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Full Idea
If a subject can be credited with the thought that a is F, then he must have the conceptual resources for entertaining the thought that a is G, for every property of being G of which he has conception. This condition I call the 'Generality Constraint'.
Gist of Idea
The Generality Constraint says if you can think a predicate you can apply it to anything
Source
Gareth Evans (The Varieties of Reference [1980], p.104), quoted by François Recanati - Mental Files 5.3
Book Ref
Recanati,François: 'Mental Files' [OUP 2012], p.65
A Reaction
Recanati endorses the Constraint in his account of mental files. Apparently if I can entertain the thought of a circle being round, I can also entertain the thought of it being square, so I am not too sure about this one.
12580 | Experiences have no conceptual content [Evans, by Greco] |
23794 | Some representational states, like perception, may be nonconceptual [Evans, by Schulte] |
12575 | Concepts have a 'Generality Constraint', that we must know how predicates apply to them [Evans, by Peacocke] |
7643 | We have far fewer colour concepts than we have discriminations of colour [Evans] |
16366 | The Generality Constraint says if you can think a predicate you can apply it to anything [Evans] |