Sanford Shieh: Necessity Lost: Modality and Logic in Early Analytic Philosophy, Vol. 1
Review of: Sanford Shieh: Necessity Lost: Modality and Logic in Early Analytic Philosophy, Vol. 1 Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2019, xxiv+441 pages.
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Review of: Sanford Shieh: Necessity Lost: Modality and Logic in Early Analytic Philosophy, Vol. 1 Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2019, xxiv+441 pages.
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Semantic meaning of the term „nature” comes from the Latin word „nasci” - „to get born”, and Greek words „physis” and „arche”, the substance of the latter two terms is fully explained in the Latin dictionary of A. Forcellini (Klotius Latinitatis Lexicon, 4, Prati 1868, p. 231-232) and the Greek-English dictionary of H. G. Liddell and R. Scott (Greek-English Lexicon, The Clarendon Press, Oxford 1940, 1958, p. 1964-1965.).Pragmatic sense of the term “nature” depends on the context (physical, philosophical, ecological, anthropological, relative, etc.). It can be also analyzed from two different perspectives: static and dynamic, this situation leads to the triple opposition: natural versus artificial, nature versus culture and nature versus environment. Ultimately, in the pragmatic sense, nature is a category making sense only in relation to the human being. Nature is a set of meanings registered by the human being in his world. Nature is a result of human wisdom and gained knowledge in science, philosophy and so on. Over the whole history of human thinking the true substance of this term has been always variable - determined by various factors: historic periods, philosophical and social trends, religions, different scientific exploration strategies, etc.
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The paper starts by briefly describing the so-called truth-functional approach to sentential operators, typical to logic, as opposed to the more multi-faceted approach of linguistics. The latter reflects the more complex, substantial relations between the contents of utterances, emphasizing the logico-semantical relations and functions of sentential operators. However, as an alternative to the pragmatically inclined critique of the truth-functional approach, the paper proposes two possible directions of explaining the specific content of sentential operators by virtue of which they transcend the role of mere truth functions. Firstly, the paper summarizes our previous investigations into the interactions between sentential operators and (1) the vector of the course of events described by a compound sentence, and (2) the direction of grammatical time captured by a compound sentence. The paper focuses on how this interaction is coordinated with the particular epistemic goal (prediction, explanation etc.) pursued when using the meaning of a complex sentence. Using the concepts of necessary and sufficient conditions, and by characterizing the vectors of condition (the if-vector), time and relevance (dominance or the epistemic vector), the paper demarcates the rules of correspondence for conditional operators as cases of combinatorics, as described by some linguists. Secondly, based on a distinction between different constructions the same operators as truth-functions, the paper provides a logico-semantical explanation of the specific meaning of the else, unless and although connectives, traditionally discussed by linguists. We believe that the extensions proposed here move the camp defending a logico-semantic approach to sentential operators at least somewhat closer to the camp of linguistic investigation.
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The paper presents the classical theory of the subject in the predication judgment, and then the Hegelian doctrine on the subject, with the intention of conducting a comparative analysis. The results of the analysis sustain the viewpoint according to which between the classical subject and the subject of speculative judgment there are some relations that entitle one to consider speculative judgment as a development of classical judgment, for the cases in which the subject is taken as a process.
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The purpose of the article. To advance arguments for the coherence of the fundamental concepts in the theories of bibliopsychology by Mykola Rubakin and information metabolism of Anthony Kempinski and therefore to justify the feasibility of complex-systemic use of these theories to stipulate the latest holistic epistemological doctrine. The methodology of the research implies the application of general scientific and special methods, namely: conceptual logical-notional analysis and synthesis on the basis of analytical-synthetic processing of information; logical and system approaches based on the comparative method. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the actualization of the theories by M. Rubakin, A. Kempinski through positioning them as coherent, in particular, by establishing relationships between them at the level of individual aspects of the creation and functioning of terminology, basic conceptual elements and postulates of a holistic independent system as correlates; hence it aims at expanding ideas about the importance of these concepts for the formation of the latest disciplinary matrix of the system of social communications, modernization of higher library-information education, improving the practical activities of information and library sphere. The phenomenon of coherence in the system of modern scientific discourse is presented as a promising methodological concept used by various scientific communities, given the current trend towards complex systemic interdisciplinary research. Conclusions. The comparative analysis of the theories of bibliopsychology and information metabolism has proved their coherence at the level of original term compounds and fundamental concepts. Moreover, the study established the prospects and feasibility of individual special studies aiming at systematization and synthesis, which will ensure the future integration of other related concepts and theories, as well as create a general synergy effect in the study of cognitive theory.
