Beyond Frege-Geach: neglected problems for Expressivism

This thesis is about the viability of meta-normative expressivism. On what I take to be the dominant conception of the view, it subscribes to two theses. First, that the meaning of sentences is to be explained in terms of the mental states these sentences conventionally express. Second, that there is a fundamental difference in the roles of the states expressed by normative sentences and the states expressed by descriptive sentences: descriptive sentences, according to expressivists, express mental states which are representational and non-motivational, while normative sentences express non-representational and motivational states. Expressivism has attracted many naturalistically inclined philosophers for its ability to explain many of the distinctive features of normative discourse and thought, without adding entities to our ontology that are metaphysically and epistemologically problematic. In this way, expressivism promises to preserve the legitimacy of our ordinary normative practice within a naturalistic world-view, without giving up on any of its distinctive features. Despite it’s benefits, expressivism also faces significant problems. While one of these problems, the Frege-Geach Problem, has attracted a lot of attention, there are several other problems that have not been sufficiently addressed by . But, given that the reasonable assumption that the plausibility of philosophical theories needs to be assessed holistically, it seems that one should pay attention to these problems to be able to assess expressivism’s overall plausibility. In this thesis I explain how expressivists can solve two of these problems. The first problem the dissertation is concerned with is the normative attitude problem. This is a dilemma based on the challenge that expressivists need to give an account of the nature of the attitude that normative thinking consists in. The dilemma is then that expressivists could either do this by holding that normative thinking consists in sui generis attitudes, which is uninformative and potentially in conflict with naturalism, or by holding that normative thinking reduces to attitudes fully describable in non-normative terms, which is in conflict with our intuitions about normative thinking. I argue that this dilemma is structurally identical to a dilemma which meta-normative representationalism faces (expressivism’s dialectical rival) and that expressivists can use the same theoretical resources to address the normative attitude problem meta-normative representationalists have used to address their version of the dilemma. I also argue that these resources will not only help more traditional versions of expressivism, according to which normative thinking reduces to familiar kinds of attitudes fully describable in non-normative terms, but opens up the possibility of an expressivist view according to which normative thinking consists in sui generis attitudes. The second problem I consider is a challenge to a particular expressivist project: quasi-realism. Part of this project is to show that expressivism is compatible with a web of closely connected assumptions, namely, that normative thought and discourse are truth-apt and normative judgements are beliefs. While quasi-realists have made some progress in this direction, there is one relevant phenomenon that has so far been neglected, namely, those uses of that-clauses that are associated with propositional content. This is a problematic neglect, because that-clauses figure prominently in platitudes characterizing our ordinary notions of “truth-aptitude” and “belief ”, and so expressivists need to provide a plausible account of these uses of that-clauses which fits with their allowing that normative thought and discourse are truth-apt and normative judgements are beliefs. I address this challenge as follows: I first remove any worries that one might have that a plausible account of that-clauses that helps the quasi-realist could be given, by introducing the distinction between semantics and meta-semantics and locating expressivism at the level of metasemantics. I then develop a deflationist view of that-clauses which suits the quasi-realist’s purposes. I start by giving such a view for the use of that-clauses in meaning-attributions by expanding on the work of Wilfried Sellars. I then go on to explain how the account can be generalized to the use of that-clauses in belief-attributions and propositional attitude ascriptions more generally, in a way that allows expressivists to say that normative judgements are beliefs

Translation as Social Practice: A Case Study of the Chinese-English Translation Magazine "Renditions"

