILLEGARD
ABSTRACT. Pragmatists and those with affinities for pragmatism, such as Wittgenstein, have argued that the sorts of rules or norms fit to constitute anything as a community, including linguistic norms, must be more than formal, must be embedded in practice. It is argued that linguistic norms or rules cannot be construed as explicit rules without risking an infinite regress, and that the following of implicit rules is shown only in communal practices apart from which distinctions between correct and incorrect cannot take hold. The rules or norms in question are well taken as something more than rules of thumb. Arguments designed to provide an adequate account of rule following without reference to normatively constituted community are criticized. Back to contents
INNER AND OUTER, SELF AND OTHER: WITTGENSTEIN ON SUBJECTIVITY
CHANTAL BAX
ABSTRACT. On my reading, Wittgenstein's seemingly anti-philosophical remarks do not reject philosophy as inherently confused. Far from arguing that philosophers are at fault for aspiring to understand the nature of things, he is merely trying to explain that, to the extent in which they hope to find simple and sublime essences, philosophers are prevented from ever gaining such understanding. Indeed, this makes Wittgenstein's writings highly appropriate, not for undermining investigations into subjectivity, but for actually contributing to our understanding of human being. Back to contents
WITTGENSTEIN, ETHICS, AND NONSENSE
MATTHEW PIANALTO
ABSTRACT. Wittgenstein argues in his "Lecture on Ethics" that ethical statements, although in some way significant, are logically nonsense. Wittgenstein's pronouncement about ethical statements, and the analysis which leads to it, bears similarities to his claim at the end of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus that the propositions it contains are nonsense. This paper examines the argument in the "Lecture on Ethics" in order to better understand what Wittgenstein means by "nonsense," and suggests that his views about ethical statements bear directly upon his reasons for declaring that the Tractatus itself is nonsense. Back to contents
THE GRAMMAR OF "GOOD METAPHYSICS"
RANDY RAMAL
ABSTRACT. In this paper I argue against several defenders of metaphysics who claim that the extant analytic critiques of metaphysics do not apply to "good" versions of it, particularly to A. N. Whitehead's version. The proponents of "good metaphysics" grant it the status of a "language-game" and/or "grammar", arguing that it is a descriptive form of metaphysics that transcends the desirable analytic critiques. My counter argument is that this claim is based on the confused idea that a descriptive metaphysics is a grammatical activity similar in nature to the descriptive activity of philosophy as grammar. Descriptive generalizations, I argue, are not the same as descriptive elucidations of ordinary concepts. Back to contents
POETRY AND PRIVATE LANGUAGE
PETER LAMARQUE
ABSTRACT. The paper discusses three theses in relation to poetry: (1) the Inadequacy Thesis: language is inadequate to capture, portray, do justice to, the quality and intensity of the inner life; (2) the Empathy Thesis: descriptions of certain kinds of experiences can only be (adequately) understood by a person who has had similar experiences; (3) the Poetic Thesis, which has two parts: (a) only through poetry can we hope to overcome the problem of the Inadequacy Thesis and (b) the difficulty of (some) poetry is at least partly explained by the Empathy Thesis. The paper argues that there are important truths underlying each thesis but that it would be wrong to connect this kernel of truth with a Lockean view of language, and in particular with a view of language as 'private', in the sense implied by Locke and criticized by Wittgenstein. The romantic conception of poetry, to which the theses are related, neither relies on the Lockean view nor does it succumb to the Wittgensteinian view. Back to contents
ON LADDER WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS AND ONE WAY OF DEALING WITH THEM
T.P. USCHANOV
ABSTRACT. The Tractatusspeaks so much about logic because logic can unproblematically be spoken of in the language-game of logic, unlike ethics. But the status of the Tractatus as an ethical treatise which nevertheless presents its critique by means of formal logic is, in the end, caused by the fact that the philosophical problems with the logic it expounds are precisely what prevents philosophers from grasping Wittgenstein's ethical views. Back to contents
HERETICAL ESSAY ON WITTGENSTEIN'S META-ETHICS
TIBOR R. MACHAN
ABSTRACT. Ethics cannot be taught, not in the sense in which all factual teaching occurs. If someone learns, that individual has already lived according to a moral standard. The decision to be attentive and willing to learn is, in other words, not teachable; it is the independent contribution of the agent. Nothing in this interpretation of ethics—its special place in the array of the human sciences—makes it into a mystical affair, which should have its place in the area of the supernatural or beyond the boundaries of language. Back to contents
DEFENDING A PURE BIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF "FORM OF LIFE" IN THE PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS
JASON WALLER
ABSTRACT. In this paper, I defend the currently unpopular view that we ought to interpret "form of life" in Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations simply as "biologically similar." My defense takes place in two parts. First, in sections I and II, I attempt to recast the problem and provide criteria for a successful solution. Second, in sections III and IV, I provide both a philosophical and a textual defense of a pure biological interpretation. Back to contents
THE MORAL DIMENSION OF WITTGENSTEIN'S PHILOSOPHICAL METHOD
CHRYSOULA GITSOULIS
ABSTRACT. Wittgenstein wrote: 'Working in philosophy … is really more a working on oneself. On one's own interpretation. On one's own way of seeing things.' In what sense, for Wittgenstein, is work in philosophy 'work on oneself'? This paper will be devoted to answering this question, and to delineating the moral aspects of this work. Back to contents
WITTGENSTEIN ON THE GENERAL FORM OF A PROPOSITION
ROBERT STREIFFER
ABSTRACT. Wittgenstein claims that [p, ξ,N(ξ)] is the general form of a proposition and that any proposition can be generated by successive applications of the N(ξ) operator. After explaining the general form and the intended procedure, I argue that, regardless of whether the operator is understood as applying to the set of all elementary propositions or to subsets of all elementary propositions, the procedure fails to generate all truth-functional or quantificational propositions. A different procedure, however, allows the generations of many, although not all, of the propositions in the intended sequence. Back to contents
PITCH, RHYTHM, AND INSTRUMENTAL COLOR (I)
CARMEN STOIANOV • PETRU STOIANOV
ABSTRACT. Meyer explains that musical styles are more or less complex systems of sound relationships understood and used in common by a group of individuals. Kivy holds that the emotions expressed by music are possessed by the music (they are an essential part of the syntactic structure of music). Montague Lavy presents the foundations of a model of emotional response to music that places the experience of listening to music squarely within the wider frame of human engagement with the environment. Kramer contends that we bring the music close to some worldly circumstance in the faith that the closeness is something recognized. Back to contents
FORM, RHYTHM, AND EXPRESSION IN CHORAL MUSIC
ADRIANA DRAGAN
ABSTRACT. Davis contends that at the point of ratings diversion, musical content becomes more complex with fast tempo, repetitive choral accompaniment figures, loud dynamics, and incrementally more complicated text placement where canon form is used. Burrows claims that Handel's Chapel Royal music deserves its place of canonic honor in the creative landscape of English church music. Kasparian affirms that music with a sacred text has an independent secular aesthetic identity because of its significance as music. Pérez et al. focus on the challenges of composing a choral piece, Díamair, using various aspects of an Integral Music Controller (IMC) and the influence the interface has on the composition process. Back to contents
ON PREFERRING BEETHOVEN
LUMINITA POGACEANU
ABSTRACT. Solomon argues that in the openings of certain of his greatest works, Beethoven eradicates the implication of a safe haven. As Schenker puts it, in the first movement of Beethoven's Eroica symphony even the descending fifth-progression in bars 90-1, the third fifth-progression of the movement, remains without any kind of contrapuntal independence having been imparted to the individual notes. Ockelford writes that at the end of the last movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata op. 110, a motive derived from the opening of the sonata forms an ascending sequence that leads to the climax of the work. Back to contents
MUSIC PERFORMANCE, REHEARSING, AND CONDUCTING
OVIDIU DRAGAN
ABSTRACT. Lee et al. explain that designing interactive conducting exhibits for public spaces poses unique challenges (the conceptual model of conducting music varies among users). Humphries argues that to deal with vertically conceived passages, one needs a clear image of each separate chord and an understanding of the role each instrument plays in it. Litman claims that descriptions of the purpose of choral conducting gesture are varied (they all seem to correspond at one point: the conductor's gesture consists of a translation of the intended movement and rhythm of music into a form of visible signs that are intended to shape the musical behavior of the conducted in a common way). Back to contents
ON AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE PRACTICE
