Single Idea 18406

[catalogued under 19. Language / F. Communication / 5. Pragmatics / a. Contextual meaning]

Full Idea

In what we label 'Basic Kaplanianism', each of the sentences 'Smith is happy' and 'I am happy', as uttered by Smith, has two levels of meaning. The 'content' is a truth-conditional representation. The 'character' is a function from contexts to contents.

Gist of Idea

The basic Kaplan view is that there is truth-conditional content, and contextual character

Source

Cappelen,H/Dever,Josh (The Inessential Indexical [2013], 01.6)

Book Reference

Cappelen,H/Dever,J: 'The Inessential Indexical' [OUP 2013], p.15


A Reaction

They give this as a minimal and plausible account of the situation, without reading huge significance into the indexical. I'm inclined to see the situation in terms of the underlying proposition containing both ingredients.