Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Singular Terms, philosophy: singular terms are linguistic expressions for individual objects or situations or totals, which can be determined as something individual. See also general terms, relative terms, abstract terms, reference._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Hartry Field on Singular Terms - Dictionary of Arguments
I 147 Singular Term/Field: since an expression does not denote, it does not prevent it from being a real singular term. E.g. "The number 4"/Field: does not denote any object. But even with real singular terms, the question is whether the corresponding theorem is true. >Numbers/Frege, >Numbers/Field, >Mathematical entities. The fact that a predicate has no extension does not prevent it from being a sortal: e.g. Homer e.g. "natural number". >Sortals, >Predicates, >Denotation. FregeVsField: no singular term can stand for a concept. - (Wright pro Frege). --- I 148 Sortal/Crispin Wright: syntactically, you cannot create statements of identity that contain a sortal like "well-being" (taken from "the well-being of children"). >Identity, >Identity statements. I 149 Singular: E.g. "2" in "2 + 3 = 5". Different: "There are two apples in the room": no singular term, but part of a quantifier. >Quantifiers. Analyzed: numeric functor "the number of" plus singular term "three". I 150 If "the direction of c1 = direction of c2" and "c1 and c2 are parallel" - are to be logically equivalent: then any expressions like "the direction of" cannot function semantically as a singular term. If syntactically and semantically singular term, then they are without ontological commitment to other entities than lines. ((s) No direction(s)). >Definitions/Frege, >Nominalism/Field, >Platonism. --- III 21 Singular term/Field: we reject a singular term like e.g. "87". Solution: quantifier E87: "there are exactly 87". Quantifiers are not singular terms. III 22 "87" does not appear as a name but as part of an operator. >Operator._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Field I H. Field Realism, Mathematics and Modality Oxford New York 1989 Field II H. Field Truth and the Absence of Fact Oxford New York 2001 Field III H. Field Science without numbers Princeton New Jersey 1980 Field IV Hartry Field "Realism and Relativism", The Journal of Philosophy, 76 (1982), pp. 553-67 In Theories of Truth, Paul Horwich, Aldershot 1994 |
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> Counter arguments against Field
> Counter arguments in relation to Singular Terms
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-27