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Full Idea
One could train a dog to bark only when a bell rang and a light shone without presupposing that it possessed the concept of conjunction.
Gist of Idea
You can't infer a dog's abstract concepts from its behaviour
Source
Michael Dummett (Truth [1959], p.235)
Book Ref
'The Nature of Truth', ed/tr. Lynch, Michael P. [MIT 2001], p.235
| 19171 | Tarski's truth is like rules for winning games, without saying what 'winning' means [Dummett, by Davidson] |
| 10838 | To explain a concept, we need its purpose, not just its rules of usage [Dummett] |
| 10837 | It is part of the concept of truth that we aim at making true statements [Dummett] |
| 10839 | You can't infer a dog's abstract concepts from its behaviour [Dummett] |
| 10840 | We must be able to specify truths in a precise language, like winning moves in a game [Dummett] |