Peter Ludlow
Peter Ludlow | |
---|---|
Born | January 16, 1957 |
Era | Contemporary philosophy |
Region | Western philosophy |
School | Analytic philosophy |
Institutions |
|
Doctoral advisor | Charles Parsons |
Main interests | Philosophy of language, philosophy of linguistics, epistemology, conceptual issues in virtual worlds |
Notable ideas | Implicit comparison classes, the dynamic lexicon, externalism about logical form, Ψ-language, tensism, microlanguages |
Peter Ludlow (
Ludlow has also established a research program outside of philosophy and linguistics. Here, his research areas include conceptual issues in
Ludlow has also written literature and poetry under various pseudonyms, most frequently under the name EJ Spode, which he has used to experiment with various forms of dialect prose and poetry and a genre a literature that he has called Hysterical Surrealism.[1]
Ludlow has taught as a professor of philosophy at the
Education and career
Ludlow received his B.A. in 1979 from
From 1987 to 2002 he worked at the
He has been a visiting fellow at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice in 1993, 1995 and 1997–1998, when he held a Fulbright distinguished chair. He has also been a visiting fellow at King's College London in 1997 and a visiting professor at the Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science in 2012, where he taught a course on hacktivism. He has also held visiting positions at several other universities in the United States and Europe.
Work
Philosophy of generative linguistics
Ludlow's work in
The second theme is what he calls the "Ψ-language hypothesis". It is the hypothesis that the underlying mechanisms (the more basic elements) posited by generative linguists are fundamentally psychological mechanisms and that generative linguistics is a branch of
The third theme is what Ludlow calls the principle of "methodological minimalism". It is the thesis that best theory criteria like
Foundations of semantics
Ludlow's earliest work in
His subsequent work has explored ways of formalizing alternative approaches to semantic theory—including the possibility of
Philosophy of language
Intensional transitive verbs
Ludlow's PhD dissertation defended a proposal dating back to the medieval logician
Interpreted logical forms
Ludlow's paper with the semanticist Richard Larson, "Interpreted Logical Forms", advocated a quasi-sententialist view of propositional attitude verbs (a view that has been criticized by
The dynamic lexicon
Ludlow's work on interpreted logical forms has led to the development of a view of
Implicit comparison classes
In his article "Implicit Comparison Classes"[7] Ludlow argues for the syntactic reality of comparison class variables in adjectival constructions. That is, when one says "the elephant is small", there is an implicit variable for the comparison class (in this case elephants, as in "small for an elephant"), and that variable is represented by the language faculty. That work was influential in subsequent work on the context sensitivity of language by Jason Stanley and Zoltán Gendler Szabó, and has played a role in debates about contextualism in contemporary epistemology.
Contextualism in epistemology
Recent work in epistemology has pushed back against skepticism by arguing that knowledge attributions are context sensitive—our standards of knowledge vary from context to context. So, while in a philosophy class I may not know I have hands, in other contexts (for example, chatting in a bar) I do. Ludlow initially argued that there were implicit argument positions for standards of knowledge.[8] In response to criticism from Jason Stanley in his book "Knowledge and Practical Interests", Ludlow has advanced a doctrine that he calls "Cheap Contextualism".[9] The idea is that on the dynamic lexicon view, shifts in word meaning are ubiquitous, and the meaning of the term "know" is not an exception. Contextualism in epistemology is just a consequence of these garden variety shifts in meaning.
Natural logic
Ludlow has written a series of papers on the
Presentism and tensism
Ludlow's first book, Semantics, Tense, and Time, was devoted to arguing that
Conceptual issues in cyberculture
Criticizing the Greek god model of governance
Most of Ludlow's work on cyberculture has centered on the question of governance for virtual worlds and he has been critical of what he calls the "Greek god model" of virtual world governance. This is a model in which virtual world platform owners do not have coherent systematic policies to deal with in world disputes, but rather reach in and dabble as suits their dispositions at the moment. In an e-book entitled "Our Future in Virtual Worlds" Ludlow argues that as our lives continue to move online, the Greek god model becomes ever more dangerous. This critique has been extended to social networking platforms more generally.[10]
Online gaming chronicles
Ludlow founded The Alphaville Herald on October 23, 2003. It was the unofficial newspaper for the Alphaville server of The Sims Online, where Ludlow used the avatar Urizenus Sklar. Its stories uncovered in-game scams and cyber-prostitution, and highlighted Electronic Arts' indifference to the social problems in their game.
In a controversy, reported in the
The Herald has been written about in Wired[13] and the Columbia Journalism Review.[14] Ludlow (in the voice of Urizenus Sklar) is currently a contributing editor, while the avatar Pixeleen Mistral, revealed by Ludlow in 2010 to be Internet pioneer Mark P. McCahill, is the newspaper's managing editor.
Ludlow and Mark Wallace wrote a book about The Herald and its exploits called The Second Life Herald: the Virtual Tabloid that Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse (MIT Press, 2007). The book received the American Association of Publishers, Professional/Scholarly Publishing award for "Best Book in Media and Cultural Studies, 2007", was named a
Controversies
Ludlow has been a highly prominent, and sometimes controversial, figure in several
Ludlow resigned from his position at Northwestern in November 2015 after a university disciplinary body found that he sexually assaulted two students.
