About the Book
This title was first published in 2003. Richard Sylvan died in 1996, he had made contributions to many areas of philosophy, such as, relevant and paraconsistent logic, Meinongianism and metaphysics and environmental ethics. One of his "trademarks" was the taking up of unpopular views and defending them. To Richard Sylvan ideas were important, wether they were his or not. This is a book of ideas, based on a collection of work found after his death, a chance for readers to see his vision of his projects. This collected works represents material drafted between 1982 and 1996, and the theme is that a small band of logics, namely pararelevant logics, offer solutions to many problems, puzzles and paradoxes in the philosophy of science.
Table of Contents:
Introductory fragments - table of contents, introduction. Part 1 Orientation: orientational fragments - kinds and features of relevant and paraconsistent logics, wide-ranging philosophical applications; an orientational survey of sociative logics - type of connection, and sorts of sociative and relevant logics, a working classification; preliminary western history of sociative logics - the initial classical period, the richer classical period, the early medieval period, later medieval theories of implication, modernity, enlightenment, and logical stagnation, the contemporary period. Part 2 Reasoning and computation: on reasoning - reason-giving connectives, ponible reasoning, demonstrative reasoning, ponible reasoning systems, double-barrelled analyses, brief glimpses beyond, appendix; relevant containment logics and certain frame problems of AI - reasons for the enterprise, initial relevant containment logics, soundess and completeness, upgrading the logical theory, an application; computability is logic-relative - introduction, inside and outside classical settings, inconsistency, dialethic machines, diagonalisation; fragments - part 2 - pararelevant logics - cognitive and computing science. Part 3 Philosophy of science, probability and non-deductive logic: confirmation without paradoxes - failing paradoxes of confirmation, variations upon prominent paradoxes, hypothetico-deductivism, towards basic relevant logic and semantics, proceeding within conditionally - containment confirmation, Goodman's paradoxes, converse consequences and connexive confirmation, interim conclusion, parallel sympathetic enterprise; conditional probability as the probability of a conditional - locating a probability conditional, Boolean models; causes as an implication - principles of causal implication, beginning on a typology, an organising process account, running out initial semantics, more fully relevant causal logics, corollaries, problems, further ado; fragments - part 3 - induction as the converse of deduction, non-demonstrative reasoning and non-ponible logics, abduction, explanation and discovery, outside standard deductive theory. Part 4 Metaphysics and epistemology: freedom without determinism - a main argument flawed, other determinism and arguments, appendices; knowledge as justified true belief; ubiquitous vagueness without embarrassment - the Sorites paradox, further issues, on characterising vagueness, identity and intentional functions, vague objects; fragments - part 4 - the enlightenment project.
