Alan Ross Anderson

Alan Ross Anderson

Alan Ross Anderson, born 1925, was an American logician and professor of philosophy at Yale University and the University of Pittsburgh. A frequent collaborator with Nuel Belnap, Anderson was instrumental in the development of relevance logic and deontic logic.

Anderson died of cancer in 1973.

Relevance logic

Anderson believed that the conclusion of a valid inference ought to have something to do with (i.e. be "relevant" to) the premises. Formally, he captured this "relevance condition" with the principle that

: "A" entails "B" only if "A" and "B" share at least one non-logical constant.

As simple as this idea appears, implementing it in a formal system requires a radical departure from the semantics of classical logic. Anderson and Belnap (with contributions from J. Michael Dunn, Kit Fine, Alasdair Urquhart, Robert K. Meyer, Anil Gupta (logician), and others) explored the formal consequences of the relevance condition in great detail in their influential "Entailment" books (see references below), which are the most frequently cited works in the field of relevance logic.

Anderson and Belnap were quick to observe that the concept of relevance had been central to logic since Aristotle, but had been unduly neglected since Gottlob Frege and George Boole laid the foundations for what would come to be known, somewhat ironically, as "classical" logic. (For an example of classical logic's failure to satisfy the relevance condition, see the article on the principle of explosion.)

Deontic logic

Anderson advocated the view that sentences of the form "It ought to be (the case) that "A" should be interpreted logically as:

* Not-"A" entails v,

where v means something like "a norm has been violated". He developed systems of deontic relevance logic containing a special constant v (notation varies) for this purpose. Such systems have sometimes been characterized as "reductions" of deontic logic to alethic modal logic. This is misleading at best, however, since alethic modal logics generally do not contain anything like Anderson's special v constant.

Philosophy of logic

Anderson was known for being a Platonist (or realist, or monist) about logic; he believed in "The One True Logic," and he believed that it was a "relevance" logic.

Resources

* Anderson, A. R. 1967. Some nasty problems in the formal logic of ethics. "Nous" I(4): 345-60.
* Anderson, A. R. and Belnap, N. D. 1975. "Entailment: The Logic of Relevance and Necessity. Vol. 1." Princeton: Princeton University Press.
* Anderson, A. R., Belnap, N. D., and Dunn, J. M. 1992. "Entailment: The Logic of Relevance and Necessity. Vol. 2." Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-07339-2
* Mares, E. D. 1992. Andersonian deontic logic. "Theoria" 58: 3-20.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Anderson — (auch Andersson, Andersen, Anderssen, Andrewson und viele andere Varianten) ist ein alter christlicher Nachname. Herkunft Ursprünglich kam der Name in Skandinavien und Schottland vor, wo er aus Badenoch am Oberlauf des Spey stammt und in den… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Alan de Galloway — ou Alan FitzRoland (né vers 1175 – vers le 2 février 1234[1]), seigneur de Galloway, est un important baron écossais qui règne de façon quasi indépendant sur son territoire de 1200 à 1234, et connétable héréditaire d Écosse[1] …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Alan Carr: Chatty Man — The second title card from 2010 present Format Chat show Presented by Alan Carr …   Wikipedia

  • Alan Baxter — est un acteur américain né le 19 novembre 1908 à East Cleveland, Ohio (États Unis), décédé le 8 mai 1976 à Woodland Hills (Los Angeles). Biographie Cette section est vide, insuffisamment détaillée ou incomplète. Votre aide est la bienvenue ! …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Alan Partridge — For the former character in Brookside, see Alan Partridge (Brookside). Alan Partridge First appearance Radio: On the Hour Television: The Day Today …   Wikipedia

  • Alan Moore — For other people named Alan Moore, see Alan Moore (disambiguation). Alan Moore Born Alan Oswald Moore 18 November 1953 (1953 11 18) (age 57) Northampton, Northamptonshire, England, UK …   Wikipedia

  • Alan Shearer — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Shearer. Alan Shearer …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Alan Bates — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Bates. Sir Alan Bates est un acteur britannique né le 17 février 1934 à Allestree (Derbyshire) et mort le 27 décembre 2003 à Londres. Il fit ses études à la Royal Academy of Dramatic Art où il …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Ross Wallace — Infobox Football biography playername = Ross Wallace fullname = dateofbirth = birth date and age|1985|5|23|df=yes cityofbirth = Dundee countryofbirth = Scotland height = 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) position = Left winger currentclub = Preston North End… …   Wikipedia

  • Fearchar, Earl of Ross — Fearchar of Ross or Ferchar mac in tSagairt ( Fearchar mac an t sagairt , often anglicized as Farquhar MacTaggart ), was the first Mormaer or Earl of Ross (1223 1251) we know of from the thirteenth century, whose career brought Ross into the fold …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”