Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Substances without Substrata', 'The Foundations of Mathematics (2nd ed)' and 'Semantics for Natural Languages'

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4 ideas

8. Modes of Existence / A. Relations / 4. Formal Relations / b. Equivalence relation
18465 An 'equivalence' relation is one which is reflexive, symmetric and transitive [Kunen]
     Full Idea: R is an equivalence relation on A iff R is reflexive, symmetric and transitive on A.
     From: Kenneth Kunen (The Foundations of Mathematics (2nd ed) [2012], I.7.1)
19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 4. Meaning as Truth-Conditions
15160 Davidson rejected ordinary meaning, and just used truth and reference instead [Davidson, by Soames]
     Full Idea: Davidson held that knowledge of truth and reference could give us a notion of meaning. He embraced Quine's rejection of analyticity, synonymy and ordinary meaning, and substituted truth and reference, when there was something genuine to capture.
     From: report of Donald Davidson (Semantics for Natural Languages [1970]) by Scott Soames - Philosophy of Language 2.3
     A reaction: I always get a warm glow when anyone suggests that the concept of meaning involves the concept of truth. I largely reject Quine. Davidson made a helpful suggestion!
14612 Davidson aimed to show that language is structured by first-order logic [Davidson, by Smart]
     Full Idea: Davidson's program was to show the underlying structure of natural languages as that of first-order logic.
     From: report of Donald Davidson (Semantics for Natural Languages [1970], 2) by J.J.C. Smart - The Tenseless Theory of Time 2
     A reaction: First order logic just reasons about a domain of objects with predicates attached to them. Language appears to refer to properties and relations as well as objects.
19. Language / F. Communication / 6. Interpreting Language / c. Principle of charity
6316 We translate in a way that makes the largest possible number of statements true [Wilson,NL]
     Full Idea: We select as designatum that individual which will make the largest possible number of statements true.
     From: N.L. Wilson (Substances without Substrata [1959]), quoted by Willard Quine - Word and Object II.§13 n
     A reaction: From the Quine's reference, it sounds as if Wilson was the originator of the well-known principle of charity, later taken up by Davidson. If so, he should be famous, because it strikes me as a piece of fundamental and important wisdom.