Why Must Incompatibility Be Symmetric

Bibliographic Data

ID10690758
AuthorsRyan Simonelli (0000-0003-3754-1671, University of Chicago, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume74
Issue2
Pages658-682
Publication date2024-03-29
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Philosophical Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8094 • E-ISSN: 1467-9213
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/pq/pqad078
OpenAlexW4386440568
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited30

Why must incompatibility be symmetric? An odd question, but recent work in the semantics of non-classical logic, which appeals to the notion of incompatibility as a primitive and defines negation in terms of it, has brought this question to the fore. Francesco Berto proposes such a semantics for negation argues that, since incompatibility must be symmetric, double negation introduction must be a law of negation. However, he offers no argument for the claim that incompatibility really must be symmetric. Here, I provide such an argument, showing that, insofar as we think of incompatibility in normative pragmatic terms, it can play its basic pragmatic function only if it is symmetric. The upshot is that we can vindicate Berto’s claim about the symmetry of incompatibility but only if we, pace Berto, think about incompatibility, in the first instance, as a pragmatic relation between acts rather than a semantic relation between contents

Argument (complex analysis) · Epistemology · Linguistics · Negation · Normative · Programming language · Relation (database) · Semantics (computer science) · Advanced Algebra and Logic · Computer Science · Logic, Reasoning, and Knowledge · Mathematics · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science

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