Matjaz Potrc

Boulder Colorado

2011-08-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

Professor Matjaz Potrc at the campus of Boulder University and then in Sink restaurant at the University Hill, August 2011. Here is the link to the RoME 11 conference photos as prepared by Alastair Norcross:
http://anorcross.smugmug.com/Events/CU-Events/RoMEIV/18486689_5q5DBc#1426526847_P6D3kxD

Pavia deontic symposium

2011-08-17T13:09:00.000-07:00

Potrc lecturing at the occasion of Pavia deontic symposium. In company of Marini and Di Lucia.

Pavia July 2011 symposium

2011-08-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

Potrc with Conte and Pavia deontic symposium organizers. Below photo of that symposium participants,

Wuerzburg University Alumni Prof Potrc Matjaz

2011-08-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

Professor Matjaz Potrc was invited as Wuerzburg University alumni to the EU-India symposium. The upper picture shows Potrc delivering his lecture. In the picture above then, Potrc is greeted by the Wuerzburg Buergermeister. Picture below shows Professor Potrc with Professor Prasad J. Theruvathu, Provost of the convent of the Karmeliten Basel Switzerland, India Kerala, whose speciality is philosophy of Cusanus: he was interested to learn from Matjaz that Cusanus spent some time in vicinity of Bled in Slovenia. Here is the link to more photos from the EU-India alumni Wuerzburg gathering: http://www.alumni.uni-wuerzburg.de/berichte_und_bilder_ueber_und_von_alumni_veranstaltungen/

Baumgartners and Matjaz Potrc

2011-08-17T12:47:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Baumgartner, Matjaz Potrc and Wilhelm Baumgarther in the Residenz Wuerzburg garden at the time of July 2011 EU-India symposium where Prof Potrc was invited as Wuerzburg University alumni. After this meeting they spent some time with symposium participants and organizers in the cellar of the Wuerzburg Residenz.

Uwe Peters and Potrc

2011-08-17T12:44:00.000-07:00

Matjaz Potrc with Uwe Peters in Koeln at the time of Koeln Epistemology of philosophy symposium, July 2011.

Chalmers zombie picture

2011-08-17T12:37:00.000-07:00

Here is Chalmers zombie picture, sitting in Koeln Biergarten vis-a-vis Matjaz Potrc, and drinking what? -- beer.

Horgan and Potrc in Koeln

2011-08-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

Horgan and Potrc in Koeln at the time of July 2011 Epistemology of philosophy symposium. They also discussed with Schaffer, Chalmers.

Potrc, Horgan and Searle

2011-08-17T12:28:00.000-07:00

Professor Matjaz Potrc with Terry Horgan and John Searle at occasion of June 2011 Milano symposium party. Searle really enjoyed Horgan-Potrc presentation.

Henderson at Bled

2011-08-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

Matjaz with Henderson in Ljubljana at the time of the June 2011 Bled epistemology symposium.

Radgona Veber symposium

2011-08-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

Matjaz with Venanzio Raspa, Emanuele Marini and Seppo Sajama at the Radgona Veber symposium. Profesor Potrc delivering his paper in Radgona.

Summer 2011 continued

2011-08-14T02:19:00.000-07:00

After Bled, Milano and Koeln conferences with Terry, I then joined a Wuerzburg EU-India gathering, where I was invited as alumni. After that, I visited Pavia conference on deontic matters where I successfully presented my paper written for that occasion. Finally, I was in Boulder Colorado for a couple of weeks, at the 2011 RoME conference, as the only European participant that was selected for presentation at this prestigious gathering of ethicists. My and Vojko's paper on moral particularism and basic-derived reasons pluralistic Rossian approach that we propose was well accepted by the audience, and especially interesting was the follow-up discussion with McNaughton and Rawling (by the way, I also chaired their paper where Alastair Norcross was a commentator). It was a pleasure to visit Boulder again, where this time I even tried out some mountain hike.
Pictures show Matjaz in Boulder at the University Hill, discussing with Hille and Rawling after his paper presentation, and strolling through Boulder farms market.

Wrapping it up

2011-06-26T21:34:00.000-07:00

End of May and beginning June 2011 there was a successful Bled conference on Virtue epistemology and understanding. I presented a paper with Terry Horgan. Henderson nicknamed Pencilneck was there as well. Some of the lectures should be published by Videoloectures by now (look for Potrc, Horgan, Dereta). Then Terry and myself went to the Milano San Raffaelle University where we presented our paper on Metaphysically lightweight posits to Searle, who enjoyed our performance very much. After that, we went to Koeln, to a conference on Epistemology of philosophy, where we met Chalmers and others. I stayed in Koeln with Uwe Peters.

Man and World

2011-05-21T23:55:00.000-07:00

Man and World was the Rijeka conference where on May 20th, 2011 Prof. Potrc presented a version of his and Strahovnik Reasons and Generalities paper. Here he is at Trsat with Takashi Yagisawa and Michael Watkins.

