Justin D'Ambrosio (ANU) will present "Prior's Puzzle Generalized" at 11 in Old Arts 224 on 11 October.
\nAbstract: \;Prior's puzzle is the puzzle of why\, given the assumption that \;that-clauses denote propositions\, substitution of "the proposition that \;P" for "that \;P" \;within the complements of many propositional attitude verbs is invalid. I show that there are two variants on Prior's puzzle---a quantificational variant and a pronominal variant---that have the same source and warrant the same solution as the original puzzle. I then show that neither the original puzzle nor its variants are specific to \;that-clauses or propositional attitude verbs. Rather\, they arise in the complements of \;all \;kinds of attitude verbs\, in adjectival positions\, in adverbial positions\, and in a variety of other positions as well. These variants\, together with the generalization to other grammatical categories\, show that a wide range of proposed solutions to Prior's puzzle fail\, or are radically incomplete. But the quantificational variant of the puzzle also has a more dire consequence: it threatens to undermine Lewis's method of defining theoretical terms via Ramsification. I go on to discuss the relative merits of two approaches to the generalized puzzle\, and conclude that one has significant advantages.
ORGANIZER;CN=Shawn Standefer: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR