29 found
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  1.  67
    Measurement and Computational Skepticism.Robert J. Matthews & Eli Dresner - 2017 - Noûs 51 (4):832-854.
    Putnam and Searle famously argue against computational theories of mind on the skeptical ground that there is no fact of the matter as to what mathematical function a physical system is computing: both conclude (albeit for somewhat different reasons) that virtually any physical object computes every computable function, implements every program or automaton. There has been considerable discussion of Putnam's and Searle's arguments, though as yet there is little consensus as to what, if anything, is wrong with these arguments. In (...)
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  2.  23
    Measurement-Theoretic Representation and Computation-Theoretic Realization.Eli Dresner - 2010 - Journal of Philosophy 107 (6):275-292.
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  3.  82
    Holism, language acquisition, and algebraic logic.Eli Dresner - 2002 - Linguistics and Philosophy 25 (4):419-452.
    In the first section of this paper I present a well known objection to meaning holism, according to which holism is inconsistent with natural language being learnable. Then I show that the objection fails if language acquisition includes stages of partial grasp of the meaning of at least some expressions, and I argue that standard model theoretic semantics cannot fully capture such stages. In the second section the above claims are supported through a review of current research into language acquisition. (...)
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  4.  49
    Decision Theory, Propositional Measurement, and Unified Interpretation.Eli Dresner - 2014 - Mind 123 (491):707-732.
    The content of our propositional attitudes is often characterized by assigning them abstract entities, namely propositions. In decision theory the attitudes are also assigned numerical measures. It may thus be asked how assignments of these two types are related to each other — both metaphysically and structurally. In the first section of this paper I argue for the importance of this question and I review Davidson’s unified account of decision theory and radical interpretation as a failed attempt to answer it. (...)
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  5.  57
    Over-assignment of structure.Eli Dresner - 2004 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 33 (5):467-480.
    In the first section of this paper I present the measurement-theoretic fallacy of 'over-assignment of structure': the unwarranted assumption that every numeric relation holding among two (or more) numbers represents some empirical, physical relation among the objects to which these numbers are assigned as measures (e.g., of temperature). In the second section I argue that a generalized form of this fallacy arises in various philosophical contexts, in the form of a misguided, over-extended application of one conceptual domain to another. Three (...)
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  6. Time to Reinspect the Foundations?Diane Proudfoot, Jack Copeland, Eli Dresner & Oron Shagrir - 2016 - Communications of the Acm 59 (11):34-38.
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  7. Meaning Holism.Eli Dresner - 2012 - Philosophy Compass 7 (9):611-619.
    In the first section of this paper I define meaning holism (MH) and compare it to related theses. In the second section I review several theories of meaning that incorporate MH as a feature, and in the third section I discuss the question whether and how MH is consistent with the assignment of semantic values to linguistic expressions. Finally, in the fourth section I present the main objections raised against MH in the literature and the answers given to them.
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  8.  29
    Turing, Matthews and Millikan: Effective Memory, Dispositionalism and Pushmepullyou Mental States.Eli Dresner - 2012 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 20 (4):461-472.
    In the first section of the paper I present Alan Turing’s notion of effective memory, as it appears in his 1936 paper ‘On Computable Numbers, With an Application to The Entscheidungsproblem’. This notion stands in surprising contrast with the way memory is usually thought of in the context of contemporary computer science. Turing’s view (in 1936) is that for a computing machine to remember a previously scanned string of symbols is not to store an internal symbolic image of this string. (...)
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  9.  49
    Wittgenstein's builders and Perry's objection to sentence priority.Eli Dresner - 2002 - Dialectica 56 (1):49–63.
    In the first section of this paper I present a view of linguistic meaning that I label 'Sentence Priority’: the position that semantically primitive language‐world contact is made at the level of complete sentences . Then, in the main part of the paper, I consider and reject an objection against Sentence Priority raised by John Perry, an objection that appeals to Wittgenstein's builders parable. Perry argues that the builder's utterances are utterances of self‐standing nouns, and that therefore they constitute a (...)
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  10. Language and the Measure of Mind.Eli Dresner - 2010 - Mind and Language 25 (4):418-439.
