more from Donald Davidson

Single Idea 19158

[catalogued under 19. Language / D. Propositions / 1. Propositions]

Full Idea

The sentence 'Humanity belongs to Socrates' is about the concept of humanity, unlike the "equivalent" 'Socrates is human', so they express different propositions.

Gist of Idea

'Humanity belongs to Socrates' is about humanity, so it's a different proposition from 'Socrates is human'

Source

Donald Davidson (Truth and Predication [2005], 5)

Book Reference

Davidson,Donald: 'Truth and Predication' [Belknap Harvard 2005], p.102


A Reaction

[compressed] I like this a lot, because it shows why we should focus on propositions rather than on sentences, or even utterances. And asking what the sentence is 'about' focuses us on the underlying proposition or thought.

Related Idea

Idea 17308 Explaining 'Adam ate the apple' depends on emphasis, and thus implies a contrast [Schaffer,J]