Eline Busck Gundersen in 'Philosophical Studies'.

Nov 19, 2009 10:00 AM

Eline Busck Gundersen's paper 'The Chameleon's Revenge' has been accepted for publication in the journal 'Philosophical Studies'. Congratulations from all the members of CSMN.

Abstract:

The Chameleon's Revenge -Response-dependence, Finks and Provisoed Biconditionals

Response-dependence theses are usually formulated in terms of a priori true biconditionals of the form 'something, x, falls under the concept 'F' iff x would elicit response R from subjects S under conditions C'. Such formulations are vulnerable to conditional fallacy problems; counterexamples threaten whenever the C-conditions' coming to obtain might alter the object with respect to F. Crispin Wright has suggested that such problems can be avoided by placing the C-conditions in a proviso. This ensures that any changes triggered by the C-conditions' coming to obtain will be irrelevant to the truth of the biconditional. I argue that this move leaves the equations vulnerable to counterexamples of a slightly different kind: Cases where the change is triggered, not by the C-conditions' coming to obtain, but by the response. I consider two ways to resist these counterexamples, and argue that both are insufficient. The upshot is a challenge that must be met if provisoed biconditionals are to serve their purpose.