Tempered Pragmatism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Rumfitt
Keyword(s):  
Modus Ponens ◽  
Modus Tollens ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Indicative Conditionals ◽  
Logical Basis ◽  
Theory Of Meaning

This chapter assesses the prospects of a pragmatist theory of content. It begins by criticizing the theory presented in D. H. Mellor’s essay ‘Successful Semantics’, then identifies problems and lacunae in the pragmatist theory of meaning sketched in chapter 13 of Dummett’s The Logical Basis of Metaphysics. It contends that the prospects are brighter for a tempered pragmatism, in which the theory of content is permitted to draw upon irreducible notions of truth and falsity. It sketches the shape of such a theory and illustrates the role of its pragmatist elements by showing how they point towards a promising account of the truth conditions of indicative conditionals. A feature of the account is that it validates Modus Ponens whilst invalidating Modus Tollens.

scholarly journals Dynamic Probabilistic Entailment. Improving on Adams' Dynamic Entailment Relation

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Robert Van Rooij ◽  
Patricia Mirabile
Keyword(s):  
Original System ◽  
Modus Ponens ◽  
Behavioral Experiment ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Indicative Conditionals ◽  
Indicative Conditional ◽  
Entailment Relation ◽  
New Information ◽  
General Relevance ◽  
Hypothetical Syllogism

The inferences of contraposition (A ⇒ C ∴ ¬C ⇒ ¬A), the hypothetical syllogism (A ⇒ B, B ⇒ C ∴ A ⇒ C), and others are widely seen as unacceptable for counterfactual conditionals. Adams convincingly argued, however, that these inferences are unacceptable for indicative conditionals as well. He argued that an indicative conditional of form A ⇒ C has assertability conditions instead of truth conditions, and that their assertability ‘goes with’ the conditional probability p(C|A). To account for inferences, Adams developed the notion of probabilistic entailment as an extension of classical entailment. This combined approach (correctly) predicts that contraposition and the hypothetical syllogism are invalid inferences. Perhaps less well-known, however, is that the approach also predicts that the unconditional counterparts of these inferences, e.g., modus tollens (A ⇒ C, ¬C ∴ ¬A), and iterated modus ponens (A ⇒ B, B ⇒ C, A ∴ C) are predicted to be valid. We will argue both by example and by calling to the results from a behavioral experiment (N = 159) that these latter predictions are incorrect if the unconditional premises in these inferences are seen as new information. Then we will discuss Adams’ (1998) dynamic probabilistic entailment relation, and argue that it is problematic. Finally, it will be shown how his dynamic entailment relation can be improved such that the incongruence predicted by Adams’ original system concerning conditionals and their unconditional counterparts are overcome. Finally, it will be argued that the idea behind this new notion of entailment is of more general relevance.

Aboutness

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Yablo
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Library Science ◽  
Philosophical Methodology ◽  
Major Advance ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Ways Of Being ◽  
Made In

Aboutness has been studied from any number of angles. Brentano made it the defining feature of the mental. Phenomenologists try to pin down the aboutness features of particular mental states. Materialists sometimes claim to have grounded aboutness in natural regularities. Attempts have even been made, in library science and information theory, to operationalize the notion. However, it has played no real role in philosophical semantics, which is surprising. This is the first book to examine through a philosophical lens the role of subject matter in meaning. A long-standing tradition sees meaning as truth conditions, to be specified by listing the scenarios in which a sentence is true. Nothing is said about the principle of selection—about what in a scenario gets it onto the list. Subject matter is the missing link here. A sentence is true because of how matters stand where its subject matter is concerned. This book maintains that this is not just a feature of subject matter, but its essence. One indicates what a sentence is about by mapping out logical space according to its changing ways of being true or false. The notion of content that results—directed content—is brought to bear on a range of philosophical topics, including ontology, verisimilitude, knowledge, loose talk, assertive content, and philosophical methodology. The book represents a major advance in semantics and the philosophy of language.

