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Logical Properties: Identity, Existence, Predication, Necessity, Truth

by: Colin McGinn
en

0199241813  9780199241811  9780191529238 

 


Logical Properties: Identity, Existence, Predication, Necessity, Truth
By Colin McGinn


 


Product Description:

Identity, existence, predication, necessity, and truth are vital concepts at the center of philosophy. Yet Colin McGinn believes that orthodox views of these topics are misguided in important ways. Philosophers and logicians have often distorted the nature of these concepts in an attempt to define them according to preconceived ideas. Logical Properties aims to respect the ordinary ways we talk and think when we employ these concepts, while at the same time showing that they are far more interesting and peculiar than some have assumed; these notions correspond to real properties--logical properties--that challenge naturalistic metaphysical views. Written with a minimum of formal terminology, this book deals with logico-linguistic issues ;s well as ontological ones. The focus is on trying to get to the essence of the concept concerned, not merely finding some established notation for providing formal interpretations.



Summary: Well written but of limited utility
Rating: 3

In this book Prof. McGinn gives an extremely concise tractation of the five basic concepts of identity, existence, predication, necessity and truth. Each concept corresponds to a chapter, in which McGinn, after briefly delineating an "orthodox view", proceeds to describe his personal theories. The book is well written and easy to follow. Some of the points raised by McGinn are of outstanding interest, others are not impressive at all. By putting so much emphasis on his personal views, the author reduces to the minimum his dialogue with famous philosophers and this results in some cases in a not very complete dissertation. Although the book is interesting, I think it offers itself to a narrow audience, not because it is too specialistic, but because it does not contain extensive introductions to each topic.



Summary: A clear text on logical notions...
Rating: 4

This book is an excellent primer on the topic of what McGinn calls logical properties. He has organized chapters on identity, existence, predication, necessity, and truth. I highly recommend this text as well as others: Kripke: Naming and Necessity; Quine: Philosophy of Logic, Methods of Logic; Forbes: Metaphysics of Modality; Salmon: Reference and Essence, Frege's Puzzle.

This text is a decent overview of these topics, eps. on Frege, Russell, and Kripke. The most interesting chs. are on necessity and existence (Soames is the authority on truth).

McGinn argues in favor of existence in terms of a first-order predicate (as opposed to quantificational paraphrase) and rejects identity in strictly quantifiable terms (via Leibniz's law). He sees identity as a primitive relation expressed by a 2-place predicate, which is his take off stance on necessity (possible worlds). At bottom, McGinn rejects a philosopher's 'infatuation' with expressions of modality as strictly quantificational. One may find interest in his arguments for such a rejection.



Summary: Makes your head spin
Rating: 5

In this exquisite little book, philosopher McGinn explores fundamental notions of logic and clears away the mist surrounding these notions. Identity is primitive and undefinable; existence is a predicate (!), predicates are more like singular terms than names (!), and "truth" really means something and is not redundant (!). This small text is of particular interest to those interested in analytic philosophy. It's radical and written with extraordinary clarity. Not that it doesn't have parts that can be attacked (what doesn't?), but it is a refreshing re-examination of important logical properties.



Summary: Another superb book by a fine, contemporary philosopher
Rating: 5

Colin McGinn excels as both a writing stylist and lucid thinker. Logical Properties is a brief text in which McGinn re-visits topics that dominated his thinking in the 70s and 80s. The new perspective he brings to these topics (namely, Identity, Existence, Predication, Necessity, and Truth - of course)after venturing off into other areas of philosophy makes this book particularly enlightening.

Caution: it is not for an audience unfamiliar with college level philosophy, but neither is it exceedingly complex.

I place McGinn up there with Hume as a stylist and philosopher.