Some remarks on Hugh MacColl’s notion of symbolic existence
The most influential approach to the logic of non-existents is certainly the one stemming from the Frege-Russell tradition. One of the most important early dissidents to that tradition was Hugh MacColl. It is in relation to the notions of existence and arguments involving fictions that MacColl’s wor...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Éditions Kimé
2011-04-01
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| Series: | Philosophia Scientiæ |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/philosophiascientiae/370 |
| Summary: | The most influential approach to the logic of non-existents is certainly the one stemming from the Frege-Russell tradition. One of the most important early dissidents to that tradition was Hugh MacColl. It is in relation to the notions of existence and arguments involving fictions that MacColl’s work shows a deep difference from the work of his contemporaries. Indeed, MacColl was the first to attempt to implement in a formal system the idea that to introduce fictions in the context of logic amounts to providing a many-sorted language. The main aim of the paper is to add some brief remarks that should complete the scope of MacColl’s logic of non-existence. More precisely, I will suggest that there seems to be a strong conceptual link between Russell’s notion of subsistence and MacColl’s notion of symbolic existence. |
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| ISSN: | 1281-2463 1775-4283 |