This thesis is a study of translation as a “socially situated activity”(Wolf and Fukari, 2007; Mason, 2014), taking as example the literary translation magazine Renditions, a biannual published by the Research Centre for Translation at the Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1973. This is a cross-disciplinary project that draws from Chinese Studies, Translation Studies and Sociology to discuss the following research question: considering that translation is widely acknowledged to involve a high amount of individual work, how do translators learn if working within a community? Building on a relatively fresh focus on the sociology of translation in Translation Studies, this thesis is also a reaction to the image of the “lone translator”(brought to attention by e.g. StAndré, 2010), which is challenged in this study of a working environment that naturally creates what educational theorist Wenger (1998) calls a “Community of Practice (CoP)”. The subject is tackled from four interconnected and mutually defining perspectives on the social learning process, as proposed by Wenger: learning by experience (meaning), by doing (practice), by belonging (community), and by becoming (identity). Some related literature (Mason, 2014) suggests that these same four points correspond to the way translators learn. I argue that, even though the activity of translating does indeed involve a considerable amount of individual work, the image of the “lone translator” fades once translators are seen as individuals participating in a community that has an impact on their professional activity. The magazine chosen as the source of material for this project, Renditions, is a relevant and interesting object of study for several reasons. To date, little attention has been paid to literary journals and magazines, partly because their contents are not homogeneous, which makes any attempt at a systematic assessment and study of such a subject “a formidable task” (Gimpel, 1999). For a study focusing on the sociology of translation, however, a magazine is an ideal example of CoP where translators network, collaborate, and re-consider their work in the light of this social contact. Also, given that translation is essentially practice-based,focusing on a magazine allowed me to turn directly to some of Renditions’ many contributors for information: methods used include semi-structured interviews and textual analysis of examples from Renditions’ catalogue. This case study shows that translators tend to benefit professionally from interaction with a CoP; that translation involves a perpetual kind of learning process; that the format of a translation magazine makes translation more visible, highlighting a profession that has been criticised as invisible (see Venuti, 1995); that magazines may be difficult material to research systematically in terms of contents, but suggest themselves as suitable for the study of naturally occurring CoPs

Managing enterprise resource planning and multi-organisational enterprise governance:a new contingency framework for the enterprisation of operations

This research has been undertaken to determine how successful multi-organisational enterprise strategy is reliant on the correct type of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) information systems being used. However there appears to be a dearth of research as regards strategic alignment between ERP systems development and multi-organisational enterprise governance as guidelines and frameworks to assist practitioners in making decision for multi-organisational collaboration supported by different types of ERP systems are still missing from theoretical and empirical perspectives. This calls for this research which investigates ERP systems development and emerging practices in the management of multi-organisational enterprises (i.e. parts of companies working with parts of other companies to deliver complex product-service systems) and identify how different ERP systems fit into different multi-organisational enterprise structures, in order to achieve sustainable competitive success. An empirical inductive study was conducted using the Grounded Theory-based methodological approach based on successful manufacturing and service companies in the UK and China. This involved an initial pre-study literature review, data collection via 48 semi-structured interviews with 8 companies delivering complex products and services across organisational boundaries whilst adopting ERP systems to support their collaborative business strategies – 4 cases cover printing, semiconductor manufacturing, and parcel distribution industries in the UK and 4 cases cover crane manufacturing, concrete production, and banking industries in China in order to form a set of 29 tentative propositions that have been validated via a questionnaire receiving 116 responses from 16 companies. The research has resulted in the consolidation of the validated propositions into a novel concept referred to as the ‘Dynamic Enterprise Reference Grid for ERP’ (DERG-ERP) which draws from multiple theoretical perspectives. The core of the DERG-ERP concept is a contingency management framework which indicates that different multi-organisational enterprise paradigms and the supporting ERP information systems are not the result of different strategies, but are best considered part of a strategic continuum with the same overall business purpose of multi-organisational cooperation. At different times and circumstances in a partnership lifecycle firms may prefer particular multi-organisational enterprise structures and the use of different types of ERP systems to satisfy business requirements. Thus the DERG-ERP concept helps decision makers in selecting, managing and co-developing the most appropriate multi-organistional enterprise strategy and its corresponding ERP systems by drawing on core competence, expected competitiveness, and information systems strategic capabilities as the main contingency factors. Specifically, this research suggests that traditional ERP(I) systems are associated with Vertically Integrated Enterprise (VIE); whilst ERPIIsystems can be correlated to Extended Enterprise (EE) requirements and ERPIII systems can best support the operations of Virtual Enterprise (VE). The contribution of this thesis is threefold. Firstly, this work contributes to a gap in the extant literature about the best fit between ERP system types and multi-organisational enterprise structure types; and proposes a new contingency framework – the DERG-ERP, which can be used to explain how and why enterprise managers need to change and adapt their ERP information systems in response to changing business and operational requirements. Secondly, with respect to a priori theoretical models, the new DERG-ERP has furthered multi-organisational enterprise management thinking by incorporating information system strategy, rather than purely focusing on strategy, structural, and operational aspects of enterprise design and management. Simultaneously, the DERG-ERP makes theoretical contributions to the current IS Strategy Formulation Model which does not explicitly address multi-organisational enterprise governance. Thirdly, this research clarifies and emphasises the new concept and ideas of future ERP systems (referred to as ERPIII) that are inadequately covered in the extant literature. The novel DERG-ERP concept and its elements have also been applied to 8 empirical cases to serve as a practical guide for ERP vendors, information systems management, and operations managers hoping to grow and sustain their competitive advantage with respect to effective enterprise strategy, enterprise structures, and ERP systems use; referred to in this thesis as the “enterprisation of operations”

