Dietmar Zaefferer (LMU) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (15 May, 2014) titled "Do Modus Ponens and Tollens Really Leak? Remarks from a Linguistic Semanticist". Abstract: Despite considerable progress in formal logic and semantics conditional constructions continue to be a hotly debated topic. One reason for this difficulty of achieving a consensus could be that the problem is simply too hard to be solvable at the current state of the art, so McGee might still be right with his 1985...

Timothy Bays (Notre Dame) gives a talk at the Workshop on ”Putnam's Model-Theoretic Arguments" (May 23, 2013) titled "Putnam and the Multiverse".

Benjamin Smart (Birmingham) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (10 January, 2013) titled "The Metaphysics of Lazy Worlds". Abstract: Although it is not uncommon for philosophers to put the fundamental laws to one side and discuss, say, causal interactions concerning macroscopic objects like vases, matches and so on (Mumford and Anjum 2011), in this paper we are concerned with our most fundamental physical principles, and the universal laws that can be derived from these. When it comes to...

Manfred Harth (LMU) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (19 June, 2013) titled "Relativism and Superassertibility". Abstract: Relativism about truth is in vogue these days. More and more areas of thought and language are considered as promising candidates for a relativistic semantics in recent years: future contingents, epistemic modals, taste-judgements, knowledge ascriptions, moral judgements etc. However, current truth-relativism is a highly contested position facing some serious problems,...

Tobias Rosefeldt (Berlin) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (5 June, 2013) titled "Things that don't exist". Abstract: Are there things that don’t exist? Several answers seem to be possible here. You can answer ‚yes’ because you are a Mainongian and believe that existence is a discriminating property of objects, i.e. a property that some objects have and others lack. You can answer ‚no’ because you are a Quinean and believe that to exist just means to be identical to something and hence is...

Tim Button (Cambridge) gives a talk at the Workshop on ”Putnam's Model-Theoretic Arguments" (May 23, 2013) titled "Naive perception, Cartesian scepticism, and the model-theoretic arguments".

Barbara Vetter (Berlin) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (25 April, 2013) titled "How to be a Dispositionalist about Modality". Abstract: In recent years, metaphysicians have become increasingly attracted to the idea that modality is grounded in, or that modal statements are made true by, the dispositions of concrete objects. Some attempts have been made to formulate the view and to respond to objections. Objections typically come in the form of specific counter-examples to the view. I...

Kate Hodesdon (Bristol) gives a talk at the Workshop on ”Putnam's Model-Theoretic Arguments" (May 23, 2013) titled "Internal Realism and Structural Realism".

John Wigglesworth (MCMP/LMU) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (16 July, 2015) titled "Mathematical Structuralism and Metaphysical Dependence". Abstract: The notion of dependence plays various roles in non-eliminative mathematical structuralism. Of particular interest is the dependence relation that is said by some structuralists to hold between an abstract mathematical structure and the various realisations that exemplify that structure. This dependence relation can be used to distinguish...

Colloquium Mathematical Philosophy, John Wigglesworth (MCMP/LMU) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (16 July, 2015) titled "Mathematical Structuralism and Metaphysical Dependence". Abstract: The notion of dependence plays various roles in non-eliminative mathematical structuralism. Of particular interest is the dependence relation that is said by some structuralists to hold between an abstract mathematical structure and the various realisations that exemplify that structure. This dependence...

Johanna Wolff (Hong Kong) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (8 July, 2015) titled "Realism about Measurement and Realism about Magnitudes". Abstract: A realist about measurement, roughly speaking, holds that measurements give us information about, or epistemic access to, the way the world is. Measurement, on such an account, is objective. A realist about magnitudes, understood either as properties or relations, holds that the way measurements provide such objective knowledge is by tracking...

Colloquium Mathematical Philosophy, Johanna Wolff (Hong Kong) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (8 July, 2015) titled "Realism about Measurement and Realism about Magnitudes". Abstract: A realist about measurement, roughly speaking, holds that measurements give us information about, or epistemic access to, the way the world is. Measurement, on such an account, is objective. A realist about magnitudes, understood either as properties or relations, holds that the way measurements provide such...

Debatte zur Frage "Existiert Gott?", Winfried Löffler (Innsbruck) nimmt Stellung zum Thema "Existiert Gott?" (8. Dezember 2014) auf der gleichnamigen Veranstaltung und vertritt damit eine gegensätzliche Postion zu Norbert Hoerster (Mainz), ebenfalls Diskutant der Veranstaltung. (Hinweis: Wegen technischer Schwierigkeiten beginnt das Live-Video ab der 2. Minute.) Zusammenfassung: „Existiert Gott?“– Wenn es eine Frage gibt, über die man sich einfach nicht einig wird, dann ist es diese Frage....

Winfried Löffler (Innsbruck) nimmt Stellung zum Thema "Existiert Gott?" (8. Dezember 2014) auf der gleichnamigen Veranstaltung und vertritt damit eine gegensätzliche Postion zu Norbert Hoerster (Mainz), ebenfalls Diskutant der Veranstaltung. (Hinweis: Wegen technischer Schwierigkeiten beginnt das Live-Video ab der 2. Minute.) Zusammenfassung: „Existiert Gott?“– Wenn es eine Frage gibt, über die man sich einfach nicht einig wird, dann ist es diese Frage. Aber woran liegt es, dass es in Bezug...

