Schaffer, Jonathan
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Schaffer, Jonathan
Jonathan Schaffer is an American philosopher specializing in metaphysics and also working in epistemology, mind, and language. He is best known for his work on grounding and his development of monism, and is also a notable proponent of contrastivism. Career Since earning his PhD from Rutgers University in 1999, Schaffer has published 73 papers. He wrote his PhD thesis ''Causation and the Probabilities of Processes'' under Brian McLaughlin. In 2000, he accepted a position as assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts, earning tenure by 2004. In that period he was awarded the Philosophy of Science Recent PhD Essay Contest in 2001, and the Young Epistemologist Prize in 2002. In 2007, Schaffer accepted a permanent research position at the Australian National University, and was described as "one of philosophy's most creative and interesting younger figures". He subsequently won awards for two papers published that year, the American Ph ...
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Kenyon College
Kenyon College ( ) is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1824 by Episcopal Bishop Philander Chase. It is the oldest private institution of higher education in the state of Ohio and enrolls approximately 1,800 undergraduate students. Students can choose from over 50 majors, minors, and concentrations, including self-designed majors. The college is located on a hill overlooking the Kokosing River and neighbors Mount Vernon, Ohio. Its campus is set in rural surroundings that host seven ecosystems. There are more than 120 student clubs and organizations. Kenyon athletes are called Owls and compete in the NCAA Division III North Coast Athletic Conference. Kenyon College is Educational accreditation, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. History Founding After becoming the first Episcopal Episcopal Diocese of Ohio, Bishop of Ohio in 1818, Philander Chase found ...
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Contrastivism
Contrastivism, or the contrast theory of meaning, is an epistemological theory proposed by Jonathan Schaffer that suggests that knowledge attributions have a ternary structure of the form 'S knows that p rather than q'. This is in contrast to the traditional view whereby knowledge attributions have a binary structure of the form 'S knows that p'. Contrastivism was suggested as an alternative to contextualism. Both are semantic theories that try to explain skepticism using semantic methods. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong proposed in a paper titled "A Contrastivist Manifesto" a variant of contrastivism that, he argues, differs from contextualism, invariantism, and Schaffer's contrastivism. Ernest Gellner in '' Words and Things'' "terms derive their meaning from the fact that there are or could be things which fall under them and that there are others which do not." The contrast clause The '...rather than q' part of the knowledge attribution is known as the 'contrast clause'. This is ...
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Substance Theory
Substance theory, or substance–attribute theory, is an ontological theory positing that objects are constituted each by a ''substance'' and properties borne by the substance but distinct from it. In this role, a substance can be referred to as a ''substratum'' or a '' thing-in-itself''. ''Substances'' are particulars that are ontologically independent: they are able to exist all by themselves. Another defining feature often attributed to substances is their ability to ''undergo changes''. Changes involve something existing ''before'', ''during'' and ''after'' the change. They can be described in terms of a persisting substance gaining or losing properties. ''Attributes'' or ''properties'', on the other hand, are entities that can be exemplified by substances. Properties characterize their bearers; they express what their bearer is like. ''Substance'' is a key concept in ontology, the latter in turn part of metaphysics, which may be classified into monist, dualist, or plural ...
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Abstract And Concrete
In philosophy and the arts, a fundamental distinction exists between abstract and concrete entities. While there is no universally accepted definition, common examples illustrate the difference: numbers, sets, and ideas are typically classified as abstract objects, whereas plants, dogs, and planets are considered concrete objects. Philosophers have proposed several criteria to define this distinction: # ''Spatiotemporal existence'' – Abstract objects exist outside space-time, while concrete objects exist within space-time. # ''Causal influence'' – Concrete objects can cause and be affected by other entities (e.g., a rock breaking a window), whereas abstract objects (e.g., the number 2) lack causal powers and do not cause anything to happen in the physical world. # ''Metaphysical relation'' – In metaphysics, concrete objects are specific, individual things ( particulars), while abstract objects represent general concepts or categories ( universals). # ''Ontological domain ...
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Mereology
Mereology (; from Greek μέρος 'part' (root: μερε-, ''mere-'') and the suffix ''-logy'', 'study, discussion, science') is the philosophical study of part-whole relationships, also called ''parthood relationships''. As a branch of metaphysics, mereology examines the connections between parts and their wholes, exploring how components interact within a system. This theory has roots in ancient philosophy, with significant contributions from Plato, Aristotle, and later, medieval and Renaissance thinkers like Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus. Mereology was formally axiomatized in the 20th century by Polish logician Stanisław Leśniewski, who introduced it as part of a comprehensive framework for logic and mathematics, and coined the word "mereology". Mereological ideas were influential in early , and formal mereology has continued to be used by a minority in works on the . Different axiomatizations of mereology have been applied in , used in to analyze "mass terms", use ...
