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Graham priest

Graham Priest (born 1948) is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at New York University Graduate Center, Boyce Gibson Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne, and International Research Fellow at Ruhr University Bochum. He has published more than 300 articles, in almost all the major philosophy and logic journals, and eight books, mostly with the Oxford University Press.


He is known worldwide for his defense of dialetheism, his in-depth analyzes of logical paradoxes (holding the thesis that there is a uniform treatment for many known paradoxes, such as semantic, set theory, and liar paradoxes), and his many writings related to paraconsistent logic and other non-classical logic. They are based on the history of philosophy, including Asian philosophy.
In addition to his philosophical activity, he is third Dan, International Karate-do Shobukai; 4th Dan, Shi'to Ryu, and Australian national kumite referee and kata judge.

Graham Priest 2.jpg

Graham priest

Presentation summary:

Mission Impossible

Graham priest

 

Saul Kripke's work on the semantics of non-normal modal logics introduced the idea of non-normal worlds, worlds here where certain connectives behave differently from the way in which they behave in the worlds of normal modal logics. Such worlds may be thought of as impossible worlds, though Kripke did not, himself, talk of them in this way. Since Kripke's invention, the notion of an impossible world has undergone much fruitful development and application. Impossible worlds may be of different kinds --- or maybe different degrees of impossibility; and these worlds have found application in many areas where hyperintensionality appears to play a significant role: intentional mental states, counterfactuals, meaning, property theory, to name but a few areas. But what, exactly, is an impossible world? How is it best to characterize the notion? To date, the notion is used more by example than by definition. In this talk I will investigate the question, and propose a general characterization, suitable for all standard purposes and tastes.

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