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Kant on Existential Import

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2014

Alberto Vanzo
Alberto Vanzo*
Affiliation:
University of Warwick Email: alberto.vanzo@email.it
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Abstract

This article reconstructs Kant's view on the existential import of categorical sentences. Kant is widely taken to have held that affirmative sentences (the A and I sentences of the traditional square of opposition) have existential import, whereas negative sentences (E and O) lack existential import. The article challenges this standard interpretation. It is argued that Kant ascribes existential import only to some affirmative synthetic sentences. However, the reasons for this do not fall within the remit of Kant's formal logic. Unlike traditional logic and modern standard quantification theory, Kant's formal logic is free from existential commitments.

Keywords

logicexistential importcategorical sentencesjudgements
Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , July 2014 , pp. 207 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © Kantian Review 2014 

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