The Fregean picture of propositional content thoughts / propositions





On Cancellation





judgment

Russell is a philosopher

assertion

Russell is a philosopher

entertainment

Peter Hanks University of Minnesota [email protected]

subject

1

Key features of the Fregean picture •

•

•

Problem for the Fregean picture: the unity of the proposition

Propositions are the primary bearers of truth-conditions. Judgments and assertions inherit truth-conditions from propositions. •

2

Propositions serve as a source of truth-conditions

•

How do propositions get their truth-conditions?

•

In trying to give an answer, the Fregean picture bars us from appealing to what we do in making judgments or assertions.

•

Frege and Russell both saw the need to explain how propositions have truthconditions. Because of their commitment to the content-force distinction, they were forced to appeal to relations between the internal constituents of propositions — saturation for Frege, relations-that-relate for Russell. Both approaches are failures.

•

Maybe no explanation is required? Maybe it is a primitive, unexplainable fact that propositions have truth-conditions?

Content-Force Distinction •

Taxonomic: speech acts with different forces can share the same propositional content

•

Constitutive: no force elements in propositions

Entertainment: an attitude (e.g. a belief) can be factored into a neutral component (entertainment) and a non-neutral component •

Same for speech acts: a speech act can be factored into a neutral component (expression of a proposition) and a non-neutral component 3

4

Going primitive •

Suppose we say it is primitive that propositions have truth-conditions.

•

Then it’s difficult to also say that propositions have constituents or parts.

•

•

•

•

Presumably, something about its constituents and their relation to one another should explain why a proposition has its truth-conditions. But we’re not giving an explanation for why propositions have truth-conditions.

•

Furthermore, if propositions have constituents and it’s primitive that they have truthconditions, then there would be an unexplained harmony between truth-conditions and constituents. (Merricks, 2015) is true iff Russell is a philosopher. has Russell and the property of being a philosopher as constituents.

Going primitive (continued) Russell is a philosopher judgment

subject

If we go primitive about the truth-conditions of propositions then we should deny that propositions have constituents or parts. Propositions must be simple and sui generis. Then entertainment must also primitive and unexplainable. Entertainment cannot be an operation of some kind on the constituents of propositions, since they don’t have constituents.

•

Why is this judgment true iff Russell is a philosopher?

•

There is a simple, sui generis proposition that has these truthconditions as a matter of primitive, unexplainable fact.

•

The subject bears primitive entertainment and judgment relations to this proposition.

•

This answer strikes me as philosophically unsatisfying (and rather bizarre). At the very least, we should be motivated to look for a different explanation.

Judgment also has to be primitive. Judgment cannot be an operation performed on the constituents of a proposition, and it can’t be taking (i.e. judging) a proposition to be true, on pain of regress. • judging that p = judging that p is true = judging that is true = … 5

Classificatory picture of propositional content

Classificatory picture of propositional content

type = propositional content

6

⊢

Russell is a philosopher assertion

!

Is Russell a philosopher?

Russell, be a philosopher!

Russell is a philosopher assertion

subject

?

⊢

• refers to Russell • expresses the property of being a philosopher • predicates this property of Russell

⊢

7

= predication

question

? = asking

order

! = ordering

8

The varieties of content

Classificatory picture of propositional content Acts of predicating/asking/ordering are primary bearers of satisfaction conditions. Propositions inherit their satisfaction conditions from these actions.

•

satisfaction conditions

direction of fit

⊢

truth-conditions

word-to-world

?

answer-hood conditions

word-to-word

interrogative

whether- and wh-clauses

!

fulfillment conditions

world-to-word

imperative

infinitive clauses

Type

embedded clauses

sentence mood

declarative

We use propositions to classify and individuate our thoughts and utterances. Propositions are types and types are devices of classification. To give the propositional content of a mental state or utterance is to classify it under a type.

•

that-clauses

No Content-Force Distinction

•

•

Speech acts with different forces have different contents.

•

Force elements in propositions.

No entertainment. No “propositional acts”. No factoring into neutral / non-neutral components.

•

9

Soames’s picture

10

Problem for Soames: neutral predication is incoherent type / propositional content

⊢*

Soamesian neutral predication: non-commital and truth-evaluable. This is an incoherent combination. Nothing in the Fregean picture has both features.

⊢* = neutral predication

•

Russell is a philosopher Russell is a philosopher neutral predication / entertainment

judgment assertion

•

Russell is a philosopher

subject

Fregean picture •

Act of entertainment: non-commital, not truth-evaluable

•

Act of judgment: commital, truth-evaluable

Soames’s picture •

Act of neutral predication: non-commital, truth-evaluable

•

Incoherently combines aspects of entertainment and judgment

“Since to entertain the proposition that o is red is simply to predicate redness of o, and since this predication is included in every attitude with that content, entertaining the proposition is one component of any propositional attitude we bear to it. To judge that o is red is to predicate redness of o, while endorsing that predication.” - Soames, What is Meaning?, 2010 11

12

Neutral predication is incoherent

Conditionals and disjunctions

Suppose S performs a pure, isolated act of predicating F of a. Suppose in addition that a is not F.

•

An utterance of ‘if p then q’ or ‘p or q’ is neither an assertion that p nor an assertion that q.

•

No change to the contents of p and q when used inside a conditional or disjunction.

•

S’s act of predication is false.

•

S’s act of predication is inaccurate / incorrect.

•

S made a mistake, an error.

The contents of p and q must not contain assertion.

•

S must have taken a position about whether a is F.

Frege

•

S’s act of predication was not neutral.

S did something incorrect.

