Concept tag
#excluded-middle
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If you had to give up one classical principle, which would you choose?
Physics graduate here, now teaching. I've been working through a list of non-classical logics, and each one gives up something different: bivalence (every statement true or false), excluded middle (P or not-P), explosion (from a contradiction, anything), or the assumption that every…
Started by Emeka Nwosu6 replies168 views -
Intuitionists are right to refuse the law of excluded middle for infinite collections
I'm writing a thesis on intuitionism, so declare my bias. Here's the case. For Brouwer, mathematical objects are mental constructions, and to assert that something exists is to be able to construct it. On that view, “P or not-P” is a claim…
Started by Ana Clara Ferreira5 replies189 views -
Reading group: Dummett’s ‘The Philosophical Basis of Intuitionistic Logic’
I'm writing a thesis on intuitionism, and I keep noticing that people defend intuitionistic logic for two very different reasons. Brouwer's reason was a picture of mathematics as mental construction. Dummett's reason, in his 1973 paper "The Philosophical Basis of Intuitionistic Logic",…
Started by Ana Clara Ferreira5 replies222 views -
‘With us or against us’ sounds like logic. Is it?
I've spent eight years reporting on the peace process in Colombia. One sentence I've heard from armed men of every stripe, and sometimes from people on the other side of the table, is "if you're not with us, you're against us". In…
Started by Andrés Zuluaga4 replies212 views