The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic the Bulletin of Symbolic Logic

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic the Bulletin of Symbolic Logic THE BULLETIN OF SYMBOLIC LOGIC THE BULLETIN OF SYMBOLIC LOGIC Edited by Frank Wagner, Managing Editor Vol. 20 Vol. Patricia Blanchette Menachem Kojman Andrea Cantini Leonid Libkin Thierry Coquand André Nies . Number 2 Deirdre Haskell Reviews Editors Ernest Schimmerling, Managing Editor for Reviews . June 2014 John Burgess Colin McLarty Mark Colyvan Rahim Moosa Anuj Dawar Kai Wehmeier Michael Fourman Matthias Wille . Pages 141-274 Steffen Lempp VOLUME 20 • NUMBER 2 • JUNE 2014 • ISSN 1079-8986 Copyright © 2014 by the Association for Symbolic Logic. All rights reserved. Reproduction by photostat, photo-print, microfi lm, or like process by permission only. Cambridge Journals Online For further information about this journal please go to the journal web site at: journals.cambridge.org/bsl PUBLISHED BY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE ASSOCIATION OF SYMBOLIC LOGIC. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.234, on 29 Sep 2021 at 04:10:23, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/bsl.2014.22 The BULLETIN, the JOURNAL and the REVIEW OF SYMBOLIC LOGIC are the official organs of the Association for Symbolic Logic, an international organization for furthering research in logic and the exchange of ideas among mathematicians, computer scientists, linguists, and others interested in this fi eld. The BULLETIN encourages submissions of Articles and Communications in all areas of logic, including mathematical or philosophical logic, logic in computer science or linguistics, the history or philosophy of logic, and applications of logic to other fields. The BULLETIN also publishes reviews of publications in logic. Editors THE BULLETIN OF SYMBOLIC LOGIC (ISSN print: 1079–8986, ISSN online: 1943–5894) is pub- Frank Wagner (Managing Editor), Insitut Camille Jordan, UMR 5208, Bâtiment Braconnier, Université lished quarterly, in the months of March, June, September. and December, by the Association for Symbolic Lyon 1, 21, avenue Claude Bernard, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France Logic, Inc., 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604–0001, USA. Periodicals postage is paid at [email protected] Poughkeepsie NY and at additional mailing offi ces. The BULLETIN is distributed with THE JOURNAL Patricia Blanchette, Department of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame, 100 Malloy Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA OF SYMBOLIC LOGIC. The 2014 annual subscription price for the two journals, in either print or elec- tronic form, is US$690, £431 or €535; the print/electronic bundle prices are $770, £481 or €597: visit [email protected] Andrea Cantini, Department of Philosophy Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via Bolognese 52, I-50139 http: / / journals . cambridge.org/bs l for more information. Postmaster: Send address changes to Firenze, Italy Journals Customer Services Department, Cambridge University Press, 100 Brook Hill Drive, West cantini@unifi .it Nyack, NY 10994, USA. Business correspondence should be sent to the Secretary-Treasurer of the Asso- Thierry Coquand, University of Gothenburg, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SE–4196 ciation, Charles Steinhorn (address below). Gothenburg, Sweden Subscription orders for the JOURNAL and BULLETIN, or REVIEW should be sent to subscr i pt ions_ [email protected] Deirdre Haskell, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. W, [email protected]. All orders must be accompanied by payment by check, credit card (Visa, Hamilton ON L8S 4K1, Canada MasterCard, JCB or American Express only), or debit card. To receive a replacement copy of the BULLETIN, [email protected] please report damaged, defective or missing issues within nine months of the date of publication. Menachem Kojman, Department of Mathematics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel Volumes l through 19 of the BULLETIN are available online at JSTOR: volumes l through 19 via Cam- 84105 bridge University Press, ht t p : / / journa l s . cambri dge . org / bs l – access to the latter is free to mem- [email protected] Leonid Libkin, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh, Informatics bers. Forum, IF 