Two Views of the Logic of Plurals and a Reduction of One to the Other

Studia Logica 103 (4):757-780 (2015)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

There are different views of the logic of plurals that are now in circulation, two of which we will compare in this paper. One of these is based on a two-place relation of being among, as in ‘Peter is among the juveniles arrested’. This approach seems to be the one that is discussed the most in philosophical journals today. The other is based on Bertrand Russell’s early notion of a class as many, by which is meant not a class as one, i.e., as a single entity, but merely a plurality of things. It was this notion that Russell used to explain plurals in his 1903 Principles of Mathematics; and it was this notion that I was able to develop as a consistent system that contains not only a logic of plurals but also a logic of mass nouns as well. We compare these two logics here and then show that the logic of the Among relation is reducible to the logic of classes as many

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 86,336

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The logic and meaning of plurals. Part II.Byeong-uk Yi - 2006 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 35 (3):239-288.
On the logic of classes as many.Nino B. Cocchiarella - 2002 - Studia Logica 70 (3):303-338.
Modalising Plurals.Simon Thomas Hewitt - 2012 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 41 (5):853-875.
Plurals and complexes.Keith Hossack - 2000 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 51 (3):411-443.
Early Russell on Types and Plurals.Kevin Klement - 2014 - Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 2 (6):1-21.
Plural Reference and Reference to a Plurality. Linguistic Facts and Semantic Analyses.Friederike Moltmann - 2016 - In Massimiliano Carrara, Alexandra Arapinis & Friederike Moltmann (eds.), Unity and Plurality. Logic, Philosophy, and Semantics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 93-120.

Analytics

Added to PP
2014-11-24

Downloads
45 (#296,141)

6 months
1 (#865,432)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Nino Cocchiarella
Indiana University, Bloomington

References found in this work

The Varieties of Reference.Gareth Evans - 1982 - Oxford: Oxford University Press. Edited by John Henry McDowell.
The Varieties of Reference.Louise M. Antony - 1987 - Philosophical Review 96 (2):275.
Plural Logic.Alex Oliver & Timothy John Smiley - 2013 - Oxford, England: Oxford University Press UK. Edited by T. J. Smiley.
Plural predication.Thomas J. McKay - 2006 - New York: Oxford University Press.

View all 16 references / Add more references