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131Actuality in Propositional Modal LogicStudia Logica 101 (3): 487-503. 2013.We show that the actuality operator A is redundant in any propositional modal logic characterized by a class of Kripke models (respectively, neighborhood models). Specifically, we prove that for every formula ${\phi}$ in the propositional modal language with A, there is a formula ${\psi}$ not containing A such that ${\phi}$ and ${\psi}$ are materially equivalent at the actual world in every Kripke model (respectively, neighborhood model). Inspection of the proofs leads to corresponding proof-the…Read more
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138Wittgensteinian Tableaux, Identity, and Co-DenotationErkenntnis 69 (3): 363-376. 2008.Wittgensteinian predicate logic (W-logic) is characterized by the requirement that the objects mentioned within the scope of a quantifier be excluded from the range of the associated bound variable. I present a sound and complete tableaux calculus for this logic and discuss issues of translatability between Wittgensteinian and standard predicate logic in languages with and without individual constants. A metalinguistic co-denotation predicate, akin to Frege’s triple bar of the Begriffsschrift, i…Read more
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33Russell's paradox in consistent fragments of Frege's grundgesetze der arithmetikIn Godehard Link (ed.), One Hundred Years of Russell’s Paradox, De Gruyter. 2004.We provide an overview of consistent fragments of the theory of Frege’s Grundgesetze der Arithmetik that arise by restricting the second-order comprehension schema. We discuss how such theories avoid inconsistency and show how the reasoning underlying Russell’s paradox can be put to use in an investigation of these fragments.
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71Aspekte der frege–hilbert-korrespondenzHistory and Philosophy of Logic 18 (4): 201-209. 1997.In a letter to Frege of 29 December 1899, Hilbert advances his formalist doctrine, according to which consistency of an arbitrary set of mathematical sentences is a sufficient condition for its truth and for the existence of the concepts described by it. This paper discusses Frege's analysis, as carried out in the context of the Frege-Hilbert correspondence, of the formalist approach in particular and the axiomatic method in general. We close with a speculation about Frege's influence on Hilbert…Read more
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131On the consistency of the Δ11-CA fragment of Frege's grundgesetzeJournal of Philosophical Logic 31 (4): 301-311. 2002.It is well known that Frege's system in the Grundgesetze der Arithmetik is formally inconsistent. Frege's instantiation rule for the second-order universal quantifier makes his system, except for minor differences, full (i.e., with unrestricted comprehension) second-order logic, augmented by an abstraction operator that abides to Frege's basic law V. A few years ago, Richard Heck proved the consistency of the fragment of Frege's theory obtained by restricting the comprehension schema to predicat…Read more
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242011 spring meeting of the association for symbolic logicBulletin of Symbolic Logic 18 (1): 135-141. 2012.
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51Modality, mood, and descriptionsIn Reinhard Kahle (ed.), Intensionality: An Interdisciplinary Discussion, Ak Peters. 2005.§1. Introduction. By means of what semantic features is a proper name tied to its bearer? This is a puzzling question indeed: proper names — like “Aristotle” or “Paris” — are syntactically simple, and it therefore does not seem possible to reduce their meanings, by means of a principle of compositionality, to the meanings of more basic, and hence perhaps more tractable, linguistic elements.
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70Classical and Intuitionistic Models of ArithmeticNotre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 37 (3): 452-461. 1996.Given a classical theory T, a Kripke model K for the language L of T is called T-normal or locally PA just in case the classical L-structure attached to each node of K is a classical model of T. Van Dalen, Mulder, Krabbe, and Visser showed that Kripke models of Heyting Arithmetic (HA) over finite frames are locally PA, and that Kripke models of HA over frames ordered like the natural numbers contain infinitely many PA-nodes. We show that Kripke models of the latter sort are in fact PA-normal. Th…Read more
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43On the relations between Heinrich Scholz and Jan ŁukasiewiczHistory and Philosophy of Logic 28 (1): 67-81. 2007.The aim of the present study is (1) to show, on the basis of a number of unpublished documents, how Heinrich Scholz supported his Warsaw colleague Jan Łukasiewicz, the Polish logician, during World War II, and (2) to discuss the efforts he made in order to enable Jan Łukasiewicz and his wife Regina to move from Warsaw to Münster under life-threatening circumstances. In the first section, we explain how Scholz provided financial help to Łukasiewicz, and we also adduce evidence of the risks incurr…Read more
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75Subjunctivity and cross-world predicationPhilosophical Studies 159 (1): 107-122. 2012.The main goal of this paper is to present and compare two approaches to formalizing cross-world comparisons like John might have been taller than he is in quantified modal logics. One is the standard method employing degrees and graded positives, according to which the example just given is to be paraphrased as something like The height that John has is such that he might have had a height greater than it, which is amenable to familiar formalization strategies with respect to quantified modal lo…Read more
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268How to Live Without Identity—And WhyAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 90 (4). 2012.Identity, we're told, is the binary relation that every object bears to itself, and to itself only. But how can a relation be binary if it never relates two objects? This puzzled Russell and led Wittgenstein to declare that identity is not a relation between objects. The now standard view is that Wittgenstein's position is untenable, and that worries regarding the relational status of identity are the result of confusion. I argue that the rejection of identity as a binary relation is perfectly t…Read more
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