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Bernard.Linsky@ualberta.ca

Professor of Philosophy

 Assiniboia Hall 3-51

 Phone: (780) 492-3307(Phil. Dept.)

               (780) 492-8815 (office)

 Education

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

Research Interests

My research interests are at the intersection of Metaphysics and Logic. Many of the problems I work on started with writing a dissertation on "Natural Kinds and Natural Kind Terms", and continue with an interest in the relationship between universals as treated in metaphysics and predicates in logic. Universals led me to studying the metaphysics underlying Bertrand Russell's theory of types and has resulted in my book Russell's Metaphysical Logic. As well, I have written papers on other topics in Early Analytic Philosophy, Philosophical Logic and the Philosophy of Mathematics. While working with Edward Zalta on a series of joint papers on abstract and possible objects, I became associated with his Metaphysics Research Lab. My interest in philosophy that makes use of the methods of logic and mathematics has led to my long time membership in the Society for Exact Philosophy.

Recent Activities

Recently completed research projects include the transcription of Russell's notes and marginalia on the works of Frege written in the summer of 1902. These notes are in the Bertrand Russell Archives at McMaster University. The resulting papers are all published in Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies. (These papers are available from the links below.) I am most proud of having found a page and a half of the manuscript of Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica while only a single page was previously  known to have survived. My major project is a book, tentatively titled The Second Edition of Principia Mathematica: Bertrand Russell's Notes and Manuscripts, which will contain the manuscripts for the Introduction and Appendices that were added to the second edition in 1925, as well as about a hundred sheets of unused materials and notes in symbolic notation from the Bertrand Russell Archives.

From July 2005 and to June of 2008 I was Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Arts. As of July 1st, 2008 I have returned to being a full time professor in the Department of Philosophy. In August of 2008 I spoke at the 31st International Ludwig Wittgenstein Symposium in Kirchberg am Wechsel in Austria, reading a paper on Russell and Frege, and participating in a symposium on Neo-Logicism. Later in the month I attended the 4th International Symposium for Cognition, Logic and Communication: 200 Years of Analytic Philosophy, at the University of Latvia in Riga. The Society for Exact Philosophy will met in Edmonton May 7th - 9th, 2009, Jeff Pelletier and I were the local organizing committee.

In May of 2010, Nick Griffin and I will host a conference "PM@100"  http://pm100.mcmaster.ca to mark the centenary of the publication of Principia Mathematica. 

Selected Publications

"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.

"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.

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. 

"Logical Analysis and Logical Construction", in The Analytic Turn: Analysis in Early Analytic Philosophy and Phenomenology, Michael Beaney, ed., London: Routledge, 2007, 107-122.

"Russell's Notes on Frege's Grungesetze der Arithmetik, from Section 53", Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies, n.s. 26(2), 2006-7, 127-66. (See link below for a copy.)

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

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

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

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

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

"Russell's Notes on Frege for Appendix A of The Principles of Mathematics", Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies, n.s. 24(2), Winter 2004-05, 133-72. (See link below for a copy.)

"Russell's Marginalia in his Copies of Frege's Works", Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies, n.s. 24(1), 2004, 5-36. (See link below for a copy.)

"The Notation in Principia Mathematica", Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy, 2004.

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

"Classes of Classes and Classes of Functions in Principia Mathematica", in One Hundred Years of Russell&s Paradox, G.Link, ed., Berlin: De Gruyter, 2004.

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

"Russell's Logical Form, LF, and Truth-Conditions", in Logical Form and Language, eds. G. Preyer and G. Peter, Oxford: Clarendon, 2002, pp. 391-408.

Russell's Metaphysical Logic, Stanford: CSLI, 1999. xi+150 pp.

"Metaphysics II (1945 to the Present)", Routledge History of Philosophy, Vol. 10, London: Routledge, 1996, pp. 108-133.

Bernard Linsky and Edward N. Zalta, "Naturalized Platonism versus Platonized Naturalism", The Journal of Philosophy, XCII, October 1995, pp. 525-555.

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

Bernard Linsky and Edward N. Zalta, "In Defense of the Simplest Quantified Modal Logic", in Philosophical Perspectives, 8, Logic and Language, James E.Tomberlin, ed. Atascadero: Ridgeview, 1994, pp. 431-58.

"A Note on the 'Carving up Content' Principle in Frege's Theory of Sense", Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, Vol. 33, no. 1, Winter 1992, pp. 126-35.

"Propositional Functions and Universals in Principia Mathematica", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 66, No. 4, December 1988, pp. 447-60.

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

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

Links

• Russell's Marginalia in his Copies of Frege's Works
• Russell's Notes on Frege for Appendix A of the Principles of Mathematics
• Russell's Notes on Frege's Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, from S 53