Grice and the Linskys

Speranza

B. Linsky is the son of L. Linsky (U.C./Berkeley).

B. Linsky's research has been in areas of Philosophical Logic related to Metaphysics and in the History of Logic, in particular, Bertrand Russell's logic.

B. Linsky's PhD thesis, on

"Natural Kinds and Natural Kind TERMS"

developed into an interest in properties, both as the meaning of predicates and as universals in metaphysics.

This interest in semantics has led to several papers on logical form, definite descriptions, and how to extend the notion of rigid designation to general terms.

Beginning in 1990 B. Linsky wrote a series of papers with Edward Zalta, applying his "Object Theory" to problems about the semantics of necessity and quantified modal logic and the philosophy of mathematics.

B. Linsky also began to study of Bertrand Russell's logic as a theory of properties and propositions, and then, after a first visit to the Bertrand Russell Archives in 2003, various manuscripts by Russell.

A series of papers came out of the notes that Russell made on the works of Gottlob Frege in 1902, and a few sheets from the largely missing manuscript of Principia Mathematica from around 1910.

B. Linsky has most recently published edited notes and manuscripts that Russell made for the second edition of PM , from 1925.


---- Grice would be fascinated, since he would usually refer to "PM" (notably in "Retrospective Epilogue", 1989).

Current research continues to be for B. Linsky the study of Russell's logic and metaphysics and his relation to other logicians including Henry Sheffer, Leon Chwistek and Ernst Mally.  (Grice refers to the Sheffer stroke in 1967/1989). These projects include:  (1) editing Sheffer's notes on Russell's Lectures on Logic at Cambridge, October-December 1910  (2) editing a translation by Rose Rand of Chwistek's 1922 Zasada sprzecznosci w swietle nowsych Bertranda Russella (The Law of Contradiction in the light of recent investigations of Bertrand Russell) and (3) a paper "Ernst Mally's Anticipation of Encoding", based on Mally's 1912 Gegenstandstheoretische Grundlagen der Logik und Logistik (Object theoretic foundations of logic and logistic).

Recent and Upcoming Talks by B. Linsky's include

2010 May 24, 2010, Conference: PM@100: Logic from 1910-1927, McMaster University October 20: Logos Colloquium, Facultat de Filosofia, University of Barcelona October 27: X Coloquio Compestelano de Logica y Filosofia Analytica, University of Santiago de Compostela October 29: 1st joint LanCog-Logos Workshop, Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa, University of Lisbon 2011 May 18: Institut fuer Christliche Philosophie, University of Innsbruck May 26: Philosophiekolloquium, FB Philosophy KGW, University of Salzburg October 7-9: Conference on The Foundational Crisis, University of Montreal 2012 May 24-26: Society for the Study of the History of Analytic Philosophy, McMaster University

Education

AB, (General Honors, Philosophy) University of Chicago 1971 PhD, (Philosophy) Stanford University 1975

Academic Appointments

2009-10 Associate Chair (Graduate Studies), Department of Philosophy, University of Alberta 2005-08 Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta
 1999-03 Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Alberta 2002 (July-August) Visiting Professor, University of Auckland, New Zealand 1997-99 Acting Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Alberta 1997- Professor 1982-97 Associate Professor with tenure 1976-82 Assistant Professor 1975-76 Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Alberta 


Publications

Books


LINSKY, B.

The Evolution of Principia Mathematica: Bertrand Russell's Manuscripts and Notes for the Second Edition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, vii + 410 pp.

---- Grice relied on the first edition. He quotes from it in "Retrospective Epilogue" (1989) to "WoW" (Way of Words)


On Denoting: 1905-2005 Bernard Linsky & Guido Imaguire, eds., Munich: Philosophia Verlag, 2005, 451pp.

--- Grice quotes from this in "Presupposition and Conversational Implicature". Of course, Grice was interested in how little his tutee (Strawson) had learned from him! (:)).

Russell’s Metaphysical Logic Stanford: CSLI Publications, 1999, vii+150pp.

---- Grice, once, made fun of Russell's making fun of Strawson ("Mr. Strawson on referring"). Grice corrects Russell's phrase: "stone-age metaphysics" should read, for Grice -- and me for that matter [Speranza] -- "stone-age PHYSICS".

Philosophy and Biology Mohan Matthen & Bernard Linsky, eds., ( Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 14 ), Calgary: Univ. of Calgary Press, 1988, 267pp.

Book Chapters

Quantification and Descriptions, in The Continuum Companion to Philosophical Logic, Leon Horsten and Richard Pettigrew, eds., London and New York: Continuum, 2011, 77-104.

Kripke on Proper and General Names, in Saul Kripke, Alan Berger, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, 17-48.

