The Semantics and Psychology of Negation: The Australian Plan, Negation as Failure, and Card Selection Tasks

October 19, 2023

Abstract: In this talk, I will explain how two different kinds of semantics for negation can be used to help us understand some puzzles in the psychology of reasoning. I introduce the “Australian Plan” semantics for negation, which generalises the semantics of negation as found in “worlds” semantics for intuitionistic logic, relevant logics and other substructural logics; and semantics from logic programming and default logic which treat negation as failure. I provide a framework in which two kinds of semantic clauses for negation coexist, and use this to model to give a possible account of why reasoners fare differently in card selection tasks depending on whether the target property is phrased positively or negatively.

This talk reports joint work with Francesco Berto.

  • The talk is a presentation at the University of Stirling Philosophy Seminar.
  • The slides of the talk are available here.

about

I’m Greg Restall, and this is my personal website. I am the Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, and the Director of the Arché Philosophical Research Centre for Logic, Language, Metaphysics and Epistemology I like thinking about – and helping other people think about – logic and philosophy and the many different ways they can inform each other.

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