Venanzio Raspa on fictionalism and on the theory of moral value

2011-05-19T03:05:00.000-07:00

Professor Venanzio Raspa delivered interesting lectures on fictional entities, from the ontological and emotional point of view, and on the theory of moral value, such as it was developed by Meinong and his Slovene pupil France Veber. Professor Raspa from the University of Urbino, Italy, was guest of Professor Potrc at the Ljubljana Department of philosophy in the week of May 17-18, 2011. Photos show Professors Potrc and Raspa at the Ljubljanica river side and then Prof. Raspa celebrating his birthday.

Professor Potrc Budapest AvH success

2011-05-11T00:22:00.000-07:00

Professor Potrc took part at the May 6th-8th, 2011 Budapest Alexander von Humboldt East and South European humanities meeting. He presented successfully his What is philosophy? paper and participated in discussion. Here he is in front of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Professor Potrc busy schedule

2011-05-04T22:28:00.000-07:00

Professor Potrc is lecturing here in his and Professor Strahovnik Moral philosophy class. Here are some forthcoming stations at his successful professional voyage in the year 2011. First, a presentation of his What is philosophy? paper at the Budapest Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung meeting. Then, hosting Venanzio Raspa Ljubljana lectures. After that, Rijeka symposium presentation of his Reasons paper. After that, Bled symposium presentation on Contextualism and skepticism at the international conference, co-authored by Terry Horgan, Followed by accepted presentation of his Metaphysically lightweight posits at the Milano Searle conference and Spring school. Then, taking part in the Cologne Germany symposium with Chalmers, Schaffer and other participants. As an alumni of the University of Wuerzburg, he then also takes part at the EU-India workshop in that city. Followed by accepted paper presentation and special invitation at the Deontic Pavia specialized workshop. An important success is presentation of Potrc and Strahovnik paper at the Boulder Colorado Rocky Mountains Ethics conference, for this paper was accepted in harsh competition, and it turns out to be the only European authorship at that prestigious conference.

Vojko Strahovnik and Matjaz Potrc Boulder Colorado success

2011-05-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

Vojko Strahovnik and Matjaz Potrc are lecturing on Moral philosophy in preparation for writing their paper on Reasons and generalities. They just learned about their big success, namely that their paper was accepted for presentation at Rocky Mountains Ethics symposium in Boulder Colorado this year, in a harsh competition. In fact, they will be the only Europeans at this prestigious conference. Vojko and Matjaz are depicted here on May the 4th 2011 during their Moral philosophy class.

Veber Gornja Radgona international symposium

2011-04-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

Tadej Pirc and his Gornja Radgona friends organized a memorable France Veber symposium on April 16th, 2011. Matjaz Potrc is depictured here with Venanzio Raspa, Emanuele Marini and Seppo Sajama. Besides to these Veber experts, there were Vojko Strahovnik, Bojan Zalec and Andrej Ule. An excellent occasion to celebrate 120 years since Veber's bitrh. Ethics, esthetics and other areas were covered; an event that will certainly stay in Veber heritage memory. The publication of contributions is envisioned.

Ciphermatics project with Chinaglia

2011-02-05T08:42:00.000-08:00

Ruggero Chinaglia and Matjaz met February 5th in Ljubljana, and they sketched the following collaboration project. Matjaz writes a short presentation of his relevance/ciphermatics understanding, with the aim to apply it to his inclusive disjunction treatment of ontology, epistemology and ethics. A collaboration between Padova and Ljubljana may then ensue. The ultimate aim would be, for Matjaz, to write a simple book about the ciphermatics/philosophy intersection, along the lines according to which he already developed the three mentioned areas of philosophy.
Under the following link (besides to a number of Matjaz other papers) the draft of the paper entitled The Moment that Counts is posted (the draft is a first sketch of the relevance/cipher approach, as applied to the special discourse of philosophy):

http://www2.arnes.si/~supmpotr/clanki.html

Blues by Chalmers and some zombie friends

2010-12-15T22:24:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-15T21:09:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-30T20:45:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-22T20:24:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-14T20:19:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-09T23:44:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-09T23:32:00.000-08:00

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

2010-10-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-04T00:42:00.000-07:00

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

Waterfall

2010-10-04T00:05:00.000-07:00

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

How Does Mind Matter, Reviving Mental Representation in Cognitive Science

2010-10-03T04:31:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-14T13:43:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-06T06:30:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-12T09:33:00.001-07:00

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

Denver

2010-08-09T12:43:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-06T22:45:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-31T09:56:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-15T04:45:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-01T19:42:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-20T22:30:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-02T12:58:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-29T01:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

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

Lies: Ontological, Ethical and Political Aspects

2010-05-15T00:17:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-26T15:15:00.001-07:00

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

Scratching heads over theory of objects

2010-04-17T06:56:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-14T01:35:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-03T12:55:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-03T05:31:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-02T12:33:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-02-27T19:57:00.001-08:00

Here is a link to a forthcoming paper announcement

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

Identity and dance in Zagreb

2010-02-14T11:31:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-10T12:30:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-10T04:27:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-09T11:48:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-08T00:59:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-08T02:18:00.001-08:00

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?

