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Sortal concepts are at the center of certain logical discussions
and have played a significant role in solutions to particular
problems in philosophy. Apart from logic and philosophy, the study
of sortal concepts has found its place in specific fields of
psychology, such as the theory of infant cognitive development and
the theory of human perception. In this monograph, different formal
logics for sortal concepts and sortal-related logical notions (such
as sortal identity and first-order sortal quantification) are
characterized. Most of these logics are intensional in nature and
possess, in addition, a bidimensional character. That is, they
simultaneously represent two different logical dimensions. In most
cases, the dimensions are those of time and natural necessity, and,
in other cases, those of time and epistemic necessity. Another
feature of the logics in question concerns second-order
quantification over sortal concepts, a logical notion that is also
represented in the logics. Some of the logics adopt a constant
domain interpretation, others a varying domain interpretation of
such quantification. Two of the above bidimensional logics are
philosophically grounded on predication sortalism, that is, on the
philosophical view that predication necessarily requires sortal
concepts. Another bidimensional logic constitutes a logic for
complex sortal predicates. These three sorts of logics are among
the important novelties of this work since logics with similar
features have not been developed up to now, and they might be
instrumental for the solution of philosophically significant
problems regarding sortal predicates. The book assumes a modern
variant of conceptualism as a philosophical background. For this
reason, the approach to sortal predicates is in terms of sortal
concepts. Concepts, in general, are here understood as
intersubjective realizable cognitive capacities. The proper
features of sortal concepts are determined by an analysis of the
main features of sortal predicates. Posterior to this analysis, the
sortal-related logical notions represented in the above logics are
discussed. There is also a discussion on the extent to which the
set-theoretic formal semantic systems of the book capture different
aspects of the conceptualist approach to sortals. These different
semantic frameworks are also related to realist and nominalist
approaches to sortal predicates, and possible modifications to them
are considered that might represent those alternative approaches.
In this text, a variety of modal logics at the sentential,
first-order, and second-order levels are developed with clarity,
precision and philosophical insight. All of the S1-S5 modal logics
of Lewis and Langford, among others, are constructed. A matrix, or
many-valued semantics, for sentential modal logic is formalized,
and an important result that no finite matrix can characterize any
of the standard modal logics is proven. Exercises, some of which
show independence results, help to develop logical skills.
A separate sentential modal logic of logical necessity in logical
atomism is also constructed and shown to be complete and decidable.
On the first-order level of the logic of logical necessity, the
modal thesis of anti-essentialism is valid and every de re sentence
is provably equivalent to a de dicto sentence.
An elegant extension of the standard sentential modal logics into
several first-order modal logics is developed. Both a first-order
modal logic for possibilism containing actualism as a proper part
as well as a separate modal logic for actualism alone are
constructed for a variety of modal systems. Exercises on this level
show the connections between modal laws and quantifier logic
regarding generalization into, or out of, modal contexts and the
conditions required for the necessity of identity and
non-identity.
Two types of second-order modal logics, one possibilist and the
other actualist, are developed based on a distinction between
existence-entailing concepts and concepts in general. The result is
a deeper second-order analysis of possibilism and actualism as
ontological frameworks. Exercises regarding second-order predicate
quantifiers clarify thedistinction between existence-entailing
concepts and concepts in general.
Modal Logic is ideally suited as a core text for graduate and
undergraduate courses in modal logic, and as supplementary reading
in courses on mathematical logic, formal ontology, and artificial
intelligence.
Sortal concepts are at the center of certain logical discussions
and have played a significant role in solutions to particular
problems in philosophy. Apart from logic and philosophy, the study
of sortal concepts has found its place in specific fields of
psychology, such as the theory of infant cognitive development and
the theory of human perception. In this monograph, different formal
logics for sortal concepts and sortal-related logical notions (such
as sortal identity and first-order sortal quantification) are
characterized. Most of these logics are intensional in nature and
possess, in addition, a bidimensional character. That is, they
simultaneously represent two different logical dimensions. In most
cases, the dimensions are those of time and natural necessity, and,
in other cases, those of time and epistemic necessity. Another
feature of the logics in question concerns second-order
quantification over sortal concepts, a logical notion that is also
represented in the logics. Some of the logics adopt a constant
domain interpretation, others a varying domain interpretation of
such quantification. Two of the above bidimensional logics are
philosophically grounded on predication sortalism, that is, on the
philosophical view that predication necessarily requires sortal
concepts. Another bidimensional logic constitutes a logic for
complex sortal predicates. These three sorts of logics are among
the important novelties of this work since logics with similar
features have not been developed up to now, and they might be
instrumental for the solution of philosophically significant
problems regarding sortal predicates. The book assumes a modern
variant of conceptualism as a philosophical background. For this
reason, the approach to sortal predicates is in terms of sortal
concepts. Concepts, in general, are here understood as
intersubjective realizable cognitive capacities. The proper
features of sortal concepts are determined by an analysis of the
main features of sortal predicates. Posterior to this analysis, the
sortal-related logical notions represented in the above logics are
discussed. There is also a discussion on the extent to which the
set-theoretic formal semantic systems of the book capture different
aspects of the conceptualist approach to sortals. These different
semantic frameworks are also related to realist and nominalist
approaches to sortal predicates, and possible modifications to them
are considered that might represent those alternative approaches.
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