A More Unified Approach to Free Logics

Journal of Philosophical Logic - Free logics is a family of first-order logics which came about as a result of examining the existence assumptions of classical logic. What those assumptions are...     

Intuitionistic Non-normal Modal Logics: A General Framework

Journal of Philosophical Logic - We define a family of intuitionistic non-normal modal logics; they can be seen as intuitionistic counterparts of classical ones. We first consider monomodal logics,...     

Essence and Necessity

Journal of Philosophical Logic - What is the relation between metaphysical necessity and essence? This paper defends the view that the relation is one of identity: metaphysical necessity is a...     

Filter distributive logics

The present paper is thought as a formal study of distributive closure systems which arise in the domain of sentential logics. Special stress is laid on the notion of a C-filter, playing the role analogous to that of a congruence in universal algebra. A sentential logic C is called filter distributive if the lattice of C-filters in every algebra similar to the language of C is distributive. Theorem IV.2 in Section IV gives a method of axiomatization of those filter distributive logics for which the class Matr (C) _prime of C-prime matrices (models) is axiomatizable. In Section V, the attention is focused on axiomatic strengthenings of filter distributive logics. The theorems placed there may be regarded, to some extent, as the matrix counterparts of Baker's well-known theorem from universal algebra [9, § 62, Theorem 2].The contents of this paper were presented in a talk at the 7th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science held at Salzburg, Austria, in July 1983. In abstracted form the paper was published in Abstracts of the 7th Congress, Vol. 2, pp. 39– 42. We take this opportunity to thank Professor Paul Weingartner and Doctor Georg Dorn from Salzburg for their (not fulfilled) wish to publish the present version in a special volume containing a selection of contributions to the 7th Congress.     

The Best Question

Journal of Philosophical Logic - Suppose we get a chance to ask an angel a question of our choice. What should we ask to make the most of our unique opportunity? Ned Markosian has shown that the...     

Team Semantics for Interventionist Counterfactuals: Observations vs. Interventions

Journal of Philosophical Logic - Team semantics is a highly general framework for logics which describe dependencies and independencies among variables. Typically, the (in)dependencies considered...     

Intuitionistic Conditional Logics

Journal of Philosophical Logic - Building on recent work by Yale Weiss, we study conditional logics in the intuitionistic setting. We consider a number of semantic conditions which give rise, among...     

Notes on Stratified Semantics

Journal of Philosophical Logic - In 1988, Kit Fine published a semantic theory for quantified relevant logics. He referred to this theory as stratified semantics. While it has received some...     

Negation on the Australian Plan

Journal of Philosophical Logic - We present and defend the Australian Plan semantics for negation. This is a comprehensive account, suitable for a variety of different logics. It is based on two...     

Models for Hylomorphism

Journal of Philosophical Logic - In a series of papers (Fine et al., 1982; Fine, Noûs28(2), 137–158; 1994, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 23, 61–74, 1999) Fine develops his...     

Pooling Modalities and Pointwise Intersection: Semantics,Expressivity, and Dynamics

Journal of Philosophical Logic - We study classical modal logics with pooling modalities, i.e. unary modal operators that allow one to express properties of sets obtained by the pointwise...     

Book Reviews

Ibn Rushd (Averroes). Arabic Thought and Culture Series. DOMINIQUE URVOY, 1991. London, Routledge. 156 pp.

Logic and Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics in Medieval Arabic Philosophy Vol. VII. Islamic Philosophy and Theology Texts and Studies. DEBORAH L. BLACK, 1990. Leiden and New York, E. J. Brill. 290 pp.

Philosophy and Science in the Islamic World. C. A. QADIR, 1990. London, Routledge 1990. 218 pp.

Understanding the Chinese Mind: The Philosophical Roots. ROBERT E. ALLINSON, 1989. Hong Kong and Oxford, Oxford University Press. 316 pp.

On Justice: An Essay in Jewish Philosophy. L. E. GOODMAN, 1991. New Haven, Yale University Press. 288 pp.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Jonathan Lear, Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul
John P. Burgess and Gideon Rosen, A Subject with No Object; Strategies for Nominalistic Interpretation of Mathematics
Stewart Shapiro, Philosophy of Mathematics: Structure and Ontology
Patrick Grim, Gary Mar and Paul St. Denis, The Philosophical Computer
Noël Carroll, A Philosophy of Mass Art
Robert Eliot, Faking Nature: The Ethnics of Environmental Restoration     

Some Forms of Collectively Bringing About or ‘Seeing to it that’

Journal of Philosophical Logic - One of the best known approaches to the logic of agency are the ‘stit’ (‘seeing to it that’) logics. Often, it is not the actions of an...     

