Lewis's Generalization
Encyclopedia
Lewis's Generalization is an analysis of the non-monotonic semantics
of definite description
s. It was proposed, as an aside, by David Lewis
in Counterfactuals (1973): a sort of corollary
to possible world semantics. Philippe Schlenker revived the analysis, dubbing it "Lewis's Generalization" in 2003.
Several other writers have accepted this terminology of Schlenker's.
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
of definite description
Definite description
A definite description is a denoting phrase in the form of "the X" where X is a noun-phrase or a singular common noun. The definite description is proper if X applies to a unique individual or object. For example: "the first person in space" and "the 42nd President of the United States of...
s. It was proposed, as an aside, by David Lewis
David Kellogg Lewis
David Kellogg Lewis was an American philosopher. Lewis taught briefly at UCLA and then at Princeton from 1970 until his death. He is also closely associated with Australia, whose philosophical community he visited almost annually for more than thirty years...
in Counterfactuals (1973): a sort of corollary
Corollary
A corollary is a statement that follows readily from a previous statement.In mathematics a corollary typically follows a theorem. The use of the term corollary, rather than proposition or theorem, is intrinsically subjective...
to possible world semantics. Philippe Schlenker revived the analysis, dubbing it "Lewis's Generalization" in 2003.
Several other writers have accepted this terminology of Schlenker's.
External links
- Paul Égré and Mikäel Cozic. Introduction to the Logic of Conditionals. 20th European Summer School in Logic, Language and InformationEuropean Summer School in Logic, Language and InformationThe European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information is an annual academic conference organized by the European Association for Logic, Language and Information. The focus of study is the "interface between linguistics, logic and computation, with special emphasis on human linguistic and...
(ESSLLI), 4–15 August 2008.