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.

Ten Questions about Books

Since Jo asked so nicely, I’ll add my answers to the one book meme that’s going around the place.

  1. One book that changed your life

    Robert C. Roberts, Spirituality and Human Emotion.

    It’s because of this book that I’m a philosopher, believe it or not. Reading it, I saw that the philosophy needn’t be self-contained, but could be used to say something productive and interesting about matters of human concern. In my undergraduate years I spent a lot of time reading theology, and I learned most from the literature that was philosohpical in technique and in style.

  2. One book you’ve read more than once

    C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

    My out-and-out favourite of the Narnia Chronicles.

  3. One book you’d want on a desert island

    The Gospel according to John

    Following Jo’s example, I’ll treat different biblical books as different books. For me it’s a toss-up for different gospels, but John’s the one I’m least ‘at home’ with and I think it bears repeated readings, as is fitting on a desert island.

  4. One book that made you laugh

    Stanislaw Lem, The Cyberiad.

    It’s an intellectual laugh mostly, rather than slapstick, but there are laughs on each page of these wise, knowing, sensitive tales of the robot constructors Trurl and Klaupacius.

  5. One book that made you cry

    David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas.

    A truly vertiginous read: six interlocking stories from the 1850s, through the present, to the near future and after the collapse of civilisation. Deeply moving.

  6. OneTwo books you wish had been written

    Richard Routley, Exploring Meinong’s Jungle & Beyond, the edited version.

    The existing version version is an amazing read, but with a good edit it could have changed the face of philosophy in this country. In a very good way.

    Alan Anderson, Nuel Belnap, J. Michael Dunn and Robert K. Meyer, Entailment, Volume 2.

    The existing Entailment, Vol 2 is very good, but the version that was foreshadowed in the first volume of Entailment would have been fantastic. But that would have required the continuing of the Belnap/Meyer collaboration, which broke down in the 1980s.

  7. One book you wish had never been written

    I find it hard to answer this question, so I’ll interpret it differently.

    David Marr and Marian Wilkinson, Dark Victory.

    It is unutterably sad that this book had to be written. I wish that it had been impossible to write because the events had never taken place. Instead, we’ve got to make sure that they never happen again.

  8. One book you’re currently reading

    PD James, The Children of Men.

    I’ve got a thing for well-written dystopias.

  9. One book you’ve been meaning to read

    Colin Tudge, So Shall we Reap.

    I started reading this before the sabbatical last year, and I didn’t take it with me — it’s still lying in my pile of things to read. It’s got a wonderful subtitle: “How Everyone Who Is Liable to Be Born in the Next Ten Thousand Years Could Eat Very Well Indeed; and Why, in Practice, Our Immediate Descendants Are Likely to Be in Serious Trouble”.

  10. Tag five people

    If you’re reading this and want to do write your own answers, consider yourself tagged. Answer the questions on your own blog and link here in the comments, or answer in the comments for yourself.

Posted 10:02 PM on July 29, 2006

Comments

A philosopher least at home with John?

I consider myself tagged.

http://philosophisingplasterer.blogspot.com/2006/07/book-meme.html

Paul (Robinson) , July 30, 2006 02:50 AM

What can I say? I’m a synoptics (and especially Luke) kind-of-guy.

Thanks for your answers, Paul. It’s always interesting to see into other peoples’ traditions/heritage!

Greg Restall [TypeKey Profile Page], July 30, 2006 09:43 AM

Wait: are you a Christian?

Tom , July 31, 2006 10:22 PM

Greg, some very interesting and enlightening choices there. Thanks for sharing it with us. Here’s my list, done with little thinking..