5.33, Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB, UK Individual membership in the Association is open to anyone interested in its work. Annual dues for [email protected] members are US$88, £58 sterling or €70 ($44, £29 sterling or €35 for student, emeritus and unemployed Andre Nies, Department of Computer Science, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, members; see ht t p: / /www.as l onl ine . org /membership-individual .html for more information, New Zealand including conditions and privileges). Dues include subscriptions to the current volumes of the JOURNAL, [email protected] the BULLETIN, and the REVIEW. Reviews editors Institutional membership in the Association is available to any academic institution or department. Annual Ernest Schimmerling (Managing Editor), Department of Mathematical Sciences, Carnegie Mellon institutional membership dues for 2014 are US$1075 (full) or $625 (basic); privileges include choices of University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA, [email protected] current subscriptions, back volumes, regular individual and student memberships. John Burgess [email protected], Mark Colyvan [email protected], Anuj Dawar [email protected], Michael Fourman [email protected], Requests for information, applications for new membership, renewals of institutional membership, busi- Steffen Lempp [email protected], Colin McLarty [email protected], ness correspondence, and notices or announcements for publication in the BULLETIN should be sent to Rahim Moosa [email protected], Kai Wehmeier [email protected], Charles Steinhorn, Secretary–Treasurer of the ASL, Box 742, Vassar College, 124 Raymond Av- and Matthias Wille [email protected]. enue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604, USA. The electronic mail address of the Association’s business offi ce Please follow the submission procedure described at is [email protected]. Requests for back issues should be sent to Cambridge University Press, address http://www.aslonline.org/journals-bulletin-guide.html above. It is recommended that papers be prepared in LATEX using the ASL’s class fi le, especially for manuscripts Individual membership renewals, notices of change of address, and dues payments, should be sent to having extensive symbolic or mathematical notation. This style fi le is available from the ASL’s website Association for Symbolic Logic, c/o Journals Customer Services Department, Cambridge University at http://www.aslonline.org; links from that site provide further information about the BULLETIN Press, 100 Brook Hill Drive, West Nyack, NY 10994, USA, [email protected]. and about submitting papers for publication. No print offprints will be supplied but authors will receive a link to a freely accessible electronic pdf of The paper used in the BULLETIN is acid-free and falls within the guidelines established to ensure perma- their published article. Print offprints may be purchased if required. nence and stability. Articles present topics of broad interest in a way that is accessible to a large audience. They can be purely The BULLETIN has been registered with the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. The appearance of a code expository, survey, or historical articles or they may contain, in addition, new ideas or results or new at the bottom of the fi rst page of an article indicates the copyright owner’s consent for copying beyond approaches to old ones. that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the US Copyright Law, provided that the per-copy fee stated Communications should be announcements of important new results and ideas in any aspect of logic; in the code is paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA they may be short papers in their fi nal form or preliminary announcements (extended abstracts, position 01923, USA. This consent does not extend to copying for general distribution, for advertising or promotion papers) of longer, full papers that will be published elsewhere. In any case, they should include, in addition purposes, for creating new collective works, or for resale. Specifi c written permission for such copying to a description of the new results or ideas, enough history, background, and explanation to make the must be obtained from the Association. significance of the work apparent to a wide audience. Communications will be quickly refereed and published within six months of the submission of fi nal version. Books for review in the BULLETIN should be sent to ASL, BOX 742, Vassar College, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604, USA. