“科学与哲学”论坛 Venn and Existential Import: Development of the Modern Doctrine of Categorical Propositions

This article discusses John Venn’s contribution to the development of the modern doctrine of categorical propositions, which departs from the traditional doctrine by rejecting the subalternation rule and holds that universal propositions do not have existential import while particular propositions do. Venn was one of the earliest proponents of the modern doctrine and made a significant contribution to its development and establishment by examining the existential import of categorical propositions to argue for its superiority over the traditional doctrine. While discussing his significance in development of the modern doctrine, the article also argues that his argument for the doctrine has problems due to assumptions it inherits from the traditional doctrine. 

My recent work focuses on the nature of the many as such, and the logic and meaning of expressions used to talk about them, such as plural constructions found in English and many other natural languages. I also work on the nature of stuff, semantics of mass nouns, semantics of classifiers of East Asian languages (e.g., Korean, Chinese, Japanese), and some issues in philosophy of science, decision theory, and history of philosophy. I published a book, Understanding the Many (Routledge, 2002), and many articles in international academic journals in philosophy and logic, and am working on a book on plural constructions, Plurals: Their Logic and Semantics.