Metametaphysics

Do metaphysical questions have answers?

In this seminar we will discuss recent contributions to meta-metaphysics. Metaphysics asks questions about existence: for example, do numbers really exist? Metametaphysics asks questions about metaphysics: for example, do its questions have determinate answers? 

Nominalism in the Philosophy of Mathematics

with Alan Baker (Swarthmore, USA)

Nominalism (as it is used in the philosophy of mathematics) is the view that mathematical objects do not exist. In this seminar (taking place in the spring term 2007) we will begin with a close look at the motivations for nominalism. After that we will consider the different aims a nominalist might have and some of the strategies to counter the Quine/Putnam indispensability argument and to argue for a coherent nominalism.

Wolfgang Künne: Conceptions of Truth

Graduate Course

This term (autumn 2006) we will discuss Wolfgang Künne's Conceptions of Truth, OUP 2003. Depending on funding, we plan to have a workshop with Wolfgang Künne in Tartu right after the term to discuss the results of our class with the author.

I am what I am

The Problem of Personal Identity

The topic of this course is best characterized by a quote from Robert Nozick: "What am I? What kind of entity, what kind of being? To what exactly does the term "I" refer? Since one of the self's distinctive properties, surely, is its capacity for self-consciousness, you would think that if it knew anything, it would know its own nature. Yet the self is a problem and puzzle to itself. A theory should explain both the self's special awareness and its continuing mystery, even to itself." This term we will try to develop such a theory. (With a little help from John Locke, John Perry and the heroes of some science fiction movies.)

John Heil: From an Ontological Point of View

Reading Group

In this reading group (Tartu, Spring 2006) we discuss John Heil's book From an Ontological Point of View, OUP 2003.

Brainwash

Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy of Mind

This is a very early lecture with not very well developed material. I will replace this within the next two terms with something better, I hope.

Identity and Persistence

Graduate course (together with Volker Beeh) on the logic and metaphysics of identity claims from winter 01/02, Düsseldorf.