Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Jerry A. Fodor, David Bostock and Franz Brentano

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2 ideas

19. Language / F. Communication / 2. Assertion
In logic a proposition means the same when it is and when it is not asserted [Bostock]
     Full Idea: In Modus Ponens where the first premise is 'P' and the second 'P→Q', in the first premise P is asserted but in the second it is not. Yet it must mean the same in both premises, or it would be guilty of the fallacy of equivocation.
     From: David Bostock (Philosophy of Mathematics [2009], 7.2)
     A reaction: This is Geach's thought (leading to an objection to expressivism in ethics, that P means the same even if it is not expressed).
19. Language / F. Communication / 4. Private Language
The theory of the content of thought as 'Mentalese' explains why the Private Language Argument doesn't work [Fodor]
     Full Idea: If the Mentalese story about the content of thought is true, then there couldn't be a Private Language Argument. Good. That explains why there isn't one.
     From: Jerry A. Fodor (In a Critical Condition [2000], Ch. 6)
     A reaction: Presumably Mentalese implies that all language is, in the first instance, intrinsically private. Dogs, for example, need Mentalese, since they self-evidently think.