Pat Hayes schrieb:
> So for example, Ingvar Johansson wrote:
> " I happen to think that the dominance of first-order
> predicate logic in the brains of many analytic metaphysiciains mislead
> them into false ontologies. They take away the difference between
> natural kinds and properties (since it is not visible in 'Fa'), and they
> do not allow different modes of existence (since these cannot be seen by
> means of the existential quantifier)."
>
> Well, maybe: but even if this phenomenon (a) does indeed sometimes
> happen, and (b) really is an error - which of course is open to
> endless debate, as it has been for the last two millennia - it is not
> *impossible* to make these distinctions in FOL.
I agree, but as long as this has not been done, the risk is there.
That's all I wanted to say.
> As for "modes of existence", I confess to being one of those with a
> misled brain, not understanding what is meant by this phrase; but I am
> sure that if it were to be explained more thoroughly, I could find a
> way to render it into FOL reasonably briskly.
Here are two examples:
(1) If two philosophers are discussing whether entities of a certain
kind, F, exist necessarily or contingently, then they are not discussing
whether what is regarded as F really is of the kind F or not. They are
discussing in what *way* or *mode* Fs exist.
(2) David Lewis' makes a distinction between endurants and perdurants.
In my opinion, the natural way to understand this distinction is to
understand it as a distinction between different *ways* or *modes* of
spatiotemporal existence; not as a distinction between two
kinds/properties in the world. (01)
Let me see your FOL-formalization before I make any further comments
apart from this one: I have assumed that FOL is understood in such a way
that existence cannot be part of a predicate. That is, on my assumption,
you are not allowed to introduce predicates such as 'exists
necessarily', 'exists contingently', and 'exists by unfolding temporal
parts'. (02)
Best wishes,
Ingvar J (03)
--
Ingvar Johansson
IFOMIS, Saarland University
home site: http://ifomis.org/
personal home site:
http://hem.passagen.se/ijohansson/index.html (04)
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
Subscribe/Config: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (05)
|