Ernst Mally

Ernst Mally

Ernst Mally (11 October 1879 - 8 March 1944) was an Austrian philosopher affiliated with the so-called Graz School of phenomenology. A pupil of Alexius Meinong, he was one of the founders of deontic logic and is mainly known for his contributions in that field of research.

Life

Mally was born in the town of Kranj ( _de. Krainburg) in the Duchy of Carniola, Austria-Hungary (now in Slovenia). His father was of Slovene origin, but identified himself with Austrian German culture (he also Germanized the ortography of his surname, originally spelled Mali, a common Slovene surname of Upper Carniola). After his death, the family moved to the Carniolan capital of Ljubljana ( _de. Laibach). There, Ernst frequented the prestigious Ljubljana German language Gymnasium. Already at a young age, Mally became a fervent supporter of the Pan-German nationalist movement of Georg von Schönerer. In the same time, he developed an interest in philosophy.

In 1898 he enrolled to the University of Graz, where he studied philosophy under the supervision of Alexius Meinong, as well as physics and mathematics, specializing in the field of formal logic. He graduated in 1903 with a thesis entitled "Untersuchungen zur Gegenstandstheorie des Messens" (Investigations in the Object Theory of Measurement). In 1906 he started teaching at a high school in Graz, at the same time working Meinong's assistant at the university. He also maintained close contacts with the Laboratory for Experimental Psychology, founded by Meinong. In 1912, he wrote his habilitation thesis entitled "Gegenstandstheoretische Grundlagen der Logik und Logistik" (Object-theoretic Foundations for Logics and Logistics) with Meinong as supervisor.

From 1915 to 1918 he served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army. After the end of World War One, Mally joined the Greater German People's Party, which called the unification of German Austria with Germany. In the same period, he started teaching at the university and in 1925 he took over Meinong's chair. In 1938, he became a member of the National Socialist Teachers' Association and two months after the "Anschluss" he joined the NSDAP. He continued teaching during the Nazi administration of Austria until 1942 when he retired. He died in 1944.

Mally's deontic logic

Mally was the first ever logician to attempt an axiomatisation of ethics. He used five axioms, which are given below. They form a first-order theory that quantifies over propositions, and there are several predicates to understand first. !x means that x ought to be the case. Ux means that x is unconditionally obligatory, i.e. that !x is necessarily true. ∩x means that x is unconditionally forbidden, i.e. U(¬x). A f B is the binary relation A requires B, i.e. A materially implies !B. (All entailment in the axioms is material conditional.) It is defined by axiom III, whereas all other terms are defined as a preliminary.

egin{array}{rl}mbox{I.} & ((A; operatorname{f}; B) And (B o C)) o (A; operatorname{f}; C) \mbox{II.} & ((A; operatorname{f}; B) And (A;operatorname{f};C)) o (A; operatorname{f}; (B And C)) \mbox{III.} & (A; operatorname{f}; B) leftrightarrow; !(A o B) \mbox{IV.} & exists U; !U \mbox{V.} & eg (U; operatorname{f}; cap)end{array}

Note the implied universal quantifiers in the above axioms.

The fourth axiom has confused some logicians because its formulation is not as they would have expected, since Mally gave each axiom a description in words also, and he said that axiom IV meant "the unconditionally obligatory is obligatory", i.e. (as many logicians have insisted) UA → !A. Meanwhile, axiom 5 lacks an object to which the predicates apply, a typo. However, it turns out these are the least of Mally's worries (see below).

Failure of Mally's deontic logic

Theorem: This axiomatisation of deontic logic implies that !x iff x is true, OR !x is unsatisfiable. (This makes it useless to deontic logicians.)Proof: Using axiom III, axiom I may be rewritten as (!(A → B) & (B → C)) → !(A → C). Since B → C holds whenever C holds, one immediate consequence is that (!(A → B) → (C → !(A → C))). In other words, if A requires B, it requires any true statement. In the special case where A is a tautology, the theorem has consequence (!B → (C → !C)). Thus, if at least one statement ought be true, every statement must materially entail it ought be true, and so every true statement ought be true. As for the converse (i.e. if some statement ought be true then all statements that ought be true are true), consider the following logic: ((U → !A) & (A → ∩)) → (U → !∩) is a special case of axiom I, but its consequent contradicts axiom V, and so ¬((U → !A) & (A → ∩)). The result !A → A can be shown to follow from this, since !A implies that U → !A and ¬A implies that A → ∩; and, since these are not both true, we know that !A → A.

Mally thought that axiom I was self-evident, but he likely confused it with an alternative in which the implication B → C is "logical", which would indeed make the axiom self-evident. The theorem above, however, would then not be demonstrable. The theorem was proven by Karl Menger, the next deontic logician. Neither Mally's original axioms nor a modification that avoids this result remains popular today. (Menger did not suggest his own axioms.) See also deontic logic for more on the subsequent development of this subject. Mally's grandson, Thomas, is currently at the University of Chicago attempting to prove the theories of his grandfather.

See also

*Graz School

External links

*Entry " [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mally/ Ernst Mally] " at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
*Entry " [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mally-deontic/ Mally's deontic logic] " at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Ernst Mally — (* 1879 in Krainburg; † 1944) war ein österreichischer Philosoph und Student von Alexius Meinong. Am wohl bekanntesten ist Mally für seine Beiträge in dem Gebiet der deontischen Logik. Gemeinhin wird er auch als einer der Gründer dieser Art von… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Mally — ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Ernst Mally (1879–1944), österreichischer Philosoph Komlan Mally (* 1960), Politiker in Togo Oliver Mally (* 1966), Gitarrist, Komponist, Bandleader und Sänger Remo Mally (* 1991), österreichischer… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ernst Schaumann (Maler) — Ernst Schaumann (* 7. Februar 1890 in Königsberg; † 25. Oktober 1955 in Pramort auf Zingst) war ein ostpreußischer Maler. Ernst Schaumann, Signatur von 1926 Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Lebens …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ernst Sars — Johan Ernst Welhaven Sars (* 11. Oktober 1835 in Kinn (heute Flora), Sogn og Fjordane; † 27. Januar 1917, in Aker (heute Oslo)) war ein norwegischer Historiker. Seine Eltern waren der Pfarrer und spätere Professor Michael Sars und dessen Frau… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Liste der Biografien/Mal — Biografien: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Deontic logic — is the field of logic that is concerned with obligation, permission, and related concepts. Alternatively, a deontic logic is a formal system that attempts to capture the essential logical features of these concepts. Typically, a deontic logic… …   Wikipedia

  • Deontische Logik — ist der Bereich der Logik, in der es um normative Begriffe wie Verpflichtung, Erlaubnis usw. geht. Eine bestimmte deontische Logik ist ein formales System, in dem es für derartige Begriffe formale Ausdrücke gibt, üblicherweise OA für eine… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • List of philosophy topics (I-Q) — II and thou I Ching I Ching I proposition I Thou I Thou relationshipIaIamblichus (philosopher)IbYahya Ibn Adi Yahya Ibn Adi Ibn al Arabi Muhyi al Din Ibn al Arabi Abu Bakr Ibn Bajja Abu Bakr Ibn Bājja Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Yahya Ibn as Say igh… …   Wikipedia

  • List of philosophers born in the nineteenth century — Philosophers born in the nineteenth century (and others important in the history of philosophy) , listed alphabetically::: Note: This list has a minimal criteria for inclusion and the relevance to philosophy of some individuals on the list is… …   Wikipedia

  • Edward N. Zalta — Edward N. Zalta, born 1952, is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for the Study of Language and Information. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.His research specialties include: *Metaphysics and… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”