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Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Logic
At the turn of the century, Gottlob Frege and Edmund Husserl both
participated in the discussion concerning the foundations of logic
and mathematics. Since the 1960s, comparisons have been made
between Frege's semantic views and Husserl's theory of intentional
acts. In quite recent years, new approaches to the two
philosophers' views have appeared. This collection of articles
opens with the first English translation of Dagfinn Follesdal's
early classic on Husserl and Frege of 1958. The book brings
together a number of new contributions by well-known authors and
gives a survey of recent developments in the field. It shows that
Husserl's thought is coming to occupy a central role in the
philosophy of logic and mathematics, as well as in the philosophy
of mind and cognitive science. The work is primarily meant for
philosophers, especially for those working on the problems of
language, logic, mathematics, and mind. It can also be used as a
textbook in advanced courses in philosophy. "
This book develops new techniques in formal epistemology and
applies them to the challenge of Cartesian skepticism. It
introduces two formats of epistemic evaluation that should be of
interest to epistemologists and philosophers of science: the
dual-component format, which evaluates a statement on the basis of
its safety and informativeness, and the relative-divergence format,
which evaluates a probabilistic model on the basis of its
complexity and goodness of fit with data. Tomoji Shogenji shows
that the former lends support to Cartesian skepticism, but the
latter allows us to defeat Cartesian skepticism. Along the way,
Shogenji addresses a number of related issues in epistemology and
philosophy of science, including epistemic circularity, epistemic
closure, and inductive skepticism.
Philosophical questions regarding the nature and methodology of
philosophical inquiry have garnered much attention in recent years.
Perhaps nowhere are these discussions more developed than in
relation to the field of metaphysics. The Routledge Handbook of
Metametaphysics is an outstanding reference source to this growing
subject. It comprises thirty-eight chapters written by leading
international contributors, and is arranged around five themes: *
The history of metametaphysics * Neo-Quineanism (and its objectors)
* Alternative conceptions of metaphysics * The epistemology of
metaphysics * Science and metaphysics. Essential reading for
students and researchers in metaphysics, philosophical methodology,
and ontology, The Routledge Handbook of Metametaphysics will also
be of interest to those in closely related subjects such as
philosophy of language, logic, and philosophy of science.
Material objects persist through time and survive change. How do
they manage to do so? What are the underlying facts of persistence?
Do objects persist by being "wholly present" at all moments of time
at which they exist? Or do they persist by having distinct
"temporal segments" confined to the corresponding times? Are
objects three-dimensional entities extended in space, but not in
time? Or are they four-dimensional spacetime "worms"? These are
matters of intense debate, which is now driven by concerns about
two major issues in fundamental ontology: parthood and location. It
is in this context that broadly empirical considerations are
increasingly brought to bear on the debate about persistence.
Persistence and Spacetime pursues this empirically based approach
to the questions. Yuri Balashov begins by setting out major rival
views of persistence -- endurance, perdurance, and exdurance -- in
a spacetime framework and proceeds to investigate the implications
of Einstein's theory of relativity for the debate about
persistence. His overall conclusion -- that relativistic
considerations favour four-dimensionalism over three-dimensionalism
-- is hardly surprising. It is, however, anything but trivial.
Contrary to a common misconception, there is no straightforward
argument from relativity to four-dimensionalism. The issues
involved are complex, and the debate is closely entangled with a
number of other philosophical disputes, including those about the
nature and ontology of time, parts and wholes, material
constitution, causation and properties, and vagueness.
First published in 1999, this volume re-examines Bertrand Russell's
views on modal logic and logical relevance, arguing that Russell
does in fact accommodate modality and modal logic. The author, Jan
Dejnozka, draws together Russell's comments and perspectives from
throughout his canon in order to demonstrate a coherent view on
logical modality and logical relevance. To achieve this, Dejnozka
explores questions including whether Russell has a possible worlds
logic, Rescher's case against Russell, Russell's three levels of
modality and the motives and origins of Russell's theory of
modality.
David E. Over is a leading cognitive scientist and, with his firm
grounding in philosophical logic, he also exerts a powerful
influence on the psychology of reasoning. He is responsible for not
only a large body of empirical work and accompanying theory, but
for advancing a major shift in thinking about reasoning, commonly
known as the 'new paradigm' in the psychology of human reasoning.
