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13950 | People don't assert the meaning of the words they utter [Cartwright,R] |
Full Idea: No one ever asserts the meaning of the words he utters. | |
From: Richard Cartwright (Propositions [1962], 12) | |
A reaction: Cartwright is using this point to drive a wedge between sentence meaning and the assertion made by the utterance. Hence he defends propositions. Presumably people utilise word-meanings, rather than asserting them. Meanings (not words) are tools. |
13948 | For any statement, there is no one meaning which any sentence asserting it must have [Cartwright,R] |
Full Idea: It does have to be acknowledged, I think, that every statement whatever is such that there is no one meaning which any sentence used to assert it must have. | |
From: Richard Cartwright (Propositions [1962], 11) | |
A reaction: This feels to me like a Gricean move - that what we are really interested in is communicating one mental state to another mental state, and there are all sorts of tools that can do that one job. |