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112822.980835
Discussions on the compositionality of inferential roles concentrate on extralogical vocabulary. However, there are nontrivial problems concerning the compositionality of sentences formed by the standard constants of propositional logic. For example, is the inferential role of AB uniquely determined by those of A and B? And how is it determined? This paper investigates such questions. We also show that these issues raise matters of more significance than may prima facie appear.
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550446.980991
This paper is a contribution to a symposium on Herman Cappelen’s 2023 book The Concept of Democracy: An Essay on Conceptual Amelioration and Abandonment. In that book, Cappelen develops a theory of abandonment—a theory of why and how to completely stop using particular linguistic expressions—and then uses that theory to argue for the general abandonment of the words “democracy” and “democratic”. In this paper, I critically discuss Cappelen’s arguments for the abandonment of “democracy” and “democratic” in political theory specifically.
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568401.981
Incurvati and Schlöder (Journal of Philosophical Logic, 51(6), 1549–1582, 2022) have recently proposed to define supervaluationist logic in a multilateral framework, and claimed that this defuses well-known objections concerning supervaluationism’s apparent departures from classical logic. However, we note that the unconventional multilateral syntax prevents a straightforward comparison of inference rules of different levels, across multi- and unilateral languages. This leaves it unclear how the supervaluationist multilateral logics actually relate to classical logic, and raises questions about Incurvati and Schlöder’s response to the objections. We overcome the obstacle, by developing a general method for comparisons of strength between multi-and unilateral logics. We apply it to establish precisely on which inferential levels the supervaluationist multilateral logics defined by Incurvati and Schlöder are classical. Furthermore, we prove general limits on how classical a multilateral logic can be while remaining supervaluationistically acceptable. Multilateral supervaluationism leads to sentential logic being classical on the levels of theorems and regular inferences, but necessarily strictly weaker on meta- and higher-levels, while in a first-order language with identity, even some classical theorems and inferences must be forfeited. Moreover, the results allow us to fill in the gaps of Incurvati and Schlöder’s strategy for defusing the relevant objections.
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623803.981007
In this paper, I contrast two broad decompositional approaches to verb semantics. One, especially associated with David Dowty, involves translating verbs using a set of precisely interpreted primitive predicates such as cause and become, in order to facilitate semantic generalizations such as patterns of entailment between sentences. Another, with multiple origins in both temporal semantics and theories of the syntax/semantics interface (including, notably, work by Pustejovsky and Piñón), involves developing a theory of the internal part structure of the eventualities that verbs and other expressions describe; I refer to this approach, following Pianesi and Varzi, as mereotopological. These two approaches to decomposition are not, strictly speaking, incompatible, and they have sometimes been combined; however, perhaps surprisingly, comparison of them has been unsystematic. I address this gap by describing more systematically how the approaches differ from each other, illustrating with differences in the insights they offer into specific aspects of the semantics of simple change of state verbs and unselected object resultatives. I especially aim to promote interest in the development of more sophisticated, cross-linguistically applicable theories of so-called event structure through appeal to a wider range of notions from mereotopology.
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630530.981017
I would like to begin this review by stating that this is an absolutely wonderful book that is full of gems about the elements and the periodic table. In my own 2007 book on the periodic table I concluded that we should perhaps think of the variety of tables that have appeared as spanning a spectrum running from the most abstract and ‘perfect’ tables such as Janet’s left-step table representation, to the unruly tables that emphasize the uniqueness of elements. To illustrate the latter category, I featured an image of Rayner-Canham’s table that is also the table shown on the front cover of his new book now under review. Rayner Canham’s book is all about the individuality of elements and how so many of the commonly held trends in the periodic table are far more complicated than we normally acknowledge.
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630550.981024
In this paper, we introduce a concept of non-dependence of variables in formulas. A formula in first-order logic is non-dependent of a variable if the truth value of this formula does not depend on the value of that variable. This variable non-dependence can be subject to constraints on the value of some variables which appear in the formula, these constraints are expressed by another first-order formula. After investigating its basic properties, we apply this concept to simplify convoluted formulas by bringing out and discarding redundant nested quantifiers. Such convoluted formulas typically appear when one uses a translation function interpreting a theory into another.
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861306.981029
This paper introduces a digital method for analyzing propositional logical equivalences. It transforms the theorem-proof method from the complex statement-derivation method to a simple number-comparison method. By applying the digital calculation method and the expression-number lookup table, we can quickly and directly discover and prove logical equivalences based on the identical numbers, no additional operations are needed. This approach demonstrates significant advantages over the conventional methods in terms of simplicity and efficiency.
