Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 19:15:04 GMT Server: Apache/1.0.3 Content-type: text/html Content-length: 1771 Last-modified: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 14:58:41 GMT Relevant Predication

Relevant Predication

Description:
This research program attempts to give a formal theory of predication within the context of relevance logic. For an implication to be "relevant" there must be some connection between its antecedent and consequent. Correspondingly, in order for a predication to be relevant, there must be some connection between the predicate and the term of which it is predicated. This project in philosophical logic has a link to the computer science notion of a "strict function" (one that depends on its arguments). A definition of relevant predication can be given within relevance logic with identity, and its formal properties are being explored and linked with various ontological issues concerning predication. This include vacuous predication, external relations, the question of whether existence is a property and whether membership and exemplification are relations. There are also applications to the philosophy of science in connection with the Goodman "grue-bleen" paradox and other paradoxes of confirmation. Applications have also been made to the frame problem in AI and by Raymundo Morado to non-monotonic reasoning (treating relevant predication as default predication).

Associated Faculty: Michael Dunn

Affiliated Projects: Raymundo Morado (Philosophy Institute, University of Mexico), Phillip Kremer (Department of Philosophy, Stanford University)

Support: College of Arts and Sciences

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