34 found
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  1. (1 other version)Words without objects: semantics, ontology, and logic for non-singularity.Henry Laycock - 2006 - New York: Oxford University Press.
    A picture of the world as chiefly one of discrete objects, distributed in space and time, has sometimes seemed compelling. It is however one of the main targets of Henry Laycock's book; for it is seriously incomplete. The picture, he argues, leaves no space for "stuff" like air and water. With discrete objects, we may always ask "how many?," but with stuff the question has to be "how much?" Laycock's fascinating exploration also addresses key logical and linguistic questions about the (...)
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  2. The Concept of a Substance and its Linguistic Embodiment.Henry Laycock - 2023 - Philosophies 8 (6):114.
    My objective is a better comprehension of two theoretically fundamental concepts. One, the concept of a substance in an ordinary (non-Aristotelian) sense, ranging over such things as salt, carbon, copper, iron, water, and methane – kinds of stuff that now count as (chemical) elements and compounds. The other I’ll call the object-concept in the abstract sense of Russell, Wittgenstein, and Frege in their logico-semantical enquiries. The material object-concept constitutes the heart of our received logico / ontic system, still massively influenced (...)
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  3. Some questions of ontology.Henry Laycock - 1972 - Philosophical Review 81 (1):3-42.
    The views of Quine and Strawson on the significance of 'mass terms' are rehearsed, and the metaphysical status of substances, in the chemist's sense, is considered. It is urged that the ontological dichotomy of particulars and universals is not adequate to accommodate such substances, which are in a sense to be explicated concrete but non-particular.
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  4.  35
    Words without Objects.Henry Laycock - 1998 - Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology 2 (2):147-182.
    Resolution of the problem of mass nouns depends on an expansion of our semantic/ontological taxonomy. Semantically, mass nouns are neither singular nor plural; they apply to neither just one object, nor to many objects, at a time. But their deepest kinship links them to the plural. A plural phrase — 'the cats in Kingston' — does not denote a single plural thing, but merely many distinct things. Just so, 'the water in the lake' does not denote a single aggregate — (...)
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  5. Theories of matter.Henry Laycock - 1975 - Synthese 31 (3-4):411 - 442.
    "Matter" may be defined, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, as "The substance, or the substances collectively, out of which a physical object is made or of which it consists". And while the O.E.D. is not the ultimate authority on words, nor is it, I believe, far wrong in this particular case. The definition is, as I shall argue in this paper, in substantial harmony with a tradition of some antiquity, according to which material objects do not constitute a somehow (...)
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  6. Any Sum of Parts which are Water is Water.Henry Laycock - 2011 - Humana Mente 4 (19):41-55.
    Mereological entities often seem to violate ‘ordinary’ ideas of what a concrete object can be like, behaving more like sets than like Aristotelian substances. However, the mereological notions of ‘part’, ‘composition’, and ‘sum’ or ‘fusion’ appear to find concrete realisation in the actual semantics of mass nouns. Quine notes that ‘any sum of parts which are water is water’; and the wine from a single barrel can be distributed around the globe without affecting its identity. Is there here, as some (...)
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  7. Object.Henry Laycock - 2010 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
    In The Principles of Mathematics, Russell writes: Whatever may be an object of thought, or may occur in any true or false proposition, or can be counted as one, I call a term. This, then, is the widest word in the philosophical vocabulary. I shall use as synonymous with it the words unit, individual and entity. The first two emphasize the fact that every term is one, while the third is derived from the fact that every term has being, i.e. (...)
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  8.  7
    The Ideal Language Project and the Non‐discrete.Henry Laycock - 2006 - In Words without objects: semantics, ontology, and logic for non-singularity. New York: Oxford University Press.
    The notion of an ‘ideal language’ or ‘concept-script’ is explicated and defended, and constraints upon formal systems imposed by the ideal of transparency are explored. It is argued that non-singular symbolisms, including non-singular variables, largely fail to satisfy such constraints. In general, the semantics of non-singular expressions do not transparently reflect the corresponding ontic categories. The conditions for the possibility of transparent non-singular assertions, freed from the concept of identity, are briefly explored. The questionable influence within philosophy of the ‘Classical’ (...)
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  9. Mass nouns, count nouns, and non-count nouns: Philosophical aspects.Henry Laycock - 2005 - In Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Elsevier. pp. 534--538.
  10.  85
    Matter and Objecthood Disentangled.Henry Laycock - 1989 - Dialogue 28 (1):17-.
    The concept of matter is not, I urge, reducible to the concept of an object. This is to be distingusihed from the counterintuitive Aristotelian claim that matter depends for its existence on objects which it constitutes.
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  11. 1. Ontology and concept-script.Henry Laycock - 2006 - In Paolo Valore (ed.), Topics on General and Formal Ontology. Polimetrica International Scientific Publisher. pp. 27.
     
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  12. Mass nouns, Count nouns and Non-count nouns.Henry Laycock - 2005 - In Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Elsevier.
    I present a high-level account of the semantical distinction between count nouns and non-count nouns. The basic idea is that count nouns are semantically either singular or plural and non-count nouns are neither.
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  13. Variables, generality and existence.Henry Laycock - 2006 - In Paolo Valore (ed.), Topics on General and Formal Ontology. Polimetrica International Scientific Publisher. pp. 27.
    So-called mass nouns, however precisely they are defined, are in any case a subset of non-count nouns. Count nouns are either singular or plural; to be non-count is hence to be neither singular nor plural. This is not, as such, a metaphysically significant contrast: 'pieces of furniture' is plural whereas 'furniture' itself is non-count. This contrast is simply between 'the many / few' and 'the much / little' - between counting and measuring. However not all non-count nouns are, like 'furniture', (...)
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  14. (1 other version)Alan Garfinkel, Forms of Explanation Reviewed by.Henry Laycock - 1982 - Philosophy in Review 2 (2/3):93-96.
     
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  15.  7
    A Proposed Semantical Solution to the So‐called ‘Problem of Mass Nouns’.Henry Laycock - 2006 - In Words without objects: semantics, ontology, and logic for non-singularity. New York: Oxford University Press.
    This chapter takes issue with the common assumption that referential expressions and definite descriptions involving ‘mass nouns’ are semantically singular, thereby designating so-called parcels of matter or individual instances of stuff. The trouble is that whereas count nouns are either singular or plural, the so-called mass nouns, because they are non-count, are semantically neither singular nor plural. Russell’s Theory of Descriptions as well as considerations on persistence, identity, and flux are invoked to reinforce this point.
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  16. (1 other version)Barry Barnes, The Nature of Power Reviewed by.Henry Laycock - 1989 - Philosophy in Review 9 (10):394-396.
     
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  17.  18
    (1 other version)Critical notice.Henry Laycock - 1985 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 15 (3):553-563.
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  18.  16
    (1 other version)Critical notice.Henry Laycock - 1975 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 5 (1):173-180.
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  19.  10
    Exploitation and Equality: Labour Power as a Non-Commodity.Henry Laycock - 1989 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 15:375-389.
    The theory of surplus value contrasts ‘pay for labour power’ and ‘pay for labour services’. Unlike labour services but like all commodities, labour power has a specific economic value and it exchanges at this value. Unlike that of other commodities, the consumption of labour power results in the creation of more value than the commodity itself contains. Surplus value arises from the gap between the labour needed to sustain a day’s work, to keep the worker going for a day, and (...)
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  20. Exploitation via Labour Power in Marx.Henry Laycock - 1999 - The Journal of Ethics 3 (2):121--131.
    Marx''s account of capitalist exploitation is undermined by inter-related confusions surrounding the notion of labour power. These confusions relate to [i] what labour power is, [ii] what happens to labour power in the labour market, and [iii] what the epistemic status of labour power is (the issue of appearance and reality). The central theses of the paper are [a] that property ownership is the wrong model for understanding the exploitation of labour, and [b] that the concept of exploitation is linked (...)
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  21.  4
    Introduction.Henry Laycock - 2006 - In Words without objects: semantics, ontology, and logic for non-singularity. New York: Oxford University Press.
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  22. (1 other version)Istvan Meszaros, The Power of Ideology Reviewed by.Henry Laycock - 1991 - Philosophy in Review 11 (3):214-216.
     