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.234, on 29 Sep 2021 at 04:10:23, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/bsl.2014.22 TABLE OF CONTENTS ARTICLES Approximating Beppo Levi’s Principio Di Approssimazione, by RICCARDO BRUNI and PETER SCHUSTER ........................................................141 Nonstandard models in recursion theory and reverse mathematics, by C. T. CHONG, WEI LI, and YUE YANG .........................................................170 REVIEWS Two papers by Ulrich Felgner on the history of mathematics, Reviewed by STEFFEN LEMPP ............................................................................201
Recommended publications
  • A Two-Dimensional Logic for Diagonalization and the a Priori∗†
    A Two-Dimensional Logic for Diagonalization and the A Priori∗† Melissa Fusco February 10, 2020 A Introduction Two-dimensional semantics, which can represent a distinction between apriority and necessity, has wielded considerable influence in the philosophy of language. In this paper, I axiomatize the logic of the y operator of Stalnaker (1978) in the context of two-dimensional modal logic. This operator traces its ancestry through Segerberg (1973) and Åqvist (1973). In two-dimensional modal logic, the truth of a formula ϕ in a model M is relativized to two parameters: a parameter representing the world-as-actual, which in our semantic notation (as in (@), (y), and (■), below) appears first, and a parameter representing the world of evaluation, which we write second.1 My exposition leans on Stalnaker’s notion of diagonalization, and his characterization of a priori/necessary (A/■) distinction as the contrast between the truth of ■ y ϕ and the truth of ■ϕ. The Kripke models used for this result are shown to be equivalent to Stalnaker’s matrix models, which are well known in philosophy of language. I call this proof system B2D, for “basic two-dimensionalism”. The object language contains both “actually” (@) and the y operator. (@) M; y; x ⊨ @ϕ iff M; y; y ⊨ ϕ (y) M; y; x ⊨ yϕ iff M; x; x ⊨ ϕ The language also contains a global S5 modality ■ common in discussions of two-dimensional semantics (Crossley & Humberstone, 1977; Davies & Humberstone, 1980; Fritz, 2013, 2014): (■) M; y; x ⊨ ■ϕ iff for all x0: M; y; x0 ⊨ ϕ ∗Preprint. Forthcoming in Synthese (please cite published version).
    [Show full text]
  • Wittgenstein's Elimination of Identity for Quantifier-Free Logic
    ZU064-05-FPR EliminationQFLApproved˙final 19 December 2019 17:0 The Review of Symbolic Logic Volume XXX, Number XXX, XXX YYY Wittgenstein's Elimination of Identity for Quantifier-Free Logic TIMM LAMPERT and MARKUS SABEL¨ Humboldt University Berlin Abstract. One of the central logical ideas in Wittgenstein's Tractatus logico-philoso- phicus is the elimination of the identity sign in favor of the so-called \exclusive interpre- tation" of names and quantifiers requiring different names to refer to different objects and (roughly) different variables to take different values. In this paper, we examine a recent development of these ideas in papers by Kai Wehmeier. We diagnose two main problems of Wehmeier's account, the first concerning the treatment of individual constants, the second concerning so-called \pseudo-propositions" (Scheins¨atze) of classical logic such as a = a or a = b ^ b = c ! a = c. We argue that overcoming these problems requires two fairly drastic departures from Wehmeier's account: (1) Not every formula of classical first- order logic will be translatable into a single formula of Wittgenstein's exclusive notation. Instead, there will often be a multiplicity of possible translations, revealing the original \inclusive" formulas to be ambiguous. (2) Certain formulas of first-order logic such as a = a will not be translatable into Wittgenstein's notation at all, being thereby revealed as nonsensical pseudo-propositions which should be excluded from a \correct" conceptual notation. We provide translation procedures from inclusive quantifier-free logic into the exclusive notation that take these modifications into account and define a notion of logical equivalence suitable for assessing these translations.
    [Show full text]
  • Logic in the Tractatus
    Logic in the Tractatus by Max Weiss A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (Philosophy) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2013 © Max Weiss 2013 Abstract What is logic, in the Tractatus? There is a pretty good understanding what is logic in Grundgesetze, or Principia. With respect to the Tractatus no comparably definite answer has been received. One might think that this is because, whether through incompetence or obscurantism, Wittgenstein simply does not propound a definite conception. To the contrary, I argue that the text of the Tractatus sup- ports, up to a high degree of confidence, the attribution of a philosophically well-motivated and mathematically definite answer to the question what is logic. ii Preface Warum hier plötzlich Worte? (5.452) It is something of an accident that I ended up writing a dissertation about the Tractatus. In 2009, I was casting around for a thesis topic and somehow found myself in Carl Posy’s seminar on Brouwer at The Hebrew University. He seemed like a pretty good person to ask. When we met, he took out his copy of the Critique of Pure Reason and read out a passage in which he discerned insights later conveyed in certain early 1970s lectures at Princeton on the philosophy of language. History—or, better, long conversation—brings a structure that he thought I needed. It also helped that Posy clearly enjoys talking about Brouwer. Then it did come down to early Wittgenstein.1 In my first year as an under- graduate, my favorite course had been an introduction to logic taught by San- ford Shieh.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae
    CURRICULUM VITAE Robert C. May Department of Philosophy (530) 554-9554 (office) University of California [email protected] Davis, CA 95616 Degrees Swarthmore College; B.A. with High Honors, 1973. • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy; Ph.D., 1977. • Faculty Positions Assistant Professor of Linguistics. Barnard College and The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, • Columbia University. 1981 - 1986. Associate Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences. University of California, Irvine. 1986 - 1989. • Professor of Linguistics. University of California, Irvine. 1989 - 1997 • Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy, University of California, Irvine. 1997 - 2001. • Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science, Linguistics and Philosophy, University of California, • Irvine, 2001 - 2006. Professor of Philosophy and Linguistics, University of California, Davis, 2006 - 2012 • Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Linguistics, University of California, Davis. 2012 - present. • Other Academic Positions Post-doctoral research fellow. Laboratory of Experimental Psychology. The Rockefeller University.1977 • -1979. Research Stipendiate. Max-Planck-Institut für Psycholinguistik. Nijmegen, The Netherlands. 1979, • 1980. Post-doctoral research fellow. Center for Cognitive Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, • 1980 -1981. Visiting Lecturer. Graduate School of Languages and Linguistics. Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan. • 1983. Visiting Research Scholar. The Graduate Center, City University of New York. 1985 - 1986. • Fulbright Distinguished Professor. University of Venice. 1994. • Visiting Scholar. Department of Philosophy. Columbia University. 2013, 2014 - 15. • Visiting Professor, Ecole Normale Superieure and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. 2014. • 1 Professional Positions and Activities Director. Syntax and Semantics Workshop: Logical Form and Its Semantic Interpretation. 1985 - • 1987. Editor. The Linguistic Review Dissertation Abstracts. 1984 - 1988. • Associate Editorial Board.
    [Show full text]
  • Frege on the Undefinability of Truth
    Logic, Truth and Arithmetic. Essays on Gottlob Frege. Marco Ruffino (ed.). CDD: 149.9 WHY FREGE THOUGHT IT TO BE “PROBABLE” THAT TRUTH IS INDEFINABLE* MARKUS STEPANIANS Department of Philosophy Universität des Saarlandes FR 3.1, D-66041 Saarbrücken GERMANY [email protected] Abstract: Frege’s so-called “Regress Argument” is closely examined and it is argued that Dummett’s reconstruction of it is not satisfactory. Contra Dummett, the argument does not involve a regress, is not a reductio and not even a strictly deductive argument. Rather, what Frege tries to show is that any attempt to define truth fails to be epistemically fruitful and thus misses the very point of analytic definitions of concepts. The cause of this epistemic sterility is an inherent circularity, and it is in view of this defect that Frege suggests that truth is very likely so simple that it cannot be defined at all. This circularity, in turn, is due to the fact that Frege takes the sense of “true” to be a constitutive part of the content of acts of thinking a complete thought. Finally, I trace Frege‘s belief in this *An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Frege Workshop in Leiden, August 23rd – 25th, 2001. I am very grateful to the organizers, Göran Sundholm and Kai Wehmeier for their invitation, and to the participants of the workshop and for valuable suggestions, especially Jamie Tappenden. I would like to thank David Wiggins for his kind encouragement and very welcome corrections of my English. My main debt, however, is to Ulrich Pardey, whose extensive and probing comments on a condensed version of the argument as presented in Stepanians, 2001, chap.
