Combining Texts

Ideas for '27: Book of Daniel', 'Specimen inventorum' and 'The Boundary Stones of Thought'

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2 ideas

19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 4. Meaning as Truth-Conditions
We understand conditionals, but disagree over their truth-conditions [Rumfitt]
     Full Idea: It is striking that our understanding of conditionals is not greatly impeded by widespread disagreement about their truth-conditions.
     From: Ian Rumfitt (The Boundary Stones of Thought [2015], 4.2)
     A reaction: Compare 'if you dig there you might find gold' with 'if you dig there you will definitely find gold'. The second but not the first invites 'how do you know that?', implying truth. Two different ifs.
19. Language / F. Communication / 3. Denial
The truth grounds for 'not A' are the possibilities incompatible with truth grounds for A [Rumfitt]
     Full Idea: The truth-grounds of '¬A' are precisely those possibilities that are incompatible with any truth-ground of A.
     From: Ian Rumfitt (The Boundary Stones of Thought [2015], 7.1)
     A reaction: This is Rumfitt's proposal for the semantics of 'not', based on the central idea of a possibility, rather than a possible world. The incompatibility tracks back to an absence of shared grounding.