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    Frege and Russell established that universal affirmatives... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The actual existence of things outside the soul is not always required for an affirmative proposition to be true.

    Frege and Russell established that universal affirmatives like 'all S are P' carry existential import only under interpretations that presuppose non-empty domains.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Classical Aristotelian logic treated 'all S are P' as false when S is empty, but modern logic requires explicit domain assumptions for consistency.
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    • 2.Frege and Russell's quantificational analysis shows existential import depends on whether ∃x(S(x)) is presupposed, not inherent to the proposition.
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    • 3.Non-empty domain presuppositions allow universal statements to avoid truth-value gaps and maintain logical coherence across systems.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Medieval logicians successfully reasoned about universals without explicit non-empty domain presuppositions, suggesting these aren't necessary for the claim's meaning.
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    • 2.Some modern formal systems (like free logic) handle empty domains without presupposing existential import, undermining the claim's universality.
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    • 3.The presupposition approach may conflate semantics with pragmatics—existential import might be a contextual implicature rather than a logical requirement.
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    Connections

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    Truth & Knowledge1 linkedPhilosophy of Language1 linked

    Related

    Classical Aristotelian logic treated 'all S are P' as false when S is empty, but...Frege and Russell's quantificational analysis shows existential import depends o...Medieval logicians successfully reasoned about universals without explicit non-e...Non-empty domain presuppositions allow universal statements to avoid truth-value...
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    Some modern formal systems (like free logic) handle empty domains without presup...The actual existence of things outside the soul is not always required for an af...The presupposition approach may conflate semantics with pragmatics—existential i...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit