Generalisation of first-order logic to nonatomic domains

Extract

The quantifiers of standard predicate logic are interpreted as ranging over domains of individuals, and interpreted formulae beginning with a quantifier make claims to the effect that something is true of every individual, i.e. of the whole domain, or of some individuals, i.e. of part of the domain. To state that something is true of all or part of a totality seems to be the basic significance of universal and existential quantification, and this by itself does not involve a specification of the structure of the totality. This means that the notion of quantification by itself does not demand totalities of individuals, i.e. atomic totalities, as domains of quantification. Nonatomic domains, such as volumes of space, or surfaces, are equally in order. So one might say that a certain predicate applies “everywhere” or “somewhere” in such a domain. All that the concept of quantification requires is a totality which is structured in terms of a part-to-whole relation, and appropriate properties that apply to part or all of the totality. Quantification does not demand that the totality have smallest parts, or atoms. There is no conflict with the sense of universal or existential quantification if the domain is nonatomic, if every one of its parts has itself proper parts.

The most general kind of quantification theory must then deal with totalities of any kind, atomic or not. The relationships among the parts of a domain are described by the theory of Boolean algebras, which we can regard as the most general characterisation of a totality, of a domain of quantification.

In this paper I shall be concerned with this generalised theory of quantification, which encompasses nonatomic domains as well as atomic and mixed domains, i.e. totalities consisting entirely or partly of individuals.