George Bealer (Yale University)

May 4 MON — 11.00-13.00

Aula Direzione del Dipartimento (Via Festa del Perdono 7, Milano)

Concepts and Properties, Analysis and Definition

Abstract.

This paper is the first step in a larger project whose goal is to define the following family of notions in logical terms broadly construed: real definition, essence, logical operation, ontogenetic operation, logical constant, and metaphysical ground. The aim of the paper is to lay out in a more satisfactory way the background framework of concepts and properties needed to carry out the larger project. More specifically, the aim is to set out more clearly the nature of concepts and properties if analysis and definition are to play their proper role in such a framework. The setting for this work is the theory of fine-grained content and, in particular, recalcitrant fine-grained intensional phenomena. The latter include unresolved instances of Frege’s Puzzle, Mates’s Puzzle, Kripke’s Puzzle, and, more to the present purpose, the paradox of analysis and various unresolved substitutivity puzzles involving analysis contexts and definition contexts.