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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Philosophical Logic' and 'Letters to Schlick'

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5 ideas

10. Modality / A. Necessity / 4. De re / De dicto modality
De re modality seems to apply to objects a concept intended for sentences [Burgess]
     Full Idea: There is a problem over 'de re' modality (as contrasted with 'de dicto'), as in ∃x□x. What is meant by '"it is analytic that Px" is satisfied by a', given that analyticity is a notion that in the first instance applies to complete sentences?
     From: John P. Burgess (Philosophical Logic [2009], 3.9)
     A reaction: This is Burgess's summary of one of Quine's original objections. The issue may be a distinction between whether the sentence is analytic, and what makes it analytic. The necessity of bachelors being unmarried makes that sentence analytic.
10. Modality / A. Necessity / 6. Logical Necessity
General consensus is S5 for logical modality of validity, and S4 for proof [Burgess]
     Full Idea: To the extent that there is any conventional wisdom about the question, it is that S5 is correct for alethic logical modality, and S4 correct for apodictic logical modality.
     From: John P. Burgess (Philosophical Logic [2009], 3.8)
     A reaction: In classical logic these coincide, so presumably one should use the minimum system to do the job, which is S4 (?).
Logical necessity has two sides - validity and demonstrability - which coincide in classical logic [Burgess]
     Full Idea: Logical necessity is a genus with two species. For classical logic the truth-related notion of validity and the proof-related notion of demonstrability, coincide - but they are distinct concept. In some logics they come apart, in intension and extension.
     From: John P. Burgess (Philosophical Logic [2009], 3.3)
     A reaction: They coincide in classical logic because it is sound and complete. This strikes me as the correct approach to logical necessity, tying it to the actual nature of logic, rather than some handwavy notion of just 'true in all possible worlds'.
10. Modality / B. Possibility / 8. Conditionals / a. Conditionals
Three conditionals theories: Materialism (material conditional), Idealism (true=assertable), Nihilism (no truth) [Burgess]
     Full Idea: Three main theories of the truth of indicative conditionals are Materialism (the conditions are the same as for the material conditional), Idealism (identifying assertability with truth-value), and Nihilism (no truth, just assertability).
     From: John P. Burgess (Philosophical Logic [2009], 4.3)
It is doubtful whether the negation of a conditional has any clear meaning [Burgess]
     Full Idea: It is contentious whether conditionals have negations, and whether 'it is not the case that if A,B' has any clear meaning.
     From: John P. Burgess (Philosophical Logic [2009], 4.9)
     A reaction: This seems to be connected to Lewis's proof that a probability conditional cannot be reduced to a single proposition. If a conditional only applies to A-worlds, it is not surprising that its meaning gets lost when it leaves that world.