So many things to attend in Pasadena, so little time. Here’s a brief list of which sessions seemed most interesting to me. (Be warned – I have very odd interests, so some objectively interesting things are probably not included. And I have a pro-Brown and pro-Cornell bias.) What follows will look awful in anything less than 1024*768, so if you’re running 800*600 I suggest moving to a higher resolution before clicking the ‘more’ link.

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I like this little snippet from the Cornell webpage:

bq. Brian Weatherson (Associate Professor – Ph.D. Monash, 1998). Beginning Fall 2004.
Vagueness, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Probability.

My name with ‘Associate Professor’ next to it! On an official website no less! That does make things seem official now, doesn’t it? At this stage officially getting tenure will feel a little anti-climactic.

Some of the most charmingly pointless controversies on this blog have been about just what region is denoted by ‘Midwest’. (For prior installments, see “here”:http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/tar/Archives/001580.html, “here”:http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/tar/Archives/001568.html and “here”:http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/tar/Archives/002519.html.) I think those are fun, but we seem to have run out of things to say on that word. So it’s time for something new. Just which parts of New York State are denoted by ‘upstate’?

This became topical because “some”:http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=4508550&section=news “news”:http://www.beliefnet.com/story/141/story_14164_1.html “articles”:http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1861&dept_id=152366&newsid=11076095&PAG=461&rfi=9 have described New Paltz, where Mayor Jason West has been solemnizing gay marriages, as being upstate. This seems like a mistake to me. (And as someone who once lived in Syracuse and soon will live in Ithaca, I should know.)

Here’s where the border between upstate and not upstate is. It might be helpful if you have a map of the relevant area, like “this one”:http://mq-mapgend.websys.aol.com:80/mqmapgend?MQMapGenRequest=FDR2dmwjDE%3byt29%26FDJnci4Jkqj%2cMMCJ%3aHOEvq%3bw2aqz8%3a%29zr25za%3a%26%40%24%3a%26%40b%3aqyb%3al4b%3aTD%15JFE%3aHOHQJ%3bw2aqz8%3a%29zr25za%3a%26%40%24%3a%26%40%24×9%40. Draw a line connecting up the Massachusetts/Connecticut border with the northern edge of the New York/Pennsylvania border. North of that line is upstate, south of it is not. This is not to say that south of it is downstate or anything else in particular, it’s just not upstate.

As you can see on “the map”:http://mq-mapgend.websys.aol.com:80/mqmapgend?MQMapGenRequest=FDR2dmwjDE%3byt29%26FDJnci4Jkqj%2cMMCJ%3aHOEvq%3bw2aqz8%3a%29zr25za%3a%26%40%24%3a%26%40b%3aqyb%3al4b%3aTD%15JFE%3aHOHQJ%3bw2aqz8%3a%29zr25za%3a%26%40%24%3a%26%40%24×9%40, New Paltz (which is starred) is south of the line, so it shouldn’t be regarded as upstate. If I didn’t approve of what was going on in New Paltz, I’d start lobbying to stop these spurious connections being drawn between New Paltz and the wonderful upstate region.

Here’s a draft of my APA paper. It’s very drafty, but at least I have something. It’s also a bit long, which wasn’t the problem I thought I’d have when I started writing. It’s more a script than a real paper yet, so messy things like acknowledgements are missing. The main things to note are that I stole arguments from Kendall Walton, Stephen Yablo, Greg Currie and Ted Sider, and that apart from those four, I relied heavily on conversations with Wo, Tamar Gendler and, especially, Tyler Doggett and Dave Chalmers. (And I imagine many other people I’m not remembering at 1 in the morning. I’ll try and do better in the real paper.) Of course I won’t be actually reading the paper out, but I always like to have a script to ad-lib from. Several of the jokes won’t make sense unless you know that I’ll be presenting it on a panel that also has George Bealer and Paul Churchland on board, and I plan to turn up armed … with a pie. Mike Martin suggested the first example, which is based on a recent paper I did with Andy Egan. The idea of actually having the pie there is Andy’s.

