What is Logical Absolutism? Reply to Alejandro Tomasini

Abstract

This paper is a response to Tomasini's review of my book Lógica, lenguaje y realidad [Logic, Language, and Reality], 2001. l argue that his criticism fails at least in five points: 1) he neglects the differences between van Heijenoort's and Hintikka's distinction between logic as language and language as universal medium, and, by the way, my own. 2) I showed that his request for a sharp definition about the notion of logical absolutism is misguided. 3) I also explain briefly how he confuses my own interpretation of Wittgenstein's absolutism with the so called picture theory. 4) It is suggested that the received view about Wittgenstein's arithmetic, held by Tomasini, is misguided in important ways and so cannot be used against the view he oposes; namely, logicism. 5) Finally, a few remarks show that Tomasini's discussion concerning Frege's notion of analicity is out of place.