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Single Idea 9371

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

Full Idea

Analytic statements fall into two classes: 'no unmarried man is married' typifies the first class, of logical truths; it remains true under all reinterpretations. 'No bachelor is married' is analytic if synonyms replace synonyms, and there's the problem.

Gist of Idea

Analytic statements are either logical truths (all reinterpretations) or they depend on synonymy

Source

Willard Quine (Two Dogmas of Empiricism [1953], §1)

Book Ref

Quine,Willard: 'From a Logical Point of View' [Harper and Row 1963], p.22


A Reaction

Boghossian emphasises this passage. In other papers Quine argues that logical truths also cannot be purely analytic, although he does not deny that there are logical truths.


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

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