Constructing the World

1. Constructing the World • David Chalmers

2. Admin • Website/syllabus: http://consc.net/class/ctw/ • Email: chalmers@anu.edu.au • Office hours: Tuesdays 3-5 • Assessment: Paper, drafts encouraged. • Incompletes: Draft required by end of term, paper by beginning of spring. • Discussion list: constructing-the-world@lists.nyu.edu

3. Laplace’s Demon • An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes • Pierre-Simon Laplace, 1814

4. Laplace’s Scrutability Thesis • If a Laplacenean intellect knew all the Laplacean truths, then for any hypothesis p it could entertain, it could know whether p. • Laplacean truths = current positions of all fundamental (physical?) entities • Laplacean intellect = vast enough to submit these data to (ideally rational?) analysis

5. Problems for Laplace’s Demon I • Indeterminism: physical truths at a time not enough • Mental truths: physical truths across time not enough? • Self-locating truths: objective truths not enough? • Negative truths: positive truths not enough? • Moral truths, mathematical truths, metaphysical truths?

6. Revising the Thesis I • Still: one can handle these problems by expanding the basic class of truths. • The following Empirical Scrutability thesis remains on the table:

7. Empirical Scrutability • There is some limited class of Laplacean truths such that if a Laplacean intellect knew the Laplacean truths, then for any hypothesis p it could entertain, it would be in a position to know whether p.

8. Problems for Laplace’s Demon II • Fitch’s paradox: An unknown truth q yields an unknowable truth q and no-one knows q. • A problem for: for all truths p, the demon could know p • Laplace finesses this: “knows whether p” • Also: Can Laplace’s demon know all about its own brain/mind processes? • Demon complexity = world complexity?

9. Revising the Thesis II • These problems arise from the demon inhabiting the same world that it is to know • One can overcome these problems by stating the thesis in terms of conditional knowledge.

10. Conditional Scrutability • There is a limited class of Laplacean truths such that for any true proposition p, a Laplacean intellect would be in a position to know that if the Laplacean truths obtain, then p. • Extending the idea: the Laplacean truths are all the empirical information that is needed, so the conditional itself is a priori?

11. A Priori Scrutability • There is a limited class of Laplacean truths such that for any truth p, it is knowable a priori (by a Laplacean intellect) that if the Laplacean truths obtain, then p.

12. Primitive Concepts • “For all our complex ideas are ultimately resolvable into simple ideas, of which they are compounded and originally made up, though perhaps their immediate ingredients, as I may so say, are also complex ideas.” • John Locke, 1690

13. Wierzbicka’s Primitives • substantives: I, you, someone, people, something, body • determiners: this, the same • quantifiers: one, two, some, all, many/much • evaluators: good, bad • descriptors: big, small • intensifiers: very • mental predicates: think, know, want, feel, see, hear • speech: say, words, true • action and events: do, happen, move, touch • existence and possession: there is/exist, have • life and death: live, die • time: when/time, now, before, after, a long time, a short time, for some time, moment • space: where/place, here, above, below, far, near, side, touching • logic: not, maybe, can, because, if • augmentors: very, more

14. A Sample Analysis • X lied to Y = • X said something to person Y; • X knew it was not true; • X said it because X wanted Y to think it was true; • people think it is bad if someone does this.

15. The Aufbau • In Der Logische Aufbau der Welt (1928), Carnap proposes a single nonlogical primitive: recollected phenomenal similarity • And ultimately proposes that we can dispense with this primitive, yielding only logical primitives • All other expressions can be defined in terms of these primitives.

16. Definability Thesis • There is a compact class of primitive expressions such that all expressions are definable in terms of that class.

17. Definitional Scrutability • There is a compact class C of truths such that for any truth S, S is logically entailed by C-truths along with definitions. • Definitions must have an appropriate logical form, and meet conditions of adequacy: truth, analyticity, apriority, necessity, ...? • E.g. ‘For all x, x is a bachelor iff X is an unmarried man’.

18. A Priori Scrutability • If definitions are required to be a priori, then Definitional Scrutability entails a version of A Priori Scrutability • There is a compact class C of truths such that all truths are logically entailed by C-truths along with a priori truths. • Likewise for Analytic Scrutability, Necessary Scrutability, etc.

19. Carnap’s Construction of the World • Carnap defines qualia in terms of phenomenal similarity • He defines spacetime in terms of qualia • He defines behavior in terms of spacetime • He defines other minds in terms of behavior • He defines culture in terms of behavior and other minds.

20. Carnap’s Scrutability Thesis • All truths are definitionally entailed by a very limited class of truths • There is a world-sentence that entails everything: e.g. • x y z Rxy & Rxz & ~Ryz ...

21. Problems for the Aufbau • Goodman: definition of qualia fails • Quine: definition of spacetime fails • Newman: logical construction is vacuous • Quine: no analytic/synthetic distinction • Kripke: names inequivalent to descriptions • Many: most expressions are undefinable

22. Responding to the Problems • The first three problems are problems only for Carnap’s very limited bases • Expand the base! • The last two (or three?) problems are problems only for Carnap’s definitional entailment relation • Weaken the relation!

