Wittgenstein's color exclusion and Johnson's determinable
pp. 257-282
in: Sorin Costreie (ed), Early analytic philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 2016Abstract
The paper aims at comparing Wittgenstein's discussion of color exclusion in his (1929) to Johnson's doctrine of determinable and determinate expounded in his (1921). I first (Sects. §2–§4) summarize Wittgenstein's developments about the incompatibility of elementary propositions and about the logic of color statements. In the second part (Sects. §5–§7), I present and discuss Johnson's doctrine in relation to Wittgenstein's development. In a third conclusive moment (Sect. §8), drawing on a early work of Prior, I argue that the distinction made by Wittgenstein and Johnson between predication and determination should be looked at from a long term historical perspective.
