Single Idea 22250

[catalogued under 19. Language / D. Propositions / 4. Mental Propositions]

Full Idea

There is the speaker's thought and the thought formed by the hearer. That is all there is. We don't need an additional entity, the thought expressed by the utterance.

Gist of Idea

There are speakers' thoughts and hearers' thoughts, but no further thought attached to the utterance

Source

François Recanati (Mental Files in Flux [2016], 7.2)

Book Reference

Recanati,François: 'Mental Files in Flux' [OUP 2016], p.119


A Reaction

This fits my view of propositions nicely. They are the two 'thoughts'. The notion of some further abstract 'proposition' with its own mode of independent existence strikes me as ontologically absurd.