이충형 교수

I construct a decision-theoretic puzzle based on the assumption that it is possible for there to be a team of infinitely many people whose utility scales are unbounded. I argue that the puzzle can be resolved, without requiring that no rational agent should have unbounded utility scales, by employing a more general definition of utility, on which utility is measured not by amounts of returns but by changes in total wealth.

I present a new puzzle where a player is offered infinitely many mutually independent bets each of which has a positive expected return but which collectively lead to a net loss almost surely with probability 1. This puzzle is similar to the one presented by Vann McGee (1999) where there are infinitely many mutually dependent bets each of which has a positive expected return but whose cumulative outcome is a sure loss. Both puzzles pose a serious threat (while my new puzzle, because of the mutua

The modal interpretation proposed by Dennis Dieks and Pieter Vermaas should treat proper and improper mixtures differently. Two ways of applying their modal interpretation to proper mixtures are distinguished: One is guided by the standard ignorance interpretation and the other is not. They are shown to yield different property ascriptions, even when the proper mixtures in question result from mixing orthogonal states with all distinct weights. And such different property ascriptions give rise t

I argue that the following three decision-theoretic principles are inconsistent with the assumption that there are options with infinite expected utility: (1) the principle of expected utility maximization that given a collection of options, you should choose the one with maximum expected utility; (2) the principle of dominance that if an option X produces at least as good an outcome as an option Y in every possible state of the world and a strictly better outcome in at least one possible state

In The Worlds of Possibility (1998), Charles Chihara presents an actualistic model-theoretic semantics for S5 modal quantificational logic. It is actualistic in the sense that it does not carry any ontological implications of the existence of merely possible entities. The paper aims to provide detailed analyses, interpretations, and reformulations of the notions of truth and satisfaction in Chihara’s semantics, with which we can solve several problems that can be raised against his semantics. Th

It is a standard practice in special relativity to define a simultaneity relation relative to an inertial observer or frame of reference. This practice is based on two assumptions: (1) A simultaneity relation relative to an inertial observer should be defined from the worldline of the observer (and the structural features of Minkowski spacetime); and (2) a simultaneity relation of special relativity should be defined relative to a single inertial observer, not relative to multiple observers as s

It is a standard view in Special Relativity that simultaneity relations are ternary relations that hold for three items: x is simultaneous with y relative to z. Noting the connection between clock synchrony and the one-way speed of light, I argue that if it is indeed a physical fact that the one-way speed of light has a certain value, then simultaneity relations in Special Relativity are about local facts that obtain in finite spatiotemporal regions, and so it is natural and plausible to take si

Nathan Salmon (1989) famously argues that there are impossible worlds that are nevertheless possibly ... possibly possible. Modifying his argument and utilizing a fractal structure called the Koch snowflake, I argue that there are impossible worlds that are possibly ... possibly possible not for any finite degree of nesting but only for an infinite degree of nesting. To accommodate this result, I suggest that the syntax and semantics of modal logic be augmented so that it allows infinite iterati

In Infinity: An Essay in Metaphysics, José Benardete presents puzzles of the ‘before-effect,’ which he interprets as cases of retrocausation where the effect happens temporally prior to its cause. Two of them are ‘less radical’ puzzles where the before-effect is allegedly caused by concrete physical events, such as infinitely many gong peals and gunshots. Hawthorne (2000), Laraudogoitia (2003), and Yi (2008) reject Benardete’s interpretation. They claim that the two puzzles describe not retrocau

2026학년도 대학수학능력시험 국어 17번 문항은 짧은 텍스트 내에 심층적 분석이 요구되는 일상적 표현을 다수 포함하면서, 인격 동일성에 관한 여러 철학적 견해를 압축적으로 제시하는 흥미로운 분석 대상이다. 본 논문은 17번 문항, 정답을 ③으로 설명하는 한국교육과정 평가원과 한국교육방송공사의 해설, 그리고 비공식적으로 제시된 여러 풀이를 논리적, 의미론적, 화용론적으로 분석한다. 분석 결과, 핵심 용어인 ⌜동일성⌝과 ⌜지속⌝이 두 가지 상이한 의미로 사용되고 있음에도, 권위 있는 교육 기관들의 해설은 이를 간과할 뿐 아니라 기본적인 언어 표현을 오용하고 또한 여러 논리적 오류도 범하고 있음을 보인다. 그리고 17번 문항을 표준적인 한국어 사용의 맥락에서 이해할 때 ③을 답으로 하는 것이 적절하지 않다고 논증한다. 결론적으로 이 연구는 문제 풀이가 단어의 피상적 연결이 아니라 표현의 정확한 의미와 논리적 관계에 대한 이해를 바탕으로 이루어져야 함을 역설한다. 이는 논리학 및 언어철학