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Saying and Showing

March 8, 2023/1 Comment/in Uncategorized /by Colin McGinn

    Saying and Showing   Wittgenstein famously introduced the distinction between saying and showing in the Tractatus. I won’t be concerned with his treatment of the distinction, either by way of interpretation or evaluation; but I will be using the terminology. I want to say that every speech act includes an act of showing, […]

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0 0 Colin McGinn Colin McGinn2023-03-08 15:07:342023-03-08 15:07:34Saying and Showing

Time and Truth

March 1, 2023/2 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Colin McGinn

  Time and Truth   Truth relates to time in an interesting way: once a fact obtains a corresponding proposition is instantaneously true. On the one hand is a fact, say the fact that it just started raining at a certain place, while on the other is a proposition (a belief or assertion), say that […]

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0 0 Colin McGinn Colin McGinn2023-03-01 17:43:062023-03-01 17:43:06Time and Truth

Action As Externalization

February 24, 2023/4 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Colin McGinn

  Action As Externalization   The causal theory of action says that actions consist of a causal link between an inner mental state (a reason, an intention, a willing) and a piece of behavior (an arm rising, flicking the switch). The mental state causes the behavior in the same way a tap on the knee […]

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0 0 Colin McGinn Colin McGinn2023-02-24 17:38:322023-02-24 17:38:32Action As Externalization

Perception As Internalization

February 24, 2023/2 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Colin McGinn

  Perception As Internalization   We have become accustomed to thinking of perception as a type of causal relation, sharing its logical (metaphysical) features. As earthquakes cause buildings to collapse, so external objects cause experiences to occur. Cause and effect are external to each other; neither is contained in the other. But this picture fails […]

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0 0 Colin McGinn Colin McGinn2023-02-24 17:22:152023-02-24 17:22:15Perception As Internalization

Ed Erwin Again

January 17, 2023/3 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Colin McGinn

Ed Erwin Again   It’s nice to receive two laudatory messages about Ed Erwin from Michael Tooley and Alan Goldman, both old colleagues of Ed’s at Miami (now posted under my brief notice of his death in May 2022). I observe, however, that neither the Brian Leiter blog nor Daily Nous has posted any notice […]

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0 0 Colin McGinn Colin McGinn2023-01-17 22:51:472023-01-17 22:51:47Ed Erwin Again

Concepts and Philosophical Puzzlement

January 11, 2023/4 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Colin McGinn

    Concepts and Philosophical Puzzlement   Michael Dummett has suggested that philosophical puzzlement is caused by our “imperfect mastery” of our concepts (he is by no means the only person to think this way).[1] He gives the example of the concepts past and future: we understand these concepts well enough to make judgments about […]

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0 0 Colin McGinn Colin McGinn2023-01-11 17:18:402023-01-11 17:18:40Concepts and Philosophical Puzzlement

What is Mathematics About?

January 11, 2023/7 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Colin McGinn

    What is Mathematics About?   Various suggestions have been made about this question: mathematics is about symbols, or mental constructions, or abstract Platonic entities. We can also ask what physics is about and expect a variety of answers: the sensations of the physicist, mind-independent material bodies, an all-pervading consciousness, abstract structure. In the […]

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0 0 Colin McGinn Colin McGinn2023-01-11 17:10:052023-01-11 17:10:05What is Mathematics About?

Extended Ban

December 31, 2022/10 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Colin McGinn

Extended Ban   A thought occurs to me: would other university administrators take a similar line? I have to admit that the idea that I would ever be forbidden to attend an academic gathering never entered my head, but that is the reality I now face. So far as I know it is unprecedented. But […]

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0 0 Colin McGinn Colin McGinn2022-12-31 15:54:422022-12-31 15:54:42Extended Ban

Banned

December 30, 2022/7 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Colin McGinn

Banned   I recently expressed an interest in attending colloquia at the University of Miami, where I used to teach (I live nearby). I was told by the chairman, Professor Mark Rowlands, that I was banned from campus at the direction of university administrators. No reason was given. There was no protest from members of […]

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0 0 Colin McGinn Colin McGinn2022-12-30 14:45:332022-12-30 14:45:33Banned

My Mind

December 28, 2022/11 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Colin McGinn

  My Mind   How do I get the idea of my own mind? Do I get it simply by having my mind, or possibly by experiencing the mind I have? Do I perhaps have an “impression” of my mind from which I extract the idea? Here is a problem with this theory: based on […]

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0 0 Colin McGinn Colin McGinn2022-12-28 18:44:302022-12-28 18:44:30My Mind
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