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863527.981035
Flannery O’Connor’s stories are, by her own account, “preoccupied with the grotesque.” The reason, some argue, is that the grotesque is fascinating to the southern imagination. And indeed her grotesques have many southern precedents, most notably those of William Faulkner, whose novel The Sound and the Fury is famously narrated in part by an idiot. …
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965689.981041
For Austin, Grice, and many others, undertaking a speech act like asserting or promising requires uttering something with a particular sense and reference in mind. We argue that the phenomenon of open-ended promises reveals this ‘Locutionary Thesis’ to be mistaken.
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1437976.981055
Since the early debates on teleosemantics, there have been people objecting that teleosemantics cannot account for evolutionarily novel contents such as “democracy” (e.g., Peacocke 1992). Most recently, this objection was brought up by Garson (2019) and in a more moderate form by Garson & Papineau (2019). The underlying criticism is that the traditional selected effects theory of functions on which teleosemantics is built is unable to ascribe new functions to the products of ontogenetic processes and thus unable to ascribe functions to new traits that appear during the lifetime of an individual organism. I will argue that this underlying thought rests on rather common misunderstandings of Millikan’s theory of proper functions, especially her notions of relational, adapted, and derived proper functions (Millikan 1984: Ch. 2). The notions of relational, adapted, and derived proper functions not only help us solve the problem of novel contents and can ascribe functions to the products of ontogenetic selection mechanisms but are indispensable parts of every selected effects theory.
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1595734.981063
Stanisław Ja´skowski is known to be one of the modern founders of paraconsistent logic, together with Newton C. A. da Costa. The most important contribution of Ja´skowski is that he clearly distinguished two notions for a theory, namely a theory being contradictory (or inconsistent in [18]) and a theory being trivial (or overfilled in [18]). In addition to this distinction, he also presented a system of paraconsistent logic known as D2 which is often referred to as discursive logic or discussive logic (cf. [18, 19]). In this article, the disjunction-free fragment of Ja´skowski’s discussive logic is shown to be complete with respect to three- and four-valued semantics. Note here that D2 is known to be not complete with respect to any finitely many-valued semantics, which is proved by Jerzy Kotas in [20]. As a byproduct of the main result, a simple axiomatization of the disjunction-free fragment of Ja´skowski’s discussive logic in the language of classical logic is obtained. For the problem of axiomatization of D2, see [24].
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1706737.981068
This paper examines two approaches to presuppositions: one viewing them as inferences projecting from sentences under negation and other logical operators, and another defining them as admittance conditions of utterances. Neither approach fully accounts for the ‘proviso problem’, which arises when a sentence’s presuppositional inferences are logically stronger than its necessary admittance conditions. To address this challenge, we propose a calculus of a trivalent logic that formally distinguishes between admittance and projection, extending Karttunen’s dynamic, logical form-based analysis. The resulting framework enables a simple pragmatic strategy: presuppositional conclusions are accommodated unless overridden by a contextually likelier admittance condition. We provide evidence that this approach is empirically superior to methods that address the proviso problem using pragmatic strengthening.
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1706785.981073
The mass/count distinction is often semantically manifested in comparative judgements as a difference between counting and measurement. Thus, the count nouns in more stones/packs trigger counting whereas the mass nouns in more stone/sugar involve measuring. Object mass nouns (OMNs) like furniture, weaponry and baggage are exceptional among mass nouns in showing strong counting effects in comparatives. There is little agreement on the interpretation of this fact. Some works propose that OMNs have discrete meanings while others attribute their countability in comparatives to other reasons. Deciding between these approaches is challenging, partly because it has remained unclear if OMNs in comparatives show any semantic distinction from count nouns. In this paper we demonstrate that they do. We report experimental findings showing that in contexts that favor measurement, counting with OMNs is less frequently preferred than with count nouns. We analyze these results by proposing that although referents of both common nouns and OMNs are perceived as discrete objects, OMN denotations are continuous. The tolerant mass/count syntax of the comparative leaves the discrete perception of both kinds of nouns as the prominent factor in their interpretation.
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1769005.981079
I give an account of the meaning of θ-roles that derives their exhaustivity. I also propose a modification to Tom Wasow’s Novelty Constraint – a condition that governs how definite descriptions in a sentence can, or cannot, be referentially dependent. Together, these two proposals get close to deriving Chomsky’s Principle B.
