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Single Idea 9009

[from 'Philosophy of Logic' by Willard Quine, in 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 8. Synonymy ]

Full Idea

We can define, it would seem, a strong synonymy relation for single words by them being interchangeable salva veritate.

Clarification

'Salva veritate' means truth-preserving

Gist of Idea

Single words are strongly synonymous if their interchange preserves truth

Source

Willard Quine (Philosophy of Logic [1970], Ch.1)

Book Reference

Quine,Willard: 'Philosophy of Logic' [Prentice-Hall 1970], p.8


A Reaction

This is a first step in Quine's rejection of synonymous sentences. He goes on to raise the problem of renate/cordate. Presumably any two word types can have different connotations, and hence not always be interchangeable - in poetry, for example.