Quantified Modal Logic and the Plural De Re
Midwest Studies in Philosophy 14 (1):372-394 (1989)
Abstract
Modal sentences of the form "every F might be G" and "some F must be G" have a threefold ambiguity. in addition to the familiar readings "de dicto" and "de re", there is a third reading on which they are examples of the "plural de re": they attribute a modal property to the F's plurally in a way that cannot in general be reduced to an attribution of modal properties to the individual F's. The plural "de re" readings of modal sentences cannot be captured within standard quantified modal logic. I consider various strategies for extending standard quantified modal logic so as to provide analyses of the readings in question. I argue that the ambiguity in question is associated with the scope of the general term 'F'; and that plural quantifiers can be introduced for purposes of representing the scope of a general term. Moreover, plural quantifiers provide the only fully adequate solution that keeps within the framework of quantified modal logic.Author's Profile
DOI
10.1111/j.1475-4975.1989.tb00198.x
My notes
Similar books and articles
A proof-theoretic study of the correspondence of classical logic and modal logic.H. Kushida & M. Okada - 2003 - Journal of Symbolic Logic 68 (4):1403-1414.
Modality Without Reference. An Alternative Semantics for Substitutional Quantified Modal Logic and its Philosophical Significance.Bartosz Wieckowski - unknown
‘Now’ and ‘Then’ in Tense Logic.Ulrich Meyer - 2009 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 38 (2):229-247.
Undecidability of first-order intuitionistic and modal logics with two variables.Roman Kontchakov, Agi Kurucz & Michael Zakharyaschev - 2005 - Bulletin of Symbolic Logic 11 (3):428-438.
Modal Ontology and Generalized Quantifiers.Peter Fritz - 2013 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 42 (4):643-678.
Modal Logic for Philosophers.James W. Garson - 2006 - Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
The Logic of Common Nouns: An Investigation in Quantified Modal Logic.Anil Gupta - 1980 - Yale University Press.
A unified completeness theorem for quantified modal logics.Giovanna Corsi - 2002 - Journal of Symbolic Logic 67 (4):1483-1510.
Analytics
Added to PP
2010-08-10
Downloads
108 (#117,011)
6 months
2 (#300,644)
2010-08-10
Downloads
108 (#117,011)
6 months
2 (#300,644)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
Necessitism, Contingentism, and Plural Quantification.Timothy Williamson - 2010 - Mind 119 (475):657-748.
Plural Quantification and Modality.Gabriel Uzquiano - 2011 - Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 111 (2pt2):219-250.
Modal Ontology and Generalized Quantifiers.Peter Fritz - 2013 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 42 (4):643-678.