Speaks on Merricks; criticisms of the Russellian orthodoxy
Earlier this morning I had a chance to comment on Jeff Speak's talk “Merricks vs. the Russellian orthodoxy” at the Philosophical Aspects of Modality workshop and you can watch the whole thing now at the following video: And here is the outline for my comments (the sections in blue are the ones we debated in the session): §1. Why think that propositions are structured? “Structured propositionalists have not always been as clear as they could have been, either about what the claim that propositions have constituents means, or about what, exactly, this claim is supposed to explain.” So here is a probably partial list taken three recent papers: Gasiunas ( forthcoming ), Keller (2013) and Tillerman and Fowler (2012): Explain general content differences, for example between the proposition that Paris is a city and that Santa Monica is a city , or between the proposition that Ana loves Mary and that Mary loves Ana . According to proponents of the structured-...