Scott A Shalkowski
Biographic Data
| ID | 1046674 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Scott A Shalkowski |
| GIVEN NAMES | Scott A |
| FAMILY NAME | Shalkowski |
| SIGNATURE | SHALKOWSKI S A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leeds |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5842-1241 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The Prolix and The Pleonastic
Philosophical analysis has long involved finding the “proper” form of a sentence, aiming to find a form that is “transparent” regarding its implications. Easy ontologists claim that finding the tacit ontological commitments of ordinary claims about the world is easy. Simple paraphrases and elementary deductions from those paraphrases will do, they claim. We find the easy ontologists’ arguments wanting. After examining the natures of idioms and pa…
The Routledge Handbook of Modality
Introduction. Modal matters : philosophical significance / Otávio Bueno and Scott A. Shalkowski -- Possible worlds / Michael De -- Actualism / Karen Bennett -- Counterfactual conditionals / Dorothy Edgington -- Impossibility and impossible worlds / Daniel Nolan -- Origins of logical space / Brian Leftow -- Essentialism and modality / Penelope Mackie -- De re modality / Boris Kment -- Relativized metaphysical modality : index and context / Benj He…
Troubles with Theoretical Virtues: Resisting Theoretical Utility Arguments in Metaphysics
In this paper we examine theoretical utility arguments in metaphysics. While philosophers claim a procedural continuity with science when using such arguments, we argue that examining famous instances from the history of science expose their fundamental flaws. We find that arguments from theoretical utility invoke considerations that are not truth conducive and that justifications for claims that a theory possesses theoretical virtues often assum…
Modal Epistemology Without Detours
Logic and Absolute Necessity
Ontology, Modality, and the Fallacy of Reference
This is a book about the concept of a physical thing and about how the names of things relate to the things they name. It questions the prevalent view that names 'refer to' or 'denote' the things they name. Instead it presents a new theory of proper names, according to which names express certain special properties that the things they name exhibit. This theory leads to some important conclusions about whether things have any of their properties …
The Ontological Ground of the Alethic Modality
This paper is concerned with the wholly metaphysical question of whether necessity and possibility rest on nonmodal foundations—whether the truth conditions for modal statements are, in the final analysis, nonmodal. It is argued that Lewis’s modal realism is either arbitrary and stipulative or else it is circular. Even if there were Lewisean possible worlds, they could not provide the grounds for modality. D. M. Armstrong’s combinatorial approach…
Supervenience and causal necessity
Correspondence Revisited
Concepts and Correspondence
Realism is an issue about which it is very difficult to get and remain clear. The reasons for this are several. First, disparate issues are discussed in terms of realism and anti-realism. Among these issues is whether knowledge of truth-conditions is integral to an adequate theory of meaning for a natural language (the Davidson-Dummett debate); whether scientific theories describe, at least in part, the actual world or are merely tools for invest…
The Ontological Ground of the Alethic Modality
This paper is concerned with the wholly metaphysical question of whether necessity and possibility rest on nonmodal foundations—whether the truth conditions for modal statements are, in the final analysis, nonmodal. It is argued that Lewis’s modal realism is either arbitrary and stipulative or else it is circular. Even if there were Lewisean possible worlds, they could not provide the grounds for modality. D. M. Armstrong’s combinatorial approach…
Troubles with Theoretical Virtues: Resisting Theoretical Utility Arguments in Metaphysics
In this paper we examine theoretical utility arguments in metaphysics. While philosophers claim a procedural continuity with science when using such arguments, we argue that examining famous instances from the history of science expose their fundamental flaws. We find that arguments from theoretical utility invoke considerations that are not truth conducive and that justifications for claims that a theory possesses theoretical virtues often assum…
Supervenience and causal necessity
Correspondence Revisited
Concepts and Correspondence
Realism is an issue about which it is very difficult to get and remain clear. The reasons for this are several. First, disparate issues are discussed in terms of realism and anti-realism. Among these issues is whether knowledge of truth-conditions is integral to an adequate theory of meaning for a natural language (the Davidson-Dummett debate); whether scientific theories describe, at least in part, the actual world or are merely tools for invest…
Supervenience and causal necessity
The Ontological Ground of the Alethic Modality
This paper is concerned with the wholly metaphysical question of whether necessity and possibility rest on nonmodal foundations—whether the truth conditions for modal statements are, in the final analysis, nonmodal. It is argued that Lewis’s modal realism is either arbitrary and stipulative or else it is circular. Even if there were Lewisean possible worlds, they could not provide the grounds for modality. D. M. Armstrong’s combinatorial approach…
Ontology, Modality, and the Fallacy of Reference
This is a book about the concept of a physical thing and about how the names of things relate to the things they name. It questions the prevalent view that names 'refer to' or 'denote' the things they name. Instead it presents a new theory of proper names, according to which names express certain special properties that the things they name exhibit. This theory leads to some important conclusions about whether things have any of their properties …
Logic and Absolute Necessity
Modal Epistemology Without Detours
Troubles with Theoretical Virtues: Resisting Theoretical Utility Arguments in Metaphysics
In this paper we examine theoretical utility arguments in metaphysics. While philosophers claim a procedural continuity with science when using such arguments, we argue that examining famous instances from the history of science expose their fundamental flaws. We find that arguments from theoretical utility invoke considerations that are not truth conducive and that justifications for claims that a theory possesses theoretical virtues often assum…
The Routledge Handbook of Modality
Introduction. Modal matters : philosophical significance / Otávio Bueno and Scott A. Shalkowski -- Possible worlds / Michael De -- Actualism / Karen Bennett -- Counterfactual conditionals / Dorothy Edgington -- Impossibility and impossible worlds / Daniel Nolan -- Origins of logical space / Brian Leftow -- Essentialism and modality / Penelope Mackie -- De re modality / Boris Kment -- Relativized metaphysical modality : index and context / Benj He…
The Prolix and The Pleonastic
Philosophical analysis has long involved finding the “proper” form of a sentence, aiming to find a form that is “transparent” regarding its implications. Easy ontologists claim that finding the tacit ontological commitments of ordinary claims about the world is easy. Simple paraphrases and elementary deductions from those paraphrases will do, they claim. We find the easy ontologists’ arguments wanting. After examining the natures of idioms and pa…
Philosophy (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Artificial Intelligence (4 works) · Modality (human–computer interaction) (4 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (4 works) · Philosophy and Theoretical Science (4 works) · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (3 works)