Partial bibliography
- High Noon on the Electronic Frontier (1996) ISBN 0-262-62103-7
- Semantics, Tense, and Time: an Essay in the Metaphysics of Natural Language (1999) ISBN 978-0-262-12219-1
- Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias (2001) ISBN 0-262-62151-7
- The Second Life Herald: The Virtual Tabloid that Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse (2009) ISBN 978-0-262-51322-7
- Our Future in Virtual Worlds (2010) ASIN: B0044XV80U
- The Philosophy of Generative Linguistics (2010) ISBN 978-0-19-925853-6
See also
Notes
- ^ "Hysterical Surrealism". creatrixmag.com/redtemple.
- ^ a b "Ludlow Named John Evans Professor in Philosophy: Northwestern University News".
- ^ "Statement by Alan K. Cubbage, Vice President for University Relations, in Regard to Peter Ludlow". news.northwestern.edu.
- ^ a b McCarthy, Ciara. "Northwestern professor resigns after sexual harassment investigation", The Guardian, November 3, 2015
- ^ See chapter 5 of his The Philosophy of Generative Linguistics, Oxford University Press, 2011.
- ^ A version of this account can be found in Ludlow's paper "Interpreted Logical Forms, Belief Attribution, and the Dynamic Lexicon," in K.M. Jaszczolt (ed.) "Pragmatics of Propositional Attitude Reports." Elsevier Science, Ltd, 2000.
- ^ "Implicit Comparison Classes," Linguistics and Philosophy 12, #4, 1989, pp. 521-533.
- ^ "Contextualism and the New Linguistic Turn In Epistemology" in G. Preyer and G. Peter (eds.) Contextualism in Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
- ^ “Cheap Contextualism,” Nous. Philosophical Issues 16: Annual Supplement, Sosa and Villanueva (eds.), 2007.
- ^ "Monarchia Social Network." Interviewed by Alessandro Longo in L'Espresso, Oct. 10, 2010. (In Italian)
- ^ Harmon, Amy (15 January 2004). "TECHNOLOGY; A Real-Life Debate On Free Expression In a Cyberspace City". New York Times.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-11-27. Retrieved 2010-12-30.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Wallace, Mark. "My Second Life as a Muckraker". Wired.
- ^ "Burning the Virtual Shoe Leather". Columbia Journalism Review.
- ^ "Playa Rater: The 10 Most Influential Video Gamers Of All Time". MTV.
- ^ "The 'double life' of Peter Ludlow". Archived from the original on 2016-08-18. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
- ^ "The Strange And Terrible Saga Of The Soviet Commuter College". 22 April 2010.
- ISSN 0009-5982. Retrieved 2020-01-13.
- ^ Editor/Reporter, Tyler Kingkade Senior; Post, The Huffington (3 November 2015). "Prominent Professor Is Out After Lengthy Sexual Harassment Probe". HuffPost.
{{cite web}}
:|last1=
has generic name (help) - ^ "Northwestern's betrayal of academic freedom". chicagotribune.com.
- ^ Laura Kipnis, Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe, The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 27, 2015
- ^ Kipnis, Laura (2 April 2017). "Eyewitness to a Title IX Witch Trial". The Chronicle of Higher Education.
- ^ Cooke, Rachel (2 April 2017). "Sexual paranoia on campus – and the professor at the eye of the storm". The Guardian.
- The Chicago Tribune", May 17, 2017
- ^ Doe v. HarperCollins Publishers, LLC, 2018 WL 1174394 (N.D. Ill. March 6, 2018)
- ^ "Doe v. Kipnis, HarperCollins has settled". leiterreports.typepad.com.
External links
- Ludlow' Home Page
- Ludlow's curriculum vitae.
- Alphaville Herald (Second Life Herald)
- Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science
- Interview at 3:AM Magazine
Articles about Ludlow
- Raking muck in "The Sims Online" Salon (December 12, 2003)
- Amy Harmon, A Real Life Debate on Free Expression in a Cyberspace City The New York Times, Jan. 15, 2004.
- Jesse Walker, Hobbes in Cyberspace Reason (2004)
- The Second Life of Peter J. Ludlow Andrea Foster, The Chronicle of Higher Education. Dec. 7, 2007.
Interviews with Ludlow
- Virtual Villainy Part one of an interview with Ludlow, Telegraph 2006 | More news from another world, part two.
- The News from Second Life: an interview with Peter Ludlow. Henry Jenkins, Confessions of an Aca/Fan, Feb. 8, 2007.
- Il Virtuale Molto Reale. Interviewed by Giuseppe Granieri. Il Sole 24 Ore. Jan. 28, 2010. (In Italian)
- Monarchia Social Network Interviewed by Alessandro Longo in L'Espresso, Oct. 10, 2010. (In Italian
Selected non-academic essays and articles by Ludlow
- Understanding Conspiracy: The Political Philosophy of Julian Assange. (Urizenus Sklar). Huffington Post, Dec. 8, 2010.
- 10 Ways Hacktivists have Punked Corporations and Oppressive Governments. with Burcu Bakioglu. Alternet, Oct. 19, 2010.
- Wikileaks and Hacktivist Culture. The Nation. Sept. 15, 2010.
- Choose Your Fictions Well. With Henry Jenkins. Confessions of an Aca-fan. April 14, 2010.
- Watching the Watchers. On Henry Jenkins' blog, Confessions of an Aca-fan. April 9, 2010.
- Teste da Ingegneri e Cuori da Umanisti: E Questo il Futuro. La Stampa, Jan. 13, 2010. (In Italian.)
- There Goes the Neighborhood. The Times (of London) Online. Jan. 31, 2004.
- All Things Sheening: Reading Charlie Sheen to Find Meaning in a Secular Age