Degree supervaluational logic

Supervaluationism is often described as the most popular semantic treatment of indeterminacy. There???s little consensus, however, about how to fill out the bare-bones idea to include a characterization of logical consequence. The paper explores one methodology for choosing between the logics: pick a logic that norms belief as classical consequence is standardly thought to do. The main focus of the paper considers a variant of standard supervaluational, on which we can characterize degrees of determinacy. It applies the methodology above to focus on degree logic. This is developed first in a basic, single-premise case; and then extended to the multipremise case, and to allow degrees of consequence. The metatheoretic properties of degree logic are set out. On the positive side, the logic is supraclassical???all classical valid sequents are degree logic valid. Strikingly, metarules such as cut and conjunction introduction fail

Eligibility and inscrutability

The philosophy of intentionality asks questions such as: in virtue of what does a sentence, picture, or mental state represent that the world is a certain way? The subquestion I focus upon here concerns the semantic properties of language: in virtue of what does a name such as ‘London’ refer to something or a predicate such as ‘is large’ apply to some object? This essay examines one kind of answer to this “metasemantic”1 question: interpretationism, instances of which have been proposed by Donald Davidson, David Lewis, and others. I characterize the “twostep” form common to such approaches and briefl y say how two versions described by David Lewis fi t this pattern. Then I describe a fundamental challenge to this approach: a “permutation argument” that contends, by interpretationist lights, there can be no fact of the matter about lexical content (e.g., what individual words refer to). Such a thesis cannot be sustained, so the argument threatens a reductio of interpretationism. In the second part of the article, I will give what I take to be the best interpretationist response to the inscrutability paradox: David Lewis’s appeal to the differential “eligibility” of semantic theories. I contend that, given an independently plausible formulation of interpretationism, the eligibility response is an immediate consequence of Lewis’s general analysis of the theoretical virtue of simplicity. In the fi nal sections of the article, I examine the limitations of Lewis’s response. By focusing on an alternative argument for the inscrutability of reference, I am able to describe conditions under which the eligibility result will deliver the wrong results. In particular, if the world is complex enough and our language suffi ciently simple, then reference may be determinately secured to the wrong things

Determining Market Areas for Livestock Grazing

Differentials between rancher costs of operating on private and public range were studied in an attempt to define market areas for livestock grazing in western United States. The problem of defining market areas is basically a problem of grouping differentials between rancher costs of grazing on private leased range and National Forests that are reasonably homogeneous and statistically testing differences among means of the different groups. Several methods were used to group forests with reasonably uniform differentials into market areas for cattle. A grouping of forests which have the same ave rage grazing fee does not, however, yield market areas which are statistically different from each other

TESTS OF A POTENTIAL METHOD FOR DECOYING STARLINGS TO BAIT STATIONS

The costs of existing Starling control programs prompted the design and test of an alternative method for removing significant numbers of Starlings from heavily damaged areas. The procedure involved the placement of taxidermically prepared adult Starling skins on and near bait stations, accompanied in some cases by broadcasts of recorded Starling vocalizations. Previous studies had indicated that bait stations unaccompanied by live Starling decoys were not acceptable to the birds. Although non-toxic baits were used during these tests to determine the attractability of the stations, ultimate substitution of chemically treated toxic baits was envisioned

Digital Video Studies of Water Waves in Coastal North Carolina: A Project in Teaching Physics (Extended Abstract)

This abstract contains information relevant to the use of wave information for naval operations, education, and alternative energy technologies, and was used, along with the Session Presentation, to facilitate discussion during Session 1 (the use of wave measurements to support operations)

Breakout Session I Notes

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Breakout Session III Notes

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Breakout Session II Notes

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