Self‐Application and Higher‐Orderese

ABSTRACT

Following Arthur Prior, some philosophers have thought that English allows predicate quantification, as exemplified by a sentence like ‘Carlos is something Diana is not‐kind’. This paper both defends this conclusion and argues that if the second‐order reading of Prior sentences is correct, English also admits of self‐applicative predication (SAP): cases in which a predicate applies directly to itself, not to a reified variant of itself. The presence of SAP in English is used to argue for the use of a SAP‐friendly language for the purposes of metaphysics, based largely on grounds analogous to those on which some philosophers have recently defended the use of higher‐order languages.