-
This thesis covers structuralism in the philosophy of mathematics, focusing on non-eliminative versions thereof and zooming in on three fresh and promising contemporary articulations. After introducing the topic and essential piece of terminology, we follow a quasi-historical route to modern math...
-
This thesis provides an analysis of the assumptions and methods of modern, English interpretations of the White Horse Discourse, an ancient text attributed to the Chinese philosopher Kung-sun Lung (ca. 320-250 B.C.E.), in which he argues for the paradoxical claim that a white horse is not a horse...
-
The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the meaning of only. This thesis presents a number of puzzling examples drawn from Kai von Fintel’s work, as well as a dataset I extracted from an online corpus. Following, Zeevat (2009), I argue that the semantic contributi...
-
We consider the second-order typed lambda calculus with full, or impredicative, polymorphism—i.e. System F—and contravariant iso-recursive types. (This language also appears under
the names λ∀μ and F^μ.) We equip it with call-by-name operational semantics.
Appel and McAllester devised a logical...
-
Two results of the following general form are proved: a functor from a category of algebras to the category of posets is essentially injective on objects above a certain size. The first result is for Boolean algebras and the functor taking each Boolean algebra to its poset of finite subalgebras. ...
-
We consider the scenario of fairly dividing a set of indivisible items among a group of agents with cardinal preferences. Because agents may have different preferences for every combination of items, intermediate representation languages are required in order to compactly represent the agents’ pr...
-
My thesis presents possible ways to use Bayesian networks to formally represent the different parts of Davidson’s unified theory. Then by way of an experiment with an imaginary radical interpreter and her speaker, I demonstrate how GeNIe, a Bayesian network software, can represent the radical int...
-
We define two-player perfect information games characterizing classical and intuitionistic first-order validity. In short we enrich the language of first-order logic with two force markers denoting assertion and challenge. A two-player game is then a tree of states representing each players asser...
-
We develop the method of canonical formulas for the lax logic. This is an intuitionistic modal logic that formalises nuclei of pointless topology and has applications in formal hardware verification. We show that all extensions of the lax logic can be axiomatised by lax canonical formulas. We giv...
-
Within his book On the Plurality of Worlds, David Kellogg Lewis provides an extensive elucidation of his theory of modal realism, which states that all possible worlds are concrete particulars with ontological status equal to that of the actual world. The general conceptualization of modal realis...
-
This work is an attempt to explore the concept of reference in light of the philosophical trend called deflationism. Throughout this thesis, I will understand reference as a relation between words and objects (also called designation). My aim is to defend a deflationist view about reference as op...