Abstract

The subtitle of this book could mislead. Although the book is "elementary in the sense of presupposing only first-order logic without sets", Martin's approach, here and in his other works, consists in the rigorous application of the techniques of formal logic to fundamental problems of analytic philosophy. The methodological conviction which underlies the present work is that "logic is... of particular interest for the study of natural language... [and] every formula of logic is a lesson for the student of language". Martin's original study should prove illuminating even to linguists and philosophers who reject such sweeping claims on behalf of formal analysis.