Hesperus/Phosphorus http://venus.powerblogs.com/ The unofficial USC Philosophy Graduate Student Blog en-us 2007-02-18T11:02+00:00 2nd Annual UCLA/USC Graduate Student Conference http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1160966291.shtml Call For Papers:... Lewis Powell 2006-10-16T02:10+00:00 Call For Papers:
The Second UCLA/USC Graduate Conference in Philosophy will be held on February 24, 2007. The submission deadline for papers is November 23, 2006. Papers should be suitable for a 25-30 minute presentation. Papers may be on any topic in contemporary analytic philosophy. Further details are available on the call for papers.
]]> "Do you know the time?" http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1157089456.shtml This is one of those times when I post without having looked into things carefully first, which means I run the risk of rehashing well worn ground or the like. However,... Lewis Powell 2006-09-01T05:09+00:00
This is something I've been thinking about since watching an episode of the West Wing in which it (sort of) came up.

When someone asks "Do you know the time?", it is rarely, if ever, the case that a correct affirmative answer to the question would be satisfactory.

At one point in thinking about this I was wondering if maybe a maxim of courtesy was in play, something like, "don't ask a question which you lack sufficient evidence to believe that others in the conversation will be able to answer." That formulation requires tweaking if we consider "I don't know" to be an answer to the question "What time is it?". It's also possible that such a maxim would be superfluous, and existing machinery can already explain what's going on there.

The phenomenon seems to be potentially related to what goes on in situations like this: "What time is it?" "I think its around 5", where the "I think" serves to generate an implicature about the speaker's confidence in that guess.

I haven't really looked into it any literature on implicature and questions, but investigating issues for implicature that are specific to the domain of questions is something I want to do in my spare time this semester (if I have any such time).

If you know of anything good to read on, or related to, this subject, please let me know.]]> Hiatus is Over http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1157050316.shtml Ok, the summer has ended, and the school year is back in gear (at least, the school year at USC is), so that means it is also time to end the... Lewis Powell 2006-08-31T18:08+00:00
With the start of a new year, we also have some fresh blood in the form of the first year students. If we're lucky that means, on occaision, someone other than me will be posting here. I'll be creating accounts for any of them who want one later today, and I will also start pestering them to contribute.

I hope everyone had a good summer, and I'll be back to posting philosophy stuff later this very day.]]> Hiatus http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1150581839.shtml ... Lewis Powell 2006-06-17T22:06+00:00 A comic about epistemology http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1149905743.shtml Some philosophical questions can only be tackled by a Tyrannosaurus Rex.... Lewis Powell 2006-06-10T02:06+00:00 a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

I will actually post something of substance soon.]]> Blogging to resume soon http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1148459800.shtml ... Lewis Powell 2006-05-24T08:05+00:00 SCP-East http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1147406873.shtml ... Brandon Johns 2006-05-12T04:05+00:00 here.]]> Mackie on Standards of Evaluation http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1146890078.shtml A couple days ago I was reading through chapter one of "Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong", The Subjectivity of Values for a paper I was working on for the metaethics seminar... Lewis Powell 2006-05-06T04:05+00:00 The Subjectivity of Values for a paper I was working on for the metaethics seminar I took this semester, and section 5, "Standards of evaluation" caught my attention. It is about two pages long, and in it, he is both clear and insightful. The section lays out the relationship between standards of evaluation and value judgements, as well as the appropriateness of standards relative to aims. He concludes that the objectivity of evaluation relative to standards in no way threatens a denial of objectivity about values in the sense that he means.

Right now, I suspect that he is wrong in that conclusion, and that the contents of that section either directly threaten, or play a role in something that does directly threaten a denial of objectivity, but I haven't had a chance to work that out, as I am trying to get this semester's work finished in a timely manner.

Which I should be getting back to now, actually.]]>