num_pages: 320
description: Free logic, an alternative to traditional logic, has been seen as a useful avenue of approach to a number of philosophical issues of contemporary interest. In this collection, Karel Lambert, one of the pioneers in, and the most prominent exponent of, free logic, brings together a variety ofpublished essays bearing on the application of free logic to philosophical topics ranging from set theory and logic to metaphysics and the philosophy of religion. The work of such distinguished philosophers as Bas van Fraassen, Dana Scott, Tyler Burge, and Jaakko Hintikka is represented. Lambertprovides an introductory essay placing free logic in the logical tradition beginning with Aristotle, developing it as the natural culmination of a trend begun in the Port Royal logic of the 1600s, and continuing through current predicate logic--the trend to rid logic of existence assumptions. HisIntroduction also provides a useful systematic overview of free logic, including both a standard syntax and some semantical options.
language: English
title: Philosophical Applications of Free Logic
publisher: Oxford University Press