(1) One book that changed your life

QUEEN VICTORIA (BY LYTTON STRACHEY)

— RUNNERS UP: THE ASSISTANT (BY BERNARD MALAMUD); THE CONFESSIONS OF ST AUGUSTINE

(2) One book you’ve read more than once

THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG (BY NORMAN MAILER)

— RUNNER UP: IN COLD BLOOD (BY TRUMAN CAPOTE)

(3) One book you’d want on a desert island

RABBIT OMNIBUS (BY JOHN UPDIKE)

(4) One book that made you laugh

TIMBUKTU (BY PAUL AUSTER)

(5) One book that made you cry

THE SHELTERING SKY (BY PAUL BOWLES)

(6) Two books you wish had been written

A THOUSAND DAYS: JOHN F KENNEDY IN THE WHITE HOUSE (longer version, BY ARTHUR M SCHLESINGER JR)

—ASSUMING THAT HE WAS NOT ASSASSINATED AND LIVED TO BE AT LEAST 65 (AND WITH OBVIOUS CHANGES IN THE TITLE)

ROBERT KENNEDY AND HIS TIMES (longer version, BY ARTHUR M SCHLESINGER JR)

—DITTO

(7) One book you wish had never been written

THE FOG OF WAR: LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ROBERT S MCNAMARA (BY JAMES G. LANG, jANET M. BLIGHT)

—AN ANTI-WAR GEM WHOSE PORTRAIT OF MCNAMARA IS AMAZINGLY IMPRESSIVE

(8) One book you’re currently reading

I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS (BY TOM WOLFE)

(9) One book you’ve been meaning to read

GLAMORAMA (BY BRET EASTON ELLIS)

Varol Akman [TypeKey Profile Page], July 31, 2006 10:39 PM

Well, yes, Tom, thanks for asking. I’m a Christian.

Greg Restall [TypeKey Profile Page], July 31, 2006 10:39 PM

Oh, wonderful list, Varol! I’ll look at some of them.

Greg Restall [TypeKey Profile Page], July 31, 2006 10:41 PM

Sorry for this follow up but I have just noticed that I meant to say “Rabbit Angstrom: The Four Novels: Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich, Rabbit at Rest” (Everyman’s Library) in item number 3.

Varol Akman [TypeKey Profile Page], July 31, 2006 10:53 PM

OK, I consider myself tagged.

http://actualist.blogspot.com/2006/08/on-books.html

BTW, Greg, I didn’t know you were a Christian. I’m glad that you are. :)

Sean Choi , August 2, 2006 01:34 PM

Hi Greg, like Sean, I am glad you are a Christian, and one that I can learn from and journey with too:)

Just a reminder to lend me ‘Spirituality and Human Emotion’.

I was tagged by Susan of the same meme, think I’ll try to do it sometime soon.

Kitty , August 3, 2006 04:50 PM

I’m tagged, and my list with comments is here:

http://web.mac.com/b1b2/

It’s fascinating to see other people’s lists. My edited version is:

  1. One book that changed your life William Shakespeare, The Portable Shakespeare

  2. One book you’ve read more than once Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses

  3. One book you’d want on a desert island William Golding, Lord of the Flies

  4. One book that made you laugh David Lodge, Small World

  5. One book that made you cry Kate Jennings, Moral Hazard

  6. One book you wish had been written Jorge Luis Borges, A Novel

  7. One book you wish had never been written J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

  8. One book you’re currently reading Howard Jacobson, Kalooki Nights

  9. One book you’ve been meaning to read Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward

Blair Mahoney , September 11, 2006 11:39 PM

Great posts so far - very interesting!

Hmmm… difficult…

(1) One book that changed your life “The Myth Of The Sisyphus” (A. Camus)

(2) One book you’ve read more than once “Fight Club” (C. Palahniuk)

(3) One book you’d want on a desert island “The Little Prince” (A. de Saint-Exupéry)

(4) One book that made you laugh “Leonce and Lena” (G. Büchner)

(5) One book that made you cry “Angela’s Ashes” (F. McCourt)

(6) One book you wish had been written “Faust” (J.W. Goethe)

(7) One book you wish had never been written “Mein Kampf” (A. Hitler)

(8) One book you’re currently reading “The Trail” (F. Kafka)

(9) One book you’ve been meaning to read “Memoirs” (P. Neruda)

pat , November 13, 2006 09:35 PM




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