Blues by Chalmers and some zombie friends

Here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=168711436497349

Right, zombies interfered for some time, hope the link works now.

Austere Realism review 2011

Steven French, Austere Realism: Contextual Semantics Meets Minimal ...
Review of Terence E. Horgan, Matjaz Potrč, Austere Realism: Contextual Semantics Meets Minimal Ontology. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2008. ...
philpapers.org/rec/FREARC

German book chapter publication announcement

The Germany Cologne based ANA Publishers (vertrieb@anapublishers.de . www.ANApublishers.de) announced the publication of a book Marneros, Andereas; Rohde, Anke, Hgg.: Festschrift zum achtzigsten Geburstag von Professor Peters [a temporary title], in which on pages 64-93 there is a publication of a chapter entitled Das Hintergrundwissen, written and successfully presented in German by Professor Potrc at the occasion of this year's symposium honoring Dr. Uwe Peters.

Austere Realism review link

TannerTOC: November 15-19, 2010
By Molly
Terence E. Horgan and Matjaz Potrc. Austere Realism: Contextual Semantics Meets Minimal Ontology. Review by Jacek Brzozowski. Graham Priest. An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic: From If to Is. Review by Sam Butchart. ...
TannerTOC - http://tannertoc.blogspot.com/

The Ought and the Ship

The visit to Milan Italy was successful. First, there was an encounter with Emanuele Marini and with his family in Rovello Porro. Then, the two day symposium on oughts and philosophy of law at the Milano University, with Paolo di Lucia, Venanzio Raspa, Giuseppe Lorini, of course Emanuele Marini, and many others. Veber's and Slovene oughts discovery in the meinongian theory of objects was highlighted and reviewed. Plans are made for a gathering on this topics in July. After that, there was a visit to Villa Borromeo with attendance to the memorable lecture of Armando Verdiglione on the topics of the Ship. This morning I have a talk on the Reality of Fiction in Ljubljana, and as far as the narration goes, I will begin by mentioning the stories related to the ship. Photo: Matjaz in Villa Borromeo.

Milan Italy November 2010 and dealing with Meinongian ontology

On Thursday November 11 I participate in a symposium dedicated to the Meinongian philosophy of oughts, with my and Vojko's paper Where Do Oughts Come From? The occasion at the Universita degli Studi di Milano, Facolta di Giurisprudenza, is presentation of Emanuele Marini's thesis on Uomo, dovere, etica nella filosofia di France Veber (1890-1975). [You can access this PhD text if you browse some Emanuele Marini related stuff in this blog.] Besides to Emanuele whose knowledge of Slovene language and Veber is excellent, there will be also Venanzio Raspa with his presentation of Meinongian Sollen. Everything will happen in Italian language. After that, I look forward to the Villa Borromeo Verdiglione lecture, before returning home and delivering Dejanskost pripovedi lecture on Monday November 15th at 11:20h room 434 Filozofska fakulteta Ljubljana. This will end a two weeks intensive Meinongian engagement that started with the visit of Seppo Sajama from Finland. (You may wonder what is cooking in the background in terms of further plans. Here is a preliminary announcement: detailed study and presentation of the forthcoming Epistemological Spectrum Henderson and Horgan book in preparation of the Bled May 30-June 3 conference, Brain in a Vat Phenomenology and much more.)
   By the way, I enjoyed my yesterday lecture on the Meinongian roots of analytic philosophy. My insight was that dealing with Meinong is at the very basis of analytic philosophy, the analysis of sentences being proposed in Russell paper On Denoting (1905) in order to supposedly get rid of Meinongian unreal objects. The adequacy surface structure of some sentences, such as The actual king of France is bald, Ponce de Leon was searching for the fountain of youth, is measured by its fitting to the underlying deeper metaphysical structure (cf.: neither the actual king of France nor the fountain of youth exist in the real world). Both Russell and Meinong stick to the direct correspondence theory of truth, differing just in restriction of possible realms to the actual stuff in the case of the first one. We propose truth as indirect correspondence approach to the matter, and following Terry Horgan, a propositional ersatzist metaphysical interpretation of noneist semantics. Some time ago, myself and Vojko Strahovnik proposed, in a similar direction, to counter the competence based performance error of the Meinongian ultimate ontology engagement into revealing the simple truth that these subsistent and impossible worlds are not the ultimate ontological guys but creatures of language and thought. Meinongians get blocked in their ability to recognize this simple fact by their competence based performance error. Actually we think that their error is a quite a natural fact of life and may get explained by this approach of ours. My lecture will be available on the net in a due time on my homepage, besides to other video lectures stuff already available there. Meinongian scorekeeping paper draft may be found under this link: http://www2.arnes.si/~supmpotr/clanki.html
Photo: Professors Paolo di Lucia, Venanzio Raspa, Giuseppe Lorini, Matjaz Potrc at Universita degli Studi di Milano, law department.

