Jesse Butler's Cv

Jesse Butler Department of Philosophy University of Florida 330 Griffin-Floyd Hall Gainesville, FL 32611

[email protected] (865) 591 5436 http://www.cs.utk.edu/~butler/

+ PhD in Philosophy, University of Florida, May 5th 2009; Advisor: Kirk Ludwig + Dissertation: Clearing a Path for Conventionalist Modal Semantics + Description: In the context of modal semantics, I show that a 'conventionalist analytic-deflationary' position is live option. According to this view, sentences of the form 'Necessarily, S' (for a sentence S) are understood to be true if and only if it is analytic that S. (There are some qualifications for sentences in which demonstratives, indexicals and the term 'actually' appear.) Rather than defending the view outright, I take the preliminary step of assessing the position in order to determine its viability. I first sketch the outline of a generic semantical system in which the conventionalist thesis can be formulated. Second, I show that this system can be used to evaluate, and deliver the right results for, both de dicto and de re sentences without succumbing to circularity; and that it can provide a univocal treatment quantification in both modal and non-modal contexts. I show how this semantic treatment of 'necessarily' can be integrated into a Davidsonian compositional meaning theory.

+ MA in Philosophy, University of Florida, December 2005 + MS in Computer Science, University of Tennessee, August 2001 + AB in Mathematics, Brown University, May 1995 Areas of Specialization

Areas of Competence

+ Philosophy of Language + Philosophical Logic

+ Epistemology + Informal Logic +Elementary Symbolic Logic +Metaphysics +Ethics +Critical Reading, Writing and Persuasion

Awards and Fellowships + UF Mathematics Department Robert Long Essay Competition Winner 2008: "A Completely Non-Self Referential Yabloesque Paradox" + UF Alumni Fellowship 2002-2006

Presentations: Conference Papers + "Conventionalism and the Problem of De Re Modality" Amsterdam Philosophy Graduate Conference 2009 + "A Completely Non-Self Referential Yabloesque Paradox" Central APA 2009 Presentations: Comments + Comments on C. Daniel Dolson's "On Naming Everything" Southeast Graduate Philosophy Conference 2007 + Comments on Michael De's "Essentialism, Reference and Quantified Modal Logic" Southeast Graduate Philosophy Conference 2006 Works in Progress + "LA: A First-Order Extensional Language with an Analyticity Operator" + "One way to reduce quantified modal logic to (almost) classical first order logic" + "An Infinity of Undecidable Sentences Relative to a Single Formal System in which Recursive Functions can be Represented" Academic Employment and Teaching Experience +Instructor: University of Florida 2007-9; King College Spring 2002 Courses Taught + Introduction to Philosophy + Professional Communication for Engineers + Introduction to Argument and Persuasion + Introduction to Computer Networking + Introduction to Assembly Language +Assistant: University of Florida 2003-7; University of Tennessee 1997-8 Section Leader and Course Support + Social Issues and Thought + Topics in the Logic + Contemporary Moral Issues

+ Introduction to Scientific Computing (sample syllabi) Academic Service + Graduate Student Philosophy Society webmaster 2003-2007 + Designed the current GSPS website + Designed the former GSPS website + Graduate Student Philosophy Society Vice-President 2006-7 + UF/FSU Philosophy Graduate Conference organizer 2006 Academic References John Biro

Kirk Ludwig

Gene Witmer

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Department of Philosophy University of Florida 330 Griffin-Floyd Hall Gainesville, FL 32611-8545

Department of Philosophy University of Florida 330 Griffin-Floyd Hall Gainesville, FL 32611-8545

Department of Philosophy University of Florida 330 Griffin-Floyd Hall Gainesville, FL 32611-8545

(352) 392 2084

(352) 392 2084

(352) 392 2084

Teaching Reference David Copp [email protected] Department of Philosophy University of California, Davis 1238 Social Sciences and Humanities Building Davis, CA 95616-8673 (530) 752 0607