On the philosophical foundations of free logic∗

These remarks are slightly revised lectures presented at the College de France in Paris during March of 1980. I want to thank the professors of the College, and especially Professor Jules Vuillemin, for their kind and generous invitation. Thanks also to the National Endowment of Humanities for the Summer stipend in 1979 enabling me to devote part of my time to these lectures. Finally, thanks to Terence Parsons and Ermanno Bencivenga who pointed out errors and suggested improvements.

The essay outlines the character of free logic, and motivation for its construction and development. It details some technical achievements of high philosophical interest, but urges that the role of existence assumptions in logic is still not fully understood, that unresolved old problems, both technical and philosophical, abound, and presents some new problems of considerable philosophical import in free logic.

Notes

These remarks are slightly revised lectures presented at the College de France in Paris during March of 1980. I want to thank the professors of the College, and especially Professor Jules Vuillemin, for their kind and generous invitation. Thanks also to the National Endowment of Humanities for the Summer stipend in 1979 enabling me to devote part of my time to these lectures. Finally, thanks to Terence Parsons and Ermanno Bencivenga who pointed out errors and suggested improvements.