From Descriptive Functions to Sets of Ordered Pairs, in Reduction -- Abstraction -- Analysis : Proceedings of the 31th International Ludwig Wittgenstein Symposium in Kirchberg, 2008 , Alexander Hieke and Hannes Leitgeb, eds., Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag, 2009, 259-272.

Russell and Frege on the Logic of Functions, in 200 Years of Analytic Philosophy : The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication, Vol 4 (2008), 1-17 . www.thebalticyearbook.org The Baltic International Yearbook

Leon Chwistek's Theory of Constructive Types, in The Golden Age of Polish Philosophy: Kazimierz Twardowski’s Philosophical Legacy , S. Lapointe, Jan Wolenski, Mathieu Marion and Wioletta Miskiewicz, eds., Springer, 2009, 203 - 219.

Francis Jeffry Pelletier & Bernard Linsky, Russell vs. Frege on Definite Descriptions as Singular Terms, in Russell vs. Meinong: The Legacy of “On Denoting” , Nicholas Griffin and Dale Jacquette, eds., London: Routledge, 2009, 40-64.
----- cfr. Grice, "Definite descriptions in Russell and the vernacular" -- and G. Bealer, "Quality and concept".

Logical Types in Arguments about Knowability and Belief, in New Essays on the Knowability Paradox , J. Salerno, ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, 163-179.

Logical Analysis and Logical Construction, in The Analytic Turn: Analysis in Early Analytic Philosophy and Phenomenology , Michael Beaney, ed., London: Routledge, 2007, 107-122.
---- There is an essay in the Grice Papers entitled, "The logical construction of Personal identity", which he had defended back in the day. (Mind, 1941)

Francis Jeffry Pelletier & Bernard Linsky What is Frege's Theory of Descriptions?, in B. Linsky and G. Imaguire, eds., On Denoting: 1905-2005 , Munich: Philosophia Verlag, 2005, 195-250.

Classes of Classes and Classes of Functions in Principia Mathematica, in Godehard Link, ed. One Hundred Years of Russell's Paradox . Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004, pp. 435-447.

The Metaphysics of Logical Atomism, in The Cambridge Companion to Bertrand Russell , Nicholas Griffin, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 371-391.
---- My favourite source here is by the genial philosopher, J. O. Urmson, "Philosophical analysis: its development between the two worlds." He discusses each connective alla Grice. "He went to bed and took off his trousers".

The Resolution of Russell's Paradox in Principia Mathematica, in Philosophical Perspectives, 16, Language and Mind, 2002 , James E. Tomberlin, ed., Boston and Oxford: Blackwell, 395-417.


Russell's Logical Form, LF, and Truth-Conditions, in Logical Form and Language , Gerhard Preyer and Georg Peter, eds., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002, 391-408.
---- Of course, Grice was OBSESSED with "Logical Form", and if his audience at Harvard back in 1967 started to "over-circulate" the rectangular pages of his mimeo, it was because THEY were also concerned with it.

Metaphysics II (1945 to the present), in Philosophy of Meaning, Knowledge and Value in the 20th Century, Routledge History of Philosophy, Vol. X , John Canfield, ed., London: Routledge, 1996, 108-133.

Bernard Linsky & Edward N. Zalta, In Defense of the Simplest Quantified Modal Logic, Philosophical Perspectives, 8, Logic and Language , J.E. Tomberlin, ed. Atascadero: Ridgeview, 1994, 431-58. Chinese translation by Xing Tao Tao in Zhexue Yicong [Philosophical Translations] (Beijing), 1994, 45-53.

Why Russell Abandoned Russellian Propositions, in Russell and Analytic Philosophy , A. D. Irvine and G. A. Wedeking, eds., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993, 193-209.
-- cfr. Why Grice Abandoned Griceian Misconceptions.

Refereed Journal Articles

Critical Notice: Richard Gaskin, The Unity of the Proposition, in Canadian Journal of Philosophy 41, 2011, 469-482.

Russell's Notes on Frege's Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, from §53, Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies, n.s. 26(2), 2006-7, 127-66. Russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies
--- This book was translated by Grice's favourite 'colleague': J. L. Austin.

Bernard Linsky and Edward N. Zalta, What is Neo-Logicism?, The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic,2006, 12:1, 60-99.

Russell's Notes on Frege for Appendix A of The Principles of Mathematics, in Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies, n.s. 24(2), Winter 2004-05, 133-72. Russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies

Russell’s Marginalia in his Copies of Frege’s Works, Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies, n.s. 24(1), 2004, 5-36. Russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies

Leon Chwistek on the no-classes theory in Principia Mathematica, History and Philosophy of Logic, 25(1), 2004, 53-71.

