Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:46:06.503Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Did the Intensity of My Preferences Double Last Night?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Roy A. Sorensen*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Delaware

Abstract

About twenty years ago, philosophers debated the verifiability of the statement “Last night everything doubled in size.” It seems that universal nocturnal expansion would double our rulers and tape measures making the size change indiscernible. I think that there is an internal analogue to the question “Did everything double in size last night?” The question “Did my preferences double in intensity last night?“ also raises problems of verification.

Type
Discussion
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acock, Malcolm (1983), “The Age of the Universe”, Philosophy of Science 50: 130–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruñbaum, Adolf (1964), “Is a Universal Nocturnal Expansion Falsifiable or Physically Vacuous?”, Philosophical Studies 15: 7179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jevons, Stanley (1911), The Theory of Political Economy. 4th edition. London.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, George (1964), “It is False that Overnight Everything has Doubled in Size”, Philosophical Studies 15: 6571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shoemaker, Sydney (1981), “The Inverted Spectrum”, Journal of Philosophy 74: 357–81.Google Scholar