A Novel Approach to Quinean Critique of Quantified Modal Logic

LOGIC SEMINAR

with Antti Keskinen
MA, Researcher, Department of History and Philosophy, University of Tampere, Finland
Thursday April 23, 14:15-17:00 in U56, SDU-Odense
& Tuesday April 28, 10:15-12:00 in U48A, SDU-Odense

A Novel Approach to Quinean Critique of Quantified Modal Logic

Willard Van Orman Quine is perhaps the most renowned critic of the logic of necessity and possibility. His discussions of modal logic, in several papers and book passages over the decades, have spurred a wide range of responses. Furthermore, Quine's critical views have been an incentive for new ideas in the philosophy of logic and language. With regard to first-order modal logic, Quine has argued that the very idea of quantification into modal contexts is incoherent. In these lectures, I will give an account of Quine's critique of quantified modal logic, and of some recent attempts at answering this critique. My account is, at least to my knowledge, novel, and is based on drawing a systematic connection between some aspects of Quine's epistemology and his critique of modal logic. In particular, I argue that Quine's epistemological view of objects supports his critique of modal logic, and that this support is also relevant for some attempts at answering Quine's critique.

The connection I argue exists between Quine's critique of modal logic and his epistemology is not explicitly drawn by Quine himself. In my view, once this connection is properly appreciated, it is seen that Quine should not have made the sort of concessions he sometimes seems to make with regard to the intelligibility of quantified modal logic. I also argue that in order to fully reach their target, challenges to Quine's critique of quantified modal logic should involve a challenge to his epistemological conception of objects as well. I will illustrate this point by considering some proposed answers to Quine's critique.

In the course of the lectures, we will also touch on some more technical issues in the semantics of modal logic, especially the intensional-range interpretation of quantification. The basic idea of this semantic approach was proposed already by Rudolf Carnap in his classic work Meaning and Necessity, and Quine argued against Carnap's intensional-range semantics in his writings. We will look critically at Quine's argumentation in this connection as well as at some accounts of the issue in secodary literature.

The lectures form a single thematic whole. Since they are based on work-in-progress, some of the views and arguments presented will be tentative, some perhaps controversial.

THESE LECTURES ARE MADE POSSIBLE BY AN ERASMUS/LIFE LONG LEARNING - SPONSORED TEACHER EXCHANGE BETWEEN THE INSTITUTE OF PHILOSOPHY, EDUCATION AND THE STUDY OF RELIGIONS - PHILOSOPHY, SDU, AND THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY-PHILOSOPHY, UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE.

For more information, please see the Blackboard site for Logic Seminar/Logikseminar.
To enroll in the BB site for Logic Seminar/Logikseminar, please contact Cynthia M. Grund
cmgrund@ifpr.sdu.dk.