Combining Texts

Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Knowledge, Possibility and Consciousness' and 'Thought and Reality'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these texts

display all the ideas for this combination of texts


2 ideas

19. Language / D. Propositions / 1. Propositions
We can't distinguish a proposition from its content [Dummett]
     Full Idea: No distinction can be drawn between a proposition and its content; no two distinct propositions can have the same content.
     From: Michael Dummett (Thought and Reality [1997], 3)
     A reaction: And one proposition cannot have two possible contents (ambiguity). Are we to say that a proposition supervenes on its content, or that proposition and content are identical? Ockham favours the latter.
19. Language / D. Propositions / 2. Abstract Propositions / b. Propositions as possible worlds
A proposition is a set of possible worlds for which its intension delivers truth [Perry]
     Full Idea: The proposition expressed by a sentence can be thought of as a set of possible worlds, the worlds for which its intension delivers truth.
     From: John Perry (Knowledge, Possibility and Consciousness [2001], §8.1)
     A reaction: It has always struck me as important to hang on to the concept of a 'proposition' (over and above sentences). This idea gives a metaphysics for the concept, and the 'language of thought' offers appropriate brain structures. A neat picture.