Thank you Atkins

In span of eight weeks approximately there is a new me. Trousers shrunk for several units. Thank you Atkins! Now on with the lifetime maintenance.

Seppo Sajama on Veber and Temperance November 3rd

On Wednesday November 3rd, 2010, Seppo Sajama, a philosopher from Finland, will have two sessions in room 434 of Filozofska fakulteta, Askerceva 2, Ljubljana.

At 1440h-1620h Seppo Sajama will explain his views about Slovene philosopher Veber, in a discussion with Prof. Potrc.

At 1850h-2030h Seppo will lecture on Tolerance. Here is a brief outline of that talk:
     TEMPERANCE AND TOLERANCE
 1. Some comments on the word "temperance"
 2. Plato on temperance
 3. Tolerance in the liberal state
 4. Differences between tolerance and temperance
 5. Can temperance be excessive?
 6. Why be temperate?
 7. Is temperance voluntary?
 8. Is ethics subjective?
 9. The naturalistic foundation of ethics
 10. What is a rational plan of life?

Photo: Matjaz and Seppo

A quote of Potrc Particularism and Resultance

Here is the link to an Argentinian book where Prof Potrc is quoted along with such people as Dancy, Kim, Putnam:

 

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Cc0MWD2wjY8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA189&ots=UQE92-sgL8&sig=BZFwgcgIDNfIk4ucFw2w8cRJhE8#v=onepage&q&f=false

A Nietzschean shtick

Mit seinem Adler und mit seiner Schlange lebt der Matjaz hoch in Bergen.

Waterfall

During his autumn stroll hike through wood, Matjaz stopped at a waterfall.

How Does Mind Matter, Reviving Mental Representation in Cognitive Science

Prof. Gerard O'Brien will have two lectures on Wednesday, October 13, room 434, Filozofska fakulteta, Ljubljana. The first lecture will be at 14:40h:

1. How Does Mind Matter?

Nothing could be more obvious than that minds matter. Specifically, nothing could be more obvious than that mental phenomena—beliefs, desires, thoughts, perceptions, and so forth—have a causal impact on behaviour. Yet it has proved notoriously difficult to explain how this can be so. The problem of mental causation takes a number of forms in the philosophy of mind. One of these arises from the widely held thesis that the representational properties of mental phenomena are not determined by the intrinsic properties of brains. In this lecture I will explain how this version of the mental causation problem arises. I will then suggest that the apparent insolubility of this form of the problem stems from the “referential” conception of mental content that dominates the philosophy of mind. Once we recognise we are not obliged to accept this conception, and moreover that there is an alternative conception available, some elbow room is opened up for exploration. I will conclude the lecture by briefly exploring the space created by this alternative conception of mental content.

The second lecture will be at 18:50h, room 434 as well:


2. Reviving Mental Representation in Cognitive Science

Several lines of argument have lately converged to make trouble for representation in the philosophy of cognitive science. The charge, in a nutshell, is that mental representation no longer earns its explanatory keep, and hence that it’s time to discard this troublesome concept. This lecture will begin with a brief explanation as to why mental representation is on the endangered list in cognitive science. It will then proceed by exploring the nature of representation in connectionist models of cognition. The general aim will be to determine whether representation does play an important explanatory role in these models, and hence whether the recent calls to dispense with this concept are justified.

