Strategies for a Logic of Plurals

• Published in: The Philosophical quarterly Vol. 51; no. 204; pp. 289 - 306
• Main Authors: Oliver, Alex, Smiley, Timothy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK and Boston, USA Blackwell Publishers 01.07.2001; Blackwell Publishers Ltd; Blackwell; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Abstract objects; Grammar; Mathematical logic; Mathematical relations; Mathematical set theory; Mathematical sets; Mathematics; Numbers; Philosophical analysis; Philosophical logics. Philosophy of language; Philosophical object; Philosophy; Predicates; Semantics; Singular terms; Singular; Russell (B.); Frege (G.); Whitehead (A. N.); Abstract; Combination; Reference; Collection; Logics; Predicate Calculus; Concrete; Identity

English has plural terms (e.g., ‘Oliver and Smiley’, ‘the co‐authors of this paper’) as well as singular terms. But our standard formal languages, e.g., the predicate calculus, feature only singular terms. How can the plural idiom be formalized?‘Changing the subject’ is by far the most common plural...