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Questions tagged [natural-language]

27 questions
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Does there exist a "valid" application of Gödel's incompleteness to "logical natural language statements"?

Does there exist a "valid" application of Gödel's incompleteness to "logical natural language statements"? It can be found to sometimes be naively applied that way, even when the incompleteness theorems are a specific application. But I find it…
mavavilj
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Why don't we say the "unreasonable effectiveness of language"?

What's so special or unique about mathematics that we keep coming back to this phrasing? It isn't universal concision - there are many concepts more concisely put in English than math. Like to show via math the twin experiment isn't paradoxical…
J Kusin
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Is an argument in natural language as logically valid as in formal logic?

Is a natural language philosophical argument which is argued strictly from first principles widely considered equally as valid as a proof written in formal logic?
tom894
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If moral statements aren't supposed to be reports of objective facts, does the practice of "fallacy checking" apply to moral arguments?

Maybe this is just a case of Jörgensen’s dilemma, but so I was reading the SEP article about feminist perspectives on argumentation, more specifically this passage: The difficulty some philosophers have in recognizing the sophistication of feminist…
Kristian Berry
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Are the concept of time and space apriori to natural language or are they just references within natural language?

Are the concept of time and space apriori to natural language or are they just references within natural language? Time and space are fundamental concepts to existence and ontology. Natural languages seems to rely on referents so a person cannot…
Sayaman
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What does the emergence of different interpretations of Wittgenstein signify?

So I was listening to this Podcast about Wittgenstein the speakers are the Professor of Philosophy of University of South Hampton - Ray Monk, Senior Lecturer of University of York - Mary Macgin and Bary Smith Senior Lecturer of Philosophy London. It…
More Anonymous
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Logical fallacy: Person argues with wrong probability of event, without considering similar events

I know that this is a common error in argumentation that people make, but I don't know if there is a term for it. It's when people argue from an event being remarkable because of its low probability, without considering the probability of having…
Bridgeburners
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Relation of Mathematical Propositions to Natural Language

Treating Natural Language as a language game, what role does it play in our understanding of mathematics? Does natural language provide meaning to mathematics? Does a proof of a conjecture, say FLT, which is essentially an arranged (legal)…
Ajax
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Can we define a sequence of words?

Suppose that we define: "The president of USA" := John Is it correct to say that when we have a statement like: "The president of USA plays football". we can expand it like: "John plays football". ? In general, are we allowed to make such…
Anton
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Is the semantic/model-theoretic regress an infinite, vicious regress?

Logic consists of proofs, not bold assertions. Semantics means assigning truth-values, it's kind of unavoidable, syntax alone is just string concatenation. You can't do away with axioms either. Also, is it correct to say that a model could suffer…
user59567
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Do spoken languages have a sense of operators with 'order of operations'

This is something I came across while thinking about expressing a 'nested' choice, i.e. you make a choice where one of the options entails making another choice, for example, at college you could choose to study a single major A, or enter another…
Confused
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Formal versions of exotic logical connectives in natural language

Formal logic tends to be concerned with minimal or at least almost-minimal sets of logical connectives. The standard logical connectives are and, or, implies, iff, neg (I couldn't use Latex for their formal symbols) and for quantification forall,…
user56834
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Language and Philosophy

It is clear that many words are defined by how they are used. That context defines the word. The setting of the environment together constitutes the context, and a word is a meaningless string which serves the purpose of denoting or expressing the…
Ajax
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Questions about the relationship between Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations and Tractatus

I've read the Tractatus and am now working my way through Investigations, and I have a few questions about their relationship to one another. Obviously I've heard that the latter is critical of the claims made in the former (as well as claims made…
kjakeb
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How would a logician define the phrase "all other things being the same"?

Here are some Examples of the Phrase All other things Being the Same All other things being the same, the juice of a Granny Smith Apple is more acidic than a the juice of a Red Delicious Apple. All other things being the same, a house with a…
Toothpick Anemone
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