Philosophy Seminar Series: 15 February 2011, 2-3:45pm, Philosophy Resource Room; Speaker: Dan Korman, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Illinois; Moderator: Dr. Tang Weng Hong
Abstract: Various prominent views in material-object metaphysics-for instance, eliminativism, according to which there are no statues or chairs, and universalism, according to which there is an object composed of your nose and the Eiffel Tower- seem manifestly at odds with things we are ordinarily inclined to say and believe. Defenders of these views often maintain that the conflict is merely apparent; what they are saying in the “ontology room” is entirely compatible with the things we ordinarily say and believe. I critically assess a variety of such compatibilist accounts.