Christopher Menzel

Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Notre Dame, May 1984

B.A. magna cum laude, Philosophy, Pacific Lutheran University, May 1979

Texas A&M University: Associate Professor of Philosophy, September 1991 to present; Assistant Professor of Philosophy, August 1986 to August 1991

Stanford University: Acting Assistant Professor (Philosophy), July 1985 to June 1986, and Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for the Study of Language and Information, July 1984 to June 1986

Metaphysics (Ontology), Logic, Philosophy of Language/Logic/Mathematics, Knowledge Representation

Other Areas of Interest and Research

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophical Theology, 20th Century Anglo-American Philosophy

Faculty Development Grant, Texas A&M, Fall 2004 (spent at IFOMIS, Saarbrücken)

Summer Institute for Instructional Technology Innovation, TAMU, 2003

Computerized Logic Instruction Center at Texas A&M University, TAMU, 2001

Faculty Development Grant, Texas A&M, Fall 1996 (spent at CSIRO, Melbourne)

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for College Teachers, 1991-92

Summer Research Grant, College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M, Summer, 1988

Research Fellowship, Center for the Philosophy of Religion, University of Notre Dame, Spring, 1988

National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, Summer 1987

Postdoctoral Fellowship, CSLI, Stanford University, 1984-86

“Abstract Possible Worlds and Extensional Semantics” (Nearly complete)

A highly touted virtue of possible world semantics is that it provides extensional truth conditions for modal propositions. Many well-known accounts of modal metaphysics take possible worlds to be abstract entities of some ilk — properties, propositions, sets of propositions, states of affairs, and the like. However, most of these accounts — notably, those of Adams and Plantinga — define possible worlds and related modal entities themselves in terms of a primitive notion of modality. It is often claimed that the apparent circularity here is innocuous --- that the accounts need only provide an extensional equivalence between modal truth and truth in a possible world. In this paper I argue that the circularity is in fact vicious, and that it is not possible to provide extensional truth conditions for modal propositions in terms abstract worlds that are defined in terms of a primitive modality.

“The Logic of Contingently Existing Propositions”

A response to Patrick Toner's recent article “Contingently Existing Propositions?” in Philosophical Studies. Toner argues that arguments in support of the claim that propositions exist necessarily tend to be question begging, as they assume a certain approach to modality (one he associates with Plantinga) on which propositions are necessary. His response is to point out three alternative approaches to modality into which contingently existing propositions fit perfectly well. In this paper I attempt to develop a reasonably “Plantingian” approach to modality and show that it is perfectly consistent with the existence of contingently existing propostions. The latter task requires refuting a well-known argument from Plantinga that all propositions exist necessarily — one to which I believe Toner responds ineffectively. To this end I develop a simple first-order modal language with terms for propositions and identify several contingent logical principles expressible in this language that enable us to see exactly where the subtle fallacy in Plantinga's argument lies.

“Variable Assignments Explained Away”

Why is the semantics variables in first-order logic almost universally presented in terms of variable assignments? They are, I claim, unwieldy, unintuitive, and wholly unnecessary, both philosophically and formally. In this small essay, I demonstrate the dispensability of variable assignments in a (simple and obvious) semantics for first-order logic, and suggest two reasons why variable assignments persist demonstrate.

“Modal Extensionalism for the Strict Actualist” (under revision)

How to be an actualist with an extensional theory of truth conditions without haecceities or other ersatz-possibilia.

“Haecceitism and Modal Extensionalism” (under revision)

An extended argument against haecceitism as a viable actualist ontology. Basically, the line is that haecceities can be meaningfully distinguished from possibilia, but only at the high cost of undermining the truth conditional role they are designed to play.

“A New Axiomatic Semantics for RDF, RDFS, and OWL” (Pretty much complete)

An updated “axiomatic semantics” of RDF, RDF Schema, and the various OWLs, based strictly on the W3C standards. Inspired by the (pre-OWL) first-order axiomatization of RDF, RDF Schema, and DAML+OIL semantics by McGuinness and Fikes. Mostly written in Fall 2005 when I was a visiting researcher with the Intelligent Information Systems unit of the Mathematics and Computing Technology division of The Boeing Company. Co-authored with Pat Hayes.

“Possible Worlds”

A forthcoming entry for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

“Intention Is Commitment with Expectation” (with James Creel (first author) and Thomas Ioerger), forthcoming in Proceedings of the 20th International FLAIRS Conference, AAAI Press, forthcoming.

“Modal Rigidity in the OntoClean Methodology” (with William Andersen), in A. C. Varzi and L. Vieu (eds.), Formal Ontology in Information Systems, Amsterdam, IOS Press (2004), 119--127.