    [Show full text]
  • Frege's Natural Numbers: Motivations and Modifications Erich H
    Frege's Natural Numbers: Motivations and Modifications Erich H. Reck Frege's main contributions to logic and the philosophy of mathematics are, on the one hand, his introduction of modern relational and quantificational logic and, on the other, his analysis of the concept of number. My focus in this paper will be on the latter, although the two are closely related, of course, in ways that will also play a role. More specifically, I will discuss Frege's logicist reconceptualization of the natural numbers with the goal of clarifying two aspects: the motivations for its core ideas; the step-by-step development of these ideas, from Begriffsschrift through Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik and Grundgesetze der Arithmetik to Frege's very last writings, indeed even beyond those, to a number of recent "neo-Fregean" proposals for how to update them. One main development, or break, in Frege's views occurred after he was informed of Russell's antinomy. His attempt to come to terms with this antinomy has found some attention in the literature already. It has seldom been analyzed in connection with earlier changes in his views, however, partly because those changes themselves have been largely ignored. Nor has it been discussed much in connection with Frege's basic motivations, as formed in reaction to earlier positions. Doing both in this paper will not only shed new light on his response to Russell's antinomy, but also on other aspects of his views. In addition, it will provide us with a framework for comparing recent updates of these views, thus for assessing the remaining attraction of Frege's general approach.
    [Show full text]
  • Wittgenstein's Elimination of Identity for Quantifier-Free Logic
    Wittgenstein's Elimination of Identity for Quantifier-Free Logic Timm Lampert∗ Markus S¨abelyz April 7, 2017 Abstract One of the central logical ideas in Wittgenstein's Tractatus logico- philosophicus is the elimination of the identity sign in favor of the so- called \exclusive interpretation" of names and quantifiers requiring dif- ferent names to refer to different objects and (roughly) different variables to take different values. In this paper, we examine a recent develop- ment of these ideas in papers by Kai Wehmeier. We diagnose two main problems of Wehmeier's account, the first concerning the treatment of in- dividual constants, the second concerning so-called \pseudo-propositions" (Scheins¨atze) of classical logic such as a = a or a = b ^ b = c ! a = c. We argue that overcoming these problems requires two fairly drastic depar- tures from Wehmeier's account: (1) Not every formula of classical first- order logic will be translatable into a single formula of Wittgenstein's exclusive notation. Instead, there will often be a multiplicity of possible translations, revealing the original \inclusive" formulas to be ambiguous. (2) Certain formulas of first-order logic such as a = a will not be trans- latable into Wittgenstein's notation at all, being thereby revealed as non- sensical pseudo-propositions which should be excluded from a \correct" conceptual notation. We provide translation procedures from inclusive quantifier-free logic into the exclusive notation that take these modifica- tions into account and define a notion of logical equivalence suitable for assessing these translations. ∗Department of Philosophy, Humboldt University Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, D-10099 Berlin.
    [Show full text]
  • What Is Frege's Theory of Descriptions?
