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| Additional Physical Format: | Online version: Gauker, Christopher. Conditionals in context. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 2005 (OCoLC)609307232 |
|---|---|
| Material Type: | Internet resource |
| Document Type: | Book, Internet Resource |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Christopher Gauker |
| ISBN: | 0262072661 9780262072663 0262572311 9780262572316 |
| OCLC Number: | 59881890 |
| Notes: | "A Bradford book." |
| Description: | xi, 333 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. |
| Contents: | 1. The basic idea -- 2. The concept of logical validity -- 3. A catalog of argument -- 4. Critical comparison -- 5. The core theory -- 6. Two enhancements -- 7. Subjunctive conditionals -- 8. "Even if", et cetera -- 9. Decidability. |
| Series Title: | Contemporary philosophical monographs, 5. |
| Responsibility: | Christopher Gauker. |
Reviews
Publisher Synopsis
"Christopher Gauker has produced the most sophisticated and comprehensive theory of the semantics and logic of conditionals yet available, and his book should be read by all philosophers, logicians, and linguists interested in the subject. His theory provides the first completely general and entirely rigorous account of the context-relativity of conditionals. It explains in a novel and extremely plausible fashion the semantic distinction between indicative and subjunctive conditionals and the consequent differences between their logics. Gauker shows convincingly how his theory is superior to its best-known rivals both in accommodating our linguistic intuitions and in avoiding the logical puzzles that beset other approaches." --E. J. Lowe, Department of Philosophy, University of Durham "A bold attempt to rethink the analysis of conditionals and the foundations of semantics at one fell swoop. In accounting for the logical validity of arguments involving conditionals, Gauker highlights their context-relativity. The 'context-logical' approach he advocates is comparable in orientation and scope to situation theory, and it deserves a comparably wide audience." --Francois Recanati, Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris "Indicative and subjunctive conditionals have presented some of the more difficult problems in the philosophy of language and logic. In this impressive book, Christopher Gauker brings his earlier work on logic and pragmatics to bear on these intriguing problems. His theory is rich in detail, and shows great sensitivity both to issues of how we use language in context and to logical issues such as validity and even decidability. His arguments are carefully crafted and incisive, but also presented in a clear and accessible style." --Michael Glanzberg, Department of Philosophy, University of California, Davis "This original account of how semantics might usefully be broadened to include kinds of context-relativity that hitherto have been thought of as belonging to pragmatics weaves together a number of novel lines of thought. The success of an enterprise of this shape and ambition should be judged more by its capacity to stimulate than by its capacity to convince. By that standard, Conditionals in Context is a resounding success." --Robert B. Brandom, Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh Read more...