VIORICA BARBU-IURASCU
ABSTRACT. According to Nielsen, intervals are the elements which first arouse a deeper interest in music. Kramer stresses that the culture of classical music came to seem mandarin and out of touch. Lewis says that notes, timbre, melody, rhythm, and other musical constructs cannot function simply as ends in themselves. According to Adorno, Stravinsky's taboo on subjectivity has a liberating effect on the instruments which, instead of playing a subservient role, now begin to speak for themselves. Back to contents
THE MODALITY OF THE ROMANIAN-LANGUAGE FOLKSONG
LAURA V. DEMENESCU
ABSTRACT. Zlateva remarks that in Banat the songs have four melodic lines, with the main cadence after the second, on the subtonic. Beissinger contends that Romanian epic songs range from approximately 150 to 400 lines. Leytes witnesses significant and surprising similarities in Enescu and Gershwin concepts about the importance of national folk music. Mellish observes that the period of Rusalii was a liminal period in villagers' lives as during normal relationships within the village were suspended and certain work interdictions applied. Back to contents
DIFFERENTIAL MODES OF CHORAL PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
ADRIANA DRAGAN
ABSTRACT. Pérez et al. claim that research on new interfaces for musical expression tends to primarily focus on innovative gesture measurement, extending traditional instruments' expressivity or creating completely new digital instruments. Kasparian thinks that the reasonable audience member can be expected to use their imagination to engage in the performance, rather than impute to the performer belief or endorsement of the message of every piece performed in a concert. Durrant proposes five "families" within which individual choral conducting gestures could be allocated: connotative gestures, literal gestures, helpful gestures, inappropriate gestures, and gestures shared with the singers themselves. Back to contents
STYLISTIC COMPETENCY AND INTERPRETIVE NUANCE
LUMINITA POGACEANU
ABSTRACT. Kertz-Welzel notes that improvisation means inventing music at the moment of playing without writing it down. Kramer argues that listening to classical music involves both unselfconscious absorption in the sweep of a piece as a whole and quickened attention to special details. Lester explains that cadences are by nature neither metrically accented nor metrically unaccented. Hailey contends that Mahler was exploring the tension between the subjective content and rhetorical demands of his musical language and the abstract demands of rigorous formal and motivic organization. Back to contents
INTERACTIVE MUSIC SYSTEMS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPRESSIVE CONDUCTING GESTURES
OVIDIU DRAGAN
ABSTRACT. Pérez et al. describe the process of composing for a new interface, the use of such a system as dictated by the concept of the piece and the effect the novel interface has on the decision making for the final compositional result. Schementi claims that ideally the virtual orchestra can be simplified down to a virtual musician who should be able to perform with or replace a musician. Behringer asserts that the interaction possibilities for musicians with electronic (digital) music instruments are still quite limited and cumbersome. Back to contents
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS
LUMINITA IONESCU
ABSTRACT. Gray and Densten claim that effective knowledge management is at the heart of organizational performance. Kwnates and Boglarsky view aspects of organizational culture that promote employee fulfillment and satisfaction as positively related to leadership and personal effectiveness. Marinova explicates the impact of organizational culture on employees' roles and subsequent role behaviors; understanding organizational culture and its impact on human behavior in organizations is of critical importance. Back to contents
OPTIMAL MONETARY POLICY, ASSET PRICES, AND FIRM INVESTMENT
DORIN DOBRISAN
ABSTRACT. Berger et al. study the nexus between globalization and the optimal monetary policy response to asset prices. Reddy holds that at an operational level, there is greater transparency amongst the monetary authorities as a strategic objective. Rogoff argues that continuing asset price volatility is at least in part because of heightened asset price sensitivity to risk changes as risk levels fall, and the increasing ability of financial markets to diversify risk. Gavin et al. calculate the term structure of inflation uncertainty in New Keynesian models when the monetary authority adopts the optimal policy. Moreno and Villar remark that there has been a strategic shift by foreign banks away from pursuing internationally active corporate clients towards the exploration of business opportunities in the domestic market. Back to contents
LIBERAL IMPERIALISM AND EXTRAREGIONAL HEGEMONY
STEFAN PAUN
