On Dec 20, 2012, at 12:26 PM, Matthew West wrote: (01)
> Dear Pat,
>> ...
>> To return to "individual". If this is taken to mean "not having
>> instances" (or maybe, "of a kind that inherently does not have
>> instances", to rule out the empty set) then my problem with it is that
>> the actual logic of CL makes *everything* into a non-individual,
>> because CL allows any name to be used in a relation or predicate
>> position. And IMO this is the right way to approach this issue: it is
>> not an ontological matter at all, but a *logical* matter.
>
> MW: At the language level I agree. A good language makes the smallest number
> of commitments possible. CL is easily the best logical language I have come
> across. In any case, just because any term can be used as a predicate does
> not mean that you have to do that. It's your philosophical ontology that
> leads you to choose not to do that. So individuals (in my sense) are amongst
> those things that you would not choose to place in the predicate position. (02)
No, they are things that *you* would not choose to place there. I reserve the
right to place anything in a predicate position. I have found good use cases,
for example, for treating character strings and numbers as predicates, neither
of which were predictable until I found a use for them while writing axioms.
The moral I draw is that no matter what philosophical or a priori thinking is
done, there is no way to know whether or not it will be useful to treat
something as a predicate; and when it is, to have decided a priori that
istcannot be, is simply to have shot oneself in the foot before beginning the
actual work. (03)
Pat (04)
>
>
> Regards
>
> Matthew West
> Information Junction
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