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Single Idea 13591

[filed under theme 4. Formal Logic / D. Modal Logic ML / 1. Modal Logic ]

Full Idea

The whole of quantified modal logic collapses if essence is withdrawn.

Gist of Idea

Quantified modal logic collapses if essence is withdrawn

Source

Willard Quine (Intensions Revisited [1977], p.121)

Book Ref

Quine,Willard: 'Theories and Things' [Harvard 1981], p.121

A Reaction

Quine offers an interesting qualification to this crushing remark in Idea 13590. The point is that objects must retain their identity in modal contexts, as if I say 'John Kennedy might have been Richard Nixon'. What could that mean?

Related Idea

Idea 13590 Essences can make sense in a particular context or enquiry, as the most basic predicates [Quine]

The 18 ideas with the same theme [general ideas about the nature of modal logic]:

9728 Modal Square 1: □P and ¬◊¬P are 'contraries' of □¬P and ¬◊P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
9729 Modal Square 2: ¬□¬P and ◊P are 'subcontraries' of ¬□P and ◊¬P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
9730 Modal Square 3: □P and ¬◊¬P are 'contradictories' of ¬□P and ◊¬P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
9731 Modal Square 4: □¬P and ¬◊P are 'contradictories' of ¬□¬P and ◊P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
9732 Modal Square 5: □P and ¬◊¬P are 'subalternatives' of ¬□¬P and ◊P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
9733 Modal Square 6: □¬P and ¬◊P are 'subalternatives' of ¬□P and ◊¬P [Aristotle, by Fitting/Mendelsohn]
5745 Quine says quantified modal logic creates nonsense, bad ontology, and false essentialism [Melia on Quine]
13591 Quantified modal logic collapses if essence is withdrawn [Quine]
10928 Maybe we can quantify modally if the objects are intensional, but it seems unlikely [Quine]
16951 It was realised that possible worlds covered all modal logics, if they had a structure [Dummett]
10163 Propositional modal logic has been proved to be complete [Kripke, by Feferman/Feferman]
10559 Kripke's modal semantics presupposes certain facts about possible worlds [Kripke, by Zalta]
16985 Possible worlds allowed the application of set-theoretic models to modal logic [Kripke]
15163 The interest of quantified modal logic is its metaphysical necessity and essentialism [Soames]
10206 Modal operators are usually treated as quantifiers [Shapiro]
9924 Modal logic gives an account of metalogical possibility, not metaphysical possibility [Burgess/Rosen]
5744 First-order predicate calculus is extensional logic, but quantified modal logic is intensional (hence dubious) [Melia]
19209 Simple Quantified Modal Logc doesn't work, because the Converse Barcan is a theorem [Merricks]