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Meta-ontology
Metaontology or meta-ontology is the study of the field of inquiry known as ontology. The goal of meta-ontology is to clarify what ontology is about and how to interpret the meaning (philosophy), meaning of ontological claims. Different meta-ontological theories disagree on what the goal of ontology is and whether a given issue or theory lies within the scope of ontology. There is no universal agreement whether meta-ontology is a separate field of inquiry besides ontology or whether it is just one branch of ontology. Meta-ontological realists hold that there are objective answers to the basic questions of ontology. According to the Quinean approach, the goal of ontology is to determine what exists and what doesn't exist. The neo-Aristotelianism (philosophy), neo-Aristotelian approach asserts that the goal of ontology is to determine which entity, entities are fundamental and how the non-fundamental entities depend on them. Meta-ontological anti-realists, on the other hand, deny tha ...
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Neo-Aristotelianism (philosophy)
Aristotelianism ( ) is a philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle, usually characterized by Prior Analytics, deductive logic and an Posterior Analytics, analytic inductive method in the study of natural philosophy and metaphysics. It covers the treatment of the social sciences under a system of Natural law#Aristotle, natural law. It answers why-questions by a scheme of four causes, including purpose or telos, teleology, and emphasizes virtue ethics. Aristotle and his school wrote tractates on Physics (Aristotle), physics, biology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics, and government. Any school of thought that takes one of Aristotle's distinctive positions as its starting point can be considered "Aristotelian" in the widest sense. This means that different Aristotelian theories (e.g. in ethics or in ontology) may not have much in common as far as their actual content is concerned besi ...
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Humboldt Prize
The Humboldt Research Award (), also known informally as the Humboldt Prize, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of Germany in recognition of their lifetime's research achievements. Recipients are "academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge academic achievements in the future". The prize is currently valued at €60,000 with the possibility of further support during the prize winner's life. Up to one hundred such awards are granted each year. Nominations must be submitted by established academics in Germany. As of 2023, over 2,000 awards have been granted. The award is named after the Prussian naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. Andreas W. Daum, ''Alexander von Humboldt: A Concise Biography''. Trans. Robert Savage. Princeton, N.J.: Prin ...
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Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, and to induct outstanding students of arts and sciences at select American colleges and universities. Since its inception, its inducted members include 17 President of the United States, United States presidents, 42 Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court justices, and 136 Nobel Prize, Nobel laureates. History Origins The Phi Beta Kappa Society had its first meeting on December 5, 1776, at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia by five students, with John Heath as its first President. The society established the precedent for naming American college societies after the initial letters of a secret Greek motto. The group consisted of students who frequented the Raleigh Tavern as a common meeting ar ...
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Australasian Journal Of Philosophy
The ''Australasian Journal of Philosophy'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of philosophy and "one of the oldest English-language philosophy journals in the world". It was established in 1923 as ''The Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy'', obtaining its current title in 1947. It is published by Routledge on behalf of the Australasian Association of Philosophy. In 2007, it was rated "A" in the European Reference Index in the Humanities. It is abstracted and indexed by the Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Historical Abstracts, Scopus, Philosopher's Index, ProQuest databases, and Current Contents/Arts & Humanities. History Continuously published since its foundation in 1923 – with all members of the ''Australasian Association of Psychology and Philosophy'' receiving copies of the journal free of charge as a perquisite of their membership (it was also available to non-members at a cost of three shillings an issue, or ten shillings a year) – it w ...
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Philosophy And Phenomenological Research
''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'' (''PPR'') is a bimonthly philosophy journal founded in 1940. Until 1980, it was edited by Marvin Farber, then by Roderick Chisholm, and since 1986 by Ernest Sosa. It considers itself open to a variety of methodologies and traditions, as indicated by a statement appearing in each issue: "PPR publishes articles in a wide range of areas including philosophy of mind, epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and philosophical history of philosophy. No specific methodology or philosophical orientation is required in submissions." It is published by the International Phenomenological Society based at Brown University in Rhode Island, United States. External links Citationin JSTOR JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ... * Continent ...
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American Philosophical Association
The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarly activity in philosophy, to facilitate the professional work and teaching of philosophers, and to represent philosophy as a discipline. The APA's governance has included Robert Audi, Jaegwon Kim and Ruth Barcan Marcus. Activities The association has three divisions: Pacific, Central, and Eastern. Each division organizes a large annual conference. The biggest of these is the Eastern Division Meeting, which usually attracts around 2,000 philosophers and takes place in a different East Coast city each December. The Eastern Division Meeting is also the United States' largest recruitment event for philosophy jobs, with numerous universities sending teams to interview candidates for academic posts. The two evening receptions are traditiona ...
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