Description
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. When one thinks--knows, believes, imagines--that something is the case, one's thought has a topic: it is about something, towards which one's mind is directed. What is the logic of thought, so understood? This book begins to explore the idea that, to answer the question, we should take topics seriously. It proposes a hyperintensional account of the propositional contents of thought, arguing that these are individuated not only by the set of possible worlds at which they are true, but also by their topic: what they are about. The book then builds epistemic, doxastic, probabilistic, and conditional logics based on this view. It applies them to issues ranging from dogmatism, scepticism, and epistemic fallibilism, to imagination and suppositional reasoning, belief revision, framing effects, and the acceptability of indicative conditionals.
About the Author
Francesco Berto is Chair of Logic and Metaphysics at the Department of Philosophy and the Arche Research Centre at the University of St Andrews, and also works at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) of the University of Amsterdam. He has worked at the Universities of Notre Dame, Aberdeen, Venice, Padua, Milan-San Raffaele, Lugano, and at the Sorbonne-Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. He writes on ontology, logic, epistemology, and the philosophy of computation. He is the editor-in-chief of The Philosophical Quarterly.
Reviews
Philosophy is buzzing again with interest in conceptions of thought and content more fine-grained than those of traditional intensional semantics. For anyone who wants to know what the buzz is all about, this superb new book by one of the foremost proponents of the hyperintensional movement is quite simply a must-read. * Hannes Leitgeb, Professor of Philosophy, LMU Munich *
This wonderful book brings formal semantics and epistemology together, placing topic-sensitivity at the center of the logic of thought. Franz Berto takes the reader on a journey, starting from such a key idea and exploring it step by step to uncover new territory. * Sonja Smets, Professor of Logic and Epistemology, University of Amsterdam *
Equipped with a simple notion of subject matter, Berto guides us through areas where logic normally fears to tread: imagination, intentionality, hypothesis-development, framing effects, epistemic fallibility, and awareness. A spectacularly good book. Did I mention omniscience, belief revision, and conditionals? Topic shines its light on them, too. You must absolutely read it. * Stephen Yablo, David W. Skinner Professor of Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology *
The book presents a new framework for the logic of thought. * MathSciNet *
Prior to publication the book's content was vetted in numerous seminars, workshops, and conferences worldwide, so it may well be taken as a beacon for much of the future development of topic-sensitive logics of intentionality. * Choice *
This is a fantastic book, which greatly advances our understanding of hyperintensional semantics...The semantics and its pros and cons, in particular also its current limitations, are all discussed with great clarity and intellectual honesty. The book is also a pleasure to read, filled with creative examples and written in an entirely unpre- tentious and highly accessible style. At the moment, I can think of no better starting point than Berto's book for anyone seriously interested in hyperintensional semantics. * Igor Douven, Mind *
We find Topics of Thought to be an immensely valuable book full of original ideas and insights. We have learned a great deal from engaging with it, and we warmly recommend it to anyone who has interests in hyperintensionality, topicality and the logic of propositional attitudes such as knowledge, belief and imagination. * JC Bjerring and Mattias Skipper, Analysis *
Topics of Thought is a mighty ambitious book and a thought-provoking (cringy pun intended) piece of philosophy. * Derek Lam, The Junkyard of the Mind *
Book Information
ISBN 9780192857491
Author Francesco Berto
Format Hardback
Page Count 241
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Dimensions(mm) 223mm * 144mm * 16mm
About the Author
Francesco Berto is Chair of Logic and Metaphysics at the Department of Philosophy and the Arche Research Centre at the University of St Andrews, and also works at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) of the University of Amsterdam. He has worked at the Universities of Notre Dame, Aberdeen, Venice, Padua, Milan-San Raffaele, Lugano, and at the Sorbonne-Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. He writes on ontology, logic, epistemology, and the philosophy of computation. He is the editor-in-chief of The Philosophical Quarterly.
Reviews
Philosophy is buzzing again with interest in conceptions of thought and content more fine-grained than those of traditional intensional semantics. For anyone who wants to know what the buzz is all about, this superb new book by one of the foremost proponents of the hyperintensional movement is quite simply a must-read. * Hannes Leitgeb, Professor of Philosophy, LMU Munich *
This wonderful book brings formal semantics and epistemology together, placing topic-sensitivity at the center of the logic of thought. Franz Berto takes the reader on a journey, starting from such a key idea and exploring it step by step to uncover new territory. * Sonja Smets, Professor of Logic and Epistemology, University of Amsterdam *
Equipped with a simple notion of subject matter, Berto guides us through areas where logic normally fears to tread: imagination, intentionality, hypothesis-development, framing effects, epistemic fallibility, and awareness. A spectacularly good book. Did I mention omniscience, belief revision, and conditionals? Topic shines its light on them, too. You must absolutely read it. * Stephen Yablo, David W. Skinner Professor of Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology *
The book presents a new framework for the logic of thought. * MathSciNet *
Prior to publication the book's content was vetted in numerous seminars, workshops, and conferences worldwide, so it may well be taken as a beacon for much of the future development of topic-sensitive logics of intentionality. * Choice *
This is a fantastic book, which greatly advances our understanding of hyperintensional semantics...The semantics and its pros and cons, in particular also its current limitations, are all discussed with great clarity and intellectual honesty. The book is also a pleasure to read, filled with creative examples and written in an entirely unpre- tentious and highly accessible style. At the moment, I can think of no better starting point than Berto's book for anyone seriously interested in hyperintensional semantics. * Igor Douven, Mind *
We find Topics of Thought to be an immensely valuable book full of original ideas and insights. We have learned a great deal from engaging with it, and we warmly recommend it to anyone who has interests in hyperintensionality, topicality and the logic of propositional attitudes such as knowledge, belief and imagination. * JC Bjerring and Mattias Skipper, Analysis *
Topics of Thought is a mighty ambitious book and a thought-provoking (cringy pun intended) piece of philosophy. * Derek Lam, The Junkyard of the Mind *
Book Information
ISBN 9780192857491
Author Francesco Berto
Format Hardback
Page Count 241
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Dimensions(mm) 223mm * 144mm * 16mm
