bas van fraassen’s philosophy blog

Modality and Negation before 1932

Lewis and Langford’s Symbolic Logic (1932) was the culmination of work over the previous half-century.  This is a well-studied development, and I do not have anything new to say.  But I would like to add some comments on the role of negation. 1.      Exclusion, choice, and strong negation When Gerrit Mannoury discussed Intuitionism he placed much weight on the distinction…

by Bas van Fraassen

Atomless: The Calculus of Systems of (Almost) Any Logic 

A logic L is a closure operator on a set of sentences S (of a syntax SYNT). An L-theory is a subset of S closed under L, and an L-theorem is a sentence that belongs to all L-theories.  (A logic may not have any theorems.)  A sentence A is an L-consequence of set of sentences X exactly if A is in L(X).…

by Bas van Fraassen

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2 thoughts on “bas van fraassen’s philosophy blog”

  1. Dear Prof van Fraassen,

    In modern science there is a shift in focus from final causes to the search for efficient/mechanical causes. People spoke about “laws” of nature and extended this view to human society. August Comte represents this view and via him it influenced sociology (Emile Durkheim) and perhaps also public relations (Edward Bernays).  Could you comment upon this?

    Thank you.

    Leendert Brouwer

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  2. I think that:

    – knowledge starts with the experience of facts of Nature,

    – we can formulate hypotheses, but as long as they are not confirmed by asking Nature, they are just hypotheses,

    – Nature doesn’t have to answer all of our questions to her,

    – sometimes we don’t get an answer from Nature,

    – when we don’t get an answer, this is never a license to invent an answer,

    – the only decent attitude is recognize “I don’t know” and stop there.

    (I’m skipping identifying the “metaphysical” positions in all this, which I’ll deny is metaphysics at all, but will accept as “hypotheses” till verified)

    Am I a constructive empiricist?

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