Problem: in some contexts, this does not make a difference: kissing/">

Psychology Dictionary of Arguments

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Someone; philosophy, logic: a problem in relation to the expression "someone" in logic and philosophy is the indeterminacy of reference. It is also the question wether the range of the expression is "at least one" or "possibly everybody". See also Reference, Quantification, Existential quantification, Universal quantification, Existential Generalization, Ambiguity, Indexicality, Context, Objects of thought.
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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.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Peter Geach on Someone - Dictionary of Arguments

I, 7ff
"f(any)": "f(a) or f(b)" - "f(one): "either "f(a) or "f(b).
Problem: in some contexts, this does not make a difference: kissing/marrying - E.g.: all/every boy. Love anyone: same truth value as
John and Tom love Mary or both love Jane
but not
Both love Mary or Jane
>Truth value
.
E.g.
Everyone (any boy) loves a ..
: same truth value as
John loves one and Tom loves one .., or
"J loves M v K and T love M v K" but also
"anybody loves M v K" and so also:
"(J loves M v K) and (T loves M v K)".
GeachVs: the whole breaks down!
Solution: Strawson: we need single rules for each case.
Geach: solution: Bracketing:
a) "every boy (loves some girl)"
b) "(every boy loves) some girl".
Correct in the case: "for every boy there is a ... "
2. (Ey) (x) (x loves y).
I 117
Somebody/everyone/one:
"Applicative expressions"/E. Johnson: an applicative expression is added to events such as "an astronomer", "every man," etc.
>Each/every/Geach, >All/Geach.
"Expressive expressions": are a subclass of Applicative expressions. - They correspond to quantifiers. - (This is Quines 2nd insight; >Syntax/Geach), >Quantifiers.

VsTradition: Applicative expressions are not to be analyzed as relative clauses.
>Relative clauses.
E.g. "Socrates had a dog and it bit Socrates": false; not conjunction of two sentences and then ask for reference of "it". - "This dog" does not help at all!
>Anaphora, >Index words, >Indexicality.
Conjunction does not work because negation of both sentences does not have any contradiction: "... did not own a dog or he did not bite Socrates".

>Universal Quantification, >Existential quantification, >Domain, >Individuation, >Identification, >Reference.

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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.

Gea I
P.T. Geach
Logic Matters Oxford 1972


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