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19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 3. Predicates

[terms attributing characteristics to things]

25 ideas
Only what can be said of many things is a predicable [Aristotle, by Wedin]
Some predicates signify qualification of a substance, others the substance itself [Aristotle]
Predicates are substance, quality, place, relation, quantity and action or affection [Aristotle]
Predicates are incomplete 'lekta' [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
Nothing external can truly be predicated of an object [Abelard, by Panaccio]
The mind constructs complete attributions, based on the unified elements of the real world [Aquinas]
Russell uses 'propositional function' to refer to both predicates and to attributes [Quine on Russell]
Projectible predicates can be universalised about the kind to which they refer [Quine]
Quine relates predicates to their objects, by being 'true of' them [Quine, by Davidson]
The idea of a predicate matches a range of things to which it can be applied [Strawson,P]
Predicates need ontological correlates to ensure that they apply [Armstrong]
There must be some explanation of why certain predicates are applicable to certain objects [Armstrong]
Predicates assert properties, values, denials, relations, conventions, existence and fabrications [Ellis, by PG]
Modern predicates have 'places', and are sentences with singular terms deleted from the places [Davidson]
The concept of truth can explain predication [Davidson]
Successful predication supervenes on nature [Jackson]
If predicates name things, that reduces every sentence to a mere list of names [Cooper,DE]
A (modern) predicate is the result of leaving a gap for the name in a sentence [Bostock]
We can accept Frege's idea of object without assuming that predicates have a reference [Wright,C]
The subject-predicate form reflects reality [Heil]
The F and G of logic cover a huge range of natural language combinations [Swoyer]
Three ways for 'Socrates is human' to be true are nominalist, platonist, or Montague's way [Orenstein]
Properties can be expressed in a language despite the absence of a single word for them [Hofweber]
'Being taller than this' is a predicate which can express many different properties [Hofweber]
Predicates are 'distributive' or 'non-distributive'; do individuals do what the group does? [Linnebo]