Affiliation:
1. Department of Philosophy, University of Oslo , N-0315 Oslo, Norway . E-mail: oystein.linnebo@ifikk.uio.no
2. Department of Philosophy, University of Konstanz , 78457 Konstanz, Germany
Abstract
Abstract
Bob Hale has defended a new conception of properties that is broadly Fregean in two key respects. First, like Frege, Hale insists that every property can be defined by an open formula. Second, like Frege, but unlike later definabilists, Hale seeks to justify full impredicative property comprehension. The most innovative part of his defense, we think, is a “definability constraint” that can serve as an implicit definition of the domain of properties. We make this constraint formally precise and prove that it fails to characterize the domain uniquely. Thus, we conclude, there is no easy road to impredicative definabilism.
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Subject
Philosophy,General Mathematics