Intensional Logic and Metaphysics of Intentionality

In this book, Edward N. Zalta tackles the issues that arise in connection with intensional logic – a formal system for representing and explaining the apparent failures of certain important principles of inference – and intentional states – mental states such as beliefs, hopes, and desires, that are directed toward the world. His theory not only offers a unified explanation of the various kinds of inferential failures associated with intensional logic, but also unifies the study of intensional contexts and intentional states by grounding the explanation of both phenomena in a single theory. Zalta shows that an axiomatized realm of abstract entities, when added to the metaphysical structure of the world, can be used to identify and individuate the contents of directed mental states. These special abstract entities can be viewed as the objectified contents of mental files and they play a crucial role in the analysis of the truth conditions of the sentences involved in the inference failures. The intentional logic Zalta develops, unlike others, can analyze a wide variety of failures involving the principles of substitutivity, existential generalization, and strong extensionality.

A Bradford Book.