more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
The essential indexical is a problem for the view that belief is a relation between subjects and propositions conceived as bearers of truth and falsity.
Clarification
'Indexicals' are words like 'I' and 'now', where meaning partly depends on context
Gist of Idea
Indexicals are a problem for beliefs being just subject-proposition relations
Source
John Perry (The Problem of the Essential Indexical [1979], 'Intro')
Book Ref
'Self-Knowledge', ed/tr. Cassam,Quassim [OUP 1994], p.167
A Reaction
My immediate reaction would be that it depends on how you conceive of 'propositions'. If they are objective, you have a problem. I take them to be subjective events in brains, and the indexical meaning to be evident within the proposition.
| 20868 | Two sorts of opinion: either poorly grounded belief, or weak belief [Stoic school, by Stobaeus] |
| 2207 | Belief can't be a concept plus an idea, or we could add the idea to fictions [Hume] |
| 2208 | Belief is just a particular feeling attached to ideas of objects [Hume] |
| 7660 | We are aware of beliefs, they appease our doubts, and they are rules of action, or habits [Peirce] |
| 5780 | The three questions about belief are its contents, its success, and its character [Russell] |
| 5426 | Belief relates a mind to several things other than itself [Russell] |
| 8806 | The concepts of belief and truth are linked, since beliefs are meant to fit reality [Davidson] |
| 12149 | Indexicals are a problem for beliefs being just subject-proposition relations [Perry] |
| 6171 | Beliefs are states of the head that explain behaviour, and also items with referential truth-conditions [McGinn] |
| 4266 | Having beliefs involves recognition, expectation and surprise [Scruton] |