Prevrednotenje

2009-12-22T13:37:00.001-08:00

Terry Horgan je napisal nov clanek o svojem pogledu na nejasnost kot prevrednotenje. Nejasnost je brezmejnost, slednja pa je sledenje sibko nekoherentnim normativnim zahtevam, ki jim prakticno gledano sledimo, ne moremo pa jim docela zadostiti. V zadnjem odseku svojega clanka o nejasnosti Horgan primerja moralno dilemo oziroma moralni konflikt z nejasnostjo, katere brezmejnost terja sledenje pravilom, ne pa tudi njihove zadostitve. Sam sem ze prej razmisljal, da ima sledenje ne pa zadostitev sirso uporabo. Med drugim bi bilo mogoce razviti model intuicionisticnega pluralizma, ki prav tako sloni na moralnih dilemah oziroma konfliktih, in ga primerjati s taksnim zasnutkom.

Nejasnost in ples

2009-12-18T20:11:00.001-08:00

V ponedeljek 21 decembra ob 11:20h, soba 434 FF bo profesor Potrc najprej predstavil drugo poglavje knjige Austere Realism, potem pa bo potekal pogovor o fenomenologiji plesa z Nicole Speletic. Ali bo Nicole tudi zaplesala?

Macka

2009-12-13T19:37:00.001-08:00

Macka je na predprazniku. Le chat est sur le paillasson. The cat is on the mat. Kissa on kynnysmatolla. V redu, to ne bo cisto res.

Classical radio

2009-12-09T02:30:00.000-08:00

Profesor Potrc v zadnjem casu veckrat poslusa Classical sekcijo spletnega radia na tejle povezavi

http://www.radioio.com/genres/Classical-Jazz

Lies, Politics and Ontology

2009-12-09T02:08:00.001-08:00

Professor Venanzio Raspa from Urbino Italy is planning to deliver two lectures on Lies, Politics and Ontology as a guest of Professor Potrc at the Ljublljana department of philosophy. Dates of the visit are now planed for May 16-26, 2010. During Potrc Urbino visit Professor Raspa indicated a wide ranging problematics having to do with lying as a philosophical problem

Implicit background enables explicit directedness

2009-12-08T12:53:00.001-08:00

Professor Potrc started rereading Gibson's book on ecological approach to visual perception http://books.google.com/books?id=BJGCuje64FcC&lpg=PP1&ots=67ztzg0cH7&dq=gibson%20ecological%20perception%20visual&pg=PR4#v=onepage&q=&f=false The idea is that whatever is explicitly targeted in visual perception is enabled to be so targeted by the implicit background environment, different to the physical and geometrical space, say. Professor Potrc started to expose the structure of the occurrent total cognitive state, which consists of an explicitly targeted intentional content/object, and of the background of rich aspectual nature enabling the concentration upon and the very functioning of intentional directedness. Justification is in this implicit phenomenological background environment. (A student immediately saw that this distinction between the occurrent on the one side and explicit/implicit that may both be found in the occurrent may offer a solution to the Gettier cases. We look forward to the promised analysis.) A similar structure may be spotted in the case of visual perception, for both ecological Gibsonian and Husserl's accounts (forthcoming in his Thing and Space lectures, and slowly moving to a kinesthetic account of visual perception). The insight into an occurrent whole phenomenon with the structure of the explicit target and of the implicit background, this last one nevertheless being present in the occurrent state may have several other applications that merit to be researched. Well, professor Potrc ended up reading Chalmers on Edenic perception http://consc.net/papers/eden.pdf and Charles Siewert on intentionality and consciousness http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-intentionality/.

PhilPapers survey

2009-12-08T12:22:00.001-08:00

Chalmers and his collaborators are going to publish preliminary results of philosophical survey and metasurvey. The answers by professor Potrc may become public in some time, we understand. Here are the overall results as they are published now:

http://philpapers.org/surveys/

There is a new discussion forum for surveys here.

Borut praznuje

2009-12-08T11:10:00.001-08:00

Borut Cerkovnik ima jutri rojstni dan. Cestitamo! V ponedeljek ga pricakujemo na razpravi o uboznem realizmu.

Predavanja o uboznem realizmu

2009-12-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

V ponedeljek 14 decembra 2009 pricne profesor Potrc serijo predavanj o knjigi Ubozni realizem. Predavanja bodo seveda potekala v slovenskem jeziku, ob ponedeljkih ob 11:20h v sobi 434 na Filozofski fakulteti v Ljubljani in bodo predvidoma posneta, tako da bodo vsebine dostopne na spletu vsem tistim, ki jih zanimajo. Knjiga Austere Realism, avtorjev M. Potrc in Terry Horgan je zopet izsla, tokrat v natisu z mehkimi platnicami pri MIT Press pred nekaj meseci. Predavanja so del priprave za nacrtovano mednarodno konferenca o tej knjigi. Ubozni realizem je metafizicna teza in tako pravzaprav nima nicesar opraviti z ekonomskim zateganjem pasu. Austere Realism (MIT, 2008)

