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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

The Role Of Psychology In The Philosophy Of Language, Robert J. Stainton Jan 2011

The Role Of Psychology In The Philosophy Of Language, Robert J. Stainton

Robert J. Stainton

Are psychological facts relevant to philosophy of language; and, in particular, does scientific psychology have a legitimate role to play? For example, is it methodologically permissible for philosophers of language to rely upon evidence from neurological development, experiments about processing, brain scans, clinical case histories, longitudinal studies, questionnaires, etc.? If so, why? These two questions are the focus of this survey. I address them in two stages. Psychology may seem obviously relevant. I thus begin by introducing arguments against relevance, to motivate the discussion. I will urge that these ultimately fail, and that the appearance of relevance should be taken …


The Contribution Of Domain Specificity In The Highly Modular Mind, Axel Barcelo Aspeitia, Angeles Erana, Robert J. Stainton Jan 2010

The Contribution Of Domain Specificity In The Highly Modular Mind, Axel Barcelo Aspeitia, Angeles Erana, Robert J. Stainton

Robert J. Stainton

Is there a notion of domain specificity which affords genuine insight in the context of the highly modular mind, i.e. a mind which has not only input modules, but also central ‘conceptual’ modules? Our answer to this question is no. The main argument is simple enough: we lay out some constraints that a theoretically useful notion of domain specificity, in the context of the highly modular mind, would need to meet. We then survey a host of accounts of what domain specificity is, based on the intuitive idea that a domain specific mechanism is restricted in the kind of information …


Contextualism In Epistemology And The Context Sensitivity Of 'Knows', Robert J. Stainton Jan 2010

Contextualism In Epistemology And The Context Sensitivity Of 'Knows', Robert J. Stainton

Robert J. Stainton

The central issue of this paper is whether contextualism in epistemology is genuinely in conflict with recent claims that ‘know’ is not in fact a context sensitive word. To address this question, I’ll first rehearse three key aims of contextualists and the broad strategy they adopt for achieving them. I then introduce two linguistic arguments to the effect that the lexical item ‘know’ is not context sensitive: one from Herman Cappelen & Ernie Lepore, one from Jason Stanley. I find these and related arguments quite compelling. In particular, I think Cappelen & Lepore (2003, 2005a) show pretty definitively that ‘know’ …


Identity Through Change And Substitutivity Salva Veritate, Ray Elugardo, Robert J. Stainton Jan 2010

Identity Through Change And Substitutivity Salva Veritate, Ray Elugardo, Robert J. Stainton

Robert J. Stainton

This paper has three modest aims: to present a puzzle, to show why some obvious solutions aren’t really “easy outs”, and to introduce our own solution. The puzzle is this. When it was small and had waterlogged streets, Toronto carried the moniker ‘Muddy York’. Later, the streets were drained, it grew, and Muddy York officially changed its name to ‘Toronto’. Given this, each premise in the following argument seems true. Yet the conclusion is a contraction. P1: Muddy York = Toronto P2: Muddy York evolved into Toronto P3: The context “__ evolved into Toronto” is transparent, i.e., it allows substitution …


Philosophy Of Language, Robert J. Stainton Jan 2010

Philosophy Of Language, Robert J. Stainton

Robert J. Stainton

No abstract provided.


Clinical Pragmatics, By Louise Cummings, Robert J. Stainton Jan 2010

Clinical Pragmatics, By Louise Cummings, Robert J. Stainton

Robert J. Stainton

No abstract provided.


Differential Pragmatic Abilities And Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Case Of Pragmatic Determinants Of Literal Content, Jessica De Villiers, Brooke Myers, Robert J. Stainton Jan 2010

Differential Pragmatic Abilities And Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Case Of Pragmatic Determinants Of Literal Content, Jessica De Villiers, Brooke Myers, Robert J. Stainton

Robert J. Stainton

No abstract provided.