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Single Idea 7314

[filed under theme 19. Language / E. Analyticity / 1. Analytic Propositions ]

Full Idea

There are two problems with Kant's characterisation of analytic truths (as having 'the predicate contained within the subject'): what exactly does it mean to say that bachelor "contains" unmarried man?, and it is limited to subject-predicate sentences.

Gist of Idea

How can bachelor 'contain' unmarried man? Are all analytic truths in subject-predicate form?

Source

comment on Immanuel Kant (Critique of Pure Reason [1781]) by Alexander Miller - Philosophy of Language 4.2

Book Ref

Miller,Alexander: 'Philosophy of Language' [UCL Press 1998], p.115

A Reaction

He picks these objections up from Quine. I always have reservations about Quine's supposed demolition of analytic truths, but there is no denying that these are two excellent problems which need addressing.

The 20 ideas with the same theme [propositions that just seem to be about words]:

8734 Non-subject/predicate tautologies won't fit Kant's definition of analyticity [Shapiro on Kant]
7314 How can bachelor 'contain' unmarried man? Are all analytic truths in subject-predicate form? [Miller,A on Kant]
20291 If the predicate is contained in the subject of a judgement, it is analytic; otherwise synthetic [Kant]
20292 Analytic judgements clarify, by analysing the subject into its component predicates [Kant]
16926 Analytic judgements say clearly what was in the concept of the subject [Kant]
16927 Analytic judgement rests on contradiction, since the predicate cannot be denied of the subject [Kant]
9370 A statement is analytic if substitution of synonyms can make it a logical truth [Frege, by Boghossian]
8743 Frege considered analyticity to be an epistemic concept [Frege, by Shapiro]
7725 'P or not-p' seems to be analytic, but does not fit Kant's account, lacking clear subject or predicate [Frege, by Weiner]
13345 Sentences are 'analytical' if every sequence of objects models them [Tarski]
9371 Analytic statements are either logical truths (all reinterpretations) or they depend on synonymy [Quine]
20294 'Married' does not 'contain' its symmetry, nor 'bigger than' its transitivity [Rey]
20293 Analytic judgements can't be explained by contradiction, since that is what is assumed [Rey]
20297 Analytic statements are undeniable (because of meaning), rather than unrevisable [Rey]
20301 The meaning properties of a term are those which explain how the term is typically used [Rey]
20302 An intrinsic language faculty may fix what is meaningful (as well as grammatical) [Rey]
20303 Research throws doubts on the claimed intuitions which support analyticity [Rey]
14099 'Bachelor' consists in or reduces to 'unmarried' male, but not the other way around [Rosen]
14488 Analyticity is revealed through redundancy, as in 'He bought a house and a building' [Thomasson]
17725 'Analytic' can be conceptual, or by meaning, or predicate inclusion, or definition... [Jenkins]