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Here’s a draft of my APA paper. It’s very drafty, but at least I have something. It’s also a bit long, which wasn’t the problem I thought I’d have when I started writing. It’s more a script than a real paper yet, so messy things like acknowledgements are missing. The main things to note are that I stole arguments from Kendall Walton, Stephen Yablo, Greg Currie and Ted Sider, and that apart from those four, I relied heavily on conversations with Wo, Tamar Gendler and, especially, Tyler Doggett and Dave Chalmers. (And I imagine many other people I’m not remembering at 1 in the morning. I’ll try and do better in the real paper.) Of course I won’t be actually reading the paper out, but I always like to have a script to ad-lib from. Several of the jokes won’t make sense unless you know that I’ll be presenting it on a panel that also has George Bealer and Paul Churchland on board, and I plan to turn up armed … with a pie. Mike Martin suggested the first example, which is based on a recent paper I did with Andy Egan. The idea of actually having the pie there is Andy’s.

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Clearly demand for blogs by people working in philosophy of language/game theory was too low, so now there is

bq. “Scribo”:http://scribo.blogs.com/

I also had an advisor who recommended the “five envelopes”:http://scribo.blogs.com/scribo/2004/03/the_five_envelo.html method for getting articles published, but I’ve never got around to following it. Given the delay time for refereeing these days (which I’m partially to blame for I guess) I don’t think it would be a wise strategy now.

Is it morally acceptable to throw pies at zombie strangers for fun, provided a significant number of third parties are amused?

Since zombies are not conscious, anyone who thinks consciousness is necessary for moral standing should think this is OK. On the other hand, anyone who thinks that having a certain amount of functional complexity is all that’s required for moral standing may feel this is bad because it violates zombie autonomy.

While we’re on this topic, can zombies be amused? I think what the consciousness literature needs is a long discussion of thick qualitative concepts, concepts that have both conscious and non-conscious dimensions. I think __being amused__ may be such a concept, but I’m not sure.

In lieu of my actually having something to say, here are a few announcements about things happening hereabouts. If you’re not interested in philosophical and/or musical events around Boston and Providence, skip over this post.
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In my seminar class last week we were reading over Milton Friedman’s __The Methodology of Positive Economics__ and I was surprised by a couple of things. First, I agreed with much more of Friedman’s view than I had remembered from last time I’d looked at it. Second, I thought there was a rather large problem with one section of the paper that I didn’t remember from before, and that I don’t think has received much attention in the subsequent literature.[1]
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No, not that one.

I was asked to pass this on though, so if you’re interested…

bq.. THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM

Senior Fellow/Professor
Ref: SS2200
The Philosophy Program, Research School of Social Sciences, seeks to make a continuing appointment at the level of either Senior Fellow or Professor (Academic Level D or Academic Level E). This is an opportunity for an outstanding scholar to take up an ongoing research position in a program with a major international profile and a very strong graduate program. Appointment at Level E will be offered at Level E1 or Level E2, depending on qualifications and experience.

The vacancy is occasioned by the departure of Professor Michael Smith who will take up a position at Princeton University on 1 September 2004. Applications in any area of philosophy are invited. The Research School of Social Sciences particularly welcomes applications from women. The beginning date is negotiable.

Intending applicants must obtain a copy of the further particulars from the School Administration at the Research School of Social Sciences either by email on , or by telephone on (+61 2) 6125-2257 or web:

Salary Package:
Senior Fellow (Level D) $81,982- $90,087 per annum plus 17% super
Professor (Level E1) $104,946 per annum plus 17% super
Professor (Level E2) $111,296 per annum plus 17% super

For further information consult the Philosophy Program’s website, or, if you wish to discuss the position after obtaining the selection documentation, please contact the Chair of the Selection Committee, Professor Frank Jackson, Director, RSSS, ANU, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia; (email) philrsssjob@anu.edu.au or Frank.Jackson@anu.edu.au or (tel) +61-2-6125-52340.

Information for applicants
Job Application Cover sheet
Closing Date 30 March 2004