William J. Rapaport

William J. Rapaport
Born
William Joseph Rapaport
Alma materUniversity at Buffalo
EraContemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolAnalytic philosophy
ThesisIntentionality and the Structure of Existence (1976)
Doctoral advisorHéctor-Neri Castañeda
Doctoral studentsJanyce Wiebe
Main interests
Philosophy of language, ontology, philosophy of computer science
Notable ideas
Dual copula strategy
Technical objections to guise theory[1]
"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo"

William Joseph Rapaport[2] is a North American philosopher who is an associate professor emeritus of the University at Buffalo.

Philosophical work

Rapaport has done research and written extensively on intentionality and artificial intelligence. He has research interests in computer science, artificial intelligence (AI), computational linguistics, cognitive science, logic and mathematics, and published many scientific articles on them.

While a philosophy graduate student at Indiana University in 1972, he concocted the sentence: "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo". Throughout his career he developed this theme, and discussed it extensively.[3]

His early work on nonexistent objects was influenced by Alexius Meinong.[4][5]

Rapaport has written on the field of intentionality, influencing scientists and writers[citation needed] including Daniel Dennett, Héctor-Neri Castañeda (who was his doctoral advisor[2]) and John Searle (with whom he disagrees). Rapaport is interested in science educational theory, and received the New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.[6]

Other activities

In June 1988, Rapaport compiled a list of restaurants in the Buffalo area for attendees of an ACL meeting at SUNY Buffalo. The list was continued, becoming interactive, with user reviews of restaurants.

Rapaport and his wife Mary, with whom he has a son Michael, are the principal donors to the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center[7] in Jamestown, NY. The Desilu Playhouse, located in the Rapaport Center, contains memorabilia and other vintage I Love Lucy items. He and his wife have also purchased and renovated Lucille Ball's childhood home in Celoron, New York.[8]

Books and articles

  • Intentionality and the Structure of Existence, unpublished Ph.D. Indiana University, 1976.
  • "Meinongian Theories and a Russellian Paradox", Noûs, 12(2) (1978), pp. 153–80.
  • Thought, Language, and Ontology: Essays in Memory of Hector-Neri Castañeda. Edited by William J. Rapaport et al. Includes various essays by Rapaport and his colleagues. ISBN 9780792351979
  • Cognition and Fiction, with Stuart C. Shapiro (PostScript format)[9]
  • "To Be and Not To Be"
  • "Representing Fiction in SNePS"
  • In Defense of Contextual Vocabulary Acquisition
  • "What Did You Mean by That? Misunderstanding, Negotiation, and Syntactic Semantics"
  • "Yes, She Was!", reply to Ford's "Helen Keller Was Never in a Chinese Room"
  • "Predication, fiction, and artificial intelligence"
  • "On cogito propositions"
  • "Because mere calculation isn't thinking"
  • Philosophy of Computer Science, online textbook on connections between philosophy, computer science and artificial intelligence, constantly being updated

References

  1. ^ William J. Rapaport, "Meinongian Theories and a Russellian Paradox", Noûs, 12(2) (1978), pp. 153–80.
  2. ^ a b Rapaport, William J. (8 November 2015). ""Family tree" list of Hector-Neri Castañeda's Ph.D. students". University at Buffalo.
  3. ^ Rapaport, William J. (October 5, 2012). "A History of the Sentence 'Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.'". University at Buffalo Computer Science and Engineering. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
  4. ^ William J. Rapaport, "Non-Existent Objects and Epistemological Ontology", Grazer Philosophische Studien, 25(1), 1986, 61–95.
  5. ^ Dale Jacquette, Meinongian Logic: The Semantics of Existence and Nonexistence, Walter de Gruyter, 1996, p. 12.
  6. ^ American Philosophical Association, Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy and on Pre-College Instruction in Philosophy. He is a recipient of the State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching. (From Ask Philosophers William Rapaport member page.)
  7. ^ "See also: SaveLucyDesiCenter.org website". Archived from the original on 2008-08-18. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
  8. ^ Fryling, Kevin (2007-05-27). "UB faculty member loves Lucy". UB Reporter. buffalo.edu. Archived from the original on 2008-09-08. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
  9. ^ Originally from Buffalo University. Can be viewed online via the Online PostScript Viewer Archived 2010-11-03 at the Wayback Machine.