Single Idea 19053

[catalogued under 4. Formal Logic / A. Syllogistic Logic / 3. Term Logic]

Full Idea

A better proposal for a formal logic closer to natural language would be one that had a negation-operator only for (simple) predicates.

Gist of Idea

Logic would be more natural if negation only referred to predicates

Source

Michael Dummett (Presupposition [1960], p.27)

Book Reference

Dummett,Michael: 'Truth and Other Enigmas' [Duckworth 1978], p.27


A Reaction

Dummett observes that classical formal logic was never intended to be close to natural language. Term logic does have that aim, but the meta-question is whether that end is desirable, and why.

Related Idea

Idea 19052 Natural language 'not' doesn't apply to sentences [Dummett]