The contents of p and q contain an assertoric element, but this element is cancelled or overridden when p and q are used inside a conditional or disjunction.

No pure act of predication can be both truth-evaluable and neutral.

13

14

Disjunction and conjunction

Cancellation

⊢<<~⊢, ~⊢, disj>

⊢<<~⊢, ~⊢, cond> Russell is right or Frege is wrong. If Russell is right then Frege is wrong. disj = type of act of expressing a disjunctive relation on propositions either__ or __ is true

~⊢ = cancelled predication

⊢<< ⊢, ⊢, conj>

cond = type of act of expressing a conditional relation on propositions Russell is right and Frege is wrong.

conj = type of act of expressing a conjunctive relation on propositions both__ and __ are true 15

16

The actor

Football analogy

“When playing his part the actor is not asserting anything; nor is he lying, even if he says something of whose falsehood he is convinced.” - Frege, “Thoughts” ~⊢

•

In American football, the referees allow play to continue even after the defensive team has committed a penalty.

•

Suppose this happens and the defense tackles the quarterback inside the end zone.

•

Normally this would count as a safety and the defense would get 2 points. But because of the penalty the play does not count as a safety.

•

Cancellation context: the defense tackles the quarterback in the end zone in a context in which doing so does not count as a safety.

•

Our language game has something similar. In a cancellation context, the subject performs an act of predication in a context in which doing so does not count as an assertion.

•

I got this wrong in my 2011 paper in Mind:

Russell is a philosopher. actor •

•

•

•

The actor performs an act of predication in a context in which conventions about stage-acting prevent an act of predication from counting as a full-fledged assertion. Call this a cancellation context. In cancellation contexts, acts of predication do not count as assertions.

•

Cancelled predication = an act of predication that takes place in a cancellation context.

“When a speaker assertively utters this sentence [‘George is clever or Karla is foolish’] she neither asserts that George is clever nor that Karla is foolish, and she neither predicates cleverness of George nor foolishness of Karla,” (20).

Uses of ‘if’ and ‘or’ create cancellation contexts. 17

Cancellation

18

Canceling and Non-cancelling expressions

⊢<<~⊢, ~⊢, cond>

Two varieties of sentence embedding expressions: cancelling and noncancelling. Cancelling expressions create a cancellation context, non-cancelling expressions don’t.

If Russell is right then Frege is wrong.

•

The speaker’s use of ‘if’ creates a cancellation context for the acts of predication she performs in uttering the antecedent and consequent.

•

‘If’ signals to the hearer that the following acts of predication are not assertions.

•

The outermost predication operator is uncanceled. In a token of this proposition, a speaker predicates a conditional relation of the propositions that Russell is right and Frege is wrong.

Examples:

Cancelling if or not possible believes

19

Non-cancelling and true (it’s true that) necessary knows ?

20

Target-shifting

Factive / Non-factive Maybe the non-cancelling / cancelling distinction can explain the factive / non-factive distinction?

⊢↑ <<~⊢, ~⊢, cond>

Non-factive operators : cancelling Factive operators : non-cancelling Problem

⊢

⊢

conditional relation predicated of these two types (propositions)

?

If Russell is right then Frege is wrong.

~[

S knows whether Russell is a philosopher.

Russell

⊢↑

]

~[

] Frege

Target-shifted predication Predication that is targeted at a type of action performed by the subject, instead of something the subject referred to.

21

Modus ponens

22

Negation, double negation, and double cancellation ⊢↑<~⊢, not-true>

⊢↑ <<~⊢, ~⊢, cond> It’s not the case that Russell is right.

If Russell is right then Frege is wrong.

Two cancellation operators do not cancel each other out. Double cancellation is not no cancellation.

⊢

Russell is right. ⊢↑<~⊢↑<~⊢, not-true>, not-true> ⊢

Frege is wrong.

It’s not the case that it’s not the case that Russell is right.

23

24

Double negation (again)

Property negation

It’s not the case that Russell is right.

It’s not the case that it’s not the case that Russell is right.

⊢

⊢>

⊢↑<~⊢, not-true>

⊢↑<~⊢↑<~⊢, not-true>, not-true>

These two propositions are truthconditionally equivalent. The difference is a matter of what the speaker asserts in performing tokens of these types.

Russell is not right.

not = type of act of expressing a function from properties to negative properties = type of act of expressing the negative property of not being right

Russell is right.

25

Predication, sorting, and negative properties •

Predication as sorting: to predicate a property of an object is to sort that object into a group according to a rule given by a property.

•

Marbles: imagine you have a pile of marbles, and you’re going to sort out the green ones. Two ways to do it: •

•

•

26

Denial and anti-predication

Is Russell right?

⊣

Pick out the green marbles and put them in a pile. Sorting according to the property of being green.

No.

Pick out the non-green marbles and put them in a pile. Sorting according to the negative property of not being green.

⊣

Anti-predication

Anti-predication = unsorting an object from a group that has been sorted according to a property

Properties (positive or negative) = rules for sorting.

27

28

Negation and denial

⊢↑<~⊢, not-true> C

O

O

NTEX

T

C

It’s not the case that Russell is right.

N T EN

T

⊢>

Russell is not right.

PET E R H ANKS

PROPOSITIONAL CONTENT 2

Is Russell right?

No.

⊣

29

30

On Cancellation

declarative that-clauses ? answer-hood conditions word-to-word interrogative whether- and wh-clauses ! fulfillment conditions world-to-word imperative infinitive clauses. Classificatory picture of propositional content. • Acts of predicating/asking/ordering are primary bearers of satisfaction conditions. Propositions inherit their ...
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