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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 Ref
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]
19053 | Logic would be more natural if negation only referred to predicates [Dummett] |
19052 | Natural language 'not' doesn't apply to sentences [Dummett] |