    In his recent book The Measure of Mind Robert Matthews presents the most elaborate and convincing attempt to date to account for the propositional attitudes in measurement theoretic terms. In the first section of this paper I review earlier applications of measurement-theoretic conceptualization to the discussion of the mind, I outline Matthews' own account, and I raise two questions concerning it. Then, in the second section of the paper, I present a unified measurement-theoretic account of both linguistic meaning and the (...)
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  11.  88
    A Measurement Theoretic Account of Propositions.Eli Dresner - 2006 - Synthese 153 (1):1-22.
    In the first section of this paper I review Measurement Theoretic Semantics – an approach to formal semantics modeled after the application of numbers in measurement, e.g., of length. In the second section it is argued that the measurement theoretic approach to semantics yields a novel, useful conception of propositions. In the third section the measurement theoretic view of propositions is compared with major other accounts of propositional content.
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  12. Formal Semantics and the Algebraic View of Meaning.Eli Dresner - 1998 - Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley
    What makes our utterances mean what they do? In this work I formulate and justify a structural constraint on possible answers to this key question in the philosophy of language, and I show that accepting this constraint leads naturally to the adoption of an algebraic formalization of truth-theoretic semantics. I develop such a formalization, and show that applying algebraic methodology to the theory of meaning yields important insights into the nature of language. ;The constraint I propose is, roughly, this: the (...)
     
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  13. Boolean algebras and natural language: a measurement theoretic approach.Eli Dresner - 1999 - Nordic Journal of Philosophical Logic 4:175-189.
  14.  63
    Measurement theoretic semantics and the semantics of necessity.Eli Dresner - 2002 - Synthese 130 (3):413 - 440.
    In the first two sections I present and motivate a formal semantics program that is modeled after the application of numbers in measurement (e.g., of length). Then, in the main part of the paper, I use the suggested framework to give an account of the semantics of necessity and possibility: (i) I show thatthe measurement theoretic framework is consistent with a robust (non-Quinean) view of modal logic, (ii) I give an account of the semantics of the modal notions within this (...)
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  15.  76
    Tarski's restricted form and Neale's quantificational treatment of proper names.Eli Dresner - 2001 - Linguistics and Philosophy 24 (4):405-415.
  16.  77
    Holism, Meaning Similarity and Inferential Space—a Measurement Theoretic Approach.Eli Dresner - 2019 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 48 (4):611-630.
    Proponents of meaning holism often invoke notions of meaning similarity and semantic spatiality in order to counter accusations that holism renders language unstable and chaotic. However, talk of such notions often falls short of being explicit and formal. In this paper I present an algebraically couched theory of inferential similarity and spatiality, motivated by measurement theory, and I apply it to the discussion of meaning holism. I argue that the proposed theory offers new and improved conceptual resources for facing the (...)
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  17.  8
    Baking Measures and Propositions.Eli Dresner - 2018 - Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 53:23-27.
    In the first section of this paper I consider the practice of volume-measurement in baking, and I distinguish between two measurement schemes that can be extracted from this practice. In the second section I argue that the ascription of propositional content to utterances bears intuitive affinity to one of these schemes, that extant accounts of propositions are in the mold of the other scheme, and that therefore an alternative conception of propositions is called for.
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  18.  79
    Davidson's Interpretations: The Step Not Taken.Eli Dresner - 2013 - Noûs 49 (4):698-712.
    In the first section of this paper I follow an important trajectory in the development of Davidson's notion of radical interpretation: From being interpretationally concerned only with language, like Quine's radical translation that precedes it, through involving the ascription of belief in increasingly complex ways, to finally incorporating desire and preference. In the second section of the paper I show that Davidson falls short of incorporating non-linguistic action in radical interpretation, I assess his motivations for doing so, and I criticize (...)
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  19.  35
    From Symbol to ‘Symbol’, to Abstract Symbol: Response to Copeland and Shagrir on Turing-Machine Realism Versus Turing-Machine Purism.Eli Dresner & Ofra Rechter - 2016 - Minds and Machines 26 (3):253-257.
