About

I'm Greg Restall, and this is my website. I work in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne. [Email: greg at consequently.org; Skype: greg_restall; Post: Department of Philosophy, University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, Australia.]

Writing

These are the three last modified entries on my writing page.

  • “Truthmakers, Entailment and Necessity 2008,” an addendum to “Truthmakers, Entailment and Necessity,” to appear in Truth and Truth-making, edited by E. J. Lowe and A. Rami, Acumen, 2008.
  • [with Rebecca Kukla and Mark Lance] Appendix to Rebecca Kukla and Mark Lance ‘Yo!’ and ‘Lo!’: the pragmatic topography of the space of reasons, Harvard University Press, to appear.
  • “Curry’s Revenge: the costs of non-classical solutions to the paradoxes of self-reference,” in The Revenge of the Liar, ed. JC Beall, Oxford University Press, pages 262–271, 2008.
  • “Anti-Realist Classical Logic and Realist Mathematics,” under revision.
  • “Proof Theory and Meaning: on second order logic,” to appear in the Logica 2007 Yearbook, Filosofia.

On Politics

In the car this evening, Z (our five-and-a-bit year-old son) says, unprompted,

Dad, I’ve been thinking …

I reply “yes …”

… why does Kim Beazely want to be Prime Minister?

It’s nice to know that he’s keeping up with his world. It’s telling that we found it difficult to answer the question.

Posted 08:36 PM on July 19, 2006

Comments

Well, Zack’s question a genuine one. No at all political questions have answers.

If he had asked questions about things the press say about the middle east, such as why do regimes sorely want western governments to give them legitimacy?, none would have any answer. I have addressed this question to the Globe and Mail, upon the non-intelligent and full of common places analysis of Stephen Handelman, and so far they have not published it as a comment, to say the least. I think they will have no answer, because there is no answer. This kind of question does not require an answer, it merely destroys the presupposition behind Handelman’s statement. Children often make questions that have no available questions.

But Zack’s question is sincerely like I want to know why and you find it difficult to explain the Westminster system to him. You could tell him something like: Well, a Prime Minister is a kind of boss and he wants to be a boss, or, if you are sympathetic to the opposition, something like Well, he wants to do things for Australia and, as Prime Minister, he will be able to do a lot, because a Prime Minister can give orders to certain People, etc.

Briefly, you must be proud of your son: he requires justification for things. He may be a great Philosopher someday.

Tony Marmo [TypeKey Profile Page], July 22, 2006 09:45 AM




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