Event Detail
Wed Sep 8, 2010 Dennes Room 6–8 PM |
Working Group in the History and Philosophy of Logic, Mathematics, and Science Daniel Rothschild (All Souls College - Oxford) Dynamics of the Connectives |
We note that there are certain uses of both ‘and’ and ‘or’ that cannot be explained on their normal truth-table meanings (even when supplemented with sophisticated pragmatic tools). These include examples such as the following:
- Laurent shows up and a fight will break out. = If Laurent shows up then a fight will break out.
- John is away or his car would be here. = John is away. If he were not away, then his car would be here.
To explain these uses we give an analysis of what we call the `dynamic’ effects of connectives, which arise even when they have their normal truth-table meaning. We argue that the special uses in 1) and 2) are instances where the connectives have just their dynamic effects without having their truth-table meaning. (This is joint work with Nathan Klinedinst.)