SEMANTICS AND THE PLURAL CONCEPTION OF REALITY

Salvatore Florio

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Philosophy and Theoretical Science Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics

Abstract

A ccording to a traditional view, reality is singular.Socrates and Plato are philosophers; each of them has the property of being a philosopher.1 Being a philosopher is a singular property in that it is instantiated separately by Socrates and by Plato.The property of being a philosopher, like the property of being human, has the higher-order property of being instantiated.The property of being instantiated is singular too.It is instantiated separately by the property of being a philosopher and by the property of being human.If we generalize these ideas, we obtain what may be called the singular conception of reality.This is the view that reality encompasses entities belonging to two main categories: objects and singular properties of various orders.2 The singular conception of reality offers a simple picture of what there is, and it offers a simple picture of the semantics of singular predication.A basic predication of the form S(t), composed of a singular term t and a singular predicate S, is true in a given interpretation of the language if and only if, relative to that interpretation, the object denoted by t instantiates the property denoted by S.A broader conception of reality, however, has been advocated.The Romans conquered Gaul.This is not something that any Roman did separately.They conquered Gaul jointly.According to advocates of the broader conception of reality, conquering Gaul is a plural property, one that is instantiated jointly by the Romans.This broader conception of reality, which admits the existence of plural properties in addition to singular ones, has been called the plural conception of reality (Yi 2006).An attractive feature of the plural conception of reality is that it offers a straightforward way of handling the semantics of plural predication.Consider an atomic formula, P(tt), composed of a plural term tt and a plural predicate P. If plural properties are available, one may hold that P(tt) is true in a given interpretation of the language if and

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References

2002The Logical Analysis of Plurals and Mass Terms: A Lattice‐theoretical Approach 1999Humean Supervenience debugged 1993Parts of Classes.1984To Be is to be a Value of a Variable (or to be Some Values of Some Variables)1997Algebraic semantics in language and philosophy 1997Plurals and events . By Barry Schein. (Current studies in linguistics, 23.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993. Pp. xv, 384.2001Nominalism Through De‐Nominalization 2003Plural Quantification Exposed

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