Podcast appearances and mentions of kit fine

The saga of the Listener 7 academics and their questioning about mātauranga Māori in science continues. In this episode, Free Speech Union Cheif Executive Jonathan Ayling sits down with distinguished Professor Kit Fine, a British philosopher from New York University, who complained to the Royal Society regarding their conduct during the investigation of Professors Robert Nola and Gareth Cooper and called for an investigation of the society itself.  Unsurprisingly, the Royal Society was uninterested in examining itself. But Fine still believes that the Royal Society must answer for its bullying, or academics won't feel free to speak on important questions. Jonathan and Prof Fine unpack how institutions like the Royal Society are undermining free speech, and the long-term impacts this is bound to have on academia.  Support the show

I ask the philosopher Kit Fine five questions about himself. Kit Fine is Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at NYU. He is the author of several books, including “Reasoning with Arbitrary Objects” (1985), “The Limits of Abstraction” (2002), and “Semantic Relationism” (2007).

Timothy Williamson (Oxford) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium titled "On a Proposed Extension of Infinitary Logic". Abstract: In discussing ‘translation’ schemes between possibilist discourse about merely possible objects and actualist discourse that abjures such objects, Kit Fine proposed interpreting quantifiers over pluralities or sets of possibilia using infinite sequences of modal operators and actualist quantifiers. After explaining the philosophical background, the talk will concern the more technical problem of interpreting such infinite sequences of operators. Various proposals will be assessed. The only ones that work depend on postulating possibilia in the meta-language.

The structure of the universe is written in stone—maybe. Dana Goswick talks metaphysics.

The structure of the universe is written in stone—maybe. Dana Goswick talks metaphysics.

The British philosopher and logician Bertrand Russell claimed it is a truism that there are facts: the planets revolve around the sun, 2 + 2 = 4, elephants are bigger than mice. In Against Facts (MIT Press, 2015), Arianna Betti argues that not only is it not a truism that there are facts, but that on either of the basic views of what facts are, there aren’t any. Betti, who is professor of philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, argues that we don’t need to posit facts as truthmakers or as the referents of that-clauses we can express truths about the world and provide an adequate semantics without needing recourse to special entities called “facts”. Betti’s finely articulated discussion and rebuttal of defenses of facts by Russell, David Armstrong, Kit Fine, and others will be a main resource for debate about facts, and related notions of propositions and states of affairs, for years to come.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The British philosopher and logician Bertrand Russell claimed it is a truism that there are facts: the planets revolve around the sun, 2 + 2 = 4, elephants are bigger than mice. In Against Facts (MIT Press, 2015), Arianna Betti argues that not only is it not a truism that there are facts, but that on either of the basic views of what facts are, there aren’t any. Betti, who is professor of philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, argues that we don’t need to posit facts as truthmakers or as the referents of that-clauses we can express truths about the world and provide an adequate semantics without needing recourse to special entities called “facts”. Betti’s finely articulated discussion and rebuttal of defenses of facts by Russell, David Armstrong, Kit Fine, and others will be a main resource for debate about facts, and related notions of propositions and states of affairs, for years to come.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Metaphysics is the philosophical study of reality. But what does that mean in pratice, and what are the limits of what it can reveal? Kit Fine addresses the question 'What is Metaphysics?' in discussion with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy.