This paper aims at bringing together two debates in metaphysics that so far have been .kept separate: the debate about determinism vs. indeterminism as de re modality on the one hand, and the debate about persistence on the other hand. Both debates significantly involve talk of things. We will show that working out a proper semantics for singular terms and an accompanying theory of things, moti...

———. 1970. "Four Notion of Independence." Theoria no. 36:161-164. Reprinted in: Logic and metaphysics (1999) pp.127-130. WFour (binary) relations of independence I(p,q) between propositions are distinguished: the Wittgensteinian I sub-w, the statistical I sub-s, the modal I sub-m, and the deductive I sub-d. The validity of the following theorem is argued for: I sub-w(p,q) implies I sub-s(p,q) i...

In his book Modal Logic as Metaphysics, Williamson argues that the traditional actualist-possibilist debate should be abandoned hopelessly unclear and we get on with clearer contingentism-necessitism debate. We think Williamson’s pessimism is not warranted by brief arguments he gives. this paper, explain why provide a clear formulation of

In this paper I explore three related topics emerging from Prior’s work on the logic of time. First, what is the proper province of logic, if any? Is temporal (modal) logic just logic, on a par with the paradigmatic case of first order quantification theory or even simple propositional logic? Second, what counts as an interpretation of a formal system? In particular, can formal semantics provid...

Consider as many case-based judgments of yours as prove necessary. Do not ignore some case-based judgments, assuming they are errors, just because they conflict with simple or intuitively plausible principles that account for some subset of your case-based judgments. Work on the assumption that a different principle can account for all of the judgments. Be prepared to be surprised at what this ...

Abstract Logic diagrams have been increasingly studied and applied for a few decades, not only in logic, but also many other fields of science. The history logic is an important subject, as current systems applications are based on historical predecessors. While traditional histories cite pioneers such Leibniz, Euler, Venn, Peirce, it widely known that Kant the early Kantians Germany England pl...

The ancient sorites paradox is traditionally attributed to Eubulides, a contemporary of Aristotle and a member of the Megarian school, who is also credited with inventing the liar paradox. The sorites paradox figures centrally in most discussions of vagueness in philosophy and in logic. In my view, it has profound implications for metaphysics and semantics, as well as for logic. In this paper I...

Philosophers of science often assume that logically equivalent theories are theoretically equivalent. I argue two theses, anti-exceptionalism about logic (which says, roughly, is not a priori, it revisable, and special or set apart from other human inquiry) logical realism differences in reflect genuine metaphysical the world) make trouble for this commitment, as well closely related commitment...

Simon Saunders and David Wallace have proposed an appealing candidate semantics for interpreting linguistic communities embedded in an Everettian multiverse. It provides a charitable interpretation of our ordinary talk about the future, and allows us to retain a principle of bivalence for propositions and to retain the Law of Excluded Middle in the logic of propositions about the future. But di...