Abstract
The mathematical concept of pragmatic truth, first introduced in Mikenberg, da Costa and Chuaqui (1986), has received in the last few years several applications in logic and the philosophy of science. In this paper, we study the logic of pragmatic truth, and show that there are important connections between this logic, modal logic and, in particular, Jaskowski's discussive logic. In order to do so, two systems are put forward so that the notions of pragmatic validity and pragmatic truth can be accommodated. One of the main results of this paper is that the logic of pragmatic truth is paraconsistent. The philosophical import of this result, which justifies the application of pragmatic truth to inconsistent settings, is also discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Arruda, A. I. (1980): A Survey of Paraconsistent Logic, in: A. J. Arruda, N. C. A. da Costa and R. Chuaqui (eds.), Mathematical Logic in Latin America, North-Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 1–41.
Avron, A. (1991): Natural Three-Valued Logics – Characterization and Proof Theory, The Journal of Symbolic Logic 56: 276–294.
Brown, B. (1990): How to be Realistic about Inconsistency in Science, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 21: 281–294.
Brown, B. (1993): Old Quantum Theory: A Paraconsistent Approach, PSA 1992, vol. 2, East Lansing, Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 397–411.
Bueno, O. (1996): What is Structural Empiricism? Scientific Change in an Empiricist Setting, paper read at the 1996 Annual Congress of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science, Sheffield, 11–13 September, forthcoming.
Bueno, O. (1997): Empirical Adequacy: A Partial Structures Approach, forthcoming in: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science.
da Costa, N. C. A. (1974): α-models and the systems T and T*, Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 14: 443–454.
da Costa, N. C. A. (1975): Remarks on Jaskowski's Discussive Logic, Reports in Mathematical Logic 4: 7–16.
da Costa, N. C. A. (1986): Pragmatic Probability, Erkenntnis 25: 141–162.
da Costa, N. C. A., Bueno, O. and French, S. (forthcoming): Paraconsistency and Partiality, in preparation.
da Costa, N. C. A. and French, S. (1989): Pragmatic Truth and the Logic of Induction, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 40: 333–356.
da Costa, N. C. A. and French, S. (1990): The Model-Theoretic Approach in the Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Science 57: 248–265.
da Costa, N. C. A. and French, S. (1993a): Towards an Acceptable Theory of Acceptance: Partial Structures, Inconsistency and Correspondence, in: S. French and H. Kamminga (eds.), Correspondence, Invariance and Heuristics, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 137–158.
da Costa, N. C. A. and French, S. (1993b): A Model Theoretic Approach to “Natural Reasoning”, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 7: 177–190.
da Costa, N. C. A. and French, S. (forthcoming): Partial Truth and Partial Structures: A Unitary Account of Models in Scientific and Natural Reasoning, unpublished book, University of São Paulo and University of Leeds, in preparation.
D'Ottaviano, I. M. L. (1985): The Model Extension Theorems for J3-Theory, in C. A. di Prisco (ed.), Methods in Mathematical Logic, Springer, New York, pp. 157–173.
D'Ottaviano, I. M. L. and da Costa, N. C. A. (1970): Sur un problème de Jaskowski, Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris 270A: 1349–1353.
D'Ottaviano, I. M. L. and Epstein, R. (1988): A Many-valued Paraconsistent Logic, Reports on Mathematical Logic 22: 89–103.
Epstein, R. (1995): Propositional Logics, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
French, S. (1991): Rationality, Consistency and Truth, The Journal of Non-Classical Logic 7: 5171.
French, S. (1997): Partiality, Pursuit and Practice, in: Dalla Chiara et al. (eds.), Structures and Norms in Science, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 35–52.
Gallin, D. (1975): Intensional and Higher-Order Logic, North-Holland, Amsterdam.
Harman, G. (1986): Change in View, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Henkin, L. and Montague, R. (1956): On the Definitions of Formal Deduction, The Journal of Symbolic Logic 21: 129–136.
Hughes, G. H. and Cresswell, M. J. (1968): An Introduction to Modal Logic, Methuen.
Jaskowski, S. (1969): Propositional Calculi for Contradictory Deductive Systems, Studia Logica 24: 143–157.
Kotas, J. and da Costa, N. C. A. (1977): On SomeModal Logical Systems Defined in: Connection with Jaskowski's Problem, in A. I. Arruda, N. C. A. da Costa, and R. Chuaqui (eds.), Non-Classical Logic, Model Theory and Computability, North-Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 57–73.
Kyburg, H. (1987): The Hobgoblin, The Monist 70: 141–151.
Mikenberg, I., da Costa, N. C. A., and Chuaqui, R. (1986): Pragmatic Truth and Approximation to Truth, The Journal of Symbolic Logic 51: 201–221.
Norton, J. (1993): A Paradox in Newtonian Gravitation Theory, PSA 1992, vol. 2, East Lansing, Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 412–420.
Peirce, C. S. (1965): Philosophical Writings of Peirce, selected and edited by J. Buchler, Dover, New York.
Popper, K. R. (1940): What is Dialectic?, Mind 49: 403–426.
Priest, G. (1987): In Contradiction: A Study of the Transconsistent, Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht.
Smith, J. (1988a): Scientific Reasoning or Damage Control: Alternative Proposals for Reasoning with Inconsistent Representations of the World, PSA 1988, vol. 1, East Lansing, Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 241–248.
Smith, J. (1988b): Inconsistency and Scientific Reasoning, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 19: 429–445.
Ullian, J. S. (1990): Learning and Meaning, in R. B. Barrett and R. F. Gibson (eds.), Perspectives on Quine, Oxford, Blackwell, pp. 336–346.
Vaihinger, H. (1952): Philosophy of “As If” A System of Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
van Fraassen, B. C. (1980): The Scientific Image, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
van Fraassen, B. C. (1989): Laws and Symmetry, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
da Costa, N.C.A., Bueno, O. & French, S. The Logic of Pragmatic Truth. Journal of Philosophical Logic 27, 603–620 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004304228785
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004304228785