Over's signature mix of philosophical logic and experimental
psychology has inspired generations of researchers, psychologists,
and philosophers alike over more than a quarter of a century. The
chapters in this volume, written by a leading group of contributors
including a number who helped shape the psychology of reasoning as
we know it today, each take their starting point from the key
themes of Over's ground-breaking work. The essays in this
collection explore a wide range of central topics-such as
rationality, bias, dual processes, and dual systems-as well as
contemporary psychological and philosophical theories of
conditionals. It concludes with an engaging new chapter, authored
by David E. Over himself, which details and analyses the new
paradigm psychology of reasoning. This book is therefore important
reading for scholars, researchers, and advanced students in
psychology, philosophy, and the cognitive sciences, including those
who are not familiar with Over's thought already.
This volume contains twenty-four essays by the British/Australian
analytic metaphysician, Brian Garrett. These essays are followed by
four short dialogues that emphasize and summarize some of the main
points of the essays and discuss new perspectives that have emerged
since their original publication. The volume covers topics on the
metaphysics of time, the nature of identity, and the nature and
importance of persons and human beings. The chapters constitute the
fruits of almost four decades of philosophical research, from
Brian's two award-winning essays, published in Analysis in 1983 and
The Philosophical Quarterly in 1992, to his latest ideas about
Fatalism and the Grandfather Paradox. This book will be of interest
to students and professional philosophers in the field of analytic
philosophy.
This book was designed primarily as a textbook; though the author
hopes that it will prove to be of interests to others beside logic
students. Part I of this book covers the fundamentals of the
subject the propositional calculus and the theory of
quantification. Part II deals with the traditional formal logic and
with the developments which have taken that as their
starting-point. Part III deals with modal, three-valued, and
extensional systems.
Biologists, climate scientists, and economists all rely on models
to move their work forward. In this book, Stephen M. Downes
explores the use of models in these and other fields to introduce
readers to the various philosophical issues that arise in
scientific modeling. Readers learn that paying attention to models
plays a crucial role in appraising scientific work. This book first
presents a wide range of models from a number of different
scientific disciplines. After assembling some illustrative
examples, Downes demonstrates how models shed light on many
perennial issues in philosophy of science and in philosophy in
general. Reviewing the range of views on how models represent their
targets introduces readers to the key issues in debates on
representation, not only in science but in the arts as well. Also,
standard epistemological questions are cast in new and interesting
ways when readers confront the question, "What makes for a good (or
bad) model?" All examples from the sciences and positions in the
philosophy of science are presented in an accessible manner. The
book is suitable for undergraduates with minimal experience in
philosophy and an introductory undergraduate experience in science.
Key features: The book serves as a highly accessible philosophical
introduction to models and modeling in the sciences, presenting all
philosophical and scientific issues in a nontechnical manner.
Students and other readers learn to practice philosophy of science
by starting with clear examples taken directly from the sciences.
While not comprehensive, this book introduces the reader to a wide
range of views on key issues in the philosophy of science.
To clarify and facilitate our inquiries we need to define a
disquotational truth predicate that we are directly licensed to
apply not only to our own sentences as we use them now, but also to
other speakers' sentences and our own sentences as we used them in
the past. The conventional wisdom is that there can be no such
truth predicate. For it appears that the only instances of the
disquotational pattern that we are directly licensed to accept are
those that define "is true" for our own sentences as we use them
now. Gary Ebbs shows that this appearance is illusory. He
constructs an account of words that licenses us to rely not only on
formal (spelling-based) identifications of our own words, but also
on our non-deliberative practical identifications of other
speakers' words and of our own words as we used them in the past.
To overturn the conventional wisdom about disquotational truth,
Ebbs argues, we need only combine this account of words with our
disquotational definitions of truth for sentences as we use them
now. The result radically transforms our understanding of truth and
related topics, including anti-individualism, self-knowledge, and
the intersubjectivity of logic.
The Process of Argument: An Introduction is a necessary companion
for anyone seeking to engage in successful persuasion: To organize,
construct, and communicate arguments. It is both comprehensive and
accessible: An authoritative guide to logical thinking and
effective communication. The book begins with techniques to improve
reading comprehension, including guides on navigating through fake
news and internet trolls. Then, readers are taught how to
reconstruct deductive, inductive, and abductive presentations so
that the logical structure is explicit. And finally, there is a
step-by-step guide for responding to these texts via the
argumentative essay. Along the way are current examples from social
media and elsewhere on the internet along with guides for assessing
truth claims in an ever-complicated community worldview.
