Fact Proposition Event

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 1-34

3. On Facts and Propositions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 35-35

      PDF

   2. How to Infer Belief from Knowledge

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 37-41

   3. Propositions and the Philosophy of Language

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 43-62

4. On Events

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 63-63

      PDF

   2. On Representing Event Reference

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 65-90

   3. Event

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 91-103

   4. What Causes Effects?

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 105-128

   5. Anaphoric Reference to Facts, Propositions, and Events

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 129-172

5. On Complex Events

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 173-173

      PDF

   2. The Natural Logic of Complex Event Expressions

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 175-180

   3. Complex Events

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 181-202

6. On Actions and “Cause”s

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 203-203

      PDF

   2. The Grimm Events of Causation

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 205-216

   3. Four Grammatical Hypotheses on Actions, Causes, and “Causes”

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 217-249

   4. Causation, Agency, and Natural Actions

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 251-272

7. On Causation Statements and Laws

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 273-273

      PDF

   2. Facts, Events, and Semantic Emphasis in Causal Statements

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 275-293

   3. Which Universals are Natural Laws?

      • Philip L. Peterson

      Pages 295-309

`Peterson is an authority of a philosophical and linguistic industry that began in the 1960s with Vendler's work on nominalization. Natural languages distinguish syntactically and semantically between various sorts of what might be called `gerundive entities' - events, processes, states of affairs, propositions, facts, ... all referred to by sentence nominals of various kinds. Philosophers have worried for millennia over the ontology of such things or `things', but until twenty years ago they ignored all the useful linguistic evidence. Vendler not only began to straighten out the distinctions, but pursued more specific and more interesting questions such as that of what entities the causality relation relates (events? facts?). And that of the objects of knowledge and belief. But Vendler's work was only a start and Peterson has continued the task from then until now, both philosophically and linguistically. Fact Proposition Event constitutes the state of the art regarding gerundive entities, defended in meticulous detail.
Peterson's ontology features just facts, proposition, and events, carefully distinguished from each other. Among his more specific achievements are: a nice treatment of the linguist's distinction between `factive' and nonfactive constructions; a detailed theory of the subjects and objects of causation, which impinges nicely on action theory; an interesting argument that fact, proposition, events are innate ideas in humans; a theory of complex events (with implications for law and philosophy of law); and an overall picture of syntax and semantics of causal sentences and action sentences. Though Peterson does not pursue them here, there are clear and significant implications for the philosophy of science, in particular for our understanding of scientific causation, causal explanation and law likeness.'
Professor William Lycan, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

• Syntax
• knowledge
• natural language
• ontology
• philosophy
• philosophy of language
• semantic
• semantics

• Department of Philosophy, Syracuse University, Syracuse, USA

  Philip L. Peterson

Policies and ethics