Ontology and the Logistic Analysis of Language: An Enquiry into the Contemporary Views on Universals

218 Pages·1967·12.761 MB·

by  Guido Küng (auth.)

ONTOLOGY AND THE LOGISTIC ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE
SYNTHESE LIBRARY
MONOGRAPHS ON EPISTEMOLOGY,
LOGIC, METHODOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE,
SOCIOLOGY OF SCIENCE AND OF KNOWLEDGE,
AND ON THE MATHEMATICAL METHODS OF
SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
Editors:
DONALD DAVIDSON, Princeton University
JAAKKO HINTIKKA, University of Helsinki and Stanford University
GABRIEL NUCHELMANS, University of Leyden
WESLEY C. SALMON, Indiana University
GUIDO KUNG
ONTOLOGY AND
THE LOGISTIC ANALYSIS
OF LANGUAGE
An Enquiry into the
Contemporary Views on Universals
Revised edition
I
D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY DORDRECHT -HOLLAND
ONTOLOGIE UND LOGISTISCHE ANALYSE DER SPRACHE
First published by Springer-Verlag, Wien 1963
Translated from the German by E. C.M. Mays,
and revised by the author
[SBN-13: 978-94-010-3516-3 e-[SBN-13: 978-94-010-3514-9
00[: 10.1007/978-94-010-3514-9
1967
All rights reserved
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1967
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint,
microfilm, or any other means, without permission from the publisher
To my Parents
PREFACE
It is the aim of the present study to introduce the reader to the ways of
thinking of those contemporary philosophers who apply the tools of
symbolic logic to classical philosophical problems. Unlike the "conti
nental" reader for whom this work was originally written, the English
speaking reader will be more familiar with most of the philosophers dis
cussed in this book, and he will in general not be tempted to dismiss them
indiscriminately as "positivists" and "nominalists". But the English
version of this study may help to redress the balance in another respect.
In view of the present emphasis on ordinary language and the wide
spread tendency to leave the mathematical logicians alone with their
technicalities, it seems not without merit to revive the interest in formal
ontology and the construction of formal systems.
A closer look at the historical account which will be given here, may
convince the reader that there are several points in the historical develop
ment whose consequences have not yet been fully assessed: I mention,
e.g., the shift from the traditional three-level semantics of sense and deno
tation to the contemporary two-level semantics of representation; the
relation of extensional structure and intensional content in the extensional
systems of Wittgenstein and Carnap; the confusing changes in labelling
the different kinds of analytic and apriori true sentences; etc. Among the
philosophically interesting tools of symbolic logic Lesniewski's calculus
of names deserves special attention. Despite the pioneering efforts of
Professor C. Lejewski, philosophers still have not caught on to it so far.
I wish to repeat here my gratitude to my teacher, Professor J. M.
Bochenski, to whose inspiring guidance this book owes its origin, and
to the late Professor E. W. Beth, whose great learning and equally great
kindness I remember vividly. I am indebted also to Professors N. Good
man, H. Hermes, A. Heyting, R. Ingarden, N. Luyten, and C. Regamey,
whose teaching and advice I had the privilege to enjoy.
The revised edition has profited from remarks by Professor Beth, Dr.
F. von Kutschera and Dr. G. Knauss, who not only took the trouble
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ONTOLOGY AND THE LOGISTIC ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE
to read the German edition, but were kind enough to put their criticism
on paper. To Professor B. Sobocinski go my thanks for reading the chap
ter on Lesniewski and suggesting several improvements. I also wish to
express my gratitude to Mrs. Clare Mays for undertaking the difficult
task of translating the book and for calling my attention to several pas
sages which needed clarification. Last but not least, special thanks to
that expert typist and helpful secretary, who is also my dear wife.
GUIDO KUNG
Notre Dame, Indiana
April 1966
VIII
CONTENTS
00 INTRODUCTION 1
0.1 The linguistic and logical interests of contemporary phi-
losophy 1
0.2 Natural and logistic languages 3
0.3 The concern of the present study 6
0.31 Speculative grammar 7
0.32 Logistic languages and ontology 8
0.4 Plan of the book 13
Appendix I I Brief historical survey of logistic philosophy 16
Appendix II I The different traditions of contemporary semiotics 18
Part One J The logistic analysis of language and the relation of
representation
10 A PHILOSOPHICAL REvOLUTION 23
1.1 The birth of contemporary analytic philosophy 23
1.2 Russell's analysis of relational facts 25
20 FROM THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE TO THE LOGICAL ANALYSIS
OF LANGUAGE 30
2.1 The logicist definition of number 30
2.2 Logical constructions in place of epistemological infer-
ences of existence 33
2.3 Philosophy as logical analysis of language 36
30 FROM THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPT TO THE GRAPIDCAL SIGN 38
3.1 The elimination of psychologism and Frege's semantics 38
3.2 Russell's theory of descriptions 42
3.3 Tarski's definition of the concept of truth 48
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ONTOLOGY AND THE LOGISTIC ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE
4. THE RELATION OF REPRESENTATION 51
4.1 The sharing of structure and form 52
4.2 The question of the content 55
Part Two / The relation of representation of predicate signs and
contemporary views on universals
5. BERTRAND RUSSELL 66
5.1 Universals as logical atoms 66
5.2 Qualia as individuals 71
5.3 Antinomies in the theory of classes 72
5.4 The hierarchy of types 77
6. LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN 80
6.1 The ideal language without predicate signs 80
6.2 The interpretation of predicate signs of non-ideal lan-
guages 82
6.3 Some consequences of Wittgenstein's conception 84
7. RUDOLF CARNAP 86
7.1 "Well-founded" relations 86
7.2 Synonymity 90
7.21 Kinds of a priori statements 91
7.22 Synonymity in logical syntax and semantics 93
7.3 Conventionalism and positivism 97
8. STANISLAW LESNIEWSKI 102
8.1 The contradictory nature of so-called "general objects" 103
8.2 Mereology 105
8.3 OntologyL 108
8.31 The distributive conception of totalities 108
8.32 Shared, unshared and fictitious names 111
8.33 Functors and existential import 115
8.34 Quantifiers without existential import 117
8.4 LeSniewski's nominalism 121
x
CONTENTS
9. W. V. QUINE AND N. GOODMAN 127
9.1 Quine's criterion 127
9.11 To be is to be the value of a variable 127
9.12 Different kinds of variables 130
9.13 On the precise formulation of Quine's criterion 134
9.2 Onto10gically different universes of discourse 136
9.21 Individuals and classes 136
9.22 Classes and intensions 138
9.3 A new way of judging ontological points of view 140
9.31 Intensionalism and extensionalism 140
9.32 Platonism and nominalism 144
9.321 Degrees of platonism 144
9.322 Systems and experience 146
9.323 Nominalistic reformulations 148
9.4 The syncategorematic functioning of predicate signs 155
9.41 QUine's views 155
9.42 Goodman's views 159
10. THE INTERPRETATIONS OF PREDICATE SIGNS 161
10.1 Predicate signs as genuine names 162
10.2 Syncategorematic predicate signs 163
10.21 The equality interpretation 165
10.22 Equalities as a foundation for abstraction 170
10.23 The similarity interpretation 175
10.3 The strictly reistic interpretation 178
11. CONCLUSION 180
11.1 The value of exact formulation 180
11.2 The intensional background of formal structures and the
incompleteness of all formalizations 182
11.3 Logical analysis and formal ontology 184
BIBLIOGRAPHY 188
INDEX OF NAMES 201
INDEX OF SUBJECTS 204
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