Numbers, Empiricism and the A Priori

The present paper deals with the ontological status of numbers and considers Frege ́s proposal in Grundlagen upon the background of the Post-Kantian semantic turn in analytical philosophy. Through a more systematic study of his philosophical premises, it comes to unearth a first level paradox that would unset earlier still than it was exposed by Russell. It then studies an alternative path, that departin1g from Frege’s initial premises, drives to a conception of numbers as synthetic a priori in a more Kantian sense. On this basis, it tentatively explores a possible derivation of basic logical rules on their behalf, suggesting a more rudimentary basis to inferential thinking, which supports reconsidering the difference between logical thinking and AI. Finally, it reflects upon the contributions of this approach to the problem of the a priori

On the Decline of Pleonastic that in Late Middle English and Early Modern English

The origin of pleonastic that can be traced back to Old English where it could appear in syntactic constructions consisting of a preposition + demonstrative pronoun (i.e. for þy þat, for þæm þe) or a subordinator (i.e. oþ þat). Its diffusion with other subordinators is considered an early Middle English development as a result of the standardization of this item as the general subordinator in the period, which motivated its use as a pleonastic word in combination with all kinds of conjunctions (i.e. now that, gif that, when that, etc.) and prepositions (i.e. before that, save that, in that) (Fischer 1992: 295). Its use considerably increased in late Middle English, reaching its climax in the 16th century. In the 17th century, however, its use rapidly declined, to such an extent that it was virtually obliterated at the end of that same century (Rissanen 1999: 303-304). The list of subordinating elements includes relativizers (i.e. this that), adverbial relatives (i.e. there that) and a number of subordinators (i.e. after, as, because, before, beside, for, if, since, sith, though, until, when, while, etc. The decline of pleonastic that, however, is not a simultaneous process with all these subordinators insofar as the subordinator for seems to have retained this pleonastic item longer than other conjunctive words. In the light of this, the present paper has been conceived with the following objectives: a) to analyse the use and distribution of pleonastic that in a corpus of early English medical writing (in the period 1375–1700); b) to classify the construction in terms of the two different varieties of medical texts, i.e. treatises and recipes; and c) to assess the decline of the construction with the different conjunctive words. The data used as sources of evidence come from The Corpus of Early English Medical Writing, i.e. Middle English Medical Texts (MEMT for the period 1375–1500) and Early Modern English Medical Texts (EMEMT for the period 1500–1700).Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

From demonstratives to degree words: on the origin of the intensifying function of this/that in american english

The intensifying function of this/that can be traced back to the 14th century, when they acquired their adverbial status as a result of a grammaticalization process that turned them from deictic demonstratives into degree adverbs with the meaning of ‘to this/that extent, so much, so’ (OED s.v. this/that adv.). These intensifiers have had different ups and downs in the history of English. In spite of their origin in Late Middle English, they are practically not attested from the 16th to the 18th centuries, starting to appear again from the beginning of the 19th century onwards. The actual rise of the construction, however, takes place at the beginning of the following century, even though the intensifier this is usually found to lag behind its counterpart that, both in terms of occurrence and collocational use. The present paper investigates the use and distribution of the intensifying function of this/that in American English with the following objectives: (a) to trace their origin and grammaticalization as degree words in English; (b) to evaluate their quantitative dimension from a historical perspective; and (c) to assess their distribution across speech, writing and text types; and (d) to cast light on the lexico-semantic structure of the right-hand collocates in terms of their mode of construal. The source of evidence comes from the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA).Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Tracing the Territory. A Unitary Foundationalist Account

The paper offers an integrative interpretation of the different lines of thought Wittgenstein was inspecting in On Certainty and what he might have been looking for through them. It suggests that we may have been focusing our attention too strongly in the wrong place and comes to a new conclusion about where the real import of these reflections lies. This leads to an answer to the initially posed question of Foundationalism that revises the way in which there can be said to be a grounding intention in On Certainty