more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 6989

[filed under theme 19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 6. Truth-Conditions Semantics ]

Full Idea

If I hear someone say "He has a beard", and I don't know whether it is Jackson, Jones, or someone else, I don't know which proposition is being expressed in the sense of not knowing the conditions under which what is said is true.

Gist of Idea

I can understand "He has a beard", without identifying 'he', and hence the truth conditions

Source

Frank Jackson (From Metaphysics to Ethics [1998], Ch.3)

Book Ref

Jackson,Frank: 'From Metaphysics to Ethics' [OUP 2000], p.73


A Reaction

This is the neatest and simplest problem I have encountered for Davidson's truth-conditions account of meaning. However, we probably just say that we understand the sense but not the reference. The strict-and-literal but not contextual meaning.


The 15 ideas with the same theme [giving meaning by specifying how sentences would be true]:

The theory of definite descriptions aims at finding correct truth conditions [Russell, by Lycan]
Truth-condition theorists must argue use can only be described by appeal to conditions of truth [Dummett]
The truth-conditions theory must get agreement on a conception of truth [Dummett]
Davidson's theory of meaning focuses not on terms, but on relations between sentences [Rorty]
Top-down semantic analysis must begin with truth, as it is obvious, and explains linguistic usage [Davidson]
Community implies assertability-conditions rather than truth-conditions semantics [Kripke, by Hanna]
I can understand "He has a beard", without identifying 'he', and hence the truth conditions [Jackson]
Truth in a language is explained by how the structural elements of a sentence contribute to its truth conditions [Harman]
To understand an utterance, you must understand what the world would be like if it is true [Stalnaker]
Externalist semantics are necessary to connect the contents of beliefs with how the world is [Fodor]
Semantic content is a proposition made of sentence constituents (not some set of circumstances) [Soames]
There is information if there are symbols which refer, and which can combine into a truth or falsehood [McGinn]
Truth conditions will come out the same for sentences with 'renate' or 'cordate' [Lycan]
Truth-conditions as subject-matter has problems of relevance, short cut, and reversal [Yablo]
If truth is deflationary, sentence truth-conditions just need good declarative syntax [Miller,A]