Formalization, Commitments and Constraints

Abstract: The topic of this talk is formalization: the assignment of formal language arguments to natural language arguments for the sake of evaluating the latter's validity. It has been recognized in the literature that formalization is far from a trivial process. One must discern the logical from the nonlogical in the sentence, a process that requires theorizing that goes beyond the mere understanding of the sentence formalized (Brun 2014). Moreover, according to some, formalization is a form of explication, and it "involves creative and normative aspects of constructing logical forms" (ibid).

In previous work, I proposed a model-theoretic framework of "semantic constraints," where there is no strict distinction between logical and nonlogical vocabulary. The form of sentences in a formal language is determined rather by a set of constraints on models. In the talk, I will show how this framework can also be used in the process of formalization, where the semantic constraints are conceived of as commitments made with respect to the language. I will extend the framework to include "formalization constraints" on functions taking arguments from a source language to a target language, and I will consider various meta-constraints on both the process of formalization and its end result.

logic

Audience: researchers in the topic

Online logic seminar

Series comments: Description: Seminar on all areas of logic