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In this article we will describe the contribution of the Romanian scientist Dr. Ștefan Odobleja (1902–1978) to the definition of the needs for the training of young people to build a strong country. In a genuine testament for young people, Odobleja explains the following needs that young people have to take into account: the need for creation, the need for learning, the need to solve problems, the need to organize one’s mind, the need for diversified work, the need to discipline their senses and imagination, to use experiments, the need for classification, comparison, analysis and synthesis, the need for living logically. Odebleja’s contributions are all the more important if one takes into acount that he is considered to be a physician, because they have cre ated ideas and concepts complementary to some ideas introduced by N. Wiener. It can be appreciated that during 1920–1940 the ideas and studies on Cybernetics appeared, the science that laid the systems con cept (for the man and the machine), the structure of the systems (control and communication between the components of a system), which led to the construction of the computing system (computer system). Dr. Ștefan Odobleja was recognized as a precursor of Cybernetics at the 4th International Cybernetics Congress, held in Amsterdam in August1978. His Communication „Diversity and Unity in Cybernetics” was pre sented at the Congress by Dr. Stelian Bajureanu. After the presentation of Odobleja’s work, the participants chanted „40 Years of Cybernetics,” although they were celebrating „30 Years of Cybernetics” and mathema tician Norbert Wiener. Studying and researching the processes in the human body, Dr. Ștefan Odobleja defines and studies various concepts for the functioning of the human body organs through coordination by the human brain, intuiting that it can reach the „mechanisation of thought” and that the „psychic machine” would be invented.
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The paper is devoted to the relevance criterion of argument evaluation within argumentation theory. Argument evaluation is a tool to avoid misunderstanding and misleading in argumentation — one of the most basic forms of human communications. The purpose of the paper is to outline the generalized relevance criterion, which involves the key relevance types proposed in different approaches to argumentation. Achieving this goal helps to give a clear answer to the question, “What is to be relevant within the argumentative communication?” The author proves that the key features of logical relevance, dialectical relevance, and audience relevance. It is compared these relevant types to answer the question, “Whether is it possible to integrate them into one generalized criterion of relevance?”
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Hegel’s “Logic”, in the words of its author as well, actually constitutes his metaphysics. According to the general plan of his speculative-dialectical doctrine, beginning of logic is at the same time beginning and foundation of his philosophical system. Likewise, the Beginning is the immediate-first, but always already dertermined by the completion and end of “Logic”. As to He¬gel’s reasoning about the beginning of logic this paper relies mostly on his The Science of Logic but also recures to the corresponding passages of his Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences. It exposes Hegel’s analyses of the possible starting points in determining that beginning, as well as the determination itself. The paper concludes with thesis that the required beginning - consisting of pure being, i. e. being and nothing, and its mutual relation in the form of becoming - can be fully understood only if Hegel’s belief in speculative-dialectic nature of statements of his philosophical doctrine is accepted.
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Galileo's paradox of infinity involves comparing the set of natural numbers, N, and the set of squares, {n2 : n ∈ N}. Galileo (1638) sets up a one-to-one correspondence between these sets; on this basis, the number of the elements of N is considered to be equal to the number of the elements of {n2 : n ∈ N}. It also characterizes the set of squares as smaller than the set of natural numbers, since ``there are many more numbers than squares". As a result, it concludes that infinities cannot be compared in terms of greater--lesser and the law of trichotomy does not apply to them.Cantor's cardinal numbers provide a measure for sets.Cantor (1897) gives a definition of the relation greater–lesser between cardinal numbers and establishes the law of trichotomy for these numbers. Yet, when Cantor's theory is applied to subsets of N, it gives that any set can be either finite or of the power ℵ0. Thus, although the set of squares is the subset of N, they are of the same cardinality.Benci, Di Nasso (2019) introduces specific numbers to measure sets called numerosities. With numerosities, the following claim is true: numerosity of A < numerosity of B, whenever A ⊈ B.In this paper, we present a simplified version of the theory of numerosities that applies to subsets of N. This theory complies with Galileo's presupposition that when A ⊈ B, then the number of elements in A is smaller than the number of elements in B. Specifically, we show that as the numerosity of N is the number α, the numerosity of the set of squares is the integer part of the number √α, that is ⌊√α⌋, and the inequality ⌊√α⌋ < α holds.
