13 found
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  1. The sorites paradox and higher-order vagueness.J. A. Burgess - 1990 - Synthese 85 (3):417-474.
    One thousand stones, suitably arranged, might form a heap. If we remove a single stone from a heap of stones we still have a heap; at no point will the removal of just one stone make sufficient difference to transform a heap into something which is not a heap. But, if this is so, we still have a heap, even when we have removed the last stone composing our original structure. So runs the Sorites paradox. Similar paradoxes can be constructed (...)
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  2.  92
    Natural deduction rules for a logic of vagueness.J. A. Burgess & I. L. Humberstone - 1987 - Erkenntnis 27 (2):197-229.
    Extant semantic theories for languages containing vague expressions violate intuition by delivering the same verdict on two principles of classical propositional logic: the law of noncontradiction and the law of excluded middle. Supervaluational treatments render both valid; many-Valued treatments, Neither. The core of this paper presents a natural deduction system, Sound and complete with respect to a 'mixed' semantics which validates the law of noncontradiction but not the law of excluded middle.
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  3. The great slippery-slope argument.J. A. Burgess - 1993 - Journal of Medical Ethics 19 (3):169-174.
    Whenever some form of beneficent killing--for example, voluntary euthanasia--is advocated, the proposal is greeted with a flood of slippery-slope arguments warning of the dangers of a Nazi-style slide into genocide. This paper is an attempt systematically to evaluate arguments of this kind. Although there are slippery-slope arguments that are sound and convincing, typical formulations of the Nazi-invoking argument are found to be seriously deficient both in logical rigour and in the social history and psychology required as a scholarly underpinning. As (...)
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  4.  89
    Potential and foetal value.J. A. Burgess - 2010 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 27 (2):140-153.
    The argument from potential has been hard to assess because the versions presented by friends and those presented by enemies have born very little resemblance to each other. I here try to improve this situation by attempting to bring both versions into enforced contact. To this end, I sketch a more detailed analysis of the modern concept of potential than any hitherto attempted. As one would expect, arguments from potential couched in terms of that notion are evident non-starters. I then (...)
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  5. When is circularity in definitions benign?J. A. Burgess - 2007 - Philosophical Quarterly 58 (231):214–233.
    I aim to show how and why some definitions can be benignly circular. According to Lloyd Humberstone, a definition that is analytically circular need not be inferentially circular and so might serve to illuminate the application-conditions for a concept. I begin by tidying up some problems with Humberstone's account. I then show that circular definitions of a kind commonly thought to be benign have inferentially circular truth-conditions and so are malign by Humberstone's test. But his test is too demanding. The (...)
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  6. Vague objects and indefinite identity.J. A. Burgess - 1990 - Philosophical Studies 59 (3):263 - 287.
  7. What is minimalism about truth?J. A. Burgess - 1997 - Analysis 57 (4):259–267.
  8. Is genetic engineering wrong, per se?J. A. Burgess & Adrian Walsh - 1998 - Journal of Value Inquiry 32 (3):393-406.
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  9. Vague Identity: Evans Misrepresented.J. A. Burgess - 1989 - Analysis 49 (3):112 - 119.
    In 'Vague Identity: Evans Misunderstood' David Lewis defends Gareth Evans against a widespread misunderstanding of an argument that appeared in his article 'Can There be Vague Objects?'. Lewis takes himself to be 'defending Evans' and not just correcting a mistake; witness his remark that, 'As misunderstood, Evans is a pitiful figure: a "technical philosopher" out of control of his technicalities, taken in by a fallacious proof of an absurd conclusion'. Let me say at the outset that I take Lewis to (...)
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  10. Supervaluations and the propositional attitude constraint.J. A. Burgess - 1997 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 26 (1):103-119.
    For the sentences of languages that contain operators that express the concepts of definiteness and indefiniteness, there is an unavoidable tension between a truth-theoretic semantics that delivers truth conditions for those sentences that capture their propositional contents and any model-theoretic semantics that has a story to tell about how indetifiniteness in a constituent affects the semantic value of sentences which imbed it. But semantic theories of both kinds play essential roles, so the tension needs to be resolved. I argue that (...)
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  11.  32
    Consumer Sovereignty, Rationality and the Mandatory Labelling of Genetically Modified Food.J. A. Burgess & A. J. Walsh - 1999 - Business and Professional Ethics Journal 18 (3):7-26.
  12. Ten moral paradoxes * by Saul Smilansky.J. A. Burgess - 2011 - Analysis 71 (3):603-605.
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  13. Review of J.C. Beall and Greg Restall, Logical Pluralism. [REVIEW]J. A. Burgess - 2010 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 81 (2):519-522.