Hi, Jim

Thanks, but I'm afraid that a lot of this is over my head. Boolean quantifier 'v' ? Is that basically the backward E? A 'unity' class? Is that a class with just one element? Well, be that as it may, since I'm floundering here, still I take it that Frege did not view a judgment as basically fragment of an inference, while Peirce viewed judgments as parts of inferences; he didn't think that there was judgment except by inference (no 'intuition' devoid of determination by inference).

Best, Ben

On 5/11/2012 3:08 PM, Jim Willgoose wrote:

Hi Ben;

My interest was historical (and philosophical) in the sense of what did they say about the developing work of symbolic logic in their time. The period is roughly 1879-1884. The anchor was two references by Irving (the historian of logic) to Van Heijenhoort and Sluga as worthy start points. But the issue of simply language/calculus(?) need not be the end. This is not a Frege or Logic forum per se, but I wanted to keep the thread alive and focused on symbolic logic because I get curious how the (darn) textbook came about periodically.

The "priority principle," as extracted by Sluga, with Frege following Kant, takes the judgment as ontologically, epistemologically, and methodologically primary. Concepts are not.

I will suppose, for now, that the content of a judgment is obscured in a couple of ways. First, if you treat the concept as the extension of classes, and then treat the class as a unity class or use the Boolean quantifier "v" for a part of a class, you end up with an abstract logic that shows only the logical relations of the propositional fragment. (especially if the extensions of classes are truth values)

Frege might say that this obscures the content of the judgment. Thus, I would say that the propositional fragment is not primary at all for Frege, and is just a special case.

You are on to something with the rheme and dicisign. But in 1879, the systems of symbolic logic did not appreciate the propositional function, the unrestricted nature of the quantifier, and the confusion that results from a lack of analysis of a judgment and the poverty of symbolism for expressing the results of the analysis.

Jim W


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 12:24:33 -0400
From: bud...@nyc.rr.com
Subject: Re: [peirce-l] Frege against the Booleans
To: PEIRCE-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU

Jim, Jon, list,

I'm following this with some interest but I know little of Frege or the history of logic. Peirce readers should note that this question of priority regarding concept vs. judgment is, in Peirce's terms, also a question regarding rheme vs. dicisign and, more generally, First vs. Second (in the rheme-dicisign-argument trichotomy).

Is the standard placement of propositional logic as prior to term logic, predicate calculus, etc., an example of the Fregean prioritization?

Why didn't Frege regard a judgment as a 'mere' segment of an inference and thus put inference as prior to judgment?

I suppose that one could restate an inference such as 'p ergo q' as a judgment 'p proves q' such that the word 'proves' is stipulated to connote soundness (hence 'falsehood proves falsehood' would be false), thus rephrasing the inference as a judgment; then one could claim that judgment is prior to inference, by having phrased inference as a particular kind of judgment. Some how I don't picture Frege going to that sort of trouble.

Anyway it would be at the cost of not expressing, but leaving as implicit (i.e., use but don't mention), the movement of the reasoner from premiss to conclusion, which cost is actually accepted when calculations are expressed as equalities ("3+5 = 8") rather than as some sort of term inference ('3+5, ergo equivalently, 8').

If either of you can clarify these issues, please do.
Best, Ben

On 5/11/2012 11:41 AM, Jim Willgoose wrote:


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