Preface

Summary

In this book I present an unconventional perspective on some of the most interesting problems of logic and philosophical analysis. The philosophy of logic concerns itself with every aspect of the logic of thought and language, and the logic of thought and language, properly understood and applied, in turn provides a key that can help unlock philosophical puzzles and involve us in deeper, more interesting ones.

That there are forms of thought capable of being symbolized, and that these formalizations can be used to establish the logical, semantic, and other structural properties of sentences and deductive inferences, is itself a phenomenon worthy of reflection. Philosophical problems and logical conundrums are always expressed in a relatively sophisticated language. Sometimes philosophical difficulties are themselves self-created products of the languages and conceptual frameworks in which they arise. A crisis in logic or philosophy often points toward expressive limitations or unclarities in established patterns of thought and language by which its problems are imagined and articulated.

Where difficulties of expressive and problem-solving ability are encountered, we may try to expand or restrict our resources so that we can deal adequately with the challenges immediately at hand. We may introduce new or compress established distinctions, add new concepts, or eliminate troublesome categories, or confused or inapplicable terminologies. Logical analysis of the terms and sentences in which philosophical problems are formulated often provides a testing ground for innovations in the syntax and formal mechanisms of symbolic logic and in less rigorously developed refinements of ordinary thought and colloquial language.