Philosophy TV

Here is a link to a nice philosophy dialog series, figuring, among others Jonathan Schaffer on whose work we now write a paper:

http://www.philostv.com/

Matjaz, Pythagoras and Epicurus

For his short maritime holiday Matjaz visited the Greek isle Samos where Pythagoras and Epicurus are some of the earlier inhabitants.

Celebrating Elvis and Matjaz Potrc

On the late afternoon or early evening on Sunday August 15th 2010 people started to gather in order to celebrate Elvis at the Graceland. At the same time, close to Elvis first home in Memphis (not opened to the public, but in reconstruction, that Matjaz has already visited), people were invited to gather to welcome Matjaz Potrc arrival to the famous Tennessee town.
Photo: Matjaz in front of the first Elvis Memphis home.

Memphis

Good to be in Memphis with John and Nancy, had some discussions on priority monism and phenomenology of categorization.

Denver

Matjaz is in Denver on the way from Boulder Rocky Mountains Ethics (RoME 2010) conference where he successfully presented Moral Dilemmas and Vagueness Vojko Strahovnik co-authored paper, to Memphis, looking fwd to meet John Tienson.

Vagueness and Moral Dilemmas Boulder RoME

Matjaz presented his and Vojko Strahovnik paper on Vagueness and Moral Dilemmas to the RoME Rocky Mountains Ethics symposium audience, with useful feedback, on August 6th, 2010.

Boulder trip

From Budapest Matjaz flew over Amsterdam to Houston and came to Denver in the evening, taking a bus to Boulder. The goal is to deliver a presentation at the 2010 RoME conference, of the paper on Vagueness and Moral Dilemmas, written together with Vojko Strahovnik. After the conference, Memphis TN is on schedule, with the plan to visit John Tienson.

Matjaz Potrc and Wilhelm Vossenkuhl

Matjaz visited his friend Wilhelm Vossenkuhl in Muenchen Germany on July 14th, 2010. They spoke about a plan to work and publish on moral particularism, a situated way of thinking according to Willi, as related to his Muenchen University Ethics research institute in Department of Philosophy. They spoke about some historic memories, such as the Lehrer symposium, Bayreuth visit (where Matjaz produced a collection of his papers), Muenchen philosophy of science and logic legacy, Stuttgart, Willi's lecture in Ljubljana and many more. A pilot lecture in Muenchen by Matjaz and Vojko is envisaged this winter. Matjaz shortly visited Hofbraukeller, but had a Weizenheffebeer only on his safe return home. In an Italian restaurant close to University a Viennese waiter commented on Matjaz memories of his learning Viennese dialect at the age of twelve in a working families environment in a big house in the middle of Vienna with cows on the ground. In fact, horses were kept in old Vienna in sub-terrain catacombes, said the waiter. Willi commented that Matjaz may be of German origin, as his grandgrandfather came from Sudetenland, as told by Matjaz uncle Francek. A quite warm day in Munich.

Challenging Moral Particularism Paperback

Routledge will bring the paperback edition of Challenging Moral Particularism, the now standard book edited by Potrc, Strahovnik and Lance, into production. Congratulations!

Koeln and Bonn

Professor Potrc is invited to the June 25th symposium celebrating the anniversay of Uwe Peters, a German psychiatrist and a renaissance man. His contributory chapter will come out in a book in German, which he wrote, and is here available in English
http://www2.arnes.si/~supmpotr/backknow.doc

Bled Ethics conference things

On Monday June 6th 2010 started an interesting conference on Ethics in Bled. Alastair Norcross is an organizer, besides to Matjaz Potrc and Danilo Suster. Several interesting papers were already presented. Tomorrow Wednesday there is a paper by Saul Smilansky on reductio of determinisitic punishment issue. Friday there is paper by Matjaz Potrc and Vojko Strahovnik, followed by a paper of Alastair Norcross.