Translation as Social Practice: A Case Study of the Chinese-English Translation Magazine "Renditions"

This thesis is a study of translation as a “socially situated activity”(Wolf and Fukari, 2007; Mason, 2014), taking as example the literary translation magazine Renditions, a biannual published by the Research Centre for Translation at the Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1973. This is a cross-disciplinary project that draws from Chinese Studies, Translation Studies and Sociology to discuss the following research question: considering that translation is widely acknowledged to involve a high amount of individual work, how do translators learn if working within a community? Building on a relatively fresh focus on the sociology of translation in Translation Studies, this thesis is also a reaction to the image of the “lone translator”(brought to attention by e.g. StAndré, 2010), which is challenged in this study of a working environment that naturally creates what educational theorist Wenger (1998) calls a “Community of Practice (CoP)”. The subject is tackled from four interconnected and mutually defining perspectives on the social learning process, as proposed by Wenger: learning by experience (meaning), by doing (practice), by belonging (community), and by becoming (identity). Some related literature (Mason, 2014) suggests that these same four points correspond to the way translators learn. I argue that, even though the activity of translating does indeed involve a considerable amount of individual work, the image of the “lone translator” fades once translators are seen as individuals participating in a community that has an impact on their professional activity. The magazine chosen as the source of material for this project, Renditions, is a relevant and interesting object of study for several reasons. To date, little attention has been paid to literary journals and magazines, partly because their contents are not homogeneous, which makes any attempt at a systematic assessment and study of such a subject “a formidable task” (Gimpel, 1999). For a study focusing on the sociology of translation, however, a magazine is an ideal example of CoP where translators network, collaborate, and re-consider their work in the light of this social contact. Also, given that translation is essentially practice-based,focusing on a magazine allowed me to turn directly to some of Renditions’ many contributors for information: methods used include semi-structured interviews and textual analysis of examples from Renditions’ catalogue. This case study shows that translators tend to benefit professionally from interaction with a CoP; that translation involves a perpetual kind of learning process; that the format of a translation magazine makes translation more visible, highlighting a profession that has been criticised as invisible (see Venuti, 1995); that magazines may be difficult material to research systematically in terms of contents, but suggest themselves as suitable for the study of naturally occurring CoPs

From Modes of Production to the Resurrection of the Body: A Labor Theory of Revolutionary Subjectivity & Religious Ideas

In this dissertation I attempt two needed tasks within historical materialism: first, to reestablish the standpoint of labor as the normative basis for critical theory beyond irrational bourgeois categories, and second, to show that labor’s own self-mediating rationalization, if it is to move beyond these contradictory categories, necessarily requires a certain religious-utopian consciousness. The dominant Weberian and Marxist paradigms for understanding labor and its relation to the religious variously perpetuated irrational bourgeois conceptions of labor as a bare efficient cause, with religion paternalistically positioned as an inherently idealist or mystifying external form. I argue, however, that the concrete rationality of labor’s revolutionary nature necessarily hinges on a ratio to emergent final causes for which consciousness of such is itself the rational kernel of the religious. Thus I retain the historical materialist primacy of the modes of production as an organizing concept but with a more comprehensive account of its self- transcending movement. Herein the religious arises internally as a non-reductive function of labor’s self-understanding as more than a disposable instrument. I claim any materialist critique of alienated labor implies this religious-utopian consciousness, and therefore any critique of religion must presuppose the normative form of the religious as revolutionary rather than reactionary, reflecting ideal trajectories generated from the productive forces in their basic revolutionizing transformation of nature. More specifically, I argue that theoretically the one religious-utopian ideal transcendentally necessary for grasping the normative standpoint of the laboring body as its own emergent final cause, without external mediation, is the resurrection of the body. I then substantiate this historically. The comprehensive rationality of the modes of production demands that the Marxist distinction between historical periods of formal and real subsumptions yield new assessments of pre-capitalist religious ideology as positively integral to labor’s self-mediating history. I then genealogically trace a Hebraic discourse on bodily resurrection whose revolutionarily demythologized form emerged directly from and for social consciousness of its communal mode of production. I further demonstrate historically that prior to capitalism the laboring body became intelligible to itself as constitutively active without idealist inversions under this certain Judeo-Christian articulation of the resurrection of the body

PSA 2020

These preprints were automatically compiled into a PDF from the collection of papers deposited in PhilSci-Archive in conjunction with the PSA 2020