The Substitutional Paradox in Russell’s 1907 Letter to Hawtrey, [corrected version] Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies, n.s. 22(2), 2002, 151-160. Russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies

Bernard Linsky & Edward N. Zalta, Naturalized Platonism versus Platonized Naturalism, The Journal of Philosophy XCII, Oct., 1995, 525-55.
----- This sort of thing should interest R. B. Jones who has attempted various formalisations of ARISTOTELIANISM and PLATONISM alla Code and Grice.

Truth Makers for Modal Propositions, The Monist Apr (77:2), 1994, 192-206.

A Note on the ‘Carving up Content’ Principle in Frege's Theory of Sense, Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 33, 1992, 126-35. Chinese translation by Wang Xuegang in Zhexue Yicong [Philosophical Translations](Beijing) 1993, 60-65.
--- Grice ONCE refers to "something like a Fregean sense".

Bernard Linsky & Edward N. Zalta, Is Lewis a Meinongian?, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 69, 1991, 438-53.
--- Grice refers to MEINONGIAN ontological jungles in "Vacuous Names" ("Pegasus is my favourite flying horse.")

Truth at a World is a Modality, Philosophia 20, 1991, 387-94.

Was the Axiom of Reducibility a Principle of Logic?, Russell: The Journal of the Bertrand Russell Archives 10, Winter 1990-91, 125-40. reprinted in: Early Analytic Philosophy: Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, W.W.Tait, ed., Chicago: Open Court, 1997, 107-121 and in Bertrand Russell: Critical Assessments Vol. 2, A.D. Irvine, ed., London and New York: Routledge, 1999, 250-264. Russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies

Propositional Functions and Universals in Principia Mathematica in Australasian Journal of Philosophy 66, 1988, 447-60.

Factives, Blindspots and Some Paradoxes, Analysis 64, 1986, 10-15.
--- If we have the Linskys, Grice had the KIPARSKYS, who "Invented" "Factives". Oddly, Grice took up the neologism!

General Terms as Designators, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 65, 1984, 259-76.

Phenomenal Qualities and the Identity of Indistinguishables, Synthese 59, 1984, 363-80.

Is Transmutation Possible?, Philosophical Studies 41, 1982, 367-81.

Putnam on the Meaning of Natural Kind Terms, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 7, 1977, 819-28.

Critical Notices, Encyclopedia Entries and Invited Papers

Bernard Linsky and Kenneth Blackwell, New manuscript leaves and the printing of the first edition of Principia Mathematica, Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies , n.s. 25(2), Winter 2005-06, 141-54.

General Terms as Rigid Designators, Philosophical Studies (2006) 128: 655-667.

Remarks on Platonized Naturalism, Croatian Journal of Philosophy ,V(13),2005,3-15.

Hugues Leblanc (pp. 1434-5) and Dana Scott (pp. 2169-2170) in Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers , J.R. Shook, ed. London: Thoemmes, 2005.

The Notation in Principia Mathematica, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) http://plato.stanford.edu Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
--- taken up by Grice 1967.

Placing Abstract Objects in Naturalism, Philosophical Inquiry , XXIII (1-2), 2001, 73-85.

Logical Constructions, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , E. Zalta, ed., 1996, http://plato.stanford.edu Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
--- Grice 1941 ("Personal Identity") as an application or instance.

Bernard Linsky & Edward N. Zalta, In Defense of the Contingently Nonconcrete, Philosophical Studies 84, 1996, 283-294

Philosophy After Quine, Eidos 13(2), 1996, 55-65.

The Vienna Circle and German Speaking Culture Before and After World War II, Acta Analytica (Slovenia) 14, 1995, 189-94.

Russell's Logical Constructions, Studies in Dialectics of Nature (Beijing), Vol. 11 Supplementary Issue, 1995, 129-48. in Bertrand Russell: Critical Assessments Vol. 3, A.D.Irvine, ed., London and New York: Routledge, 1999, 128-50.

G.W. Fitch's Paleontology, Philosophical Studies 73, 1994, 189-93.

The Logical Form of Descriptions, (Critical Notice of Stephen Neale's Descriptions ), Dialogue XXXI, 1992, 677-83. --- a reanalysis of Grice.

Critical Notice of: Nathan Salmon, Reference and Essence, Canadian Journal of Philosophy ,14, 1984, 499-515.

Bernard Linsky & John King-Farlow, John Heintz's Subjects and Predicates , Philosophical Inquiry 6, 1984, 47-56.
-- cfr. Strawson (Grice's pupil), "Subject and predicate in logic and grammar" (Methuen).

Critical Notice: Baruch Brody, Identity and Essence, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 12, 1982, 391- 407.

Critical Notice: Mark Platts, Ways of Meaning, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 10, 1980, 513-23.
--- one chapter on "Implicature".
-- Platts will go on to review Grice's festschrift for "Mind": "a philosopher's philosopher, if ever there was one."