Pomembna knjiga o sodobni etiki

2009-12-08T01:11:00.000-08:00

Vojko Strahovnik je pri zalozbi IPAK novembra 2009 izdal pomembno knjigo o sodobni etiki z naslovom Moralne sodbe, intuicija in moralna nacela. ISBN 978-961-91632-3-8. V sredo 16 decembra ob 14:40h bosta v sobi 434 na ljubljanski Filozofski fakulteti knjigo predstavila profesor Potrc in avtor. Oba bosta po predvidevanjih pricela z delom na svojem clanku za mednarodno konferenco o etiki na Bledu. Ta konferenca bo zacetek junija. Priprave pa bodo potekale v naslednjem semestru, zlasti na srecanjih Drustva za analiticno filozofijo. Na teh srecanjih prebiramo ustrezno literaturo. Ce koga zanima je vljudno vabljen, da glede tega s profesorjem Potrcem ali s profesorjem Strahovnikom naveze stik.

Moralne sodbe, intuicija in moralna nacela: knjiga Vojka Strahovnika IPAK 2009, 266 str. Moralne sodbe so osrednja os okoli katere se vrte odlocitve za dejanja, v svoji eticni razseznosti. Smiselno je trditi, da moralne sodbe temelje na uvidu oziroma na intuiciji. Ob tem pa se zastavlja vprasanjeo vlogi moralnih nacel oziroma splosnosti pri takih na intuiciji utemeljenih sodbah. To je na grobo receno snov, s katetro se ukvarja knjiga Vojka Strahovnika.

Uvodoma nakazana razlika med etiko in metaetiko je razdelana ob vprasanjih metafizike (moralni nenaturalizem in realizem), semantike, spoznavne teorije in moralne psihologije. Naceta so se vprasanja filozofskoh pristopov k intuiciji, ter se posebej k moralni intuiciji in k moralni fenomenologiji. Moralni intuicionizem je ob temah normativnosti in moralne intuicije zgodovinsko in sistematicno pregledan v delih Sidgwicka, Moora, Pricharda, Rossa, Broada in Audija.

Moralni partikularizem je predstavljen kot vrsta intuicionizma, zacensi z obravnavo vrst partikularizma in holizma razlogov ter argumentov v podporo, kot tudi ugovorov partikularizmu. Sledi obravnava moralnega konflikta, dilem in pluralizma. Pri tem je ocenjena vloga moralnega preostanka. Moralne dileme so najprej ocenjene kot izziv realizmu in kognitivizmu, sledi pa obramba slednjih dveh. Pregledana je se normativna struktura moralnega konflikta, skupaj s fenomenologijo moralnega preostanka. Koncno je govora o intuicionizmu, partikularizmu in o moralnih splosnostih. Zarisana je paleta od zmernega pluralisticnega partikularizma, preko upraviljenega partikularizma, zamejenih nacel in privzetih nacel, cez mehke splosnosti in do privzetih razlogov. Sledi pregled interpretacij prima facie dolznosti in njihove vloge kot temeljnih moralnih razlogov.

Kako se pojavi vloga intuicije pri moralnem sklepanju? Tukaj je enostaven razmislek. Ce bi nase moralne sodbe vselej vodila enoznacno dolocena splosna nacela, bi se lahko enostavno ravnali po pravilih, ki jih slednja predpisujejo. V tem primeru pa presojanje konec koncev sploh ne bi bilo potrebno, ampak bi bile moralne odlocitve vnaprej jasno opredeljene za vsak mozni polozaj. Potreba po moralnih sodbah pa se pojavi, ko pride do moznega nestrinjanja glede pravilnosti nasih odlocitev. In taksno nestrinjanje vznikne, ko v danem polozaju na naso izbiro pritiska dvoje ali vec splosnih nacel, ki so med seboj v konfliktu. Tako je moralni pluralizem temelj vzniku moralnega presojanja.

Moralni partikularizem predstavlja naslednjo stopnjo spodbude za moralne sodbe. Iz samega naziva moralnega partikularizma, posamicnega in enkratnega pristopa k moralnim odlocitvam, je razbrati nasprotovanje vlogi moralnih splosnosti oziroma nacel. Misljeno je, da deluje na vsakrsno naso moralno odlocitev cela vrsta silnic, ki jih ni mogoce zajeti s splosnimi pravili. Posamicne situacije, v katerih potekajo nase moralne odlocitve, so kompleksne in bogate v toliksni meri, da bi bilo vsakrsno sklicevanje na splosnosti zmotno. Splosnosti namrec zahtevajo enotnen in predvidljiv odziv v razlicnih situacijah. Nezvedljiva razlika bogastva posamicnih polozajev pa take enoznacnosti ne dopusca, saj je zavoljo holizma razlogov doloceno nacelo sedaj razlog v prid, potem pa zopet razlog zoper doloceno vrsto odlocitve in delovanja.

