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One should not commit to metaphysical necessity; semantic modalities are enough. The best approaches to elucidate semantic modalities are versions of linguistic ersatzism and fictionalism, even if only developed in parts. Within these necessary properties and the difference between natural and semantic laws can be accounted for. The proper background theory for this is an updated version of Logical Empiricism. The anti-metaphysical attitude of Logical Empiricism deserves revitalization. The second part of the book illustrates a methodological observation from the first part: elucidating a concept can proceed by computational modelling. As an example, the book concerns modelling belief dynamics in the sense of building a computational model. The purpose is to illustrate some ideas about belief changes in a web of beliefs to explore and deepen one's understanding of belief changes by implementing corresponding algorithms. As a part of the model accepting conditionals and counterfactuals can be understood by versions of Ramsey Tests, i.e. again without modal commitments.

First published in 1999, this volume re-examines Bertrand Russell's views on modal logic and logical relevance, arguing that Russell does in fact accommodate modality and modal logic. The author, Jan Dejnožka, draws together Russell's comments and perspectives from throughout his canon in order to demonstrate a coherent view on logical modality and logical relevance. To achieve this, Dejnožka explores questions including whether Russell has a possible worlds logic, Rescher's case against Russell, Russell's three levels of modality and the motives and origins of Russell's theory of modality.

Logic: The Basics is an accessible introduction to several core areas of logic. The first part of the book features a self-contained introduction to the standard topics in classical logic, such as: · mathematical preliminaries · propositional logic · quantified logic (first monadic, then polyadic) · English and standard ‘symbolic translations'· tableau procedures. Alongside comprehensive coverage of the standard topics, this thoroughly revised second edition also introduces several philosophically important nonclassical logics, free logics, and modal logics, and gives the reader an idea of how they can take their knowledge further. With its wealth of exercises (solutions available in the encyclopedic online supplement), Logic: The Basics is a useful textbook for courses ranging from the introductory level to the early graduate level, and also as a reference for students and researchers in philosophical logic.

Logic: The Basics is a hands-on introduction to the philosophically alive field of logical inquiry. Covering both classical and non-classical theories, it presents some of the core notions of logic such as validity, basic connectives, identity, ‘free logic'and more. This book: introduces some basic ideas of logic from a semantic and philosophical perspective uses logical consequence as the focal concept throughout considers some of the controversies and rival logics that make for such a lively field This accessible guide includes chapter summaries and suggestions for further reading as well as exercises and sample answers throughout. It is an ideal introduction for those new to the study of logic as well as those seeking to gain the competence and skills needed to move to more advanced work in logic.

Timothy Smiley has made ground-breaking contributions to modal logic, free logic, multiple-conclusion logic, and plural logic; he has illuminated Aristotle's syllogistic, the ideas of logical form and consequence, and the distinction between assertion and rejection; and his debunking work on the theory of descriptions is a tour de force. In this volume, an international roster of contributors discuss Smiley's work to date; their essays will be of significant interest to those working across the logical spectrum—in philosophy of language, philosophical logic and mathematical logic.

In a career extending over almost six decades, Nicholas Rescher has conducted researches in almost every principal area of philosophy, historical and systematic alike. In this extraordinary volume, two dozen scholars join in offering penetrating discussions of various facets of Rescher's investigations. The result is an instructively critical panorama of the many-faceted contributions of this important American philosopher. Born in Germany in 1928, Nicholas Rescher came to the U.S. at the age of nine. He is University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh where he has also served as Chairman of the Philosophy Department and as director (and currently chairman) of the Center for Philosophy of Science. In a productive research career extending over six decades, he has established himself as a systematic philosopher of the old style. His work represents a many-sided approach to fundamental philosophical issues that weaves together threads of thought from continental idealism and American pragmatism. And apart from this larger program Rescher has made various specific contributions to logic (the conception autodescriptive systems of many-sided logic), the history of logic (the medieval Arabic theory of modal syllogistic), to the theory of knowledge (epistemetrics as a quantitative approach in theoretical epistemology), and to the philosophy of science (the theory of a logarithmic retardation of scientific progress). Rescher has also worked in the area of futuristics, and along with Olaf Helmer and Norman Dalkey is co-inaugurator of the so-called Delphi method of forecasting. Ten books about Rescher's philosophy have been published in four languages. Rescher earned his doctorate at Princeton in 1951 while still at the age of twenty-two—a record for Princeton's Department of Philosophy. He has served as a President of the American Philosophical Association, of the American Catholic Philosophy Association, of the American G. W. Leibniz Society, of the C. S. Peirce Society, and of the American Metaphysical Society. He was the founder of the American Philosophical Quarterly. An honorary member of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he has been elected to membership in the European Academy of Arts and Sciences (Academia Europaea), the Royal Society of Canada, the Institut International de Philosophie, and several other learned academies. Having held visiting lectureships at Oxford, Constance, Salamanca, Munich, and Marburg, he has been awarded fellowships by the Ford, Guggenheim, and National Science Foundations. Author of some hundred books ranging over many areas of philosophy, over a dozen of them translated from English into other languages, he is the recipient of eight honorary degrees from universities on three continents. He was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for Humanistic Scholarship in 1984, the Belgian Prix Mercier in 2005, and the Aquinas Medal of the American Catholic Philosophical Association in 2007.

Was ist Philosophische Semantik? Bedarf es neben der Linguistik überhaupt noch einer'philosophischen'Semantik? Welche Rolle spielt diese Semantik für die Philosophie im Allgemeinen? Welche methodische Rolle spielt die Klärung von'Bedeutung'für die Sprachanalytische Philosophie? Tritt die philosophische Semantik an die Stelle der Erkenntnistheorie? In welchem Verhältnis steht sie zur Ontologie und zur Philosophie des Geistes? Diesen Fragen geht das vorliegende Buch nach. In einem zentralen Verständnis von Philosophischer Semantik ist das Wesentliche die Beziehung zwischen Bedeutungstheorie und Erkenntnistheorie (vermittels der Rechtfertigung von Satzverwendungen). Eine so verstandene Semantik hat z.T. einen eigenen Ansatz, der einen zentralen Stellenwert für eine Philosophie in der Analytischen Tradition besitzt. Man kann diese Philosophische Semantik als eine'Erste Philosophie'ansehen.

This book introduces an important group of logics that have come to be known under the umbrella term'susbstructural'. Substructural logics have independently led to significant developments in philosophy, computing and linguistics. An Introduction to Substrucural Logics is the first book to systematically survey the new results and the significant impact that this class of logics has had on a wide range of fields.The following topics are covered:• Proof Theory• Propositional Structures• Frames• Decidability• CodaBoth students and professors of philosophy, computing, linguistics, and mathematics will find this to be an important addition to their reading.