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Single Idea 15156

[filed under theme 5. Theory of Logic / G. Quantification / 7. Unorthodox Quantification ]

Full Idea

Since Frege and Russell were mainly interested in formalizing mathematics, the only quantifiers they needed were the universal and existential one.

Gist of Idea

The universal and existential quantifiers were chosen to suit mathematics

Source

Scott Soames (Philosophy of Language [2010], 1.22)

Book Ref

Soames,Scott: 'Philosophy of Language' [Princeton 2010], p.23


The 9 ideas with the same theme [non-classical ways of referring to the quantity of objects]:

Some quantifiers, such as 'any', rule out any notion of order within their range [Harré]
There are at least five unorthodox quantifiers that could be used [Tharp]
Boolos invented plural quantification [Boolos, by Benardete,JA]
We could quantify over impossible objects - as bundles of properties [Lewis]
The universal and existential quantifiers were chosen to suit mathematics [Soames]
We need an Intentional Quantifier ("some of the things we talk about.."), so existence goes into the proposition [McGinn]
Not all quantification is objectual or substitutional [Williamson]
Intuitionists read the universal quantifier as "we have a procedure for checking every..." [Friend]
Stop calling ∃ the 'existential' quantifier, read it as 'there is...', and range over all entities [Anderson,CA]