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  23.  5
    In Thrall to the Idea of The One.Henry Laycock - 2006 - In Words without objects: semantics, ontology, and logic for non-singularity. New York: Oxford University Press.
    The curiously sweeping assumption that all reference is ‘ultimately’ singular — even in the case of plural or non-count reference — is presented and examined. In the case of plural reference, especially when associated with collective predication, the assumption takes the form of the thought that this is reference to collective entities, plural objects, or sets. Perhaps the most suggestive and profound, albeit notorious idea of this genre is Russell’s doctrine of the ‘class as many’. George Boolos’ explicitly ‘no-class’ approach (...)
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  24. Language.Henry Laycock - 2007 - “The Language of Science” (ISSN Code.
    I offer a synoptic account of some chief parameters of language and its relationship to communication and to thought, distinguishing in the process between semantical and pragmatic dimensions of utterance.
     
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  25. 'Mass nouns, Count nouns and Non-count nouns'.Henry Laycock - 2005 - In Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Elsevier.
    I present a high-level account of the semantical distinction between count nouns and non-count nouns (concrete non-count nouns sometimes being dubbed 'mass nouns'). The basic idea is that count nouns are semantically either singular (one-one semantic correlation) or plural (one-many semantic correlation) and non-count nouns (one-much semantic correlation) are neither.
     
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  26.  5
    Non‐count Descriptions and Non‐singularity.Henry Laycock - 2006 - In Words without objects: semantics, ontology, and logic for non-singularity. New York: Oxford University Press.
    The second application of the assumption that singular reference is ‘ultimately’ exhaustive also represents non-count reference as singular — as reference to individual ‘quantities’ or ‘parcels’ of stuff. Unsurprisingly, the idea is sometimes explicitly advanced on the model of plural reference as singular. However, any such view must attempt to circumvent the difficulties posed by Russell’s analysis of the conditions, whereby descriptions count as semantically singular. It is argued that such an attempt cannot succeed.
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  27.  16
    Persons. By Roland Puccetti. London & Toronto: Macmillan Co. of Canada Ltd., 1968. Pp. 145. $7.95.Henry Laycock - 1969 - Dialogue 8 (2):344-346.
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  28.  9
    Quantification and its Discontents.Henry Laycock - 2006 - In Words without objects: semantics, ontology, and logic for non-singularity. New York: Oxford University Press.
    The chapter focuses on quantification as it figures in standard versions of the predicate calculus. These versions are straightforwardly reductive in that non-singular sentences must be re-cast into singular form if they are to receive representation. However, various non-singular sentences, including certain kinds of plural sentences, are refractory to representation in this form. Essentially singular forms of quantifier-expression must be distinguished from non-singular forms to lay the basis for sui generis non-singular forms of quantification, appropriate to both plural nouns and (...)
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  29.  50
    (1 other version)Critical notice, G. A. Cohen, Marx's Theory of History. [REVIEW]Henry Laycock - 1980 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 10 (2):335-356.
    Mills writes: G. A. Cohen's influential ‘technological determinist’ reading of Marx's theory of history rests in part on an interpretation of Marx's use of ‘material’ whose idiosyncrasy has been insufficiently noticed. Cohen takes historical materialism to be asserting the determination of the social by the material/asocial, viz. ‘socio‐neutral’ facts about human nature and human rationality which manifest themselves in a historical tendency for the forces of production to develop. This paper reviews Marx's writings to demonstrate the extensive textual evidence in (...)
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  30. "A. N. Whitehead", La Fonction de la raison et autres essais. [REVIEW]Henry Laycock - 1970 - Dialogue 9 (2):248.
     
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  31.  33
    (1 other version)Jean Hyppolite, Studies on Marx and Hegel. [REVIEW]Henry Laycock - 1970 - Dialogue 9 (2):248-250.
  32.  25
    Time, Language, and Ontology: The World from the B-Theoretic Perspective. [REVIEW]Henry Laycock - 2016 - Review of Metaphysics 69 (3):630-632.
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  33.  49
    The Nature of Things. By Anthony Quinton. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Toronto: General Publishing Co. 1973. Pp. ix, 394. $14.40. [REVIEW]Henry Laycock - 1973 - Dialogue 12 (3):537-539.
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  34.  55
    Wittgenstein and the Problem of Other Minds. Ed. by Harold Morick, New York and Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 1967. Pp. xxii, 231. [REVIEW]Henry Laycock - 1969 - Dialogue 8 (2):337-338.