These are my links for August 17th through August 20th:
- Mark Colyvan, A topological sorites | PhilPapers – This paper considers a generalisation of the sorites paradox, in which only topological notions are employed. We argue that by increasing the level of abstraction in this way, we see the sorites paradox in a new, more revealing light—a light that forces attention on cut-off points of vague predicates. The generalised sorites paradox presented here also gives rise to a new, more tractable definition of vagueness.
- Vincent F. Hendricks, The Bain of two truths | PhilPapers – A view among methodologists is that truth and convergence are related in such a way that scientific theories in their historical order of appearance contribute to the convergence to an ultimate ideal theory. It is not a fact that science develops accordingly but rather a hypothetical thought experiment to explain why science develops at all. Here, a simple formal model is presented for scrutinizing the relations between two truths and convergence.
- Risk (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) – Since the 1970s, studies of risk have grown into a major interdisciplinary field of research. Although relatively few philosophers have focused their work on risk, there are important connections between risk studies and several philosophical subdisciplines. This entry summarizes the most well-developed of these connections and introduces some of the major topics in the philosophy of risk. It consists of five sections dealing with the definition of risk and with treatments of risk related to epistemology, the philosophy of science, ethics, and the philosophy of economics.
- The Management Myth – The Atlantic (June 2006) – Most of management theory is inane, writes our correspondent, the founder of a consulting firm. If you want to succeed in business, don’t get an M.B.A. Study philosophy instead