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What Abduction Can Do in Philosophical Dialogue? According to Peirce, abduction is a hypothetic-forming process that is necessary to explore unknown areas of knowledge, but also a real scientific method associated with the enquiry. If there is philosophical enquiry, could abduction serve as an appropriate method for such an approach? If so, how can it be used and with a view to what result(s)? We ask whether abduction can bring a potential both for discovery and a logical requirement to the philosophical questioning. In this paper we focus on a philosophy that "is done", in the form of a common enquiry, the "community of philosophical inquiry". The present research explores the advantages and limitations of requiring such a method, in the context of the practice under study.
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This text continues a cycle of articles devoted to general topics of scholastic logic in Lithuania. The first article of the cycle (Valatka 2020) investigated the beginning of the above mentioned logic and analyzed the its method and argumentation technique. This article, in turn, analyzes structure, object and form of scholastic logic in Lithuania. The author of the article concentrates on the object of the parts of this logic, namely, minor logic, or dialectics, and major logic. The article comes to conclusion that both dialectics and major logic regarded three operations of human intellect (apprehension, proposition and reasoning) as its proper object. Dialectics was interested in the forms of these operations; therefore this part of scholastic logic can be considered a certain equivalent of modern formal logic. Meanwhile, major logic concentrated on contents of those operations. Hence, we can understand it as the scholastic theory of cognition. The article also concludes that works of scholastic logic in Lithuania were not independent and authentic texts. Due to role of authorities in scholastic method, treatises, manuals, logic courses were commentaries on the treatises of Aristotle and the other authorities of scholastic logic in the spirit of certain scholastic trends or even eclecticism.
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I explore some issues in the logics and dialectics of practical modalities connected with the Consequence Argument (CA) considered as the best argument for the incompatibility of free will and determinism. According to Lewis (1981) in one of the possible senses of (in)ability, the argument is not valid; however, understood in the other of its possible senses, the argument is not sound. This verdict is based on the assessment of the modal version of the argument, where the crucial notion is power necessity (“no choice” operator), while Lewis analyses the version where the central notion is the locution “cannot render false.”Lewis accepts closure of the relevant (in)ability operator under entailment but not closure under implication. His strategy has a seemingly strange corollary: a free predetermined agent is able (in a strong, causal sense) to falsity the conjunction of history and law. I compare a Moorean position with respect to radical skepticism and knowledge closure with ability closure and propose to explain Lewis’s strategy in the framework of his Moorean stance.
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This paper is in the scope of the philosophy of modal logic; more precisely, it concerns the semantics of modal logic, when the modal elements are interpreted as logical modalities. Most authors have thought that the logic for logical modality—that is, the one to be used to formalize the notion of logical truth (and other related notions)—is to be found among logical systems in which modalities are allowed to be iterated. This has raised the problem of the adequacy, to that formalization purpose, of some modal schemes, such as S4 and S5 . It has been argued that the acceptance of S5 leads to non-normal modal systems, in which the uniform substitution rule fails. The thesis supported in this paper is that such a failure is rather to be attributed to what will be called “Condition of internalization.” If this is correct, there seems to be no normal modal logic system capable of formalizing logical modality, even when S5 is rejected in favor of a weaker system such as S4 , as recently proposed by McKeon.
