Logical Inquiries

Logical Inquiries PDF Author: Nicholas Rescher
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110368315
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 103

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Book Description
Logic is of course a general resource for reasoning at large. But in the first half of the twentieth century, it developed particularity with a view to mathematical applications, and the field of mathematical logic came into being and flourished. In the second half of the century, much the same happened with regard to philosophical applications. Hence philosophical logic. The deliberations of this book cover a varied but interrelated array of key issues in the field. They address the representation of information in linguistic formulation, and modes of cogent demonstration in logic, mathematics, and empirical investigation, as well as the role of logic in philosophical deliberations. Overall, the book seeks to demonstrate and illustrate the utility of logic as a productive resource for rational inquiry at large.

Logical Inquiries

Logical Inquiries PDF Author: Nicholas Rescher
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110368315
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 103

Get Book Here

Book Description
Logic is of course a general resource for reasoning at large. But in the first half of the twentieth century, it developed particularity with a view to mathematical applications, and the field of mathematical logic came into being and flourished. In the second half of the century, much the same happened with regard to philosophical applications. Hence philosophical logic. The deliberations of this book cover a varied but interrelated array of key issues in the field. They address the representation of information in linguistic formulation, and modes of cogent demonstration in logic, mathematics, and empirical investigation, as well as the role of logic in philosophical deliberations. Overall, the book seeks to demonstrate and illustrate the utility of logic as a productive resource for rational inquiry at large.

The Logic of Reliable Inquiry

The Logic of Reliable Inquiry PDF Author: Kevin T. Kelly
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195357876
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
There are many proposed aims for scientific inquiry--to explain or predict events, to confirm or falsify hypotheses, or to find hypotheses that cohere with our other beliefs in some logical or probabilistic sense. This book is devoted to a different proposal--that the logical structure of the scientist's method should guarantee eventual arrival at the truth given the scientist's background assumptions. Interest in this methodological property, called "logical reliability," stems from formal learning theory, which draws its insights not from the theory of probability, but from the theory of computability. Kelly first offers an accessible explanation of formal learning theory, then goes on to develop and explore a systematic framework in which various standard learning theoretic results can be seen as special cases of simpler and more general considerations. This approach answers such important questions as whether there are computable methods more reliable than Bayesian updating or Popper's method of conjectures and refutations. Finally, Kelly clarifies the relationship between the resulting framework and other standard issues in the philosophy of science, such as probability, causation, and relativism. His work is a major contribution to the literature and will be essential reading for scientists, logicians, and philosophers

Inquiry as Inquiry: A Logic of Scientific Discovery

Inquiry as Inquiry: A Logic of Scientific Discovery PDF Author: Jaakko Hintikka
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401593132
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
Is a genuine logic of scientific discovery possible? In the essays collected here, Hintikka not only defends an affirmative answer; he also outlines such a logic. It is the logic of questions and answers. Thus inquiry in the sense of knowledge-seeking becomes inquiry in the sense of interrogation. Using this new logic, Hintikka establishes a result that will undoubtedly be considered the fundamental theorem of all epistemology, viz., the virtual identity of optimal strategies of pure discovery with optimal deductive strategies. Questions to Nature, of course, must include observations and experiments. Hintikka shows, in fact, how the logic of experimental inquiry can be understood from the interrogative vantage point. Other important topics examined include induction (in a forgotten sense that has nevertheless played a role in science), explanation, the incommensurability of theories, theory-ladenness of observations, and identifiability.

Extensionalism: The Revolution in Logic

Extensionalism: The Revolution in Logic PDF Author: Nimrod Bar-Am
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402081685
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
a single life-span. Philosophers, then, do not see more or know more, and they do not see less or know less. They aim to see less detail and more of the abstract. Their details, if you like, are abstractions. Walking on God’s earth as a pedestrian, as a farmer working his fields or as a passer-by, one’s picture of one’s surroundings is every bit as intelligent as that of the pilot riding the sky. The views of the field are radically different, however. One sees only a specific field and in all lively detail: the exact pattern of the land, or even the exact outline of a given leaf, grasshopper, grain of sand even. Acquaintance with minute detail is not without its price: details may stand in the way of conjuring the big picture. It may be difficult to compare whichever field one happens to be in with far off fields, with respect to their size or shape or any other quality. One may wish to inquire if far off fields were already planted, harvested, or even if they exist. A pedestrian may find it hard or even impossible to do so. The pedestrian view contains fine points that the pilot’s map never would, but it does not necessarily contain more information, for it lacks the general context. After all, there are only so many items that one can observe and account for at a single glance, a single map, a single book, a single life-span.

