A Natural History of Negation (Center for the Study of Language and Information - Lecture Notes)

Rating:
Summary: Who Would Have Believed Negation Could Be This Interesting?
Review: Perhaps the best history of negation available in English. It is historical in that it identifies the way in which a given author questions some logical relation that all previous thinkers took for granted. It is, in the language of the field, pragmatic. It discusses the relation between logical relations and everyday discourse. Horn, an eminent figure in the field, will on occasion offer his own solution to a paradox that has puzzled logicians for centuries. He manages to be perfectly clear without sicrificing rigor. And he is a terribly witty writer. When it comes to combining logic with wit, he has no peer except V.O. Quine. I'm searching for a used copy, but apparentlv everyone who buys a new copy hangs on to it.