Showing papers in "Philosophical Studies in 1973"

Natural deduction rules for English

Abstract: A system of natural deduction rules is proposed for an idealized form of English. The rules presuppose a sharp distinction between proper names and such expressions as ‘the c’, ‘a (an) c’, ‘some c’, ‘any c’, and ‘every c’, where ‘c’ represents a common noun. These latter expressions are called quantifiers, and other expressions of the form ‘that c’ or ‘that c itself’, are called quantified terms. Introduction and elimination rules are presented for any, every, some, a (an), and the, and also for any which, every which, and so on, as well as rules for some other concepts. One outcome of these rules is that ‘Every man loves some woman’ is implied by, but does not imply, ‘Some woman is loved by every man’, since the latter is taken to mean the same as ‘Some woman is loved by all men’. Also, ‘Jack knows which woman came’ is implied by ‘Some woman is known by Jack to have come’, but not by ‘Jack knows that some woman came’.

Doing no more harm than good

Abstract: Given all the consequences of an act and the value of each of them, how can we find their value ‘on the whole’? In ‘Utilitarianisms: Simple and General’, Inquiry 13, 394–449, J. Howard Sobel offers two alternative suggestions. Here one of Sobel's suggestions is attacked and the other given new support. Where the number of consequences is finite, it is argued, their value is the sum of their basic intrinsic values: the basic intrinsic value of a state of affairs is the value it has on its own account, and not in virtue of other states of affairs it entails.

On the conditions of causality

Abstract: (P1) For every A and every B, if A caused B, then there is some condition in B that is not identical with any condition in A and there is some condition in A that is not identical with any condition in B. (P2) For every A and every B, if A is the set of conditions individually necessary and jointly sufficient for the occurrence of B, then B is the set of conditions individually necessary and jointly sufficient for the occurrence of A. (P3) For every A, every B, and every C, if A is the set of conditions individually necessary and jointly sufficient for the occurrence of B and B is the set of conditions individually necessary and jointly sufficient for the occurrence C, then A is the set of conditions individually necessary and jointly sufficient for the occurrence of C.