The Genealogy of Disjunction

This study examines the textbook myths that have clouded our understanding of how or and other "logical" vocabulary comes to have something approaching its logical meaning in natural languages. Jennings finds that much of our understanding of the relationship between logic and natural language has been based upon mistaken assumptions about the character of or and other "logical" vocabulary of natural language, and ultimately upon mistaken beliefs about the nature of human thought and language. Jennings's approach considers the various historical conceptions of disjunction from its place in the logic of the Stoics to the present day.