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Single Idea 19005

[filed under theme 19. Language / F. Communication / 3. Denial ]

Full Idea

The idea that negation is, or can be, a cancellation device raises an interesting question. What does one do to wipe the slate clean after an improper assertion? Not-A is too strong; it reverses our stand on A rather than nullifying it.

Gist of Idea

Not-A is too strong to just erase an improper assertion, because it actually reverses A

Source

Stephen Yablo (Aboutness [2014], 09.8)

Book Ref

Yablo,Stephen: 'Aboutness' [Princeton 2014], p.162

A Reaction

[He is discussing a remark of Strawson 1952] It seems that 'not' has two meanings or uses: a weak use of 'nullifying' an assertion, and a strong use of 'reversing' an assertion. One could do both: 'that's not right; in fact, it's just the opposite'.

The 14 ideas from 'Aboutness'

18993 If sentences point to different evidence, they must have different subject-matter [Yablo]
18992 Sentence-meaning is the truth-conditions - plus factors responsible for them [Yablo]
18994 The content of an assertion can be quite different from compositional content [Yablo]
18996 A statement S is 'partly true' if it has some wholly true parts [Yablo]
18997 Truth-conditions as subject-matter has problems of relevance, short cut, and reversal [Yablo]
18999 y is only a proper part of x if there is a z which 'makes up the difference' between them [Yablo]
18998 Parthood lacks the restriction of kind which most relations have [Yablo]
19001 'Pegasus doesn't exist' is false without Pegasus, yet the absence of Pegasus is its truthmaker [Yablo]
19002 A nominalist can assert statements about mathematical objects, as being partly true [Yablo]
19003 Most people say nonblack nonravens do confirm 'all ravens are black', but only a tiny bit [Yablo]
19004 Gettier says you don't know if you are confused about how it is true [Yablo]
19005 Not-A is too strong to just erase an improper assertion, because it actually reverses A [Yablo]
19006 An 'enthymeme' is an argument with an indispensable unstated assumption [Yablo]
19007 A theory need not be true to be good; it should just be true about its physical aspects [Yablo]