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Introducing Identity

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Griffiths, Owen 
Ahmed, Arif 

Abstract

Abstract: The best-known syntactic account of the logical constants is inferentialism . Following Wittgenstein’s thought that meaning is use, inferentialists argue that meanings of expressions are given by introduction and elimination rules. This is especially plausible for the logical constants, where standard presentations divide inference rules in just this way. But not just any rules will do, as we’ve learnt from Prior’s famous example of tonk, and the usual extra constraint is harmony. Where does this leave identity? It’s usually taken as a logical constant but it doesn’t seem harmonious: standardly, the introduction rule (reflexivity) only concerns a subset of the formulas canvassed by the elimination rule (Leibniz’s law). In response, Read [5, 8] and Klev [3] amend the standard approach. We argue that both attempts fail, in part because of a misconception regarding inferentialism and identity that we aim to identify and clear up.

Description

Keywords

Article, Identity, Logical constants, Inferentialism, Meaning-is-use, Proof-theoretic semantics

Journal Title

Journal of Philosophical Logic

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0022-3611
1573-0433

Volume Title

50

Publisher

Springer Netherlands