Necessary Beings: A Conference in Memory of Bob Hale

15 October 2018, 9.30am - 16 October 2018, 6.00pm
Institute of Philosophy
Conference / Symposium
Room 349, Third Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
Bob Hale was one of the most distinguished philosophers of logic, mathematics and metaphysics of his generation. His philosophical work was of enormous importance and influence. In particular, he published three major books: Abstract Objects (Blackwells 1987), The Reason's Proper Study: Essays Towards a Neo-Fregean Philosophy of Mathematics (OUP 2001, jointly written with Crispin Wright) and Necessary Beings: An Essay on Ontology, Modality, and The Relations Between Them (Oxford 2013). These works – along with his many journal articles, book chapters, and edited works – made a significant contribution, amongst other things, to our understanding of the nature of and our knowledge of mathematical objects, to the development of essentialist theories of modality, and to modal epistemology. In addition to his great philosophical talent, Bob was also a highly-valued colleague, collaborator, teacher, and mentor to many philosophers.
The philosophical community - and in particular his friends, students and colleagues - were greatly shocked and saddened by Bob's death in December 2017. We plan to gather together to share in our loss, and to celebrate his life and philosophy, in a conference on the major themes of his work.
Speakers
University of Minnesota
University of Stirling
University of Puerto Rico
King's College London
University of Oslo
Nottingham University
Providence College
University of Salzburg
University of Oslo
University of Stirling
University of Connecticut
Oxford University
Ohio State University
Ohio State University
Ohio State University
San Jose State University
University of Graz
University of Stirling
Organisers
University of Sussex/School of Advanced Study, University of London University of Puerto Rico King's College London Ohio State University School of Advanced Study, University of London School of Advanced Study, University of London University of Stirling
Programme
Monday
9.30 – 9.45 Welcome
9.45- 11.00 Crispin Wright (Stirling & NYU) - Hale and Heck on Higher-Order Logic.
11.00-11.30 Coffee
11.30-12.45 Julien Murzi (Salzburg) - 'Truth and paradox in context'
12.45-14.00 Lunch
14.00-15.15 Penelope Mackie (Nottingham) - 'Essentialist Theories of Modality'
15.15-15.45 Tea break
15.45-17.45 Symposium 1: Philosophy of Mathematics
Philip Ebert (Stirling) - Hale's Ontology.
Øystein Linnebo (Oslo) - Generic Generality and Ferge's Therom.
Marcus Rossberg (Connecticut) - A natural deduction system for Hale’s Second-Order Logic
Sam Royston Roberts (Oslo) - Hale on Properties: definability, predictivity, and full comprehension.
Ian Rumfitt. (Oxford) - Recarving revisited
18.00-20.00 Conference dinner
Tuesday
10.00-11.15
Roy Cook
(Minnesota) - 'The Logic Of Opposite Day'
11.15-11.45 Coffee
11.45-13.00
Ivette Fred-Rivera
(Puerto Rico) - 'Hale on Priori Knowledge'
13.00-14.15 Lunch
14.15-16.15 Symposium 2: Modality
Jessica Leech (KCL) - Logical Essence
Anand Vaidya (SJSU) and Michael Wallner (Graz) - Hitting Bedrock? Essences as Basic Necessities
Antonella Mallozzi (Providence College) - Modal Pluralism and Modal Knowledge
Sonia Roca Royes. (Stirling) - The Structure of Modal Knowledge: Symmetry and Uniformity.
16.15-16.45 Tea break
16.45-18.00 Stewart Shapiro (OSU) and Richard Samuels (OSU) - 'Abstractionist neo-logicism and transitive counting' (co-authored with Eric Snyder)
Sponsors
King's College London
The Mind Association
Birkbeck College, London
The Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, London