The Structure of Truth

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Logical Form ◽  
Historical Document ◽  
Truth Theory ◽  
Ontological Commitments ◽  
Theory Of Meaning ◽  
First Time

Donald Davidson’s 1970 Locke Lectures appear in print for the first time in this volume, accompanied by an introduction highlighting their significance as a snapshot of his evolving views in the philosophy of language and describing their relationship to the work he published during his lifetime. The lectures comprise an invaluable historical document that illuminates how Davidson was thinking about the theory of meaning, the role of a truth theory therein, the ontological commitments of a truth theory, the notion of logical form, and so on, at a pivotal moment in the development of his thought. Unlike Davidson’s previously published work, they are written so as to be presented to an audience as a fully organized and coherent exposition of his program in the philosophy of language. Had these lectures been widely available in the years following 1970, the reception of Davidson’s work, especially in the philosophy of language, might have been very different. Given the systematic nature of the presentation of Davidson’s semantic program in these lectures, it is hoped that they will be of use to those encountering his thought for the first time.

scholarly journals On Basic Probability Logic Inequalities

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1409
Author(s):  
Marija Boričić Joksimović
Keyword(s):  
Probability Theory ◽  
Inference Rule ◽  
Modus Ponens ◽  
Probability Logic ◽  
Modus Tollens ◽  
Short Overview ◽  
Basic Probability ◽  
Probabilistic Version ◽  
Hypothetical Syllogism

We give some simple examples of applying some of the well-known elementary probability theory inequalities and properties in the field of logical argumentation. A probabilistic version of the hypothetical syllogism inference rule is as follows: if propositions A, B, C, A→B, and B→C have probabilities a, b, c, r, and s, respectively, then for probability p of A→C, we have f(a,b,c,r,s)≤p≤g(a,b,c,r,s), for some functions f and g of given parameters. In this paper, after a short overview of known rules related to conjunction and disjunction, we proposed some probabilized forms of the hypothetical syllogism inference rule, with the best possible bounds for the probability of conclusion, covering simultaneously the probabilistic versions of both modus ponens and modus tollens rules, as already considered by Suppes, Hailperin, and Wagner.

scholarly journals The Logical Basis of a Literary Text, or What Does Porfiry Petrovich Hide in F. M. Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”?

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-259
Author(s):  
Valentina E. Vetlovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Literary Text ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Logical Basis ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Individual

<p>The article explores the role of logical connections in an epic text. It is these connections, according to the author of the article, that connect the individual components of the narrative (motifs, complexes of motifs) and make up in the reader&rsquo;s perception for the missing elements. The reticence and failures to mention, common in fiction, appear in the narrative for various reasons. Sometimes due to the aesthetic principles of the writer who prefers ambiguity to a completed statement depriving readers of the opportunity to finish thinking over a vague idea. And sometimes, due to the author&rsquo;s conviction that there is no need to explain the idea implied by what has been earlier said. But it also happens that the omissions in the narrative are engendered by the requirements for the presentation of a chosen topic, for example in crime fiction. But these reasons may go together as it occurs in Crime and Punishment. These ideas are illustrated by the analysis of one of the themes of the novel Crime and Punishment.</p>

Language

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin McGinn
Keyword(s):  
Language Games ◽  
Private Language ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Public Language ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sentence Meaning ◽  
Theory Of Meaning

This chapter examines philosophical issues in language. A very influential trend in philosophy is the notion that different kinds of sentence have different kinds of meaning—that sentence meaning is not a unitary affair. One might call this view “meaning pluralism.” In contrast, the rejected view can be called “meaning monism”—the doctrine that sentences are all of one type, that meanings are always uniformly the same, that there is something deeply common to all meaningful utterances. The chapter then looks at the concept of language-games, and studies meaning and communication, the private language, the public language, the verification and truth conditions theory of meaning, and arguments.

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