The Construction of Logical Space

by Rayo, Agustin

• ISBN13: 9780199662623
• ISBN10: 0199662622
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-08-24
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Our conception of logical space is the set of distinctions we use to navigate the world. In The Construction of Logical Space Agustin Rayo defends the idea that one's conception of logical space is shaped by one's acceptance or rejection of 'just is'-statements: statements like 'to be composed of water just is to be composed of H2O', or 'for the number of the dinosaurs to be zero just is for there to be no dinosaurs'. The resulting picture is used to articulate a conception of metaphysical possibility that does not depend on a reduction of the modal to the non-modal, and to develop a trivialist philosophy of mathematics, according to which the truths of pure mathematics have trivial truth-conditions.

Author Biography

Agustin Rayo was born in Mexico City. He received his PhD in from MIT in 2001, and joined the faculty in 2005, after spending time at the University of St Andrews and the University of California at San Diego. His research lies at the intersection of the philosophy of logic and the philosophy of language.

Table of Contents

I MAIN TEXTS
1. Language and Metaphysics
2. Logical Space
3. Mathematics
4. Cognitive Accomplishment in Logic and Mathematics
II DETOURS
5. Possibility
6. A-worlds and the Dot-Notation
7. Paraphrase
8. Introducing Mathematical Vocabulary
III APPENDICES
A A Semantics for a Language with the Dot-Notation
B If Lewis Can Say It, You Can Too
C The Canonical Space of Worlds
References
Index