William J. Rapaport

William Joseph Rapaport However, the idea of a grammatically correct sentence repeating "buffalo" was independently discovered several times in the 20th century, such as in Dmitri Borgmann's 1967 book, Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought.

His early work on nonexistent objects was influenced by Alexius Meinong.

Rapaport has written on the field of intentionality, influencing scientists and writers including Daniel Dennett, Héctor-Neri Castañeda (who was his doctoral advisor ) 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.

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 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.

Books and articles Intentionality and the Structure of Existence, unpublished Ph.D. Indiana University, 1976.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. Cognition and Fiction, with Stuart C. Shapiro (PostScript format) "To Be and Not To Be" "Representing Fiction in SNePS"

"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