Necessity and Scope in the Logic of Quantification
Jeremy Kirby
Associate Professor
Philosophy
Albion College
When I say "Eight is necessarily greater that seven," I state something that is true. In contrast, when I say "The number of planets is necessarily greater than seven," I say something that is false. (We can conceive of a smaller solar system, indeed at times the number of planets is revised.) Furthermore, the locutions "eight" and "the number of planets" seem to pick out the same thing? How can it be both true and false of the same thing that it is necessarily greater than seven?