In Memoriam: Jaakko Hintikka (1929-2015)

Our condolences go out to the surviving family and colleagues of world-renowned Finnish philosopher and logician, Dr. Jaakko Hintikka, who has passed away.

His obituary is linked here, in Finnish.

Having taught at Florida State University, Stanford, the University of Helsinki, and the Academy of Finland, Dr. Hintikka ended his career as a professor emeritus at Boston University.

Over his career, Dr. Hintikka made great contributions to mathematical logic, philosophical logic, the philosophy of mathematics, epistemology, language theory, and the philosophy of science. He is credited as the main architect of game-theoretical semantics and of the interrogative approach to inquiry. Dr. Hintikka is also revered as one of the main architects of distributive normal forms, possible-worlds semantics, tree methods, infinitely deep logics, and the present-day theory of inductive generalization.

To celebrate Dr. Hintikka’s long life and career, we’ve made free a small collection of his articles.

Photo Credit: Australasian Association of Philosophy

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Existence and Predication from Aristotle to Frege

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research | Volume 73, Issue 2, September 2006

 

Quine’s ultimate presuppositions

Theoria | Volume 65, Issue 1, April 1999

 

Wittgenstein on being and time

Theoria | Volume 62, Issue 1-2, April 1996

 

The Games of Logic and the Games of Inquiry

Dialectica | Volume 49, Issue 2-4, June 1995

 

On proper (popper?) and improper uses of information in epistemology

Theoria | Volume 59, Issue 1-3, April 1993

 

Overcoming “Overcoming Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language” Through Logical Analysis of Language

Dialectica | Volume 45, Issue 2-3, September 1991

 

Metaphor and the Varieties of Lexical Meaning*

Dialectica | Volume 44, Issue 1-2, June 1990

 

Kant on Existence, Predication, and the Ontological Argument

Dialectica | Volume 35, Issue 1, June 1981

 

Language-Games

Dialectica |Volume 31, Issue 3-4, December 1977

 

Partially Ordered Quantifiers vs. Partially Ordered Ideas

Dialectica | Volume 30, Issue 1, March 1976

 

Quine vs. Peirce?

Dialectica | Volume 30, Issue 1, March 1976

 

The Prospects for Convention T

Dialectica | Volume 30, Issue 1, March 1976

 

The Question of?: A Comment on Urs Egli

Dialectica | Volume 30, Issue 1, March 1976

 

Comment on Professor Bergström

Theoria | Volume 41, Issue 1, April 1975

 

Quantifiers vs. Quantification Theory

Dialectica | Volume 27, Issue 3-4, December 1973

 

‘Prima facie’ obligations and iterated modalities

Theoria | Volume 36, Issue 3, December 1970

 

“Knowing oneself” and other problems in epistemic logic

Theoria | Volume 32, Issue 1, April 1966

 

Distributive Normal Forms and Deductive Interpolation

Mathematical Logic Quarterly | Volume 10, Issue 13-17, 1964

 

Modality and Quantification

Theoria | Volume 27, Issue 3, December 1961

 

*Written by Jaakko Hintikka and Gabriel Sandu

Free Virtual Collection: Philosophy Yesterday and Today

In celebration of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy, we have put together two collections of content from our philosophy books and journals inspired by the conference symposia. These articles look back on the hugely influential philosophy of Ancient Greece, and look forward to current trends in epistemology.

Ancient Greek Philosophy

This section, inspired by the symposium “The Relevance of Ancient Greek Philosophy Today,” contains articles and book chapters on Plato, Artistotle, and Socrates, and covers topics from Greek political thought to Greek theater.

Current Trends in Epistemology

Epistemology – the theory of knowledge – lies at the heart of all philosophy. Inspired by the symposium “Current Trends in Epistemology,” chaired by Noûs editor Ernest Sosa,  this collection seeks to tie epistemology into current issues from education to engineering.

 

Free virtual issue: 60 years of the Philosophical Quarterly

The first issue of The Philosophical Quarterly was published in October 1950. In the sixty years since, the PQ has established itself as one of the world’s leading general philosophy journals. We continue to publish across the full spectrum of academic philosophy, and welcome original research in all areas of philosophy and its history.

Our aim in compiling this virtual issue was not to select the ‘best’ articles published in the PQ, but rather to produce a representative sample of the last sixty years. Limiting ourselves to two articles for each decade, we sought to give readers a taste of the variety of topics discussed in the journal, and the range of philosophical approaches taken to those issues. As we find every week, when deciding which articles to publish today, the final choice was not easy.

Many wonderful articles missed out. We could, of course, have included more. (The joy of a virtual issue is that there is no restriction on pages.) But we wanted the virtual issue to be as close as possible to a real issue. Our hope is that our selection will whet the readers’ appetites – encouraging them to search back through the PQ archive and discover hidden riches for themselves.

The virtual issue opens with the editor’s introduction from the first issue, and with a brief piece by Malcolm Knox.

