We argue that the dream of a ‘perfect language’ – namely, a universal, unambiguous and semantically transparent medium of expression –, whose intriguing story has been told by Umberto Eco (1993), is deeply intertwined with the myth of instant rationality: the idea that a perfect language is one in which all logical relations beco- me immediately visible, so that the language itself “does the thinking for us” (Frege 1884). In the first part of this paper we trace this ver- sion of the dream in the works of Leibniz, Frege, Russell and Witt- genstein. In the second part we re-examine it in the light of more re- cent negative results in logic and theoretical computer science.

Logic and the Myth of the Perfect Language

D'AGOSTINO, Marcello
2010

Abstract

We argue that the dream of a ‘perfect language’ – namely, a universal, unambiguous and semantically transparent medium of expression –, whose intriguing story has been told by Umberto Eco (1993), is deeply intertwined with the myth of instant rationality: the idea that a perfect language is one in which all logical relations beco- me immediately visible, so that the language itself “does the thinking for us” (Frege 1884). In the first part of this paper we trace this ver- sion of the dream in the works of Leibniz, Frege, Russell and Witt- genstein. In the second part we re-examine it in the light of more re- cent negative results in logic and theoretical computer science.
2010
M., Carapezza; D'Agostino, Marcello
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11392/1411426
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