@incollection {jespersen2013alleged, title = {Alleged assassins: realist and constructivist semantics for modal modification}, booktitle = {Logic, Language, and Computation}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science}, volume = {7758}, year = {2013}, pages = {94{\textendash}114}, publisher = {Springer}, abstract = {

Modal modifiers such as Alleged oscillate between being subsective and being privative. If individual a is an alleged assassin (at some parameter of evaluation) then it is an open question whether a is an assassin (at that parameter). Standardly, modal modifiers are negatively defined, in terms of failed inferences or non-intersectivity or non-extensionality. Modal modifiers are in want of a positive definition and a worked-out logical semantics. This paper offers two positive definitions. The realist definition is elaborated within Tich{\'y}’s Transparent Intensional Logic (TIL) and builds upon Montague’s model-theoretic semantics for adjectives as representing mappings from properties to properties. The constructivist definition is based on an extension of Martin-L{\"o}f’s Constructive Type Theory (CTT) so as to accommodate partial verification. We show that, and why, “a is an alleged assassin” and “Allegedly, a is an assassin” are equivalent in TIL and synonymous in CTT.

}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-36976-6_8}, author = {Jespersen, Bj{\o}rn and Primiero, Giuseppe} } @incollection {1853233, title = {Explanation in the social sciences}, booktitle = {The SAGE Handbook of the Philosophy of the Social Sciences}, year = {2011}, pages = {632{\textendash}646}, publisher = {Sage Publications}, address = {London}, abstract = {

This chapter gives an overview of the philosophical debates concerning explanation in the social sciences.

}, isbn = {9781847874009}, author = {Van Bouwel, Jeroen and Weber, Erik}, editor = {Jarvie, Ian and Zamora-Bonilla, Jesus} } @incollection {802714, title = {Two type-theoretical approaches to privative modification}, booktitle = {New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence: JSAI-isAI 2009 Workshops}, year = {2009}, pages = {239{\textendash}258}, publisher = {Springer Verlag}, address = {Berlin, Heidelberg}, abstract = {

In this paper we apply two kinds of procedural semantics to the problem of privative modification. We do this for three reasons. The first reason is to launch a tough test case to gauge the degree of substantial agreement between a constructivist and a realist interpretation of a procedural semantics; the second is to extend Martin-Lof{\textquoteright}s Type Theory to privative modification, which is characteristic of natural language; the third reason is to sketch a positive characterization of privation.

}, isbn = {4-915905-37-3 C3004}, author = {Primiero, Giuseppe and Jespersen, Bj{\o}rn}, editor = {Nakakoji, Kumiyo and Murakami, Yohei and McCready, Eric} }