Higher-order Logic - Criticism

Criticism

Quine has criticized higher-order logic (with standard semantics) as "set theory in sheep's clothing". Quine's criticism focuses on the lack of an effective, sound, complete proof theory; he argues that this makes HOL not a "logic". Shapiro has responded to this criticism, arguing that the additional semantic expressiveness can offset the lack of a proof theory, and arguing that a "logic" need only have a deductive system or a semantical system, but perhaps may not have both.

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