    In their recent paper “Do Accelerating Turing Machines Compute the Uncomputable?” Copeland and Shagrir draw a distinction between a purist conception of Turing machines, according to which these machines are purely abstract, and Turing machine realism according to which Turing machines are spatio-temporal and causal “notional" machines. In the present response to that paper we concede the realistic aspects of Turing’s own presentation of his machines, pointed out by Copeland and Shagrir, but argue that Turing's treatment of symbols in the (...)
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  20.  20
    Hintikka's 'Language as calculus vs. language as a universal medium' Distinction.Eli Dresner - 1999 - Pragmatics and Cognition 7 (2):405-421.
  21.  16
    I Interpret You: Davidson and Buber.Eli Dresner & Johan Siebers - 2019 - Review of Metaphysics 73 (1):109-126.
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  22. Logical Consequence and First-Order Soundness and Completeness: A Bottom Up Approach.Eli Dresner - 2011 - Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 52 (1):75-93.
    What is the philosophical significance of the soundness and completeness theorems for first-order logic? In the first section of this paper I raise this question, which is closely tied to current debate over the nature of logical consequence. Following many contemporary authors' dissatisfaction with the view that these theorems ground deductive validity in model-theoretic validity, I turn to measurement theory as a source for an alternative view. For this purpose I present in the second section several of the key ideas (...)
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  23.  33
    Proof Complexity and Textual Cohesion.Eli Dresner - 2015 - Journal of Logic, Language and Information 24 (1):53-64.
    In the first section of this paper I define a set of measures for proof complexity, which combine measures in terms of length and space. In the second section these measures are generalized to the broader category of formal texts. In the third section of the paper I outline several applications of the proposed theory.
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  24.  46
    Quine's Philosophy of Language and Polish Logic.Eli Dresner - 1999 - History and Philosophy of Logic 20 (2):79-96.
    The Polish logicians' propositional calculi, which consist in a distinct synthesis of the Fregean and Boolean approaches to logic, influenced W. V. Quine's early work in formal logic. This early formal work of Quine's, in turn, can be shown to serve as one of the sources of his holistic conception of natural language.
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  25.  61
    Radical Interpretation, the primacy of communication, and the bounds of language.Eli Dresner - 2009 - Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication 1 (1):123-134.
    In the first section of this paper I review the notion of Radical Interpretation, introduced by Donald Davidson in order to account for linguistic meaning and propositional thought. It is then argued that this concept, as embedded in Davidson's whole philosophical system, gives rise to a view of communication as a key explanatory concept in the social sciences. In the second section of the paper it is shown how this view bears upon the question as to what the bounds of (...)
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  26. Turing-, human- and physical computability: An unasked question. [REVIEW]Eli Dresner - 2008 - Minds and Machines 18 (3):349-355.
    In recent years it has been convincingly argued that the Church-Turing thesis concerns the bounds of human computability: The thesis was presented and justified as formally delineating the class of functions that can be computed by a human carrying out an algorithm. Thus the Thesis needs to be distinguished from the so-called Physical Church-Turing thesis, according to which all physically computable functions are Turing computable. The latter is often claimed to be false, or, if true, contingently so. On all accounts, (...)
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  27.  53
    Review of Bunt & Black (2000): Abduction, Belief and Context in Dialogue—Studies in Computational Pragmatics. [REVIEW]Eli Dresner - 2003 - Pragmatics and Cognition 11 (2):390-394.
  28.  9
    Review of Rouet, Levonen, Dillon & Spiro (1996): Hypertext and Cognition. [REVIEW]Eli Dresner - 2000 - Pragmatics and Cognition 8 (2):443-446.
  29. tics, Discourse Processes, Metaphor and Symbol, The Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Language and Speech, and the Journal of Psycho-linguistic Research. Daniel Dor (Ph. D. Stanford University) teaches linguistics and communica-tion at the Departments of Communication and of English, Tel Aviv Univer. [REVIEW]Eli Dresner, Gerd Fritz, Alan Gross & Galia Hatav - 2000 - Pragmatics and Cognition 8 (2):455-456.