The Virtual Issue

Front Matter Volume 1: Issue 1, 1950 A Passage in Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of Right’ T. M. Knox Volume 1: Issue 1, 1950 Feelings Gilbert Ryle Volume 1: Issue 3, 1951 Direct Perception Norman Malcolm Volume 3: Issue 13, 1953 Aristotle on the Good: A Formal Sketch Bernard Williams Volume 12: Issue 49, 1962 Plato’s “Third Man” Argument (PARM. 132A1-B2): Text and Logic Gregory Vlastos Volume 19: Issue 77, 1969 The ideas of Power and Substance in Locke’s Philosophy Michael R. Ayres Volume 25: Issue 98, 1975 Common Knowledge Jane Heal Volume 28: Issue 111, 1978 Epiphenomenal Qualia Frank Jackson Volume 32: Issue 127, 1982 What does a concept script do? Cora Diamond Volume 34: Issue 136, 1984 A Furry Tile About Mental Representation Deborah Brown Volume 36: Issue 185, 1996 Finkish Dispositions David Lewis Volume 47: Issue 187, 1997 How to Reid Moore John Greco Volume 52: Issue 209, 2002 Kant’s second thoughts on race Pauline Kleingeld Volume 57: Issue 229, 2007

The Philosophical Quarterly: From past to present

The first issue of The Philosophical Quarterly was published in October 1950. In the sixty years since, the PQ has established itself as one of the world’s leading general philosophy journals. The journal continues to publish across the full spectrum of academic philosophy, and welcomes original research in all areas of philosophy and its history.

The editorial board have recently compiled this virtual issue to produce a representative sample of the last sixty years. Limiting themselves to two articles for each decade, they sought to give readers a taste of the variety of topics discussed in the journal, and the range of philosophical approaches taken to those issues. As the team find every week, when deciding which articles to publish today, the final choice was not easy. Many wonderful articles missed out. They could, of course, have included more, but wanted the virtual issue to be as close as possible to a real issue. The PQ hope  that their selection will whet your appetites – encouraging you to search back through the PQ archive and discover hidden riches for yourselves.

The virtual issue opens with the editor’s introduction from the first issue, and with a brief piece by Malcolm Knox.

The Virtual Issue

Front Matter
Volume 1: Issue 1, 1950

A Passage in Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of Right’
T. M. Knox
Volume 1: Issue 1, 1950

Feelings
Gilbert Ryle
Volume 1: Issue 3, 1951

Direct Perception
Norman Malcolm
Volume 3: Issue 13, 1953

Aristotle on the Good: A Formal Sketch
Bernard Williams
Volume 12: Issue 49, 1962

Plato’s “Third Man” Argument (PARM. 132A1-B2): Text and Logic
Gregory Vlastos
Volume 19: Issue 77, 1969

The ideas of Power and Substance in Locke’s Philosophy
Michael R. Ayers
Volume 25: Issue 98, 1975

Common Knowledge
Jane Heal
Volume 28: Issue 111, 1978

Epiphenomenal Qualia
Frank Jackson
Volume 32: Issue 127, 1982

What does a concept script do?
Cora Diamond
Volume 34: Issue 136, 1984

A Furry Tile About Mental Representation
Deborah Brown
Volume 36: Issue 185, 1996

Finkish Dispositions
David Lewis
Volume 47: Issue 187, 1997

How to Reid Moore
John Greco
Volume 52: Issue 209, 2002

Kant’s second thoughts on race
Pauline Kleingeld
Volume 57: Issue 229, 2007

To live and let die

A 91-year-old woman is selling suicide kits via Internet, author Sir Terry Pratchett is participating in a BBC Two documentary about assisted suicide. We face the fact that death has become such a mundane thing that requires a paradigm shift – althought it would just be a recursion to the Greeks.

Treasuring life has been a cultural melting pot for many civilizations. Myths of creation are patterns of wisdom, regardless time and place, thought the occurrence of life is inseparable of its evanescent and renewal. The ways we perceive death are cultural constructs that shape within particular social and historical moments.

There is an intense debate on this subject: religiously, it’s prohibit – the right to give or take life belongs only to God. However, others believe that although killing a person is normally wrong, and worse than killing “any other kind of being” (like animals, for example, which are not self-conscious), in the case of persons it is worse to deny voluntary euthanasia than to provide it. To prohibit voluntary euthanasia is to promote less happiness, for it promotes the continued suffering of a self-conscious being who desires to end that suffering but knows that it will continue.

The Greeks called it a good and easy death (eu – good, thanatos– death). We know that in Sparta handicapped children were exposed and left to die, fact which was approved by Aristotle, for reasons of public utility. Plato expanded the practice to seriously ill elderly. Epicurus summed the general trend of thought of the ancient Greeks: We are masters of the pain, masters in their bearing, if they are bearable, and if not, we possess the ability to quit life, in the same way we leave the theater if we do not like.

Although there isn’t any ethics that could tell us for sure that euthanasia is morally good or right, the question which remains is: Are we giving too much weight to individual freedom? What could be next?

Eat Pray Love

No, this post is not about the movie. Disappointed? Accept my apologies. The title is a mere reference to a small bit of the movie that made me think of…

We live in an age of unparallel developments in science and technology, where human knowledge has arrived at an unforeseen stage.

Beckett: Seeing Red on Stage

The major winner at the Tony Awards this year was Red, a biographical play about abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko, with six wins including the award for best play. The action surrounds Rothko’s commission for paintings to be hung in the Four Seasons restaurant in New York. While Rothko did complete the paintings he ultimately refused to hand over the works after taking exception to how pretentious the restaurant was. He returned the commission money, derided the restaurant, and the paintings are instead on display in various other galleries. Recently the Four Seasons got in contact with the Red production team and requested for some of the paintings created during the show’s performances to be displayed in the restaurant. The request was denied to the bewilderment of the restaurant. A spokesperson from representatives of the Rothko estate thought it would be quite bizarre when “an almost-completed-but-fake painting is hung in the place where the artist decided he was not going to let the real painting hang.”

Another artist whose wishes have been respected from beyond the grave, though with much greater determination, is playwright Samuel Beckett.