Words Without Objects: Semantics, Ontology, and Logic for Non-Singularity

ISBN-13: 9780199281718 / Angielski / Twarda / 2006 / 224 str.

Henry Laycock

Opis

A picture of the world as chiefly one of discrete objects, distributed in space and time, has sometimes seemed compelling. It is however one of the main targets of Henry Laycock's book; for it is seriously incomplete. The picture, he argues, leaves no space for "stuff" like air and water. With discrete objects, we may always ask "how many?," but with stuff the question has to be "how much?" Laycock's fascinating exploration also addresses key logical and linguistic questions about the way we categorize the many and the much.

Recenzje

Laycock's recent monograph constitutes a welcome addition to on the mass/count distribution, especially since it marks the first published book-length examination of these issues by a philosopher... I very much hope that Laycock's monograph will inspire, as it should, a resurgence of interest in what is after all... a prime breeding ground for questions concerning meaning, truth, reference and quantification... Laycock's view is certainly sufficiently provocative and intriguing in its unfamiliarity to warrant examination in the future.