“Basic Semantic Integration,” in Y. Kalfoglou, M. Schorlemmer, A. Sheth, S. Staab, M. Uschold (eds.), Semantic Interoperability and Integration, Proceedings of Dagstuhl Seminar 04391, Dagstuhl, Germany (2004).

“Reference Ontologies / Application Ontologies: Either / Or or Both/And?” in P. Grenon, C. Menzel, and B. Smith (eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop on Reference Ontologies and Application Ontologies, KI 2003, September 16, 2003, Hamburg, Germany. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 94 (2004), ISSN 1613-0073.

“SCL: A Logic Standard for Semantic Integration” (with Pat Hayes), in A. Doan, A. Halevey, and N. Noy (eds.), Semantic Integration, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 82 (2003).

“Ontology Theory,” in J. Euzenat, A. Gomez-Perez, N. Guarino, and H. Stuckenschmidt (eds.), Ontologies and Semantic Interoperability, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 64 (2003).

“Process Specification Language: Principles and Applications” (with Michael Grüninger), AI Magazine 24(3) (Fall 2003), 63-74.

“A Formal Foundation for Process Modeling” (with Michael Gruninger), in C. Welty and B. Smith (eds.), Formal Ontology and Information Systems, New York: ACM Press, 2001, 256-269

“An Adaptive Process Management System (APMS)” (with P. C. Benjamin), in L. Nemes and J. Mo (eds.), Global Engineering, Manufacturing and Enterprise Networks, Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001

“God and Mathematical Objects,” in J. Bradley and R. Howell (eds.), Mathematics in a Postmodern Age: A Christian Perspective, Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001. (This is a revised and expanded version of “Theism, Platonism, and the Metaphysics of Mathematics.”)

“Review of Logic and Reality: Essays on the Legacy of Arthur Prior,” Philosophical Review 109(2) (April 2000).

“Actualism,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (Summer 2000 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2000/entries/actualism

“The Objective Conception of Context and Its Logic,” Minds and Machines 9 (1999) 29-56.

“Logical Form,” in W. Craig (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1998.

“The IDEF Family of Languages” (principal author, with R. J. Mayer), in P. Bernus, K. Mertins, and G. Schmidt (eds.), Handbook on Architectures for Information Systems, Springer-Verlag, 1998, 209-241.

“An Integrated Process Model Driven Knowledge Based System for Remote Customer Support (with J. Mo),” Computers in Industry (1998) 171-183.

“Applying the Process Interchange Format (PIF) to a Supply Chain Process Interoperability Scenario” (with S. Polyak, J. Lee, and M. Gruninger). In A. Gomez-Perez and R. Benjamins (eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop on Applications of Ontologies and Problem Solving Methods, ECAI'98, Brighton, England, August 1998.

“Modeling Method Ontologies: A Foundation for Enterprise Model Integration,” in M. Gruninger and Farquhar, A. (eds.), Ontological Engineering: Papers from the 1997 AAAI Spring Symposium, Menlo Park, AAAI Press, Technical Report SS-97-06, pp. 73-83.

“Situations and Processes” (principal author, with R. J. Mayer), Concurrent Engineering: Research and Applications 4(3) (1996).

“A Situation Theoretic Approach to the Representation of Processes” (principal author, with R. J. Mayer), in P. Bernus and L. Nemes (eds.), Modelling and Methodologies for Enterprise Integration, London, Chapman and Hall, 1996.

Entries on “Alethic Modalities” and “Type Theory,” R. Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995.

“Toward a Method for Acquiring CIM Ontologies” (with P. Benjamin, R. Mayer, and N. Padmanaban), International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing 8(3) (1995), 225-234.

“An Ontology and Process Description Method for Design and Implementation of Information-Integrated Enterprises” (with R. Mayer and J. Hwang), International Journal of Flexible Automation and Integrated Manufacturing 1 (1994), 207-227.

“IDEF3 Process Descriptions and Their Semantics” (principal author, with R. Mayer and D. Edwards), in A. Kusiak and C. H. Dagli (eds.), Intelligent Systems in Design and Manufacturing, ASME Press, 1994.

“Singular Propositions and Modal Logic,” Philosophical Topics 21 (1993), 113-148 (invited contribution).

“The Proper Treatment of Predication in Fine-grained Intensional Logic,” in J. Tomberlin (ed.), Philosophical Perspectives, vol. 7: Language and Logic, 1993, Ridgeview Publishing Co., 1993, 61-87 (invited contribution).

“Possibilism and Object Theory,” Philosophical Studies 69 (1993), 195-208.

“Critical Review of E. Zalta, Intensional Logic and the Metaphysics of Intentionality,” Journal of Symbolic Logic 57 (3) (1992), 1146-1150.

“Representation, Information Flow, and Model Integration” (principal author, with R. Mayer and L. Sanders), in C. Petrie (ed.), Enterprise Model Integration: Proceedings of the First International Conference, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1992, 131-141 (invited contribution).

