[FOM] The unbearable ghastliness of EFQ, and sundry other matters arising from Harvey's last post

[Sara L. Uckelman]

On 09/04/2015 04:52 PM, Timothy Y. Chow wrote:
> A private email from an FOM member helped me understand this debate a
> bit better.
>
> Consider:
>
> A. From a contradiction follows anything.
> B. The material conditional P => Q is true if P is false.
>
> Does the disagreement boil down to whether there is any distinction
> between A and B?

There certainly should be: They have different truth conditions.  (A) is
an example of EFQ, but it's also something stronger than that, it's also
an example of ECQ (Ex Contradictione Quodlibet), whereas (B) is simply 
one of the two 'paradoxes' of material implication, and can be avoided
by moving to a strict account of implication.

-Sara



-- 
Dr. Sara L. Uckelman
Department of Philosophy
Durham University
https://www.dur.ac.uk/philosophy/staff/?id=12928

The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources
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