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The paper examines the division of cognitive space in Antiquity as exemplified by the two most influential classifications of sciences, by Aristotle and Geminus, which underlie all subsequent classifications of scientific disciplines until the 18th century. Aristotle, considering the mathēmata in their comparison with the “first” and especially with the “second”, physical philosophy, proceeds from the independence of all three kinds of epistēmai and strives to draw the most rigid boundaries possible both between them and within the field of mathēmata. Geminus’ classification reflects the far-reaching differentiation of sciences at the end of Hellenism, when almost all of them acquired several auxiliary disciplines, theoretical or applied, and when “mathematics” became synonymous with “science.”
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Wason’s selection task is a current cognitive problem. It is a reasoning task including a conditional sentence that only sometimes is correctly solved by participants. It has been claimed that the versions of the task that are often properly executed are only those in which the conditional sentence fulfills the criterion given by Chrysippus of Soli for the conditional. In this paper, this point is checked by considering a relevant number of versions of the aforementioned task in order to review whether or not their conditionals meet Chrysippus’ requirement.
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Artificial intelligence takes its epistemological infrastructure from logic. The science of logic occupies an important place in both philosophical and engineering fields. In the article, the influence level and development stages of the science of logic, the common field of the studies of artificial intelligence, which has influenced both engineering sciences and social sciences since the second half of the last century, will be explained. The effects of Aristotle's logic on artificial intelligence, which is the classical period of the science of logic behind the studies of artificial intelligence, and the effect level of fuzzy logic on artificial intelligence that emerged in the 20th century will be discussed in detail.
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This article poses the question of whether what we are witnessing today can be properly described as “fascistic.” It argues that it can if we understand fascism as an attack on liberal democracy resulting from the now chronic (rather than acute) crisis of capitalism. Like the fascism of the twentieth century, this entails an endocolonizing logic that nonetheless relinquishes its claim on a future increasingly imperilled by the nature of the Covid-19 pandemic in the context of the impending climate emergency.
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Władysław Biegański is one of the members of the so-called Polish school of philosophy of medicine. He was, next to Ludwik Fleck, the best-known Polish scientist who contributed to the development of philosophy of medicine. Despite his active medical activity, he published over 130 scientific works in the fields not only of medicine, but also of philosophy, epistemology, logic and ethics. His experiences as a doctor and scientist allowed him to look at philosophical problems in an innovative way. I would like to focus on Bieganski’s pioneering remarks on analogy, methodology of science and theory of cognition. Bieganski wanted to break with the myth of a scientist who, thanks to her extraordinary mental acuity and some lucky events, makes a scientific discovery. Biegański analyzed the history of science through the concept of analogy, and thanks to this approach he reconstructed the development of medicine and biology. Bieganski wanted to formulate a method for modern medicine and thus enable its development in Poland. In my article, I will present his biography within the background of the era and will outline theoretical characteristics of his works.
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In this paper, I shall propose the construction of a three-valued logic of beliefs, which I call: LSB3_1 (short for: Three-valued Logic for a type of Strong Belief). I shall also state and prove the completeness of LSB3_1 with respect to a given semantics. LSB3_1 is based on preformal assumptions and intuitions, which are stated in section 1. Section 2 includes the syntax and division of LSB3_1 statements into internal and external. Section 3 presents the semantics of LSB3_1, as well as a number of tautologies and non-tautological formulae in LSB3_1 with their intuitive interpretation. The axiomatic system for LSB3_1 and its comparison to Kleene’s strong logic are provided in section 4. The completeness theorem for LSB3_1 is presented in section 5. I shall define the term conjunctive normal form and provide lemmas which lead to proving the reduction of the LSB3_1 language formulae before proving the completeness theorem.
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One of the main goals of modern philosophy was to achieve an in-depth insight into the foundations of empirical knowledge. The problem was expected to be resolved by the analysis of experience. However, the road to a plausible account of experience was at the very beginning obstructed by turning the analysis into a search for clear and distinctive elements of experience and by sticking to purely intellectual intuition as means of this analysis. Moreover, clear and distinctive elements of experience were thought of as the basis of cognitive certainty. Both psychology and philosophy, at least until the nineteen-thirties, were deeply influenced by this essentially rationalistic conception of sensor experience. It is gestalt psychology and phenomenology that should be merited for overcoming that ill-conceived model. Only by taking into account the immediate sensor relation between the human subject and the environment, it is possible to show the kind of unity which is the prerequisite of human intellect.
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