“The True Modal Logic,” Journal of Philosophical Logic 20 (1991), 331-374.

“Temporal Actualism and Singular Foreknowledge,” J. Tomberlin (ed.) Philosophical Perspectives, vol. 5: Philosophy of Religion, Ridgeview Publishing Co., 1991 (invited contribution), 475-507.

“Actualism, Ontological Commitment, and Possible World Semantics,” Synthese 85 (1990), 355-389.

“Structuralism and Conceptual Change in Mathematics,” PSA 1990 2 (1990), 397-401.

“The Basic Notion of Justification” (with Jonathan L. Kvanvig), Philosophical Studies 59 (1990), 193-219.

“On an Unsound Proof of the Existence of Possible Worlds,” Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 30 (1989), 598-603.

“Frege Numbers and the Relativity Argument,” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 18 (1988), 87- 98.

“Theism, Platonism, and the Metaphysics of Mathematics,” Faith and Philosophy 4 (1987), 365- 382; reprinted in The Philosopher's Annual 10 (1987), 91-112, and in M. Beaty (ed.), Christian Theism and the Problems of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame Press, 1990.

“A Complete, Type-free `Second-order' Logic and Its Philosophical Foundations,” Report No. CSLI-86-40, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University, 1986.

“On Set Theoretic Possible Worlds,” Analysis 46 (March 1986), 68-72.

“On the Iterative Explanation of the Paradoxes,” Philosophical Studies 49 (1986), 37-61.

“Absolute Creation” (with Thomas V. Morris), American Philosophical Quarterly 23 (1986), 353-362.

“Cantor and the Burali-Forti Paradox,” The Monist 67 (1984), 92-107.

“Weblogic: Open Networks and the (Proposed) Common Logic Standard” (with Patrick Hayes), Semantic Technologies 2006, San Jose, CA, March 2006.

“A New Axiomatic Semantics for RDF, RDFS, and OWL,” The Boeing Company, Seattle, WA, December 2005

“Extensionalism for Strict Actualists,” Department of Philosophy, University of Washington, Seattle, November 2005

“Extensionalism for Strict Actualists,” Philosophisches Seminar, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany, December 2004

“Modal Rigidity in the OntoClean Methodology,” Fifth International Conference on Formal Ontology and Information Systems, Torino, Italy, November 2004 (co-authored with, and presented by, William Andersen.)

“SCL: A Logic Standard for Semantic Integration,” Semantic Integration Workshop, Second International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2003), Sanibel Island, Florida, October 2003.

“Application Ontologies / Reference Ontologies — Either / Or or Both / And?”, Workshop on Application Ontlogies vs. Reference Ontologies, 2003 German Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Hamburg, September 2003.

“Formal Ontology and Philosophical Content on the Semantic Web,” Symposium on Formal Ontology and Philosophical Content on the Semantic Web (invited panelist), APA Pacific Meetings, San Francisco, March 2003.

“The Common Logic Standard,” Open Forum 2003 International Conference on Metadata Registries, Santa Fe, New Mexico, January 2003 (invited talk).

“Ontology Theory,” Workshop on Ontologies and Semantic Interoperability, European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2002), Lyon, July 2002.

‘Modal Particularism,” Department of Philosophy, University of Texas, Austin, November 2001

“A Formal Foundation for Process Modeling” (with Michael Gruninger), International Conference on Formal Ontology and Information Systems (FOIS-01), Ogunquit, Maine 2001 (delivered by Michael Gruninger)

“A Formal Semantics for the Knowledge Interchange Format,” Workshop on the IEEE Standard Upper Ontology, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), Seattle, August 2001.

“An Adaptive Process Management System (APMS)” (with P. C. Benjamin), 4th International Conference on Design of Information Infrastructure Systems for Manufacturing 2000, International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), Melbourne, November 2000 (delivered by Benjamin)

“Modal Particularism and the Ground of Modal Truth,” Society for Exact Philosophy 2000 Conference, Gainesville, March 2000.

“Applying the Process Interchange Format (PIF) to a Supply Chain Process Interoperability Scenario” (with S. Polyak, M. Gruninger, and J. Lee), European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 1998), Brighton, England, August 1998 (delivered by Polyak).

“Propositions and Properties:  Comments on Jubien,” Symposium on Intensional Logic, Association for Symbolic Logic, Spring Meeting, Los Angeles, March 1998.

“A Logic of Contexts,” Department of Information Sciences, Griffith University, and Department of Philosophy, Queensland University, December 1996.

“Philosophy, Logic, and Enterprise Modeling,” Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Melbourne University, October 1996.

“Toward a Science of Information Modeling,” Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Melbourne University, October 1996.

