Single Idea 18041

[catalogued under 2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 8. Category Mistake / d. Category mistake as pragmatic]

Full Idea

I argue that category mistakes are infelicitous because they suffer from (pragmatic) presupposition failure, ...but I reject the 'naive pragmatic approach' according to which category mistakes are infelicitous because they are trivially true or false.

Gist of Idea

Category mistakes suffer from pragmatic presupposition failure (which is not mere triviality)

Source

Ofra Magidor (Category Mistakes [2013], 5.1)

Book Reference

Magidor,Ofra: 'Category Mistakes' [OUP 2013], p.111


A Reaction

She supports her case quite well, but I vote for them being false. The falsity may involve presuppositions. 'Two is green' is a category mistake, and false, because 'two' lacks the preconditions for anything to be coloured (notably, emitting light).