In recent years, there has been a flurry of work on the metaphysics of race. While it is now widely accepted that races do not share robust, biobehavioral essences, opinions differ over what, if anything, race is. Recent work has been divided between three apparently quite different answers. A variety of theorists argue for racial skepticism, the view that races do not exist at all. A second gr...

Quantum gravity is usually represented as being one of the central open problems of modern fundamental physics. It is presented as being “a dream, a theoretical need and a scientific goal. It is a theory which still does not exist in complete form”, a “yet-to-be-found theory” [1]. The starting point of this paper is that such a non-existence claim is wrong: There exists a simple and straightfor...

The notion of logical truth has a wide variety of different uses, hence it is not surprising that it can be interpreted in different ways. In this chapter I will focus on one of them – what I call the metaphysical interpretation. A more precise formulation of this interpretation will be put forward in what follows, but I wish to say something about my motivation first. Part of my interest conce...

On the Origin of Objects is, at heart, an extended search for a non-circular and nonreductive characterization of two key notions: intentionality (the content or "aboutness" distinctive of mental states) and computation (the familiar but elusive tool of much cognitive scientific explanation). Only a non-circular and non-reductive account of these key notions can, Smith believes, provide a secur...

2002 57 Most people feel kindly disposed to, or even “love” trees, since they provide them with many directly useful resource products. Moreover, they are a habitat for desired fauna; protect watershed lands, streamsides, and springs from erosion; provide shade for humans and their animals; and are a source of aesthetic enjoyment. A utilitarian attitude often results in their being removed in o...