created 2025-06-04, & modified, =this.modified
rel: Erotetics Blindspot Lectures on Logic - Jean-Yves Girard
Why I’m reading
Questions about questions. Seems involved. Questions, more interesting than answers?
The book is thus intended as a par excellence philosophical monograph of the theory of questions, presenting the most important erotetic problems, its general background and selected practical applications.
Ontological and Epistemological Preliminaries
A natural picture of the world
Questions are used by people to communicate the contents of their thoughts. Ontic categories are the most general classes of elements of reality, and analytic categories are ways of ordering reality or experience.
Schematization of given objects consists of assigning elements of this object to elements of other, simpler objects – e.g., assigning elements of a real concert to elements of a drawing depicting this concert. Let us call a product of schematization of a given object − “a picture of this object.”
Schematization of a given object is usually accompanied with a simplification, which omits some elements of the schematized object. It is an “abstracting-form” where a mental replacement (variabilization) of certain properties of the objects.
Abstraction sensu stricto consists in mentally isolating some of the dependent parts of an analyzed object from it, e.g., the mental isolation of the brown color from a certain brown violin, or the isolation of the pitch “a” from a heard sound.
An isolated property is not necessarily universal. Universal objects − such as brown-in-general, playing-in-general, violinist-in-general − are treated suspiciously by some philosophers. The author does not support set theoretical interpretations of universal objects (sets or sequences of individuals) but views them as incomplete beings.
We can distinguish essential properties from a particular object, and then universalize a reduced construction to obtain a genus.
a basis of generalization lays in isolating in reality some classes of similar objects, i.e., categories (ontic categories, in particular). Essential properties of objects − which become after universalization elements of kinds − are those properties of a given object which are “shared” with other objects.
The relationship between conviction with accepting
x is convinced that p (resp. ~p) ↔ x accepts (resp. rejects) the sentence ‘p’ as a truth
Semantics and Pragmatics
The main function of a natural language is communication of people’s experiences (interpersonal communication); the main function of artificial languages is the representation of reality (extrapersonal representations).
Expressions of a scientific text refer directly to reality. The author and his experiences has no value for science; he and his experiences should be ‘invisible’ if his aim is to say something of the reality he explores.
| Semantics | Pragmatics |
|---|---|
| Examines relations between signs and extralinguistic reality | examines relations between signs and users or context |
| a theory of reference and truth | a theory of occasionalisms (or index expressions), presuppositional attitudes, pressupostions, implicatures and speech acts |
| concerns functions of expresion-types considered outside of context | concerns functions of expression-tokens, considered in a given context |
| is a formal descriptions of language | is an informal description of language |
Logical (pure) semantics and Linguistic (descriptive) semantics
Logical semantics is a theory of formalized languages; set-theoretical objects are assigned to expressions of a formalized language.
One unquestionable advantage of logical semantics is its precision. A consequence of simplicity of set-theoretical objects − which are correlates of expressions in logical semantics − is that such semantics are especially suitable for the analysis of the language of mathematics and mathematized empirical theories. But it fits to natural language and to languages or the humanities to a much lesser extent, simply because these languages are categorially much more diversified.
Every artificial language is similar – at least minimally – to natural language.
A minimal semiotic relation is a binary relation that binds a sign to certain not-sign (a correlate, user or an element of context). Every binary semiotic relation is the result of idealization (reduction of more-argument relations.) Thus a binary relation is a result of schematization, simplification and generalization of arguments.
The basic function of natural language consists of communication between people. Highly idealized semiotic relations, especially in artificial languages, seem to abandon this intuition. Relations between signs of formal languages and their correlates are described without paying any attention to the communicative aspect. But let me stress once again: natural language, as a language of everyday communication, is a model also for artificial languages, in which the connection between signs and correlates is chosen arbitrary
Sentences and Pictures of Situations
By the use of sentences we give an account of what pictures of reality we possess in our minds. Sentences we utter correspond somehow to the content of our mental states; true sentences also possess correlates in reality. These contents of mental states are “private” − they are particular states of people using language expressions.
Sentence uttered by person O: Fryderyk Chopin loved Konstancja Gładkowska
The situation in scheme exists on these levels.
- A - real situations, we know from historical sources
- B - universal situations, abstracted from real ones.
- C - the level of sign tokens (utterances)
- D - sign types, abstracted from particular utterances
- E - particular experiences
- F - objects abstracted from particular experiences
Natural language questions and especially queries with occur in questions essentially, are ambiguous and vague. Queries are ambiguous because in different contexts they delimit different scopes of unknowns. They are vague because the scopes of the unknowns delimit imprecisely: sometimes we cannot decide which expressions may fill a gap correctly.
From the point of view of logical standards, effective communication in natural language is a certain communicational miracle
Answers
Direct Answer - generally, one may say that while questions communicate the will of filling a gap in the picture of situation, direct answers communicate how to fill it.
Assertive Emphasis:
- Which Polish composer died in the Tatra Mountains?
- Mieczysław Karłowicz died in the Tatra.
- Where did Mieczysław Karłowicz die?
- Mieczysław Karłowicz died in the Tatra Moutains.
Indirect Answer - the indirect answer to a given question is a sentence which does not fill a gap, but delivers information which enables one to fill it.
The author of the symphonic poem Stanisław i Anna Oświeci- mowie died in the Tatra Mountains.
An indirect answer to the question Q, on the basis of the cognitive context C, is a sentence which entails in a conjunction with the elements of C a direct answer to Q.
Partial Answer - is a sentence S which follows from a direct answer to Q in conjunction with elements of C.
- Where is the heart of Fryderyk Chopin buried?
- Somewhere in France.
Limiting Answer - close to a partial answer but imposing a limitation of the scope of the unknown in question Q.
- Which composer died tragically?
- Fryderyk Chopin did not die tragically.
Correcting Answer -
- Did Karol Szymanowski die in Warsaw, or in Zakopane?
- Karol Szymanowski died in Lusanne.
- I do not know.
- I will not say.
- I cannot say.
Accurate/Exhaustive Answer -
Concepts of direct, indirect, partial, limiting and modifying answer do not contain logical value as their component: a given sentence may play the role of a direct, indirect and partial answer independent of whether it is true or false.
- Who was a member of Młoda Polska?
- Karol Szymanowski was a member of Młoda Polska.
- Ludomir Różycki was a member of Młoda Polska.
- Ignacy Jan Paderewski was not a member of Młoda Polska.
A conjunction of all accurate answers (not even exhaustive answer is a conjunction of accurate answers.)
Grzegorz Fitelberg, Apolinary Szeluto, Ludomir Różycki, and Karol Szymanowski were members of Młoda Polska.