Skip to main content
Log in

Complex Predicates and Logics for Properties and Relations

  • Published:
Journal of Philosophical Logic Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper I present a formal language in which complex predicates stand for properties and relations, and assignments of denotations to complex predicates and assignments of extensions to the properties and relations they denote are both homomorphisms. This system affords a fresh perspective on several important philosophical topics, highlighting the algebraic features of properties and clarifying the sense in which properties can be represented by their extensions. It also suggests a natural modification of current logics of properties, one in which some complex predicates stand for properties while others do not.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Achinstein, Peter (1974): The identity conditions of properties, American Philosophical Quarterly 11: 257–275.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, David (1978): Universals and Scientific Realism, Vol II. A Theory of Universals. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, David (1983): What is a Law of Nature? Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, David (1989): Universals: An Opinionated Introduction, Westview Press, Boulder, Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bealer, George (1982): Quality and Concept. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bealer, George (1994): Property theory: the type-free approach vs. the church approach, Journal of Philosophical Logic 23: 139–171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bigelow, John and Pargetter, Robert (1989): A theory of structural universals, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 67: 1–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chierchia, Gennaro and Turner, Raymond (1988): Semantics and property theory, Linguistics and Philosophy 11: 261–302.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cocchiarella, Nino (1986): Logical Investigations of Predication Theory and The Problem of Universals. Bibliopolis, Naples.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forrest, Peter (1986): Ways worlds could be, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 64: 15–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krantz, D., Luce, R., Suppes, P., and Tversky, A. (1971): Foundations of Measurement, Vol I. Academic Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leeds, Stephen (1978): Quine on properties and meanings, Southwestern Journal of Philosophy 9: 97–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linsky, Bernard (1984): General terms as designators, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 65: 259–276.

    Google Scholar 

  • McMichael, Alan and Zalta, Edward (1981): An alternative theory of nonexistent objects, Journal of Philosophical Logic 9: 297–313.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellor, D. H. (1991): Matters of Metaphysics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menzel, Chris (1986): A complete type-free second order logic of properties, relations, and propositions, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Technical Report #CSLI-86–40, Stanford University.

  • Menzel, Chris (1993): The proper treatment of predication in fine-grained intensional logic, Philosophical Perspectives 7: 61–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quine, W. V. O. (1960): Variables explained away, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 104: 343–347.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosch, E. (1978): Principles of categorization, in Rosch, E. and Lloyd, B. (eds.), Cognition and Categorization. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N. J.: pp. 27–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sober, Elliot (1982): Why logically equivalent predicates may pick out different properties, American Philosophical Quarterly 19: 183–189.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shoemaker, Sidney (1980): Causality and Properties, in Peter van Inwagen (ed.), Essays in Honor of Richard Taylor. D. Reidel, Dordrecht: pp. 109–135.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swoyer, Chris (1982): The nature of natural laws, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 60: 203–223.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swoyer, Chris (1984): Causation and identity, Midwest Studies in Philosophy: Causation and Causal Theories 9: 593–622.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swoyer, Chris (1991): Structural representation and surrogative reasoning, Synthese 87: 449–508.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swoyer, Chris (1993): Logic and the empirical conception of properties, Philosophical Topics 21: 199–231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swoyer, Chris (1995): Leibniz on intension and extension, Noûs 29: 96–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swoyer, Chris (1996): Complex predicates and conversion principles, forthcoming in Philosophical Studies.

  • Vlastos, Gregory (1974): A Note on ‘Pauline Predications’ in Plato, Phronesis 19: 95–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zalta, Edward (1983): Abstract objects: an introduction to axiomatic metaphysics. D. Reidel, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zalta, Edward (1988): Intensional logic and the metaphysics of intentionality. MIT Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Swoyer, C. Complex Predicates and Logics for Properties and Relations. Journal of Philosophical Logic 27, 295–325 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004234204990

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004234204990

Keywords

Navigation