Razumljivo je, da moralni partikularizem zato potrebuje oporo na intuicije, ki so v podlago moralnim sodbam. Strahovnik pripozna moralni partikularizem kot vrsto intuicionizma. Vendar pa v razliko s skrajnim partikularizmom, ki zanika vsakrsno vlogo moralnih splosnosti pri presojanju, slednjo prepozna v silnicah, ki jo v moralno intuitivno presojanje vnesejo splosnosti. Problem je namrec v tem, da intuicija oziroma uvid sloni na silnicah, ki so v oporo presojanju, silnice pa so posledica obstoja splosnosti. Tudi taksno monisticno stalisce, kot je posledicizem, dopusca mozen pluralizem silnic, ki so v oporo na uvidu sloneci moralni sodbi.

Zlasti zanimive so se predstavitve fenomenoloskih argumentov, ki pricno z opisom kvalitativnega izkustva o presojanju in vodijo do metaeticnih sklepov. Moralne dileme silijo k presojanju. Argument sploscenja moralne pokrajine nas sili zavreci skrajni moralni partikularizem in ga nadomestiti z na uvidu utemeljenim moralnim pluralizmom.

Knjiga Vojka Strahovnika nas seznanja s pomembnim filozofskim podrocjem in smerjo, poleg tega pa ponuja se izvirno resitev, za katero upamo, da jo bo avtor se nadalje razdelal.

Villa Borromeo Milan Italy

2009-11-29T22:50:00.000-08:00

Professor Potrc delivered a talk on convention at diplomacy and peace symposium at the Villa Borromeo in Milan Italy end of November 2009. He met some people, among them Uwe Peters from Cologne, Germany, an author of several Schumann books, where he reveals that the famous composer was confined to a jail style environment at the end of his life.

Blob matters

2009-11-20T22:05:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to one Terry and Matjaz book discussion (Multilocational Blobjectivism proposal):

http://philosophy.elte.hu/tpf/2009-2010/October/

Snemanje predavanj profesorja Potrca

2009-11-10T10:09:00.001-08:00

Kolega Rebolj snema serijo predavanj profesorja Potrca. Naslovi predavanj so Noc carovnic, Moje uciteljice, Vesela filozofija in se mnoge druge zanimive filozofske teme. Vse to bo obogatilo spletno ponudbo. Predavanja bodo v doglednem casu na voljo na spletu. Zahvala velja Filozofski fakulteti in G. Rebolju!

Some of Matjaz Potrc Italian links

2009-11-09T01:28:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to some of Matjaz Potrc Italian publications, you should click on the four further links as you open the page (picture is from Urbino):

http://www.spirali.com/Matja%26%23158%3B+Potr%26%23269%3B.php

Pomembno delo o Vebru

2009-11-03T21:47:00.001-08:00

Odlicno delo Emanuela Marinija iz Milana je na voljo na spodnji povezavi. To delo, ki je nastalo tudi v sodelovanju z Matjazem Potrcem, postavlja pomembne poudarke pri preucevanju Vebrovega dela v celoti. Matjaz in Vojko Strahovnik sta izsledke uporabila med drugim pri svojem novem clanku o Vebrovi estetiki, ki bo objavljen v Meinong studies. Delo sicer pretezno obravnava Vebrovo etiko. Emanuele ima danes rojstni dan: vse najboljse!

www.azpneumatica.com

Habermas reply to Matjaz Potrc

2009-11-01T09:31:00.000-08:00

At the occasion of May 09 international Pecs conference dedicated to the work of Juergen Habermas, Professor Potrc was one of the invited guests. At that occasion he presented his paper on Transvaluating Frankfurt topics to Habermas, the paper that appears on the following link:

http://www2.arnes.si/~supmpotr/clanki.html

The reply by Professor Habermas to Potrc is captured on this video. Agnes Heller occasionally appears on the screed, and on the right side of Habermas there was Robert Brandom I guess.

(The original movie is more than two minutes long, and I need overcome technical hurdles to post it; I realized that this version is just a fragment.)

Hundred free papers link

2009-10-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

Some people asked me about the link to my mostly unpublished hundred papers. Here it is:

http://www2.arnes.si/~supmpotr/clanki.html

Enjoy.

PS: This photo is from Kos, the Hippocrates (the father of medicine) island.

River walk

2009-10-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

Matjaz took a walk along the riverside.

Italian feedback to Urbino lectures

2009-10-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

The Epistemic Relevance of Morphological Content
- Una riflessione sul ‘joke-getting’ -