Debatte zur Frage "Existiert Gott?", Winfried Löffler (Innsbruck) nimmt Stellung zum Thema "Existiert Gott?" (8. Dezember 2014) auf der gleichnamigen Veranstaltung und vertritt damit eine gegensätzliche Postion zu Norbert Hoerster (Mainz), ebenfalls Diskutant der Veranstaltung. (Hinweis: Wegen technischer Schwierigkeiten beginnt das Live-Video ab der 2. Minute.) Zusammenfassung: „Existiert Gott?“– Wenn es eine Frage gibt, über die man sich einfach nicht einig wird, dann ist es diese Frage....

Thomas Ede Zimmermann (Frankfurt) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (25 June, 2015) titled "Fregean Compositionality". Abstract: The distinction between transparent and opaque contexts has always played a major rôle in theories of linguistic semantics, though it has undergone a number of reformulations and precisifications since its origins in Frege’s classical substitution arguments. Most dramatically, the unfathomable distinction between Sinn and Bedeutung has been recast in more...

Colloquium Mathematical Philosophy, Thomas Ede Zimmermann (Frankfurt) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (25 June, 2015) titled "Fregean Compositionality". Abstract: The distinction between transparent and opaque contexts has always played a major rôle in theories of linguistic semantics, though it has undergone a number of reformulations and precisifications since its origins in Frege’s classical substitution arguments. Most dramatically, the unfathomable distinction between Sinn and...

Otávio Bueno (Miami) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (22 January, 2015) titled "Logic and Metaphysical Presuppositions". Abstract: Does logic (in particular, classical logic) have metaphysical presuppositions? It may be thought that it doesn’t: logical principles and logical inferences are often taken as not requiring the existence of any objects for them to hold. Logical principles are supposedly true in any domain (so there is no reliance on the subject matter at hand), and logical...

Colloquium Mathematical Philosophy, Otávio Bueno (Miami) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (22 January, 2015) titled "Logic and Metaphysical Presuppositions". Abstract: Does logic (in particular, classical logic) have metaphysical presuppositions? It may be thought that it doesn’t: logical principles and logical inferences are often taken as not requiring the existence of any objects for them to hold. Logical principles are supposedly true in any domain (so there is no reliance on the...

Markus Werning (Bochum) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (11 December, 2014) titled "Making Quotation Transparent: A Compositional Analysis of an Apparently Opaque Phenomenon". Abstract: Quotation is regarded as a paradigmatically opaque context. This is due to two failures: (i) A failure of substitution: in quotations the substitution of an expression with a synonym does not leave the meaning of the embedding context unchanged. (ii) A failure of existential generalization: in quotations...

Colloquium Mathematical Philosophy, Markus Werning (Bochum) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (11 December, 2014) titled "Making Quotation Transparent: A Compositional Analysis of an Apparently Opaque Phenomenon". Abstract: Quotation is regarded as a paradigmatically opaque context. This is due to two failures: (i) A failure of substitution: in quotations the substitution of an expression with a synonym does not leave the meaning of the embedding context unchanged. (ii) A failure of...

Norbert Hoerster (Mainz) nimmt Stellung zum Thema "Existiert Gott?" (8. Dezember 2014) auf der gleichnamigen Veranstaltung und vertritt damit eine gegensätzliche Postion zu Winfried Löffler (Innsbruck), ebenfalls Diskutant der Veranstaltung. Zusammenfassung: „Existiert Gott?“ – Wenn es eine Frage gibt, über die man sich einfach nicht einig wird, dann ist es diese Frage. Aber woran liegt es, dass es in Bezug auf die Existenz Gottes seit Jahrhunderten (oder sogar Jahrtausenden) keine Einigung...

Debatte zur Frage "Existiert Gott?", Norbert Hoerster (Mainz) nimmt Stellung zum Thema "Existiert Gott?" (8. Dezember 2014) auf der gleichnamigen Veranstaltung und vertritt damit eine gegensätzliche Postion zu Winfried Löffler (Innsbruck), ebenfalls Diskutant der Veranstaltung. Zusammenfassung: „Existiert Gott?“ – Wenn es eine Frage gibt, über die man sich einfach nicht einig wird, dann ist es diese Frage. Aber woran liegt es, dass es in Bezug auf die Existenz Gottes seit Jahrhunderten...

David Chalmers (NYU) meets Thomas Meier (MCMP/LMU) in a joint session on "Structural Realism" (generously supported by the Goethe-Institut New York) at the MCMP workshop "Bridges 2014" (2 and 3 Sept, 2014, German House, New York City). The 2-day trans-continental meeting in mathematical philosophy focused on inter-theoretical relations thereby connecting form and content of this philosophical exchange. Idea and motivation: We use theories to explain, to predict and to instruct, to talk about...