23. A revised Aufbau thesis • Where Carnap said: • All truths are definitionally entailed by logical/phenomenal truths • It’s still viable to say • All truths are a priori entailed by a compact class of truths

24. Problems for Definitions • The counterexample problem: For many terms in natural language, all purported definitions appear to have (actual, conceivable, possible) counterexamples • So those definitions aren’t true, a priori, necessary.

25. The Case of Knowledge • Knowledge = justified true belief • Counterexample: Gettier • Knowledge = JTB not inferred from falsehood • Counterexample: fake barns • Knowledge = 12-clause Chisholm definition • Counterexamples: still coming...

26. Definitions and A Priori Entailment • So: ‘know’ may not be definable in more primitive vocabulary • But this is compatible with the claim that ‘know’-truths are a priori entailed by truths in a more primitive vocabulary

27. Gettier Case • G = 'S believes with justification that p. S has no evidence concerning q. S forms a belief that p or q, based solely on a valid inference from p. p is false but q is true.’ • K = ‘S does not know that ‘p or q’ • Then: ‘If G, then K’ is arguably a priori

28. Analysis without Definitions • So: a priori scrutability doesn’t require definitions. • It requires only casewise analysis: a priori conditionals regarding specific scenarios • Modeled by an intension (mapping from scenarios to truth-values), not a definition • Counterexample arguments threaten definitions but not intensions/scrutability.

29. Kripke’s Antidescriptive Arguments • Modal argument: ‘N = the D’ isn’t necessary • Concerns necessity, not apriority • No objection to a priori scrutability • Epistemic argument: ‘N =the D’ isn’t apriori • An argument from counterexample • No objection to a priori scrutability.

30. Scrutability of Reference • Once we know enough about the world, we’re in a position to know what our terms refer to (without further empirical information). • E.g. ‘Hesperus’, ‘Godel’, etc. • Problems: • (i) unclarity of ‘know what terms refer to’ • (ii) Quinean inscrutabiity (permutation)

31. Scrutability of Truth • Once we know enough about the world, we’re in a position to know whether our utterances (and beliefs) are true (without further empirical information). • Better: there’s a compact class of truths such that for any true sentence S, one can know (a priori) that if the C-truths obtain, S is true.

32. Scrutability Base • Scrutability base = Class of truths from which all truths are scrutable • Scrutability thesis: There’s a compact scrutability base

33. Compactness • What is it for a class of truths to be compact? • (i) Involve a small finite class of expressions, or of families of expressions • (ii) No trivializing mechanisms • Better definitions welcome -- but it won’t matter much in practice.

34. Potential Scrutability Bases • Carnap: logic, or logic plus phenomenal similarity • Chalmers & Jackson: physical, phenomenal, indexical, that’s-all • CTW: phenomenal, nomic, indexical, that’s-all • Others: spatiotemporal, quiddistic, mathematical, normative, ontological?

35. Multiple Bases • There will be many scrutability bases, and even many minimal scrutability bases. • Is there a privileged scrutability base? • Maybe: invoke a conceptual grounding relation more fine-grained than a priori entailment • Require/hope that there will be a scrutability base involving primitive concepts

36. Fundamental Scrutability • Fundamental scrutability: All truths are (a priori) scrutable from metaphysically fundamental truths • Where: metaphysically fundamental truths are the metaphysical grounds for all truths (and will necessitate all truths).

37. Roles of Scrutability • Why is the scrutability thesis interesting? • It has many applications.

38. Epistemology • The scrutability thesis is a watered-down version of the knowability thesis -- its plausible core? • Some scrutability theses have anti-skeptical applications

39. Modality • One can use a generalized scrutability thesis to construct the space of epistemically possible worlds, or scenarios • E.g. maximal consistent sets of sentences in a generalized scrutability base. • Useful for many epistemological purposes • Closely related to metaphysically possible worlds?

40. Meaning • One can use a generalized scrutability thesis to define intensions (cf. 2D): • functions from scenarios to truth-values • functions from scenarios to extensions • Nice epistemic properties (cf. Fregean sense) • A is true at all scenarios iff A is a priori • ‘a’, ‘b’ have same intension iff ‘a=b’ is a priori

41. Other Applications • Content: Define narrow contents? • Metaphysics: Adjudicate realism/anti-realism, and/or what’s fundamental? • Unity of Science: A chain of reductive explanation? • Metaphilosophy: Philosophical optimism?

42. Plan • The Aufbau [1 week] • Formulate scrutability theses [1] • Argue for scrutability theses [2] • Address hard cases, minimize the base [2] • Foundations (apriori, concepts, reference) [3] • Applications (modality, meaning, content) [4]

43. Next Week • Next week: The Logical Construction of the World, parts I-IV. • Especially sections 1-16*, 38-44*, 50-82, 108-119*, 125-126, 153-156*.