The many faces of counts-as: A formal analysis of constitutive rules

Abstract. The paper proposes a logical systematization of the notion of countsas which is grounded on a very simple intuition about what counts-as statements actually mean, i.e., forms of classification. Moving from this analytical thesis the paper disentangles three semantically different readings of statements of the type "X counts as Y in context c", from the weaker notion of contextual classification to the stronger notion of constitutive rule. These many ways in which counts-as can be said are formally addressed by making use of modal logic techniques. The resulting framework allows for a formal characterization of all the involved notions and their reciprocal logical relationships.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: JAPLL
• Authors: Davide Grossi, John-Jules Ch. Meyer, Frank Dignum
• Keywords: JAPLL 2008, Logical Systematization, Simple Intuition, Weaker Notion