Single Idea 18039

[catalogued under 2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 8. Category Mistake / c. Category mistake as semantic]

Full Idea

Having rejected the syntactic approach and the meaninglessness view, one might feel that the last resort for explaining the defectiveness of category mistakes is to claim that they are truth-valueless (even if meaningful).

Gist of Idea

If category mistakes aren't syntax failure or meaningless, maybe they just lack a truth-value?

Source

Ofra Magidor (Category Mistakes [2013], 4.3.1)

Book Reference

Magidor,Ofra: 'Category Mistakes' [OUP 2013], p.91


A Reaction

She rejects this one as well, and votes for a pragmatic explanation, in terms of presupposition failure. The view I incline towards is just that they are false, despite being well-formed, meaningful and truth-valued.