•  80
    The modality and non-extensionality of the quantifiers
    Synthese 196 (7): 2545-2554. 2019.
    We shall try to defend two non-standard views that run counter to two well-entrenched familiar views. The standard views are the universal and existential quantifiers of first-order logic are not modal operators, and the quantifiers are extensional. If that is correct then the counterclaims create genuine problems for some traditional philosophical doctrines.
  •  74
    Structuralist logic: Implications, inferences, and consequences (review)
    Logica Universalis 1 (1): 167-181. 2007.
    .  On a structuralist account of logic, the logical operators, as well as modal operators are defined by the specific ways that they interact with respect to implication. As a consequence, the same logical operator (conjunction, negation etc.) can appear to be very different with a variation in the implication relation of a structure. We illustrate this idea by showing that certain operators that are usually regarded as extra-logical concepts (Tarskian algebraic operations on theories, mereologi…Read more
  •  59
    Laws and possibilities
    Philosophy of Science 71 (5): 719-729. 2004.
    The initial part of this paper explores and rejects three standard views of how scientific laws might be systematically connected with physical necessity or possibility. The first concerns laws and their consequences, the second concerns the so‐called counterfactual connection, and the third concerns a possible worlds construction of physical necessity. The remaining part introduces a neglected notion of possibility, and, with the aid of some examples, illustrates the special way in which laws r…Read more
  •  53
    A Structuralist Theory of Logic
    Cambridge University Press. 1992.
    In this 1992 book, Professor Koslow advances an account of the basic concepts of logic. A central feature of the theory is that it does not require the elements of logic to be based on a formal language. Rather, it uses a general notion of implication as a way of organizing the formal results of various systems of logic in a simple, but insightful way. The study has four parts. In the first two parts the various sources of the general concept of an implication structure and its forms are illustr…Read more
  •  50
    The Representational Inadequacy of Ramsey Sentences
    Theoria 72 (2): 100-125. 2006.
    We canvas a number of past uses of Ramsey sentences which have yielded disappointing results, and then consider three very interesting recent attempts to deploy them for a Ramseyan Dialetheist theory of truth, a modal account of laws and theories, and a criterion for the existence of factual properties. We think that once attention is given to the specific kinds of theories that Ramsey had in mind, it becomes evident that their Ramsey sentences are not the best ways of presenting those theories.
  •  48
    Theories and Their Worth
    with Sidney Morgenbesser
    Journal of Philosophy 107 (12): 616-647. 2010.
  •  38
    The Explanation of Laws: Some Unfinished Business
    Journal of Philosophy 109 (8-9): 479-502. 2012.
  •  33
    Quantity and Quality: Some Aspects of Measurement
    PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1982. 1982.
    A description is given of the quantitative-qualitative distinction for terms in theories of measurable attributes, and, adjoined to that account, a suggestion is made concerning the sense in which empirical relational systems have an empirical attribute as their topic or focus. Since this characterization of quantitative terms, relative to a partition, makes no explicit reference to numbers, concatenation operations, or ordering relations, we show how our results are related to some standard the…Read more
  •  26
    Carnap in the 1930s discovered that there were non-normal interpretations of classical logic - ones for which negation and conjunction are not truth-functional so that a statement and its negation could have the same truth value, and a disjunction of two false sentences could be true. Church ar-gued that this did not call for a revision of classical logic. More recent writers seem to disa-gree. We provide a definition of "non-normal interpretation" and argue that Church was right, and in fact, t…Read more
  •  26
    Philosophy, Science, and Sense Perception: Historical and Critical Studies (review)
    Journal of Philosophy 66 (2): 43-58. 1969.
  •  24
    More on 19(k)
    Journal of Chinese Philosophy 2 (2): 181-196. 1975.
  •  20
    Structuralist modals and the combination of logics
    Logic Journal of the IGPL 19 (4): 584-597. 2011.
    The original motivation of D. Gabbay’s concept of Fibring concerned the combination of logics, and initially it involved the syntactic introduction of modals into formulations of intuitionistic logic in which modals are syntactically absent. We show, using the notion of structural modals that there are many modals of intuitionism, and logics for subjunctive and epistemic conditionals which are not syntactically evident in our best formulations of them. We discuss some cases when the attempt to m…Read more
  •  13
    Scientific Inference (review)
    Journal of Philosophy 57 (12): 384-391. 1960.
  •  7
    Scientific Inference (review)
    Journal of Philosophy 57 (12): 384-391. 1960.
  •  7
    This is the first volume of a collection of papers in honor of the fiftieth birthday of Jean-Yves Béziau. These 25 papers have been written by internationally distinguished logicians, mathematicians, computer scientists, linguists and philosophers, including Arnon Avron, John Corcoran, Wilfrid Hodges, Laurence Horn, Lloyd Humbertsone, Dale Jacquette, David Makinson, Stephen Read, and Jan Woleński. It is a state-of-the-art source of cutting-edge studies in the new interdisciplinary field of unive…Read more
  •  7
    The book has two parts: In the first, after a review of some seminal classical accounts of laws and explanations, a new account is proposed for distinguishing between laws and accidental generalizations. Among the new consequences of this proposal it is proved that any explanation of a contingent generalization shows that the generalization is not accidental. The second part involves physical theories, their modality, and their explanatory power. In particular, it is shown that Each theory has a…Read more
  •  6
    Laws, explanations and the reduction of possibilities
    In Hallvard Lillehammer & Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra (eds.), Real Metaphysics, Routledge. pp. 169--183. 2003.
  • The Changeless Order--The Physics of Space, Time and Motion
    British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 20 (4): 371-372. 1969.
  • Ontological and Ideological Issues of the Classical theory of Space and Time
    In Peter K. Machamer & Robert G. Turnbull (eds.), Motion and Time, Space and Matter, Ohio State University Press. pp. 224--263. 1976.