How Definite Descriptions work | Symbolic Logic Tutorial | Attic Philosophy

In this tutorial video, we look at how Definite Descriptions - phrases like ‘the lecturer’ or ‘the best show on TV right now’ - work in logic. We’ll meet a philosophical problem for understanding definite descriptions, and how Bertrand Russell solved it, using identity in first order logic. 00:00 - Intro 01:05 - Definite descriptions 02:00 - The problem 04:27 - Russell’s analysis 05:45 - Excluded middle 07:08 - The idea behind logical analysis 08:38 - Problem 1: uniqueness 09:39 - Quantifier domain restriction 12:19 - Problem 2: Presuppositions 16:32 - Wrap-up Related videos: