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Full Idea
A relation of negation might hold between two beliefs without there being anything that determines which belief is the negative one.
Gist of Idea
If one proposition negates the other, which is the negative one?
Source
Gilbert Harman ((Nonsolipsistic) Conceptual Role Semantics [1987], 12.1.4)
Book Ref
Harman,Gilbert: 'Reasoning Meaning and Mind' [OUP 1999], p.210
A Reaction
[He attributes this thought to Brian Loar] This seems to give us a reason why we need a semantics for a logic, and not just a structure of inferences and proofs.
| 1554 | Contradiction is impossible, since only one side of the argument refers to the true facts [Prodicus, by Didymus the Blind] |
| 1705 | It doesn't have to be the case that in opposed views one is true and the other false [Aristotle] |
| 12368 | Negation takes something away from something [Aristotle] |
| 16491 | If we define 'this is not blue' as disbelief in 'this is blue', we eliminate 'not' as an ingredient of facts [Russell] |
| 12594 | If one proposition negates the other, which is the negative one? [Harman] |
| 12338 | We must either assert or deny any single predicate of any single subject [Badiou] |
| 19005 | Not-A is too strong to just erase an improper assertion, because it actually reverses A [Yablo] |
| 18906 | Negating a predicate term and denying its unnegated version are quite different [Engelbretsen] |
| 11214 | We learn 'not' along with affirmation, by learning to either affirm or deny a sentence [Rumfitt] |
| 18829 | The truth grounds for 'not A' are the possibilities incompatible with truth grounds for A [Rumfitt] |