<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>‘Quantified pure existentials’ are sentences (e.g., ‘Some things do not exist’) which meet these conditions: (i) the verb EXIST is contained in, and is, apart from quantificational BE, the only full (as against auxiliary) verb in the sentence; (ii) no (other) logical predicate features in the sentence; (iii) no name or other sub-sentential referring expression features in the sentence; (iv) the sentence contains a quantifier that is not an occurrence of EXIST. Colin McGinn and Rod Girle have alleged that standard first-order logic cannot adequately deal with some such existentials. The article defends the view that it can.</p></abstract>

‘Quantified pure existentials’ are sentences (e.g., ‘Some things do not exist’) which meet these conditions: (i) the verb EXIST is contained in, and is, apart from quantificational BE, the only full (as against auxiliary) verb in the sentence; (ii) no (other) logical predicate features in the sentence; (iii) no name or other sub-sentential referring expression features in the sentence; (iv) the sentence contains a quantifier that is not an occurrence of EXIST. Colin McGinn and Rod Girle have alleged that standard first-order logic cannot adequately deal with some such existentials. The article defends the view that it can.

First-order logic and some existential sentences

Disputatio

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"First-order logic and some existential sentences"}

‘Quantified pure existentials’ are sentences (e.g., ‘Some things do not exist’) which meet these conditions: (i) the verb EXIST is contained in, and is, apart...

First-order logic and some existential sentences

Published Online: Dec 31, 2018

Page range: 255 - 270

Received: May 10, 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/disp-2011-0012

Keywords
Colin McGinn, existence, existentials, quantification, Rod Girle

© 2011 Stephen K. McLeod, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

First-order logic and some existential sentences

Published Online: Dec 31, 2018

Page range: 255 - 270

Received: May 10, 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/disp-2011-0012

KeywordsColin McGinn, existence, existentials, quantification, Rod Girle

© 2011 Stephen K. McLeod, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Colin McGinn, existence, existentials, quantification, Rod Girle