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1769088.981085
Hotze is known now for his work on tense, and on the vagaries of pronouns, but I got to know him when he was working on questions. His work on the semantics of wh-questions — a lot of it with Sigrid Beck — heavily influenced my thinking about the syntax of movement. I blame him for my resulting, years-long, obsession with multidominance. His work was the first step in a long line of interesting work on the syntax and semantics of wh-questions that continues today. The immediate predecessor to this work was Hotze’s equally important dissertation: one of the first attempts to explain an island condition entirely from its semantics. It remains an important role model for the contemporary work on the semantics of islands, and opened my eyes to the wider possibilities of finding the source of islands. Thank you Hotze for starting me on a journey that has dominated my research life. But the reason I’m contributing to your volume is even more personal: it’s because the other thing I learned when I got to know you is how much I like you. In this note, I’ll sketch a few facts about wh-movement that expand on the view in Beck and Rullman (1998) and Rullmann and Beck (1998) that wh-phrases are interpreted in their underlying position, no matter where they show up in the surface representation. In addition to the semantic reasons for this conclusion, there are straightforward facts about anaphora that animate this view. A famous kind of example of this is (1).
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1769208.98109
I will look at the idea that personal pronouns and reflexives compete to express certain meanings. I’m going to ignore plurals (because the semantics is too hard) (3) and I’m going to adopt the view that reflexives can be divided into two classes: one in which the reflexive expresses a local anaphoric dependency, and another in which reflexives express other relations (“emphatic,” logophoric, etc.). (See Pollard and Sag 1992.) It is only the first class of reflexives that figure in my presentation.
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1780193.981096
Genecally complete yet authorless artworks seem possible, yet it’s hard to understand how they might really be possible. A natural way to try to resolve this puzzle is by construcng an account of artwork compleon on the model of accounts of artwork meaning that are compable with meaningful yet authorless artworks. I argue, however, that such an account of artwork compleon is implausible. So, I leave the puzzle unresolved.
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1863113.981101
I explore an unorthodox perspective on the logical foundations of English on which speakers apply their logical competence by building and composing alternative sets, or ‘menus’, of entities or states throughout the grammar. logical connectives are ‘menu constructors’: The conjunction is a collective operation for putting combinations of items ‘on’ a menu, disjunction contributes nondeterminism or choice between items, while negation renders items ‘off menu’ by introducing negative entities or states. The system allows for determiner phrases to be interpreted uniformly in a lower type as menus compiled of positive, negative, or hybrid entities, rather than in the higher-order type of generalized quantifiers. Through a new compositional method, the negation contributed by a non-positive entity is able to pass through a semantic derivation in a well-behaved manner. This approach enables a “non-Boolean” collective treatment of sentences involving determiner phrase conjunctions with non-upward entailing conjuncts, which have previously been considered one of the toughest challenges for the collective theory.
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1863183.981106
This paper presents a uniform analysis of free choice constructions in English that incorporates a mechanism of arbitrary variability directly into their meaning. I propose that speakers interpret the values of certain variables or discourse referents as ‘fungible’, such that they could equally have taken any other value within an appropriate range. The semantics tracks this fungibility or arbitrariness, which can project to the sentential level and generate free choice readings with conjunctive or universal force.
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1948017.981112
Ever seen this famous OkCupid graph? The quick summary is just: “Men rate women more highly than women rate men.”
But the quick summary is quite an understatement! Men don’t just find women more attractive; men’s ratings closely follow a bell curve, with 6% of women getting the minimum rating and 6% getting the maximum rating. …
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2008283.981117
It is uncontroversial that definite plurals in natural language stand for pluralities and permit predicates that are inherently distributive as in (1a) as well as predicates that can apply both collectively or distributively, as in (1b): (1) a. The stones are grey. b. The stones are heavy.
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2052578.981123
This paper presents a novel approach: using a digital calculation method for propositional logical reasoning. The paper demonstrates how to discover the primitive numbers and the digital calculation formulas by analyzing the truth tables. Then it illustrates how to calculate and compare the truth values of various expressions by using the digital calculation method. As an enhanced alternative to existing approaches, the proposed method transforms the statement-based or table-based reasoning into number-based reasoning. Thereby, it eliminates the need for using truth tables, and obviates the need for applying theorems, rewriting statements, and changing symbols. It provides a more streamlined solution for a single reasoning, while demonstrating more efficiency for multiple reasonings in long-term use. It is suitable for manual calculation, large-scale computation, AI and automated reasoning.
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2096316.981129
How the semantic significance of numerical discourse gets determined is a metasemantic issue par excellence. At the sub-sentential level, the issue is riddled with difficulties due to the contested metaphysical status of the subject matter of numerical discourse, i.e. numbers and numerical properties and relations. I propose to set those difficulties aside and focus instead on the sentential level, specifically, on obvious affinities between whole numerical and non-numerical sentences and how their significance is determined. From such a perspective, Frege’s 1884 construction of number, while famously mathematically untenable, fares better than other approaches in the philosophy of mathematics. Despite the work’s foundational untenability, it is metasemantically superior to extant alternatives.