“Types, Instances, and Process Modeling,” Joint Workshop on Standards for the use of Models that Define the Data and Processes of Information Systems (JTC1-96), The Boeing Company, Seattle, September 1996.

“Contexts and Information,” Common Sense 96: Third Symposium On Logical Formalizations of Commonsense Reasoning, Stanford University, January 1996.

“A Situation Theoretic Approach to the Representation of Processes,” International Federation for Information Processing Conference on Enterprise Integration, Heron Island, Australia, November 1995.

“An Ontology-Based Environment for Enterprise Model Integration,” Workshop on Basic Issues in Ontology, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), Montreal, August 1995.

“In Defense of Fine-grained Intensions,” Symposium on Property Theory, American Philosophical Association Pacific Division meeting, San Francisco, March 1995 (invited panelist).

“Singular Propositions and Modal Logic,” joint Association of Symbolic Logic /American Philosophical Association Central division meeting, Kansas City, May 1994.

“Comments on ‘Wittgenstein on the Infinite in Set Theory’,” American Philosophical Association Pacific Division meeting, San Francisco, March 1993.

“Possibilism and Object Theory,” American Philosophical Association author-meets-critic symposium on Edward Zalta's Intensional Logic and the Metaphysics of Intentionality, Portland, March 1992 (invited panelist).

“Representation, Information Flow, and Model Integration,” International Conference on Engineering Integration and Modeling Technology, Workshop on Modeling Technology, Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation, Austin, February 1992.

“The Importance of Mathematical Formalization for the Advancement of Information Modeling Technology,” IDEF Users Group, Fort Worth, September 1991.

“Randomness, Algorithmic Complexity, and Mathematical Truth,” joint American Philosophical Associa- tion/Association for Symbolic Logic symposium on the philosophical implications of Gregory Chaitin's Algo- rithmic Information Theory, San Francisco, March 1991 (invited panelist).

“Temporal Actualism and Singular Foreknowledge,” Pacific division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, San Francisco, March 1991.

“Comments on Grosholz's ‘Formal Unities and Real Individuals’,” Philosophy of Science Association symposium on mathematical and physical objects, Minneapolis, October 1990.

“Comments on Deutsch's ‘Logic for Contingent Beings’,” Pacific division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Los Angeles, March 1990.

“Contingency, Q, and the True Modal Logic,” Pacific division meeting of the Association for Symbolic Logic, Berkeley, January 1990.

“Contingency and Modal Logic,” Arthur Prior Memorial Conference, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, August 1989.

“Qualitative and Quantitative Simulation Model Generation from Manufacturing System Descriptions,” Engineering Society of Detroit Expert Systems Conference 1989, Detroit, April 1989 (with R. Mayer et al.; I was not present for the delivery of this paper).

“Platonism in Mathematics,” Baylor University philosophy club, Waco, October 1988.

“Comments on Landini's ‘Cantor's Power Class Theorem and the Historical Inseparability of the Simple and Ramified Theory of Logical Types’,” Central division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Cincinnati, April 1988.

“A Heretical Approach to Modal Actualism,” Calvin College philosophy colloquium, March 1988.

“Absolute Creation and the Structure of Propositions,” invited address, University of Notre Dame Conference on Christian and Theistic Philosophy, February 1988.

“The Nature of Ordinal Numbers,” University of Oklahoma philosophy colloquium, Norman, September 1987.

“Formalizing Information Modeling Techniques,” Stanford University database colloquium, Department of Computer Science, Palo Alto, July 1987.

“Structuralism and Ordinal Numbers,” University of Texas philosophy colloquium, Austin, May 1987.

“Theism and the Subject Matter of Mathematics,” invited address, the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences, Calvin College, May 1987.

“Comments on Jubien's ‘Models of Property Theory’,” delivered at a symposium on property theory, Western division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, San Francisco, March 1987.

“Comments on Turner's ‘Generalized Frege Structures’,” also delivered at the above-mentioned symposium.

“Paradoxes, Large Sets, and Proper Classes,” delivered at the Eastern division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Washington D.C., December 1985.

“The Relational Theory of Meaning,” delivered at the University of Notre Dame, December 1985.

“Property Theory and Second-order Logic,” delivered at the Western regional meeting of the Association for Symbolic Logic, Stanford University, July 1985.

Graduate: Mathematical Logic, Computability Theory, Philosophy of Language, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mathematics.

Undergraduate: Symbolic Logic I and II (includes first-order logic through completeness, intensional logic, and (optionally) set theory), Contemporary British and American Philosophy, Metaphyics, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Religion, Introduction to Logic, Introduction to Philosophy, Contemporary Moral Issues.

Directed Studies: Advanced Logic, Modal Logic, Set Theory, Model Theory, Computability Theory, Montague Grammar

Title: “Mathematical Realism and the Theory of Sets”

Advisors: Penelope Maddy and Alvin Plantinga