The Logic and Metaphysics of Predication

THE LOGIC AND METAPHYSICS OF PREDICATION

Workshop

Oslo, 11-12 June 2015


Organized by Salvatore Florio and Øystein Linnebo

 
THEME 

Do predicates have semantic values? If so, what entities play this semantic role? While some linguistic evidence suggests that predicates co-refer with their nominalizations and therefore have objects as semantic values, various philosophical considerations lend support to the view, famously held by Frege, that predicates stand for predicable entities of a higher type. Since properties are commonly taken to serve as semantic values of predicates, this dispute is intertwined with the debate about the nature of properties.

Key questions include:

- What does the linguistic phenomenon of nominalization teach us about the semantic contribution of predicates?
- Can we develop a theory of properties that, while avoiding paradox, enables them to serve as semantic values of predicates?
- What is the relation between properties and sets?
- Are all properties definable? Do all definitions (including impredicative ones) define properties?
- What is the best response to Frege's "concept horse" problem?
- Is there some tenable version of the "reference principle" according to which co-referring expressions are substitutable salva congruitate in all contexts? 


SPEAKERS

Salvatore Florio (Kansas State), Peter Fritz (Oxford), Jeremy Goodman (New York University), Bob Hale (Sheffield), Luca Incurvati (Amsterdam), Ansten Klev (Czech Academy of Sciences), Øystein Linnebo (Oslo), Jon Litland (Texas), Friederike Moltmann (CNRS, IHPST), Agustín Rayo (MIT), Stewart Shapiro (Ohio State), Luca Tranchini (Tübingen), and Robert Trueman (Stirling)

SCHEDULE

THURSDAY, JUNE 11

9.15-10.30: Robert Trueman, "The Collapse of a Nominalist/Realist Distinction"

10.45-noon: Bob Hale and Øystein Linnebo, "Fregean Categories and the Problem of Expressibility"

noon-1pm: lunch

1-2.15pm: Agustín Rayo, "A Compositionalist's Guide to Predicate-Reference"

2.30-3.45pm: Ansten Klev, "Type Predications"

4-5.15pm: Friederike Moltmann, TBA

FRIDAY, JUNE 12

9.15-10.30: Salvatore Florio and Luca Incurvati, "Metalogic and the Overgeneration Argument"

10.45-noon: Stewart Shapiro, "Properties, Impredicative Definitions, and the Axiom of Choice"

noon-1pm: lunch

1-2.15pm: Jon Litland, "An Intuitionistic Theory of Class"

2.30-3.45pm: Peter Fritz and Jeremy Goodman, "Higher-Order Contingentism. Part 1: Closure and Generation"

4-5.15pm: Luca Tranchini, "Predicates Extraction and the Distinction Between Canonical and Non-Canonical Proofs"

The conference is open to the public and free. To register or inquire about the event, please email Salvatore Florio at [email protected].