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Single Idea 11115

[filed under theme 5. Theory of Logic / G. Quantification / 3. Objectual Quantification ]

Full Idea

Two ways to see 'all horses are animals' are as picking out all the horses (so that it is a 'horse-quantifier'), ..or as ranging over lots of things in addition to horses, with 'horses' then restricting the things to those that satisfy 'is a horse'.

Gist of Idea

'All horses' either picks out the horses, or the things which are horses

Source

Michael Jubien (Analyzing Modality [2007], 2)

Book Ref

'Oxford Studies in Metaphysics vol.3', ed/tr. Zimmerman,Dean W. [OUP 2007], p.107


A Reaction

Jubien says this gives you two different metaphysical views, of a world of horses etc., or a world of things which 'are horses'. I vote for the first one, as the second seems to invoke an implausible categorical property ('being a horse'). Cf Idea 11116.

Related Idea

Idea 11116 Being a physical object is our most fundamental category [Jubien]


The 9 ideas with the same theme [universal and existential quantifiers picking objects]:

Aristotelian logic has two quantifiers of the subject ('all' and 'some') [Aristotle, by Devlin]
Frege reduced most quantifiers to 'everything' combined with 'not' [Frege, by McCullogh]
Frege introduced quantifiers for generality [Frege, by Weiner]
Existence is entirely expressed by the existential quantifier [Russell, by McGinn]
'Partial quantifier' would be a better name than 'existential quantifier', as no existence would be implied [McGinn]
'All horses' either picks out the horses, or the things which are horses [Jubien]
Philosophers reduce complex English kind-quantifiers to the simplistic first-order quantifier [Jubien]
The universal quantifier can't really mean 'all', because there is no universal set [Hart,WD]
It is better if the existential quantifier refers to 'something', rather than a 'thing' which needs individuation [Lowe]