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Single Idea 18055

[filed under theme 2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 8. Category Mistake / d. Category mistake as pragmatic ]

Full Idea

My proposal is that the truth-conditional content of 'green' (in 'two is green') is the property of being green, and its presuppositional content is the property of being coloured.

Gist of Idea

In 'two is green', 'green' has a presupposition of being coloured

Source

Ofra Magidor (Category Mistakes [2013], 5.4.1)

Book Ref

Magidor,Ofra: 'Category Mistakes' [OUP 2013], p.132

A Reaction

This requires a two-dimensional semantics of truth-conditional and presuppositional content. I fear it may have a problem she spotted elsewhere, of overgenerating presuppositions. Eyes are presupposed by 'green'. Ambient light is required.

Related Idea

Idea 18048 A test for presupposition would be if it provoked 'hey wait a minute - I have no idea that....' [Magidor]

The 5 ideas with the same theme [category mistakes as result of confusions in a context]:

18041 Category mistakes suffer from pragmatic presupposition failure (which is not mere triviality) [Magidor]
18056 Category mistakes because of presuppositions still have a truth value (usually 'false') [Magidor]
18055 In 'two is green', 'green' has a presupposition of being coloured [Magidor]
18057 'Numbers are coloured and the number two is green' seems to be acceptable [Magidor]
18058 Maybe the presuppositions of category mistakes are the abilities of things? [Magidor]