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New Foundations for Intensionality

Project description

Exploring meaning through the logic of intensionality

Intensional concepts, such as property, proof, possibility and necessity, shape our worldview but give rise to paradoxes that have never been resolved. These paradoxes challenge theories of meaning that lie at the heart of philosophy and linguistics. The ERC-funded GOOD INTENSIONS project aims to solve the intensional paradoxes by taking a proof-centred approach to logic and language. Specifically, the project sets out to generate well motivated and consistent theories of property, proof, possibility and necessity. These theories will then be tested, and the results are expected to pave the way for a better understanding of intensionality.

Objective

Intensional notions such as those of property, content, proof, possibility and necessity are central to philosophy, logic, mathematics and linguistics. However, these notions are threatened by paradoxes reminiscent of those that plagued the foundations of mathematics at the beginning of the XX century. And while a consensus has emerged over which shape a foundation of mathematics should take, the intensional paradoxes are still awaiting solution. Indeed, the intensional paradoxes affect the major theories of content that in recent years have brought about what has been hailed as a hyperintensional revolution, with many applications in philosophy and linguistics.

The GOOD INTENSIONS project aims to provide new philosophical, semantical and logical foundations for intensional notions, which will deliver a comprehensive and uniform solution to the intensional paradoxes. To achieve this, GOOD INTENSIONS will develop a fundamentally new approach to intensionality based on three ground-breaking ideas: a general, function-first approach to intensional talk, focused on its expressive role; a new, proof-theoretic approach to the semantics of intensional vocabulary; an original approach to the intensional paradoxes based on the use of intensional vocabulary in hypothetical contexts.

The resulting new approach to intensionality will be used to develop new theories and logics of properties, content, proof and modality which are philosophically and linguistically motivated, paradox-free and logically strong. As a proof of concept for the new approach to intensionality, the new theories and logics will be applied to central philosophical questions, such as the question of whether the mind is a machine and the question of realism about properties.

Based at the ILLC and advised by an international board of researchers, GOOD INTENSIONS will use an interdisciplinary methodology to revolutionize the study of intensionality.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG

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Host institution

UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 499 832,00
Total cost

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Beneficiaries (1)

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