A first analysis of a phrase: ‘building a road’

We use the phrase “building a road.” It seems odd, at first: roads are not so much built as left behind. To make a road, one clears away the trees and the rocks and whatever else is in the way. It isn’t a constructive process. A road is where we have removed some obstacles. (I am thinking of “roads” that are simply made of dirt. It is more obvious that “streets,” “highways,” “avenues,” and so forth must be built. These are roads, but they are not roads in so unqualified a sense.)

“Observability and Scientific Practice”

Well, the semester is finally over, after a rather crammed final three days. To commemorate the event, I have compiled my term paper for my Scientific Realism class in LaTeX and posted it on the Philosophy Writing page. It’s called ‘Observability and Scientific Practice’, and it argues that, though there may be a principled distinction between ‘observable’ and ‘unobservable’ things, that distinction does not require either scientists or philosophers to be anti-realists about unobservable things.

“Describing the ‘Later Logic’: Wittgenstein’s Conception of Logic After the Tractatus”

I can spare a moment, now, to post a paper of mine that has been of interest to me of late, for two reasons: 1. it's the paper I've been learning to use LaTeX with, so I at least have a grasp of the rudimentary commands; and 2. it recently won me the Flower Prize, which is the annual prize given by the Department of Philosophy here.

The Obligatory Explanatory Note

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Well, I have finally done it, if in a very timid way: I have acquired a weblog. Any of you who know me reasonably well may well be confused, stumbling upon this page, for you must know that I am a ceaseless promoter of quietism. "Mind your own business," I should like to say to many of the people I meet, "because I'm certainly not going to." I don't in general read anyone else's blog; I'm not a rabid New Media activist; and I don't have any emotional stake in the number of hits this page will get. So why, dear Reader, am I going public?