Il contenuto morfologico è stato definito da Matjaž Potrč come un’informazione implicita, che viene colta ed elaborata dal sistema cognitivo senza essere rappresentata esplicitamente.
Per illustrare questo concetto, ha usato l’esempio del ‘joke-getting’, espressione che tradotta in italiano non ha la stessa immediatezza e perde parte del suo significato: comprendere una barzelletta.
Matjaž Potrč afferma che nell’apprezzare una barzelletta entra in gioco una componente implicita, non evidente, dell’informazione: questa componente non è presente nell’esperienza cosciente del ‘joke-getting’, eppure, questa stessa esperienza cosciente è resa possibile e allo stesso tempo ingloba l’aspetto inconsapevole, non conscio, non esplicito.
È impossibile a questo punto non notare una certa somiglianza con la teoria freudiana relativa al motto di spirito.
Per spiegare questa analogia è indispensabile far riferimento alla distinzione fra processo primario e secondario, e di conseguenza ai concetti di conscio ed inconscio.
Il processo primario è proprio del sistema inconscio ed è caratterizzato dal libero fluire dell’energia psichica da una rappresentazione all’altra (secondo i meccanismi di condensazione e di spostamento) e dalla tendenza alla gratificazione immediata.
Il processo secondario, invece, appartiene al sistema conscio: la scarica è differita, l’energia viene legata, le rappresentazioni sono investite in modo stabile.
Nel motto di spirito (così come nel sogno e nei lapsus), si ha un compromesso tra conscio e inconscio, tra processo primario e processo secondario: il contenuto primario o inconscio viene espresso attraverso il linguaggio verbale naturale, che Freud classifica come processo secondario o cosciente.
Il ‘joke-getting’ può essere quindi inteso come un processo di decodifica inconsapevole o automatica: il destinatario del motto di spirito dall’immagine verbale riesce a risalire al contenuto implicito, latente, espressione dell’inconscio.

Al di là delle somiglianze, ci sono delle differenze non trascurabili: il contenuto inconscio del motto di spirito efficace è sempre di natura sessuale, mentre il contenuto morfologico non ha questo tipo di connotazione, se non accidentalmente.
Inoltre, credo che Matjaž Potrč usi il termine ‘inconscio’ con il significato di ‘non consapevole’, ‘non esplicito’, ‘non evidente’, e in ogni caso non con il significato che gli attribuiva Freud.

Vague Content in Non-Vague World
- Il vago confine tra vago e non vago -

Matjaž Potrč sostiene che la vaghezza appartiene all’ambito del pensiero e a quello del linguaggio, e non a quello ontologico:
[…] no in-the-world-vagueness, only vagueness in thought-content and language-content.
Nella poesia, nella vita quotidiana, la vaghezza non costituisce un problema, tutt’altro; non a caso l’aggettivo ‘vago’ in letteratura è usato anche come sinonimo di ‘amabile’, ‘bello’, ‘grazioso’.
All’opposto, nella logica e in campo scientifico, è di fondamentale importanza eliminare la vaghezza.
Matjaž Potrč ha quindi spiegato la sua concezione di vaghezza attraverso due paradossi, quello del calvo e quello del mucchio, o del sorite.
Il paradosso del sorite è generalmente attribuito al filosofo greco Eubulide di Mileto, e si può formulare nel modo seguente:
Dato un mucchio di sabbia, se eliminiamo un granello dal mucchio avremo ancora un mucchio. Eliminiamo poi un altro granello: è ancora un mucchio. Eliminiamo ancora un granello, e poi ancora uno: il mucchio diventerà sempre più piccolo, finché rimarrà un solo granello di sabbia. È ancora un mucchio, quando rimane un solo granello? E se un solo granello non è un mucchio, allora in quale momento quel mucchio iniziale non è più un mucchio?
La vaghezza sarebbe pertanto una qualità insita in ogni Estratto da "http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradosso_del_sorite"situazione che implichi un continuum, poiché la mancanza di uno ‘sharp cut-off’, un confine ben definito, è implicito nel concetto di continuum.
What makes a property ontologically non-vague? It is not sorites-susceptible. […]
Tuttavia, Matjaž Potrč ha affermato che quello stesso ‘cut-off point’ è assente, quando si tratta di stabilire un limite tra vago e non vago: anche la vaghezza sembrerebbe quindi una proprietà ‘sorites-susceptible’.

Valentina Busco Mei
Scienze psicologiche dell’intervento clinico

Autumn forrest walk

2009-10-18T23:02:00.000-07:00

Matjaz took an autumn forrest walk and produced some photos.

Urbino lectures

2009-10-16T08:18:00.001-07:00

Matjaz Potrc visited Urbino University Philosophy Department mid October 2009 and delivered lectures there, on the Epistemic Relevance of Morphological Content, and on Vague Content in Non-Vague World, in the Erasmus scheme. He was received by Prof. Venanzio Raspa, and had discussion with students and professors. Then he visited Raffaelo house and the palace with big ancient art collection. Now he starts with Aesthetic Judgment in Veber paper, to be delivered to Prof. Raspa's edited Meinong Studies volume.

Austere Realism paper edition

2009-09-18T06:57:00.000-07:00

Terry Horgan and Matjaz Potrc book Austere Realism will be shortly published in Europe as well, as the MIT Press European Office lets us know. Publishing date is officially September 2009. 222 pp. ISBN 978-0-262-51333-3

Representation and Mind series. A Bradford Book.

14.40 Euros paper

"The authors of Austere Realism describe and defend a provocative ontological-cum-semantic position, asserting that the right ontology is minimal or austere, in that it excludes numerous commonsense posits, and that statements employing such posits are nonetheless true, when truth is understood to be semantic correctness under contextually operative semantic standards. Terence Horgan and Matjaz Potrc argue that austere realism emerges naturally from consideration of the deep problems within the naive commonsense approach to truth and ontology."

Authors are depicted here in Ljubljana in late May 2009.

Looks as if some AR centered conference or discussion is needed.

