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Single Idea 18406

[filed under theme 19. Language / F. Communication / 5. Pragmatics / a. Contextual meaning ]

Full Idea

In what we label 'Basic Kaplanianism', each of the sentences 'Smith is happy' and 'I am happy', as uttered by Smith, has two levels of meaning. The 'content' is a truth-conditional representation. The 'character' is a function from contexts to contents.

Gist of Idea

The basic Kaplan view is that there is truth-conditional content, and contextual character

Source

Cappelen,H/Dever,Josh (The Inessential Indexical [2013], 01.6)

Book Ref

Cappelen,H/Dever,J: 'The Inessential Indexical' [OUP 2013], p.15

A Reaction

They give this as a minimal and plausible account of the situation, without reading huge significance into the indexical. I'm inclined to see the situation in terms of the underlying proposition containing both ingredients.

The 19 ideas from Cappelen,H/Dever,Josh

18404 It is assumed that indexical content is needed to represent the perspective of perception [Cappelen/Dever]
18405 A 'teepee' argument has several mutually supporting planks to it [Cappelen/Dever]
18406 The basic Kaplan view is that there is truth-conditional content, and contextual character [Cappelen/Dever]
18408 Indexicals are just non-constant in meaning, and don't involve any special concepts [Cappelen/Dever]
18407 Indexicality is not significantly connected to agency [Cappelen/Dever]
18411 It is proposed that a huge range of linguistic items are context-sensitive [Cappelen/Dever]
18413 Fregeans can't agree on what 'senses' are [Cappelen/Dever]
18414 Fregeans say 'I' differs in reference, so it must also differ in sense [Cappelen/Dever]
18417 Possible worlds accounts of content are notoriously coarse-grained [Cappelen/Dever]
18419 Folk Functionalism is a Ramsification of our folk psychology [Cappelen/Dever]
18420 We deny that action involves some special class of beliefs [Cappelen/Dever]
18421 Proprioception is only immune from error if you are certain that it represents the agent [Cappelen/Dever]
18422 Prioprioception focuses on your body parts, not on your self, or indexicality [Cappelen/Dever]
18423 All indexicals can be expressed non-indexically [Cappelen/Dever]
18425 We can acquire self-knowledge with mirrors, not just with proprioception and introspection [Cappelen/Dever]
18426 All information is objective, and purely indexical information is not much use [Cappelen/Dever]
18427 If some of our thought is tied to its context, it will be hard to communicate it [Cappelen/Dever]
18428 You don't remember your house interior just from an experienced viewpoint [Cappelen/Dever]
18429 Our beliefs and desires are not organised around ourselves, but around the world [Cappelen/Dever]