Logical truth in modal languages: reply to Nelson and Zalta

Does general validity or real world validity better represent the intuitive notion of logical truth for sentential modal languages with an actuality connective? In (Philosophical Studies 130:436–459, 2006) I argued in favor of general validity, and I criticized the arguments of Zalta (Journal of Philosophy 85:57–74, 1988) for real world validity. But in Nelson and Zalta (Philosophical Studies 157:153–162, 2012) Michael Nelson and Edward Zalta criticize my arguments and claim to have established the superiority of real world validity. Section 1 of the present paper introduces the problem and sets out the basic issues. In Sect. 2 I consider three of Nelson and Zalta’s arguments and find all of them deficient. In Sect. 3 I note that Nelson and Zalta direct much of their criticism at a phrase (‘true at a world from the point of view of some distinct world as actual’) I used only inessentially in Hanson (Philosophical Studies 130:436–459, 2006), and that their account of the philosophical foundations of modal semantics leaves them ill equipped to account for the plausibility of modal logics weaker than S5. Along the way I make several general suggestions for ways in which philosophical discussions of logical matters–especially, but not limited to, discussions of truth and logical truth for languages containing modal and indexical terms–might be facilitated and made more productive.     

Selfextensional Logics with a Conjunction

A logic is selfextensional if its interderivability (or mutual consequence) relation is a congruence relation on the algebra of formulas. In the paper we characterize the selfextensional logics with a conjunction as the logics that can be defined using the semilattice order induced by the interpretation of the conjunction in the algebras of their algebraic counterpart. Using the charactrization we provide simpler proofs of several results on selfextensional logics with a conjunction obtained in [13] using Gentzen systems. We also obtain some results on Fregean logics with conjunction.This paper is a version of the invited talk at the conference Trends in Logic III, dedicated to the memory of A. MOSTOWSKI, H. RASIOWA and C. RRAUSZER, and held in Warsaw and Ruciane-Nida from 23rd to 25th September 2005.     

Paraconsistent Metatheory: New Proofs with Old Tools

Journal of Philosophical Logic - This paper is a step toward showing what is achievable using non-classical metatheory—particularly, a substructural paraconsistent framework. What standard...     

What is a Non-truth-functional Logic?

What is the fundamental insight behind truth-functionality? When is a logic interpretable by way of a truth-functional semantics? To address such questions in a satisfactory way, a formal definition of truth-functionality from the point of view of abstract logics is clearly called for. As a matter of fact, such a definition has been available at least since the 70s, though to this day it still remains not very widely well-known.A clear distinction can be drawn between logics characterizable through: (1) genuinely finite-valued truth-tabular semantics; (2) no finite-valued but only an infinite-valued truthtabular semantics; (3) no truth-tabular semantics at all. Any of those logics, however, can in principle be characterized through non-truth-functional valuation semantics, at least as soon as their associated consequence relations respect the usual tarskian postulates. So, paradoxical as that might seem at first, it turns out that truth-functional logics may be adequately characterized by non-truth-functional semantics. Now, what feature of a given logic would guarantee it to dwell in class (1) or in class (2), irrespective of its circumstantial semantic characterization?The present contribution will recall and examine the basic definitions, presuppositions and results concerning truth-functionality of logics, and exhibit examples of logics indigenous to each of the aforementioned classes. Some problems pertaining to those definitions and to some of their conceivable generalizations will also be touched upon.     

Book Reviews

Charles Altieri, Postmodernisms Now: Essays on Contemporaneity in the Arts Jean‐Marie Schaefer, The Art of the Modern Age: Philosophy of Art from Kant to Heidegger Karol Berger, A Theory of Art Tiffany Sutton, The Classification of Visual Art: A Philosophical Myth and Its History James Kirwan, Beauty Richard Wollheim, On the Emotions Beryl Schlossman, Objects of Desire: The Madonnas of Modernism Stan Godlovitch, Musical Performance John Dixon Hunt, Greater Perfections: The Practice of Garden Theory Trevor Ponech, What Is Non‐Fiction Cinema? On the Very Idea of Motion Picture Communication