This volume tackles the slippery subject of 'meaning'.

Bringing together powerful new tools from set theory and the philosophy of language, this book proposes a solution to one of the few unresolved paradoxes from antiquity, the Paradox of the Liar. Treating truth as a property of propositions, not sentences, the authors model two distinct conceptions of propositions: one based on the standard notion used by Bertrand Russell, among others, and the other based on J.L. Austin's work on truth. Comparing these two accounts, the authors show that while the (...) Russellian conception of the relation between sentences, propositions, and truth is crucially flawed in limiting cases, the Austinian perspective has fruitful applications to the analysis of semantic paradox. In the course of their study of a language admitting circular reference and containing its own truth predicate, Barwise and Etchemendy also develop a wide range of model-theoretic techniques--based on a new set-theoretic tool, Peter Aczel's theory of hypersets--that open up new avenues in logical and formal semantics. (shrink)

Covers first-order language in method appropriate for first and second courses in logic. CD-ROM consists of a new book, 3 programs,and an Internet-based grading service.

Hyperproof is a system for learning the principles of analytical reasoning and proof construction, consisting of a text and a Macintosh software program. Unlike traditional treatments of first-order logic, Hyperproof combines graphical and sentential information, presenting a set of logical rules for integrating these different forms of information. This strategy allows students to focus on the information content of proofs, rather than the syntactic structure of sentences. Using Hyperproof the student learns to construct proofs of both consequence and nonconsequence using (...) an intuitive proof system that extends the standard set of sentential rules to incorporate information represented graphically. Hyperproof is compatible with various natural-deduction-style proof systems, including the system used in the authors' Language of First-Order Logic. (shrink)

The Language of First-Order Logic is a complete introduction to first-order symbolic logic, consisting of a computer program and a text. The program, an aid to learning and using symbolic notation, allows one to construct symbolic sentences and possible worlds, and verify that a sentence is well formed. The truth or falsity of a sentence can be determined by playing a deductive game with the computer.

_Tarski’s World_ is an innovative and exciting method of introducing students to the language of first-order logic. Using the courseware package, students quickly master the meanings of connectives and qualifiers and soon become fluent in the symbolic language at the core of modern logic. The program allows students to build three-dimensional worlds and then describe them in first-order logic. The program, compatible with Macintosh and PC formats, also contains a unique and effective corrective tool in the form of a game, (...) which methodically leads students back through their errors if they wrongly evaluate the sentences in the constructed worlds. A brand new feature in this revised and expanded edition is student access to Grade Grinder, an innovative Internet-based grading service that provides accurate and timely feedback to students whenever they need it. Students can submit solutions for the program’s more than 100 exercises to the Grade Grinder for assessment, and the results are returned quickly to the students and optionally to the teacher as well. A web-based interface also allows instructors to manage assignments and grades for their classes. Intended as a supplement to a standard logic text, _Tarski’s World_ is an essential tool for helping students learn the language of logic. (shrink)

This textbook/software package covers first-order language in a method appropriate for first and second courses in logic. The unique on-line grading services instantly grades solutions to hundred of computer exercises. It is specially devised to be used by philosophy instructors in a way that is useful to undergraduates of philosophy, computer science, mathematics, and linguistics. The book is a completely rewritten and much improved version of The Language of First-order Logic. Introductory material is presented in a more systematic and accessible (...) fashion. Advanced chapters include proofs of soundness and completeness for propositional and predicate logic, as well as an accessible sketch of Godel's first incompleteness theorem. The book is appropriate for a wide range of courses, from first logic courses for undergraduates to a first graduate logic course. The package includes four pieces of software: Tarski's World 5.0, a new version of the popular program that teaches the basic first-order language and its semantics; Fitch, a natural deduction proof environment for giving and checking first-order proofs; Boole, a program that facilitates the construction and checking of truth tables and related notions ; Submit, a program that allows students to submit exercises done with the above programs to the Grade Grinder, the automatic grading service. Grade reports are returned to the student and, if requested, to the student's instructor, eliminating the need for tedious checking of homework. All programs are available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux systems. Instructors do not need to use the programs themselves in order to be able to take advantage of their pedagogical value. More about the software can be found at lpl.stanford.edu. The price of a new text/software package includes one Registration ID, which must be used each time work is submitted to the grading service. Once activated, the Registration ID is not transferable. (shrink)

This book is intended, along with the computer program, to introduce the user to some of the most important concepts and tools of logic, including learning a new computer language.

