Inferences in context : contextualism, inferentialism and the concept of universal quantification
This Thesis addresses issues that lie at the intersection of two broad philosophical projects: inferentialism and contextualism. It discusses and defends an account of the logical concepts based on the following two ideas: 1) that the logical concepts are constituted by our canonical inferential usages of them; 2) that to grasp, or possess, a logical concept is to undertake an inferential commitment to the canonical consequences of the concept when deploying it in a linguistic practice. The account focuses on the concept of universal quantification, with respect to which it also defends the view that linguistic context contributes to an interpretation of instances of the concept by determining the scope of our commitments to the canonical consequences of the quantifier. The model that I offer for the concept of universal quantification relies on, and develops, three main ideas: 1) our understanding of the conceptâs inferential role is one according to which the concept expresses full inferential generality; 2) what I refer to as the âdomain modelâ (the view that the universal quantifier always ranges over a domain of quantification, and that the specification of such a domain contributes to determine
Tabet, Chiara
Universal quantification ; Context-sensitivity ; Inference ; BC199.I47T2 ; Inference ; Contextualism (Philosophy) ; Grammar ; Comparative and general--Quantifiers
Inferences in context : contextualism, inferentialism and the concept of universal quantification. This Thesis addresses issues that lie at the intersection of two broad philosophical projects: inferentialism and contextualism. It discusses and defends an account of the logical concepts based on the following two ideas: 1) that the logical concepts are constituted by our canonical inferential usages of them; 2) that to grasp, or possess, a logical concept is to undertake an inferential commitment to the canonical consequences of the concept when deploying it in a linguistic practice. The account focuses on the concept of universal quantification, with respect to which it also defends the view that linguistic context contributes to an interpretation of instances of the concept by determining the scope of our commitments to the canonical consequences of the quantifier. The model that I offer for the concept of universal quantification relies on, and develops, three main ideas: 1) our understanding of the conceptâs inferential role is one according to which the concept expresses full inferential generality; 2) what I refer to as the âdomain modelâ (the view that the universal quantifier always ranges over a domain of quantification, and that the specification of such a domain contributes to determine
inferences context contextualism concept universal quantification address_issue lie intersection two_broad philosophical_project contextualism discus defend_account logical concept base follow_two idea logical concept constitute canonical inferential usage grasp posse logical concept undertake inferential commitment canonical consequence concept deploy linguistic practice account focus concept universal quantification respect also defend_view linguistic context contribute interpretation instance concept determine scope commitment canonical consequence quantifier model offer concept universal quantification relies develops three_main idea concept inferential role accord_concept express full inferential generality refer domain model view universal quantifier always range domain quantification specification domain contributes determine