Ethics Bled 2010 June 7-11

Here is the link to this year 2010 Bled Ethics conference program, coorganized by Matjaz Potrc, Alastair Norcross, Danilo Suster:


http://www.bled-conference.si/index.php?page=content&page_id=3

Austere Realism Symposium

On May 25th a symposium on the book of Austere Realism (MIT, 2009 paperback) by Matjaz Potrc and Terry Horgan was organized by Slovene Society for Analytic Philosophy in Ljubljana, with the following contributions: Vojko Strahovnik: Indirect Correspondence as the Path towards Austere Realism, Tomaz Jereb: Some Considerations on Indirect Correspondence, Olga Markic: The Relevance Problem, Franjo Sokolic: Quantum Physics and Reality, Venanzio Raspa: Austere Realism and Blobjectivism, a Critical Discussion, Danilo Suster: A Difference Without a Difference, Andrej Ule: On Horgan-Potrc Solution of the Sorites Paradox, Borut Cerkovnik: Austere Realism of the Tractatus, Maja Malec: Contextualism and Austere Realism, Matjaz Potrc: Blobjectivism. A vivid discussion continued as a social gathering after the symposium.

Mark Brown and Venanzio Raspa

We spent a couple of days with Mark Brown in Ljubljana and surroundings. On Sunday May 23rd there was a pleasant evening where Majaz Potrc, Venanzio Raspa and Mark Brown met, discussing some deontic logic, among other things.

Epistemic Relevance of Morphological Content at Rijeka symposium

Professor Potrc presented his Epistemic Relevance of Morphological Content paper at the Rijeka symposium on May 22, 2010.

Lies: Ontological, Ethical and Political Aspects

This is the tite of a seriesof lectures Professor Venanzio Raspa from Urbino, Italy will perform in Ljubljana, Filozofska fakulteta, room 434 on Monday May 24th at 11:20h, on Wednesday May 26th at 14:40h and 18:50h. Professor Raspa will also take part in the Austere Realism (Potrc and Horgan, MIT) symposium on Tuesday May 25th at Filozofska fakulteta, Ljubljana, organized by Slovensko filozofsko drustvo, Borut Cerkovnik.

RoME 10

Potrc and Strahovnik paper on Moral Dilemmas and Vagueness is accepted for ROcky Mountains Ethics conference
Congratulations!

Scratching heads over theory of objects

Matjaz and Emanuele Marini met and they are scratching their heads over the problem about how to transcend the theory of objects. Well, if you have got just formal conditions, these will not tell you yet what a right or wrong action may be. Things are expanding and you come to strivings and values, all still wrapped up in straight-jacket of the theory of objects. By pushing things in direction of substance and evidence problem, you can get conditions for hitting the reality. Compare determinables that may be characterized outside the world and are vague, with determinates, where worldly realization of events comes with their conscious sharpness.

Blob strikes

Blob strikes philosophy search link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8i44ysFp08

And here is the blob movie trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkOfeSNsWpM&feature=player_embedded#

Phenomenology of free will, Chalmers, Schaffer

Links to podcasts on phenomenology of free will, merely verbal disputes, modalities and methodologies:

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~arche/podcast/index.php

It seems that the first podcast does not work, but Chalmers and Schaffer do.

Matjaz Potrc work in progress materials lab

You may be interested in the work in progress laboratory, bouncing with drafts written by Matjaz Potrc. Take a look at these draft papers, do feel what's going on, mind the dates. The last entries include a Vagueness and moral dilemmas draft and Austere realism presentation outline. Look first at the end of the Files with some notes section:

http://sites.google.com/site/matjazpotrc/

Photo: Matjaz Potrc is admired by Albina's husband after having received a medal for his participation at the Ivan Potrc New Year 2010 Ptuj and Mestni vrh surroundings trail from the city's mayor. The traditional New Year hike is organized by Ivan Potrc Ptuj Library, and leads through the landscape described by Matjaz's father in his literary work. This year Matija Murko's memory was included into the event. 

Moral particularism TV show with Jonathan Dancy

Here is a link to rather entertaining and funny TV show on moral particularism with Jonathan Dancy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw6s3qZT3SM

Matjaz Potrc, Vojko Strahovnik and Lance published the most up to date book Challenging Moral Particularism collection for the discussed area.