    What is Frege’s Theory of Descriptions? Francis Jeffry Pelletier and Bernard Linsky 1 Introduction1 When prompted to consider Frege’s views about definite descriptions, many philosophers think about the meaning of proper names, and some of them can cite the following quotation taken from a footnote Frege’s 1892 article “Uber¨ Sinn und Bedeutung.”2 In the case of an actual proper name such as ‘Aristotle’ opinions as to the Sinn may differ. It might, for instance, be taken to be the following: the pupil of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Anybody who does this will attach another Sinn to the sentence ‘Aristotle was born in Stagira’ than will a man who takes as the Sinn of the name: the teacher of Alexander the Great who was born in Stagira. So long as the Bedeutung remains the same, such variations of Sinn may be tolerated, although they are to be avoided 1We are grateful to Harry Deutsch, Mike Harnish, Theo Janssen, Gregory Lan- dini, Jim Levine, Leonard Linsky, Nathan Salmon, Gurpreet Rattan, Peter Simons, Peter Stanbridge, Kai Wehmeier, an anonymous referee, and audiences at Simon Fraser University, the Society for Exact Philosophy, the Western Canadian Philo- sophical Association, and the Russell vs. Meinong Conference for helpful comments on various aspects of this paper. 2In our quotations, we leave Bedeutung, Sinn, and Bezeichnung (and cognates) untranslated in order to avoid the confusion that would be brought on by using ‘nominatum’, ‘reference’, and ’meaning’ for Bedeutung, and ‘meaning’ or ‘sense’ for Sinn. We got this idea from Russell’s practice in his reading notes (see Linsky 2004).
    [Show full text]
  • The Varieties of Multidimensional Necessity
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE The Varieties of Multidimensional Necessity DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Philosophy by Fabio Dal Conti Lampert Dissertation Committee: Dean's Professor Kai Wehmeier, Chair Professor Jeremy Heis Professor Toby Meadows Professor Gregory Scontras 2020 Chapter 2 c 2017 Springer Nature Chapter 3 c 2017 Springer Nature Chapter 4 c 2020 Cambridge University Press All other materials c 2020 Fabio Dal Conti Lampert DEDICATION To my wife, Camila Aimbir´e, with love and gratitude. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi CURRICULUM VITAE viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION x 1 Introduction 1 2 Actuality, Tableaux, and Two-Dimensional Modal Logics 6 2.1 Introduction . .6 2.2 Two-Dimensional Modal Logic . .9 2.2.1 Actually and Fixedly . .9 2.2.2 Introducing Distinguishedly ....................... 11 2.2.3 Ref ..................................... 14 2.3 Tableaux for S52D ................................ 15 2.3.1 Syntax and Semantics for S52D ..................... 15 2.3.2 2S-Tableaux . 20 2.4 Local, General, and Diagonal Validity . 28 2.4.1 Modular Tableaux . 30 2.5 Tableaux for Different Two-Dimensional Systems . 36 2.5.1 Tableaux for Epistemic Two-Dimensional Semantics . 37 2.5.2 Semantic Neutrality and the Conceivability/Possibility Link . 42 2.6 Coda: Inexpressibility, Necessity, and Multidimensionality . 45 2.7 Conclusion . 52 Appendix 55 2.A Soundness and Completeness for S52D ...................... 55 2.B Soundness and Completeness Theorems for General and Diagonal Tableaux . 64 2.C Different systems . 65 2.C.1 S5A .................................... 65 2.C.2 S5AF ..................................