Tarski's World 3.0 is an innovative and enjoyable way to introduce your students to the language of first-order logic. Using this program, students quickly master the meaning of the connectives and quantifiers, and soon become fluent in the symbolic language at the core of modern logic. Tarski's World allows the students to build three-dimensional worlds and describe them in first-order logic. They evaluate the sentences in the constructed worlds, and if their evaluation is incorrect, the program provides them with a (...) game that leads them to understand where they went wrong. The package is intended as a supplement to any standard logic text, or for use by anyone who wants to learn the language. The disk and manual contain over a hundred exercises from very basic to highly sophisticated. (shrink)

Turing's World is a self-contained introduction to Turing machines, one of the fundamental notions of logic and computer science. The text and accompanying diskette allow the user to design, debug, and run sophisticated Turing machines in a graphical environment on the Macintosh. Turning's World introduces users to the key concpets in computability theory through a sequence of over 100 exercises and projects. Within minutes, users learn to build simple Turing machines using a convenient package of graphical functions. Exercises then progress (...) through a significant portion of elementary computability theory, covering such topics as the Halting problem, the Busy Beaver function, recursive functions, and undecidability. Version 3.0 is an extensive revision and enhancement of earlier releases of the program, allowing the construction of one-way and two-way finite state machines (finite automata), as well as nondeterministic Turing and finite-state machines. Special exercises allow users to explore these alternative machines. (shrink)

This text/courseware package presents a new approach to teaching first-order logic. Taking advantage of Tarski's World 4.0, the text skilfully balances the semantic conception of logic with methods of proof. The book contains eleven chapters, in four parts. Part I is about propositional logic, Part II about quantifier logic. Part III contains chapters on set theory and inductive definitions. Part IV contains advanced topics in logic, including topics of importance in applications of logic in computer science. The Language of First-order (...) Logic contains hundreds of problems and exercises for the user to work through. (shrink)

The topic of this essay is “the slingshot,” a short argument that purports to show that sentences1 designate (stand for, refer to) truth values. Versions of this argument have been used by Frege 2, Church 3, Quine4 and Davidson5; thus it is historically important, even if it immediately strikes one as fishy. The argument turns on two principles, which I call substitution and redistribution. In “Semantic Innocence and Uncompromising Situations,”6 Jon Barwise and I rejected both principles, as part of (...) our attempt.. (shrink)

Situation semantics was originally conceived as an alternative to extensional model theory and possible world semantics especially suited to the analysis of various problematic constructions, including naked-infinitive perception verbs (Barwise 1981) and belief-reports (Barwise and Perry 1981a, 1981b). In its earliest forms, the central ideas were.

Examples of successful linguistic communication give rise to two important insights: (1) it should be understood most fundamentally in terms of the pragmatic success of each individual utterance, and (2) linguistic conventions need to be understood as on a par with the non-linguistic regularities that competent language users rely upon to refer. Syntax and semantics are part of what Barwise and Perry call the context of the utterance, contributing to the pragmatics of the utterance. This full and distributed multichannel (...) context determines meaning if anything does. On the standard account of context, context disambiguates the meaning of language, but it is at least as apt in many situations to say that language disambiguates context. In practice, the two work together, sometimes with more emphasis on one than the other. Reference should be understood in pragmatic terms (it is an act) and, since success is often achieved in non-standard, creative ways, any formalisation of pragmatics can only be partial. The need for such an inventive approach to referring traces back to the need for language to be highly efficient, with expressions underdetermining their interpretation. Next, the shared semantic and syntactic regularities, which might seem to be independent of the context of an utterance, should be understood as also being part of that context. Past usage underdetermines how terms can be used since it allows for multiple projections. Successful reference with novel uses that are disambiguated by context can become the ground for new conventions. (shrink)

Situation Theory grew out of attempts by Jon Barwise in the late 1970s to provide a semantics for 'naked-infinitive' perceptual reports such as 'Claire saw Jon run'. Barwise's intuition was that Claire didn't just see Jon, an individual, but Jon doing something, a situation. Situations are individuals having properties and standing in relations. A theory of situations would allow us to study and compare various types of situations or situation-like entitles, such as facts, events, and scenes. One of (...) the central themes of situation theory of meaning and reference should be set within a general theory of information, one moreover that is rich enough to do justice to perception, communication, and thought. By now many people have contributed by the need to give a rigorous mathematical account of the principles of information that underwrite the theory. (shrink)

This is a review of Vicious Circles: On the Mathematics of Non-Wellfounded Phenomena, written by Jon Barwise and Lawrence Moss and published by CSLI Publications in 1996.