Here is a link to some discussion that already took place:

http://rationalhunter.typepad.com/close_range/2008/09/why-must-the-co.html?cid=6a00d834530a8b69e20120a54ef679970c

Experimental site link

2009-09-11T05:36:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to my new experimental site:

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

The site is experimental because main task is to get acquainted with how it functions. Some fragmentary work in progress notes are posted. Critical remarks are encouraged.

My next plan is to prepare two lectures for October visit to Urbino University, and namely on Epistemic Relevance of Morphological Content, and on Vague Content in Non-Vague World.

The picture was shot in Denver in August.

Boulder Colorado RoME paper

2009-08-19T05:26:00.000-07:00

Just before I went to the RoME congress in Boulder Colorado on August 6-9, 2009. Emanuele Marini came to visit me, and we had Veber Ethics discussion. At the occasion of Rocky Mountain Ethics conference in Boulder I successfully presented my and Vojko's paper on Meinongian moral judgments. In Boulder I met several people, such as Alistair Norcross, Ben Hale, Tom Christiano. I had a dinner at Sink restaurant where Robert Redford used to be a waiter, and I visited Colorado University museum figuring twenty astronauts memorabilia. In Denver I listened to brunch jazz performance, and the walks at the Boulder campus were pleasant. Beth Tropman did a great job commenting our paper. Photos show the Sink restaurant environment, Ben Hale, Tom Christiano, football, Matjaz and Beth Tropman presentation and Emanuele, in that order.

Wuerzburg alumni gathering invitation

2009-07-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

Beginning of July 09 Matjaz visited Prof. Wilhelm Baumgartner, the Franz Brentano Würzburg institute founder. They discussed Brentano's evidentialist roots, in epistemic and semantic matters. They also agreed that, in opposition to atomism, the whole experiential world is involved into phenomenal data. Matjaz Brentanian link is a central theme in his actual evidentialist phenomenology semantic project. He was invited to join the University of Wuerzburg alumni gathering.

Austere Realism book on MIT display

2009-06-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

Here is the book Austere Realism, written by Terry Horgan and Matjaz Potrc, and displayed at a MIT bookstore in June 2009. Metaphysics mafia didn't intervene in this.

Wide assessment quote about the experiential world

2009-06-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

T"In "The World of Qualia," Matjaž Potrč makes the case for the
intriguing claim that qualia -- construed as reflexive acts of
inner-directed awareness built into perceptual acts of outer-directed
awareness -- are "the cement of the experiential world" (114). The
argument is subtle, and Potrč leans heavily on an inadequately
explained distinction between the "experiential world" and the
"physical world." Presumably, his idea is that the experiential world
is the world as my thoughts and experiences represent it as being,
where these thoughts and experiences are taken as perceptual acts of
outer-directed awareness with reflexive acts of inner-directed
awareness (his qualia) built into them. The physical world, meanwhile,
is what my thoughts and experiences must correctly represent in order
to count as veridical. If this interpretation is fair, though, I do
not understand why qualia so understood count as the relevant sort of
cement, why thoughts and experiences need such a cement to unify them,
and why Potrč's qualia, which on his view are just another sort of act
of awareness, do not also need a cement of their own for unification."

This is the quote from the recent NPDR review of Edmond Wright The Case for Qualia MIT 2008 book. I thnik that the reviewer is right in requiring elaboration of the experiential world and physical world relation. This however I have dome at other occasions, by developing contextual assessment of truth as indirect correspondence. Reviewer's presupposing of truth as direct correspondence relation urges him to shift away from the dimension that indeed provides qualia as the cement of the experiential world. Abandoning his wide take on the situation allows a smooth reply to his worries.

The picture shows Terry Horgan in Slovenian countryside, June 2009. Terry agrees that we should use the notion of experiential world in our ongoing project.

Bled Epistemic Virtue and Value conference

2009-06-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

Matjaz is cofounder of a series of prominent Bled conferences that exercise increasing influence in various fields of philosophical community. At this year's first week of June conference he presented a paper co-authored with Terry Horgan The Epistemic Relevance of Morphological Content. Many important epistemologists attended the conference, the most influential of these being Earnie Sosa who commented all papers. Wayne Riggs was an excellent organizer. Pictures show Terry and Matjaz doing their shtick at the Bled Kompas hotel and again them in company of David Henderson in Ljubljana. It was agreed that in two year's time there will be a Bled conference on Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom, again under Sosa and Wayne guidance. During their time together Matjaz and Terry also continued to sketch their next co-authored book with provisional title Morphological Content, Phenomenology and Semantic Holism.

What's next? Matjaz and Vojko's paper Meinongian Theory of Moral Judgments was accepted for August Rocky Mountain Ethics conference, with Beth Tropman as the commentator.

Dubrovnik Attention conference

2009-06-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

Matjaz attended Dubrovnik The Philosophical Significance of Attention conference last week of May, organized by Declan Smithies. He presented a paper together with Terry Horgan, entitled Attention, Morphological Content and Epistemic Justification. Several prominent philosopher were present. Matjaz is depicted here in company of Charles Siewert.