    [Show full text]
  • Logical Inferentialism and Identity
    Logical Inferentialism and Identity Chris Mitsch April 28, 2017 Abstract As Wehmeier [1, 2] has shown, the identity-free system of Wittgen- steinian predicate logic (W-logic), enriched with a predicate expressing that individual constants corefer, is expressively equivalent to first- order logic with identity (FOL=). I show that the introduction and elimination rules in W-logic for the usual logical constants (except classical negation) are harmonious in both the intuitive and the Praw- itzian sense, while those for the coreference predicate share the troubles of identity in FOL=. Thus, if we follow Wehmeier [3] in viewing clas- sical identity as an amalgamation of several distinct concepts, among which is coreference, we can precisely separate the harmonious logical component of identity (responsible for variable co-ordination) from its non-harmonious and non-logical component (i.e., coreference). We are thus able to account, from an inferentialist perspective, both for the intuition that classical identity is a logical notion, as well as for its fail- ure to be fully harmonious in the intuitive sense, as shown by Griffiths [4]. 1 Inferentialism The inferentialist is engaged in a debate over the core notion in semantics{ that is, what is it that grounds our account of linguistic meaning? One account, typically called truth-theoretic semantics, characterizes the mean- ing of a given sentence in terms of its truth conditions. The guiding idea for the account is that the meaning of a statement is given in the way it latches onto the world. In general this approach relies strongly on associating sets of possible worlds with sentences{depending on the flavor of truth-conditional semantics we are working with, we will speak of sentences referring to tuples of objects, singular terms referring to objects, predicates referring to a set of objects, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • A Critique of Philosopher Saul Kripke's Work
    NEH Application Cover Sheet (FA-232235) Fellowships for University Teachers PROJECT DIRECTOR Kai Frederick Wehmeier E-mail: (b) (6) (b) (6) Phone: (b) (6) (b) (6) Fax: (b) (6) Field of expertise: Logic INSTITUTION University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA 92697-5100 APPLICATION INFORMATION Title: Re-Visioning Identity and Necessity: A Post-Kripkean Manifesto Grant period: From 2016-07-01 to 2017-06-30 Project field(s): Logic; Philosophy of Language; Metaphysics Description of project: I propose to re-examine currently orthodox philosophical views concerning the logic, metaphysics and semantics of identity and necessity. The resulting alternative theory dispenses with the notion of a two-place relation that every object bears to itself, and to itself only, and proposes a more sophisticated conception of logical form for necessity statements that accounts, by way of explicit notation, for the distinction between indicative and non-indicative verb moods. It will be shown that a number of prominent philosophical theses, many of which were first articulated by Saul Kripke in the 1970s, require substantial revision or become outright untenable when the background logical framework is modified in the manner proposed. These include the necessity of identity, the existence of contingent a priori truths, and the principled non-synonymy of proper names with definite descriptions. The results will be of interest to philosophers, logicians and linguists. REFERENCE LETTERS Aldo Antonelli John Burgess Professor John N. Woodhull Professor of Philosophy Philosophy Philosophy University of California, Davis Princeton University [email protected] [email protected] OMB Number: 3136-0134 Expiration Date: 7/31/2015 NEH Supplemental Information for Individuals This form should be used by applicants to the NEH Fellowships, Fellowships for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan, Awards for Faculty, and Summer Stipends Programs.
    [Show full text]
  • Department of Philosophy 1
    Department of Philosophy 1 Department of Philosophy Annalisa Coliva, Department Chair 85 Humanities Instructional Building 949-824-6525 http://www.humanities.uci.edu/philosophy/ The Department of Philosophy is world-class and has particular strengths in three main areas. History of philosophy, including ancient, modern, and contemporary philosophy, both analytic and continental; epistemology, philosophy of mind and metaphysics, pursued with analytic methodologies but open to the influences of the continental tradition; ethics, legal, and political philosophy, social and value theory. UC Irvine’s philosophy graduate program (https://www.humanities.uci.edu/philosophy/graduate/) is jointly administered by the Department of Philosophy in the School of Humanities and the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science in the School of Social Sciences (https://lps.uci.edu/). The graduate program is ranked among the top programs in the United States, and among the very best in a number of subfields of philosophy (see the Philosophical Gourmet Report (https://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2017/12/2017-18-pgr-us-top-50-results.html)). Graduate applications need to be addressed either to the Department of Philosophy, or to the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, depending on the dominant interests of the student. But graduate students have full access to all the courses and faculty of the two Departments. We have been able to place (https:// www.humanities.uci.edu/philosophy/graduate/placement.php) our Ph.D. students at well-reputed universities and colleges. The success of our undergraduate program is based on a rigorous education both in historical and in contemporary issues.
    [Show full text]