Single Idea 19055

[catalogued under 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 4. Meaning as Truth-Conditions]

Full Idea

An ability to state the condition for the truth of a sentence is, in effect, no more than an ability to express the content of the sentence in other words.

Gist of Idea

Stating a sentence's truth-conditions is just paraphrasing the sentence

Source

Michael Dummett (The philosophical basis of intuitionist logic [1973], p.224)

Book Reference

Dummett,Michael: 'Truth and Other Enigmas' [Duckworth 1978], p.224


A Reaction

Alternatively, if you give something other than a paraphrase of the sentence as its meaning (such as a proof of its truth), then you seem to have departed from your target sentence. Can we reduce and eliminate our sentences in this way?