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Single Idea 10921

[filed under theme 10. Modality / A. Necessity / 2. Nature of Necessity ]

Full Idea

Three degrees necessity in logic or semantics: first and least is attaching a semantical predicate to the names of statements (as Nec '9>5'); second and more drastic attaches to statements themselves; third and gravest attaches to open sentences.

Gist of Idea

Necessity can attach to statement-names, to statements, and to open sentences

Source

Willard Quine (Three Grades of Modal Involvement [1953], p.158)

Book Ref

Quine,Willard: 'Ways of Paradox and other essays' [Harvard 1976], p.158


The 5 ideas from 'Three Grades of Modal Involvement'

Whether a modal claim is true depends on how the object is described [Quine, by Fine,K]
Necessity can attach to statement-names, to statements, and to open sentences [Quine]
Objects are the values of variables, so a referentially opaque context cannot be quantified into [Quine]
Aristotelian essentialism says a thing has some necessary and some non-necessary properties [Quine]
Necessity is in the way in which we say things, and not things themselves [Quine]