Austere Realism book May 25th Ljubljana symposium

Society for Analytic Philosophy organizes a symposium on the Austere Realism (MIT Press) book, written by Terry Horgan and Matjaz Potrc, on May 25th in Ljubljana, Slovenia. If interested please contact the organizer Prof. Borut Cerkovnik (daf-drustvo@guest.arnes.si). Here is a preliminary abstract of Matjaž Potrč contribution for this event:

Blobjectivism

The idea started with blobjectivism as a monistic ontological view. Commonsense compatibility was considered an integral part of it, to be achieved by the semantic thesis construing truth as indirect correspondence. The book's more modest claim is to argue for austere realism with blobjectivism as a subspecies. Basic austere realism theses, through their dialectic development, are reviewed. Then, relation between austere realism and blobjectivism comes into focus. Finally, blobjectivism is compared to priority monism.

The picture shows Austere Realism book authors at the last year's Bled conference. 

Chalmers on singularity

A link to Chalmers new paper The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis:
http://fragments.consc.net/djc/2010/04/the-singularity-a-philosophical-analysis.html

Fodor and Sober on Darwinian evolution

A good conversation, with Fodor's point that evolutionary theory deals with tautological truths/definitions and a lots of granny's knowledge about the area; link here:

http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/26848

A forthcoming paper

Here is a link to a forthcoming paper announcement

http://philpapers.org/rec/HORTER-2

Identity and dance in Zagreb

Professor Potrc took part in symposium on Spaces of identity in the performing sphere in Zagreb 11th-14th February 2010, where he presented his version of Phenomenology of dance paper, arguing that transglobal phenomenological environment is the appropriate one for dancing experience. He was invited to this symposium by Sibila Petlevski. One main thing he became acquainted with is a naturalist approach to the comparative literature studies. The organization and participants were interesting, and the town of Zagreb turns out to be a nice and interesting place.

Zombie blues by David Chalmers

Here is a link to zombie blues as presented by David Chalmers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyS4VFh3xOU

Hope it works

PS: OK it works, but the embarrassing thing is that all the students listened to that already, agreeing that Dave sounds as a real zombie here.

Vagueness and weak emergence monism

Here is a link to a gathering of some physicists and philosophers in Lorenz institute March 2010 where Terry Horgan presents some views from our Austere Realism book:

http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2010/379/abstracts.php3?wsid=379&type=presentations

Analytic epistemology youtube link

 This is an analytic epistemology Youtube link I was alerted about by Mylan Engel. Peter Klein, Alvin Goldman and Gettier are presented, so that Jones is a woman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jrXheyMeJY

(I had occasion to listen and speak to Quine, Klein, Goldman.) Hope the link works.

Some current stuff

The paper with Terry Horgan on the Vague Content in a Non-Vague World is in a draft form, and there is the news that the publishing process for the the book in which it will be a chapter slowly moves on. In the meantime, Matjaz will be engaged in a symposium to which he was invited and where he will try to get some feedback about the Vojko and Nicole coauthored draft on Phenomenology of Dance. Matjaz and Vojko are slowly composing a paper on Vagueness and Moral Dilemmas. A version of this paper, along with some other stuff, is available here:  http://sites.google.com/site/matjazpotrc/files  Fifth chapter of the Austere Realism book will be presented on Monday, February 15th, and film recorded as usual; one hopes to see all these registrations as available on the net in a foreseeable future. The blobjectivism and priority monism debate still needs to be tackled, for the prospective paper with Terry, in an important monism collection. A small symposium about Austere Realism book in May in Ljubljana is in preparation, by the DAF or Slovene Society for Analytic Philosophy. The photo is from last year visit to London.

Morphological content supervenience ruminations

Matjaz and Terry discuss the epistemic relevance of morphological content (MC) in experiential evidentialism. One hypothesis is that MC chromatically illuminates total cognitive state (TCS) providing thereby the phenomenological justificatory dimension. Another stronger hypothesis concerns supervenience. But, does the relevant justificatory experience rest upon the MC background, or is it another way round?