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2283300.981135
Relational quantum mechanics (RQM) explains the world in terms of an ontology of systems and events, where an event consists of a variable of a system taking a value relative to another system. Two strands of RQM may be distinguished depending on whether events are taken to be absolute or relative. The arguments in this paper apply to both. I argue that, in order to solve the problem of measurement, RQM needs to offer a specification of the circumstances in which events occur. Current formulations of RQM claim that events occur whenever interactions occur, without further defining what is meant by ‘interaction’. I develop the most plausible ways of understanding the notion of interaction, but I show that they fail to provide a satisfactory specification for the occurrence of events. In light of these failed constructive efforts, I conclude that the prospects for formulating a version of RQM which both satisfies its aims and solves the problem of measurement are dim. Key words: Relational Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Measurement Problem.
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2300484.981142
Introduction: People admitted to hospital as inpatients following head injury or stroke sometimes form the delusional belief that they are located somewhere else—often, near or in their home. This delusion was first described by Pick (1903), who named it “reduplicative paramnesia”; we argue instead for the term “location delusion”.
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2456422.981148
Recently Chiao and his collaborators proposed a new version of the electric Aharonov-Bohm effect [Phys. Rev. A 107, 042209 (2023)]. They argued that a quantum system confined in a Faraday cage with a time varying but spatially uniform electric scalar potential can pick up the Aharonov-Bohm phase, and the observable consequence is the energy level shift of the quantum system. In this paper, I argue that Chiao et al’s analysis is problematic, and a time varying, spatially uniform electric scalar potential cannot result in observable energy level shift of quantum systems. A possible explanation of this seemingly puzzling result is also given based on the one true gauge principle.
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2568756.981154
A farmer with a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage must cross a river by boat. The boat can carry only the farmer and a single item. If left unattended together, the wolf would eat the goat, or the goat would eat the cabbage. …
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2677650.98116
Sam: Let’s dive right in, the book’s main ideas don’t take long to explain. Iambic pentameter, the dominant verse form used by Shakespeare, permits a great deal of rhythmic flexibility; and that flexibility can be exploited for expressive purposes. …
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2802446.981165
The article begins with a response to a recent contribution by Jensen, in which he has criticized several aspects of the use of triads of elements, including Döbereiner’s original introduction of the concept and the modern use of atomic number triads by some authors including myself. Such triads are groups of three elements, one of which has approximately the average atomic weight of the other two elements, as well as having intermediate chemical reactivity. I also examine Jensen’s attempted reconstruction Mendeleev’s use of triads in predicting the atomic weights of three hitherto unknown elements, that were subsequently named gallium, germanium and scandium. The present article then considers the use of atomic number triads, in conjunction with the phenomenon of first member anomaly, in order to offer support for Janet’s left-step periodic table, in which helium is relocated into group 2 of the table. Such a table features triads in which the 2nd and third elements of each group, without fail, fall into periods of equal length, a feature that is absent in the conventional 18-column or the conventional 32-column table. The dual sense of the term element, which is the source of much discussion in the philosophy of chemistry, is alluded to in further support of such a relocation of helium that may at first appear to contradict chemical intuition.
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2899809.98117
We discuss a challenge for expressivism in metaethics. According to expressivism, the meaning of normative sentences is explained by their playing a practical role, or by facts about what desire-like, or action- or attitude-guiding states of mind, normative sentences express. We first explain how expressivism can be understood as a view about the metasemantics of normative language (section 1). The challenge, which we may call the problem of diverse uses (Väyrynen 2022), is based on the simple observation that while terms such as “good” or “ought” plausibly have a unified meaning across a wide variety of different uses, not all uses of sentences that contain these terms seem to play a suitably practical role. How, then, can the expressivist explain the meaning of such sentences by appealing to the idea that they play a practical role (section 2)? We suggest that expressivists can deal with this challenge. Our response is based on two ideas. First, understanding expressivism as a view in metasemantics rather than in semantics creates space for the possibility that both the practical and the descriptive uses of normative terms might carry the same meaning. This requires adopting a metasemantics that has some complexity, which leads to what we may call the problem of disunified metasemantics (Wodak 2017, Väyrynen 2022). However, we argue that this problem may nevertheless be dealt with, given that the extra complexity is required in order to capture the relevant phenomena (section 3). Second, in order to avoid a remaining challenge that we may call the problem of unexplained metasemantic coincidence (Wodak 2017), the expressivist account should take a certain kind of form.