IngentaConnect XI-A Few More Remarks on Logical Form

Author: Oliver A.¹

Source: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 99, Number 3, 1999 , pp. 247-272(26)

Abstract:

Yah boo sucks to the grammer wot we lernt in skool! Grammar (and the bad old traditional logic) says that quantifier phrases such as ‘nobody’, ‘everyone’, ‘all women’, ‘some men’ and ‘a man’ are in the same category as names such as ‘Milly’, ‘Molly’ and ‘Mandy’. So, prior to their first corrective lessons, students are awfully muddled, the first and fundamental problem being the Woozle hunt for somebody called ‘nobody’. Hoorah for modern logic and logic teachers!

The story used to justify our current logics is entirely fictional. The claims about names and quantifier phrases in English are wildly false. Two of the heroes of modern logic, Russell and Hilbert, make the very mistakes which are falsely blamed on traditional logic. The villain, Meinong, turns out to have been working a different patch. Ideas ascribed to traditional grammar are modern inventions. Neither logicians nor grammarians can be trusted to tell the history of either grammar or logic.

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Queens' College, Cambridge CB3 9ETad10@hermes.cam.ac.uk

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XI—A Few More Remarks on Logical Form