Free logic is an important field of philosophical logic that first appeared in the 1950s. J. Karel Lambert was one of its founders and coined the term. The essays in this collection (written over a period of 40 years) explore the philosophical foundations of free logic and its application to areas as diverse as the philosophy of religion and computer science. This collection brings an important body of work to the attention of a new generation of professional philosophers, computer scientists and mathematicians.

Der Band ist mehr als eine Aufsatzsammlung, die Beitrage sind aufeinander aufgebaut und dicht miteinander vernetzt. Zusammengenommen wird damit ein neues Paradigma der Erklarung geschaffen. Grossere Vorkenntnisse sind nicht erforderlich. Die Beitrage dieses Bandes folgen zwei miteinander zusammenhangenden Leitlinien: Zum einen handelt es sich um pragmatisch-epistemische Erklarungsmodelle und zum zweiten wird der Begriff des Verstehens als zentrales Moment von Erklarung wissenschaftstheoretisch etabliert."

Free logic is an important field of philosophical logic that first appeared in the 1950s. J. Karel Lambert was one of its founders and coined the term itself. The essays in this collection (written over a period of 40 years) explore the philosophical foundations of free logic and its application to areas as diverse as the philosophy of religion and computer science. Amongst the applications on offer are those to the analysis of existence statements, to definite descriptions and to partial functions. The volume contains a proof that free logics of any kind are non-extensional and then uses that proof to show that Quine's theory of predication and referential transparency must fail. The purpose of this collection is to bring an important body of work to the attention of a new generation of professional philosophers, computer scientists and mathematicians.

Alexius Meinong's philosophy made a great impression on his contemporaries in the English-speaking world, particularly Russell and Moore, but since then has been largely ignored or disparaged by analytical philosophers. In fact, however, as Karel Lambert asserts in his preface, Meinong's philosophy is a compendium of valuable and ingenious ideas bearing directly on some of the most central and profound issues of analytical philosophy. As well as aiming to revive interest in Meinong's thought, this book challenges many of the most widespread assumptions of philosophical logic. It will reopen questions about existence and the logical form for representing it which many have regarded as closed and stimulate them to rethink their positions.