Pragmatism and Inquiry

Pragmatism and Inquiry PDF Author: Isaac Levi
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199698139
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
This volume presents a series of essays on the nature of intellectual inquiry: what its aims are and how it operates. Isaac Levi draws upon the work of the American Pragmatists C. S. Peirce and John Dewey to investigate what justifies change in belief.

Logical Syntax of Language

Logical Syntax of Language PDF Author: Rudolf Carnap
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317830601
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
This is IV volume of eight in a series on Philosophy of the Mind and Language. For nearly a century mathematicians and logicians have been striving hard to make logic an exact science. But a book on logic must contain, in addition to the formulae, an expository context which, with the assistance of the words of ordinary language, explains the formulae and the relations between them; and this context often leaves much to be desired in the matter of clarity and exactitude. Originally published in 1937, the purpose of the present work is to give a systematic exposition of such a method, namely, of the method of " logical syntax".

Logic & Natural Language

Logic & Natural Language PDF Author: Hanoch Ben-Yami
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351921525
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Frege's invention of the predicate calculus has been the most influential event in the history of modern logic. The calculus’ place in logic is so central that many philosophers think, in fact, of it when they think of logic. This book challenges the position in contemporary logic and philosophy of language of the predicate calculus claiming that it is based on mistaken assumptions. Ben-Yami shows that the predicate calculus is different from natural language in its fundamental semantic characteristics, primarily in its treatment of reference and quantification, and that as a result the calculus is inadequate for the analysis of the semantics and logic of natural language. Ben-Yami develops both an alternative analysis of the semantics of natural language and an alternative deductive system comparable in its deductive power to first order predicate calculus but more adequate than it for the representation of the logic of natural language. Ben-Yami's book is a revolutionary challenge to classical first order predicate calculus, casting doubt on many of the central claims of modern logic.

The Logic of Reliable Inquiry

The Logic of Reliable Inquiry PDF Author: Kevin T. Kelly
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0195091957
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
This illustrated work searches for the answers to such questions as whether standard methodological recommendations help or hinder the reliability of inquiry. It uses techniques and concepts drawn from formal learning theory, topology and the theory of computability.

Knowledge and Inquiry

Knowledge and Inquiry PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900445750X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
ISBN 9042000694 (paperback) NLG 50.00 Main headings: I. Historical perspectives.- II. Formal tools: induction, observation and identifiability.- III. Questions in inquiry: the interrogative model.- IV. Growth of knowledge: explanation and discovery.- V. Jaakko Hintikka: replies.- VI. Abstracts. skills in writing.

Dewey's Logical Theory

Dewey's Logical Theory PDF Author: F. Thomas Burke
Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
ISBN: 9780826513946
Category : Logic
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Despite the resurgence of interest in the philosophy of John Dewey, his work on logical theory has received relatively little attention. Ironically, Dewey's logic was his "first and last love." The essays in this collection pay tribute to that love by addressing Dewey's philosophy of logic, from his work at the beginning of the twentieth century to the culmination of his logical thought in the 1938 volume, Logic: The Theory of Inquiry. All the essays are original to this volume and are written by leading Dewey scholars. Ranging from discussions of propositional theory to logic's social and ethical implications, these essays clarify often misunderstood or misrepresented aspects of Dewey's work, while emphasizing the seminal role of logic to Dewey's philosophical endeavors. This collection breaks new ground in its relevance to contemporary philosophy of logic and epistemology and pays special attention to applications in ethics and moral philosophy.