http://venus.powerblogs.com/ The unofficial USC Philosophy Graduate Student Blog en-us 2009-06-23T00:06+00:00 http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1245715909.shtml ... Justin Snedegar 2009-06-23T00:06+00:00 http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1245400985.shtml I'm working on a paper idea, and it would be helpful if I knew something about what the going views are on defeating, in the following sense: I may have some... Justin Snedegar 2009-06-19T08:06+00:00
I feel like there are probably `internalist' and `externalist' style positions here: on the internalist position, if d defeats evidence e for agent A, then A must know d; on the externalist position, d can defeat e for A even if A does not know d, or something like that. Anyway, any suggestions would be appreciated. ]]> http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1243626922.shtml I'll paste the email I sent out here.... Justin Snedegar 2009-05-29T19:05+00:00
Hi everyone,

I've emailed (most of) you before about this group, but things are a bit more worked out now. If you're interested in joining, let me know so you can be involved in deciding where/when to meet.

For those who don't know what it is, contrastivism (in epistemology) is a view, defended mainly by Jonathan Schaffer, which says that knowledge that p is always knowledge that p rather than q, for some 'contrast proposition' q. Thus, the knowledge relation is not binary - Ksp - but ternary - Kspq. Here is Schaffer, from "Contrastive Knowledge":

"Does G.E. Moore know that he has hands? Yes, says the dogmatist: Moore's hands are right before his eyes. No, says the skeptic: for all Moore knows he could be a brain in a vat. Yes and no, says the contrastivist: yes, Moore knows that he has hands rather than stumps; but no, Moore does not know that he has hands rather than vat-images of hands."

So, contrastivism is a cousin both to the relevant alternatives view and to contextualism in epistemology. We'll find out why we should prefer contrastivism to either of those views, I assume.

The first paper we'll read is Schaffer's "Contrastive Knowledge". You can find it on his website, or, more conveniently, I have set up a drop.io site with all of the readings that we'll cover. Here's the link: http://drop.io/usccontrastivism. If, at any point, you need a password (which you shouldn't), it's 'contrastivism'. On that site, you can view the papers, without downloading them, or download them.

I know some of you are not in L.A. If you're interested in joining, we can use the drop.io site to do something online for you.

We'll plan to start the week of June 8. Email me if you're interested.

Justin]]> http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1241251096.shtml Neil Sinhababu, (Singapore National University)... Justin Snedegar 2009-05-02T07:05+00:00
"How Double-Humeans Can Make Room For Error"

Tuesday, May 12, 4 pm, MHP 102

The talk will be about the Humean account of reasons. ]]> http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1240791557.shtml Here is a link.... Justin Snedegar 2009-04-27T00:04+00:00 link.

UCLA Logic Center and the Department of Mathematics

The Convergence of Logic, Mathematics and Computer Science

A Public Symposium and Reception

Thursday, April 30, 2009
Kerckhoff Hall, Charles E. Young Grand Salon
2:00pm-7:00pm

Martin Davis, New York University
Michael O. Rabin, Harvard University and Google Research
Moshe Y. Vardi, Rice University

Schedule

2:00-3:00 Moshe Y. Vardi - From Aristotle to the
Pentium

3:00-3:30 Tea break

3:30-4:30 Martin Davis - Hilbert's Tenth Problem

4:30-5:00 Tea break

5:00-6:00 Michael O. Rabin - Novel Concepts of Proof and Their Applications

6:00-7:00 Reception

RSVP to Logicsymp@math.ucla.edu or 310.794.9080]]> http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1239672100.shtml Sorry this is a bit late, but the annual Reichenbach Lecture will be happening tomorrow (Tuesday, April 14) at UCLA. Here's the information:... Matt Glass 2009-04-14T01:04+00:00
The 2009 Reichenbach Lecture

Nancy Cartwright
Professor of Philosophy

London School of Economics and
University of California, San Diego

'Can Queen Physics Rule All the Subjects in Her Dominion?'

Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 3:00 p.m.
Law School, Room 1347

Reception to follow

Should be a good time. I hope the answer to her title question is 'Yes, with an iron fist'.]]> http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1239660219.shtml Joseph Levine and Louise Antony will each give a talk next week at Cal State-LA. Here are the announcements.... Justin Snedegar 2009-04-13T22:04+00:00
California State University, Los Angeles
Department of Philosophy
presents a lecture by

Joseph Levine, U MASS Amherst

“Consciousness and Self-Knowledge: Getting Acquainted With Our Thoughts”

Monday, April 20, 2009

3:15-5:00 PM

King Hall B2006

Reception at 5:00 PM. Engineering & Technology, A-420

and

California State University, Los Angeles
Department of Philosophy
and the Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities
present the Ann Garry and Sharon Bishop Feminist Endowed Lecture:

Louise Antony, U MASS Amherst

“ What Do We Need to Know about Human Nature?”

Thursday, April 23, 2009

3:15-5:00 PM

University Student Union, Alhambra Room (3rd floor)

Reception at 5:00 PM. Engineering & Technology, A-420

Cal State LA is located at the Eastern Ave. exit of the San Bernardino Freeway (10) a few miles east of downtown LA at the Long Beach Freeway (710). For directions or parking information contact the Philosophy Department at 323-343-4180 or http://www.calstatela.edu/univ/maps/cslamap.htm]]> http://venus.powerblogs.com/posts/1239007061.shtml I've finally put things together for the contrastivism reading group for the summer. I plan to start early-mid June, and have gathered a bunch of readings.... Justin Snedegar 2009-04-06T08:04+00:00
I've also set up a drop/blog for the group, so it should be easy for people not in L.A. to participate.

Send me an email to let me know if you're interested, and I can send you more information:

jsned12 [at] gmail [dot] com]]>