-
215On the logic of natural kindsPhilosophy of Science 43 (2): 202-222. 1976.A minimal second order modal logic of natural kinds is formulated. Concepts are distinguished from properties and relations in the conceptual-logistic background of the logic through a distinction between free and bound predicate variables. Not all concepts (as indicated by free predicate variables) need have a property or relation corresponding to them (as values of bound predicate variables). Issues pertaining to identity and existence as impredicative concepts are examined and an analysis of …Read more
-
48Two Views of the Logic of Plurals and a Reduction of One to the OtherStudia Logica 103 (4): 757-780. 2015.There are different views of the logic of plurals that are now in circulation, two of which we will compare in this paper. One of these is based on a two-place relation of being among, as in ‘Peter is among the juveniles arrested’. This approach seems to be the one that is discussed the most in philosophical journals today. The other is based on Bertrand Russell’s early notion of a class as many, by which is meant not a class as one, i.e., as a single entity, but merely a plurality of things. It…Read more
-
79Some remarks on second order logic with existence attributesNoûs 2 (2): 165-175. 1968.Some internal and philosophical remarks are made regarding a system of a second order logic of existence axiomatized by the author. Attributes are distinguished in the system according as their possession entails existence or not, The former being called e-Attributes. Some discussion of the special principles assumed for e-Attributes is given as well as of the two notions of identity resulting from such a distinction among attributes. Non-Existing objects are of course indiscernible in terms of …Read more
-
102Infinity in ontology and mindAxiomathes 18 (1): 1-24. 2008.Two fundamental categories of any ontology are the category of objects and the category of universals. We discuss the question whether either of these categories can be infinite or not. In the category of objects, the subcategory of physical objects is examined within the context of different cosmological theories regarding the different kinds of fundamental objects in the universe. Abstract objects are discussed in terms of sets and the intensional objects of conceptual realism. The category of…Read more
-
6Review: R. A. Bull, An Approach to Tense Logic (review)Journal of Symbolic Logic 39 (1): 173-173. 1974.
-
91Reference in Conceptual RealismSynthese 114 (2): 169-202. 1998.A conceptual theory of the referential and predicable concepts used in basic speech and mental acts is described in which singular and general, complex and simple, and pronominal and nonpronominal, referential concepts are given a uniform account. The theory includes an intensional realism in which the intensional contents of predicable and referential concepts are represented through nominalized forms of the predicate and quantifier phrases that stand for those concepts. A central part of the t…Read more
-
24Two Lambda-extensions of the theory of homogeneous simple types as a second-order logicNotre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 26 (4): 377-407. 1985.
-
119Predication in Conceptual RealismAxiomathes 23 (2): 301-321. 2013.Conceptual realism begins with a conceptualist theory of the nexus of predication in our speech and mental acts, a theory that explains the unity of those acts in terms of their referential and predicable aspects. This theory also contains as an integral part an intensional realism based on predicate nominalization and a reflexive abstraction in which the intensional contents of our concepts are “object”-ified, and by which an analysis of predication with intensional verbs can be given. Through …Read more
-
51Meinong reconstructed versus early Russell reconstructedJournal of Philosophical Logic 11 (2). 1982.
-
27The Intentions of Intentionality and Other New Models for Modalities (review)Grazer Philosophische Studien 3 (1): 219-230. 1977.
-
158Logic and OntologyAxiomathes 12 (1-2): 117-150. 2001.A brief review of the historicalrelation between logic and ontologyand of the opposition between the viewsof logic as language and logic as calculusis given. We argue that predication is morefundamental than membership and that differenttheories of predication are based on differenttheories of universals, the three most importantbeing nominalism, conceptualism, and realism.These theories can be formulated as formalontologies, each with its own logic, andcompared with one another in terms of thei…Read more
-
66Reply to Gregory Landini’s Review of Formal Ontology and Conceptual RealismAxiomathes 19 (2): 143-153. 2009.
-
Formal ontologyIn Hans Burkhardt & Barry Smith (eds.), Handbook of metaphysics and ontology, Philosophia Verlag. pp. 640--647. 1991.
-
23Realism, Mathematics and Modality (review)International Studies in Philosophy 24 (3): 139-141. 1992.
-
Quantification, Time, and NecessityIn Karel Lambert (ed.), Philosophical Applications of Free Logic, Oxford University Press. pp. 242--256. 1991.
-
21Fregean semantics for a realist ontologyNotre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 15 (4): 552-568. 1974.
-
90Conceptual realism versus Quine on classes and higher-order logicSynthese 90 (3). 1992.The problematic features of Quine's set theories NF and ML are a result of his replacing the higher-order predicate logic of type theory by a first-order logic of membership, and can be resolved by returning to a second-order logic of predication with nominalized predicates as abstract singular terms. We adopt a modified Fregean position called conceptual realism in which the concepts (unsaturated cognitive structures) that predicates stand for are distinguished from the extensions (or intension…Read more
-
37On the logic of nominalized predicates and its philosophical interpretationsErkenntnis 13 (1). 1975.
-
Whither Russell's paradox of predication?In Milton Karl Munitz (ed.), Logic and ontology, New York University Press. pp. 133--158. 1973.
-
35Actualism versus Possibilism in Formal OntologyIn Roberto Poli & Johanna Seibt (eds.), Theory and Applications of Ontology: Philosophical Perspectives, Springer Verlag. pp. 105--117. 2010.
-
Indiana University, BloomingtonRetired faculty
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Language |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Philosophy of Biology |
Philosophy of Mathematics |