Plural logic /
Alex Oliver and Timothy Smiley provide the natural point of entry to what for most readers will be a new subject. Plural logic deals with plural terms, plural predicates, and plural quantification. Current logic is singularist. Its terms stand for at most one thing. By contrast, the foundational the...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford ; New York :
Oxford University Press,
2016.
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| Edition: | Second edition, revised and enlarged. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Alex Oliver and Timothy Smiley provide the natural point of entry to what for most readers will be a new subject. Plural logic deals with plural terms, plural predicates, and plural quantification. Current logic is singularist. Its terms stand for at most one thing. By contrast, the foundational thesis of this book is that a particular term may legitimately stand for several things at once. In other words, there is such a thing as genuinely plural denotation. The authors argue that plural phenomena need to be taken seriously and that the only viable response is to adopt a plural logic, a logic based on plural denotation. They expound a framework of ideas that includes the distinction between distributive and collective predicates, the theory of plural descriptions, multivalued functions and lists. A formal system of plural logic is presented in three stages. This second edition includes a greatly expanded treatment of the paradigm empty term zilch, a much strengthened treatment of Cantorian set theory, and a new chapter on higher-level plural logic. |
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| Physical Description: | xiv, 383 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages [343]-356) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780198744382 0198744382 |