Dance and its phenomenology

2009-06-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

On May 20th Nicole Speletic from New York performed a dance introduction and moving of the body explanation, comparing new with older styles of the artist dance. The session succeeded in University building and was organized by Vojko Strahovnik. Nicole, Matjaz and Vojko have a project to write a paper on phenomenology of dance, two preparatory drafts of which you can find at Matjaz domaca stran under clanki/articles. Nicole is spending some time in Slovenia. Drawing on the heritage of her roots she recently became a citizen of Slovenia. Congratulations, Nicole!

Juergen Habermas

2009-05-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

On May 19th 2009 Matjaz Potrc presented his paper on Transvaluating Frankfurt to Juergen Habermas in Pecs Hungary. Habermas replied and commented, and so did Agnes Heller, Robert Brandom among others. Matjaz started by delineating his commitment to the existence of a mind and language independent world, then stressed his indirect correspondence normative and contextual approach to truth and argued for the qualitative and narrow account of free will conditions that may be achieved in the experiential world of my brain in a vat duplicate. Habermas mentioned the background basis of the Lebenswelt. Frankfurt cases in the discussion of free will center at the self as a source of action, dismissing phenomenology of free agency. Is the quality achievable in renaissance approach and what is its relation to the enlightenment? The Habermas conference was organized by Janos Boros from Pecs University.

Hundred free papers and a dancing performance

2009-05-13T03:55:00.001-07:00

http://www2.arnes.si/~supmpotr/clanki.html By clicking at the just given link you can find hundred free papers written by Prof. Matjaz Potrc. One among these papers is a draft on the topics of Phenomenology of dancing. Nicole Speletic, a philosopher and a fine dancer from NY contributed her own draft. Nicole will talk and dance on Wednesday May 20th at 13:45h (1:45p) at the main building of University of Ljubljana (Kongresni trg), as a guest of Potrc and Strahovnik. First picture shows Matjaz at a Ljubljana pub, and the second one at a teashop close to Ljubljanica river.

Mountain view

2009-05-13T03:35:00.000-07:00

On May 10th Matjaz took a walk at Dobrca mountain, to the top, and even a little bit further to the one of the most interesting sightseeing spots in Slovene mountains. It was sunny, with some patches of snow. This must be the uebermenschen-point-of-view I guess.

Drustvo za analiticno filozofijo and some plans

2009-05-13T03:20:00.000-07:00

Drustvo za analiticno filozofijo (DAF: Analytic Philosophy Society) has Monday meetings as one of its basic activities. On May 11th we discussed Morphological rationalism, but in overall we prepare ourselves for Bled conferences, by reading and discussing chosen texts. This year's international Bled conference (June 1-6) will be on Virtue epistemology and value. The photo figures Vojko Strahovnik and Matjaz Potrc as two core constitutive members of Monday meetings.

Here are some plans for next couple of months: Vojko and Matjaz will present their paper on Habermas treatment of free will, and Habermas will respond. Matjaz and Terry Horgan will take part in Dubrovnik Attention and Bled symposia. Matjaz and Vojko will present their paper on Meinongian ought-beliefs at the Rocky Mountains Ethics (or RoME) conference, all by invitation.

Origins of Many-Valued Logic

2009-04-21T03:53:00.000-07:00

Professor Niels Oeffenberger from Bergisch-Gladbach Germany came to Ljubljana in order to talk about the coming into being of the many-valued logic. This event took place on Tuesday, April 21st 2009 at Filozofska fakulteta. Symposium was entitled Frane Jerman in vecvrednostna logika. It was inspired by the book of Frane Jerman: Med logiko in filozofijo: logika in filozofija v delu Jana Lukasiewicza. Participants commened on Jerman on Lukasiewicz, on determinism, on logic and reality, on many-valued logic, and on deontic logic. Symposium was organized by Vojko Strahovnik. Danilo Suster delivering his talk.

Emanuele Marini and Venanzio Raspa

2009-03-29T23:02:00.000-07:00

Venanzio Raspa delivered a lecture on Non-Aristotelian logic and another one on Meinongian aesthetics and ontology, on March 23rd and 25th in Ljubljana. We had nice time together. I tried to push for Meinongian monism on two counts: in the area of ideal objects, there is superset of all properties, and there is an immense ordered range of possible objects; all this is parsimonious. In the area of the empirical world, infima are bought just for reason of antirelativism according to Raspa. This I see as a reductio of parts and an actual acceptance of monism. Now Raspa asks: what is the relation between ideal and empirical realms? Emanuele Marini from Milano is fluent in Slovenian language, he had contacts to Raspa, but met him for the first time in Ljubljana. Emanuele is writing a book on France Veber, where the main point is affirmation of Veber's enlargements of objects to desiderativa and dignitativa, a distinction specifying Brentano's Gemuetsbewegungen and adopted by Meinong. I stressed that this goes together with another important Slovene philosopher, Ernst Mally (born in Kranj with career in Graz), the originator of the deontic logic. Both Slovene philosophers Veber and Mally pushed for extenstion of the area of objects of the higher order. The lower photo shows myself with Raspa, the upper photo with Marini.