ABSTRACT. Smith writes that whereas the geographical language of empires suggests a malleable politics, the "American Century" suggests an inevitable destiny. Eland shows that imperial behavior by one power can lead to counterbalancing by other powers. Felker argues that we need to study how to degrade and destroy our adversaries' abilities to transmit their military, political, and economic goods, services and information. Gagné maintains that after the Second World War, decisions made at Yalta and Potsdam were to modify the structure and dynamics of international relations in a very significant way. Back to contents
PRACTISING HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
MADALINA T. ANDREI
ABSTRACT. Salter and Meserve hold that to be a real geographer, one must observe: there is great power in observation. Soja claims that geographically uneven development, reproduced at multiple scales, is inherent to the concretization of capitalist social relations. Mayhew explains that a history of geography should be concerned with the past for its own sake. Callicott emphasizes that a new scientific paradigm is emerging which will sooner or later replace the waning mechanical worldview and its associated values and technological spirit. Smith states that fluids and flows, actant networks, performances and practices fold the spaces and times of cities in ways that question the privileging of geometrical space and linear time in explanations of global and world cities. Back to contents
GOVERNANCE AND EUROPEAN PRIVATE LAW
FELICIA GEORGESCU
ABSTRACT. Caruso holds that private law performs a significant state-breaking function. By regulatory functions of private law Cafaggi and Muir Watt mean the ability of private law instruments, in particular contract, torts and property to address market failures. Joerges observes that the interventions of European law into general private law have so far been quite marginal. Cafaggi holds that the institutional framework is composed of the set of institutions that affect the process through which private law is "produced" at European and national level. Back to contents
MONETARY POLICY AND GLOBAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION
DORIN DOBRISAN
ABSTRACT. Wagner analyzes a channel of influence on monetary policy, which is based on an increase in competition through global economic integration. Yellen asserts that global factors may impact inflation in the medium term. Carlsson and Westermark assert that downward nominal rigidity implies that there is a potential relationship between wage negotiations today and in the future. Buch and Kleinert affirm that the effect of exchange rate changes is not as strong as for firms with low initial wealth because the wealth effect is not as important. Goodfriend and Prasad state that money would not constitute a good stand-alone nominal anchor for an economy that is undergoing major structural changes and financial innovations. Back to contents
CORPORATE INVESTMENT AND THE TRANSMISSION MECHANISM OF MONETARY POLICY
ELENA-MARIA TUDOR
ABSTRACT. Reddy says that a factor that complicates the transmission mechanism of monetary policy is the limited size of the Indian financial system. Barseghyan and DiCecio analyze optimal discretionary monetary policy in an endogenous sticky prices model: sticky-price firms are allowed to switch to flexible pricing by paying a random cost. Gavin et al. point out that policymakers closely monitor long-term interest rates because they reflect expectations about future policy. Gilchrist et al. claim that firms, unlike investors, can exploit stock market bubbles by issuing new shares at inflated prices; this lowers the cost of capital and increases real investment. Back to contents
ON JUDICIAL HARMONIZATION OF PRIVATE LAW
ION ZAULET
ABSTRACT. Cafaggi claims that the formation of European private law is a process. Cafaggi and Muir Watt highlight the internal transformation of private law and its increasing regulatory function to be considered in governance design. Murillo emphasizes that, over the 20th century, the obsolescence in various degrees of the early 19th century codes motivated a tendency towards legislative reforms in Latin America. Smits puts it that the more positivist the legal system and the more nationalist the country, the less efficient the law. Back to contents
HEGEMONIC STABILITY, DISTRIBUTED GOVERNANCE, AND RETERRITORIALIZATION
STEFAN PAUN
ABSTRACT. Harvey argues that a direct trade-off exists between changing technology or location in the competitive search for excess profits. Layne points out that a hegemon tends to overpay for security, which eventually weakens the internal foundation of its external position. Jessop treats structural integration and social cohesion as deeply problematic and the constitution of bounded and unified societies as inherently improbable. Gagné affirms that geo-economics is not a substitute for geopolitics.: significant new components must be added to the understanding of State behavior and of the international system. Back to contents