rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    title: Everything, more or less
    sub title: a defence of generality relativism
  name:
    name part: Studd, James
    name part: 1982-
    role:
      role term: creator
    role:
      role term: author.
  type of resource: text
  genre: bibliography
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: enk
    date issued: 2019
    edition: First edition.
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: print
    extent: xii, 279 pages ; 24 cm.
  abstract: Almost no systematic theorizing is generality-free. Scientists test general hypotheses, set theorists prove theorems about every set and metaphysicians espouse theses about all things regardless of their kind. But how general can we be and do we ever succeed in theorizing about absolutely everything? Not according to generality relativism. In its most promising form, this kind of relativism maintains that what 'everything' and other quantifiers encompass is always open to expansion. No matter how broadly we may generalize, a more inclusive 'everything' is always available. The importance of the issue comes out, in part, in relation to the foundations of mathematics. Generality relativism opens the way to avoid Russell's paradox without imposing ad hoc imitations on which pluralities of items may be encoded as a set. On the other hand, generality relativism faces numerous challenges. What are we to make of seemingly absolutely general theories? What prevents our achieving absolute generality simply by using 'everything' unrestrictedly? How are we to characterize relativism without making use of exactly the kind of generality this view foreswears? This book offers a sustained defense of generality relativism that seeks to answer these challenges. Along the way, the contemporary absolute generality debate is traced through diverse issues in metaphysics, logic and the philosophy of language. Some of the key works that lie behind the debate are reassessed, an accessible introduction is given to the relevant mathematics and a relativist-friendly motivation for Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory is developed.
  note: J.P. Studd.
  note: Includes bibliographical references (pages [265]-271) and index.
  subject:
    topic: Relativity
  classification: BD221 .S79 2019
  classification: 149
  related item:
    title info:
      title: Oxford philosophical monographs
  identifier: 9780198719649
  identifier: 0198719647
  record info:
    record content source: YDX
    record creation date: 181109
    record change date: 20191021075010.0
    record identifier: in00004075208