Throughout, are carefully selected reading questions and exercises
that will pace readers in order to ensure that the text is securely
grasped and successfully applied. Key Features Offers guidance on
how to read a text through self-analysis and social criticism
Provides a step-by-step procedure for allowing the student to move
from reading to reconstruction to being prepared to write an
effective argumentative essay Presents truth theory and shows
readers how they can helpfully acquaint themselves with a version
of realistic, foundational epistemology Offers guidelines and
helpful tools on how best to structure an argumentative, pro or
con, essay Includes expansive coverage of inductive logic through
the use and assessment of statistics Covers abductive logic as it
applies to the analysis of narrative in argumentative writing Has
up-to-date examples from the media, including from blogs, social
media, and television Includes a helpful glossary of all important
terms in the book
This volume of newly written chapters on the history and
interpretation of Wittgenstein's Tractatus represents a significant
step beyond the polemical debate between broad interpretive
approaches that has recently characterized the field. Some of the
contributors might count their approach as 'new' or 'resolute',
while others are more 'traditional', but all are here concerned
primarily with understanding in detail the structure of argument
that Wittgenstein presents within the Tractatus, rather than with
its final self-renunciation, or with the character of the
understanding that renunciation might leave behind. The volume
makes a strong case that close investigation, both biographical and
textual, into the composition of the Tractatus, and into the
various influences on it, still has much to yield in revealing the
complexity and fertility of Wittgenstein's early thought. Amongst
these influences Kant and Kierkegaard are considered alongside
Wittgenstein's immediate predecessors in the analytic tradition.
The themes explored range across the breadth of Wittgenstein's
book, and include his accounts of ethics and aesthetics, as well as
issues in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind, and aspects of
the logical framework of his account of representation. The
contrast of saying and showing, and Wittgenstein's attitude to the
inexpressible, is of central importance to many of the
contributions. By approaching this concern through the various
first-level issues that give rise to it, rather than from
entrenched schematic positions, the contributors demonstrate the
possibility of a more inclusive, constructive and fruitful mode of
engagement with Wittgenstein's text and with each other.
In 1953, exactly 50 years ago to this day, the first volume of
Studia Logica appeared under the auspices of The Philosophical
Committee of The Polish Academy of Sciences. Now, five decades
later the present volume is dedicated to a celebration of this 50th
Anniversary of Studia Logica. The volume features a series of
papers by distinguished scholars reflecting both the aim and scope
of this journal for symbolic logic.
Originally published in 1985. This study concerns the problem of
treating identity as a relation between an object and itself. It
addresses the Russellian and Fregean solutions and goes on to
present in the first part a surfacist account of belief-context
ambiguity requiring neither differences in relative scope nor
distinctions between sense and reference. The second part offers an
account of negative existentials, necessity and identity-statements
which resolves problems unlike the Russell-Frege analyses. This is
a detailed work in linguistics and philosophy.
Originally published in 1985. This book is about a single famous
line of argument, pioneered by Descartes and deployed to full
effect by Kant. That argument was meant to refute scepticism once
and for all, and make the world safe for science. 'I think, so I
exist' is valid reasoning, but circular as proof. In similar vein,
Kant argues from our having a science of geometry to Space being
our contribution to experience: a different conclusion, arrived at
by a similar fallacy. Yet these arguments do show something: that
certain sets of opinions, if professed, show an inbuilt
inconsistency. It is this second-strike capacity that has kept
transcendental arguments going for so long. Attempts to re-build
metaphysics by means of such transcendental reasoning have been
debated. This book offers an introduction to the field, and
ventures its own assessment, in non-technical language, without
assuming previous training in logic or philosophy.
This is the first textbook that approaches natural language
semantics and logic from the perspective of Discourse
Representation Theory, an approach which emphasizes the dynamic and
incremental aspects of meaning and inference. The book has been
carefully designed for the classroom. It is aimed at students with
varying degrees of preparation, including those without prior
exposure to semantics or formal logic. Moreover, it should make DRT
easily accessible to those who want to learn about the theory on
their own. Exercises are available to test understanding as well as
to encourage independent theoretical thought. The book serves a
double purpose. Besides a textbook, it is also the first
comprehensive and fully explicit statement of DRT available in the
form of a book. The first part of the book develops the basic
principles of DRT for a small fragment of English (but which has
nevertheless the power of standard predicate logic). The second
part extends this fragment by adding plurals; it discusses a wide
variety of problems connected with plural nouns and verbs. The
third part applies the theory to the analysis of tense and aspect.
Many of the problems raised in Parts Two and Three are novel, as
are the solutions proposed. For undergraduate and graduate students
interested in linguistics, theoretical linguistics, computational
linguistics, artificial intelligence and cognitive science.
Suitable for students with no previous exposure to formal semantics
or logic.
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