Quine's conjecture on many-sorted logic

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Quine often argued for a simple, untyped system of logic rather than the typed systems that were championed by Russell and Carnap, among others. He claimed that nothing important would be lost by eliminating sorts, and the result would be additional simplicity and elegance. In support of this claim, Quine conjectured that every many-sorted theory is equivalent to a single-sorted theory. We make this conjecture precise, and prove that it is true, at least according to one reasonable notion of theoretical equivalence. Our clarification of Quine’s conjecture, however, exposes the shortcomings of his argument against many-sorted logic.
Original languageEnglish
JournalSynthese
Volume194
Pages (from-to)3563-3582
ISSN0039-7857
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Theoretical equivalence, Definitional equivalence, Morita equivalence, Quine, Model theory, Many-sorted logic

ID: 289118337