New answers tagged philosophy-of-language
1
vote
Is there a difference between ambiguity and vagueness?
Vague and ambiguous are overlapping terms and can be used as synonyms. However, the key idea conveyed by vague, which differentiates it from ambiguous, is indistinctness. To take the example cited in ...
- 13.4k
0
votes
Is there a difference between ambiguity and vagueness?
Ambiguity and vagueness are not the same thing. Let's see what WP has to say on each. From the WP article on ambiguity:
Ambiguity is the type of meaning in which a phrase, statement, or resolution is ...
- 22.8k
1
vote
Accepted
Is there a difference between ambiguity and vagueness?
I am assuming that your question has a philosophical implication. Ambiguity involves two meanings. Vagueness is broader, involving several possibilities. Philosophically, do you mean deliberate ...
- 1,890
0
votes
Question about Differences in Existential Quantification
Existent objects don't exist = If x exists then x does not exist (leads to a contradiction but itself isn't a contradiction).
We must define a essential property that all existent things have, let's ...
- 3,208
2
votes
Accepted
Question about Differences in Existential Quantification
This is definitely a question about existential quantification which very much is a subject of ontology. Is there a difference in these sentences?
First, note that there are two meanings of 'THERE_ARE'...
- 22.8k
2
votes
Question about Differences in Existential Quantification
The verbs "to be" and "to do" are semantically overloaded with assumptions about existence.
Verbs turned into adjectives are semantically unclear: does "an X Y" mean &...
- 3,525
2
votes
Question about Differences in Existential Quantification
Inasmuch as (1) can be paraphrased as (2), and if (2) is determinately meaningful enough (the bare nod towards "objects" makes it seem like a pre-interpreted sentence, though see about ...
- 12.5k
3
votes
Is mathematics analytic or synthetic?
There are various ways to define "analytic" and "synthetic". Those word are generally thought to apply to propositions, but there are different ideas of what a proposition is. ...
- 7,560
4
votes
Is mathematics analytic or synthetic?
The two terms, analytic and synthetic, are two possible, mutual exclusive
properties of statements. SEP introduces the following definition:
“Analytic” sentences, such as “Pediatricians are doctors,” ...
- 24.3k
9
votes
Is mathematics analytic or synthetic?
A possible counterargument is that the analytic-synthetic distinction you are using is inherently inadequate and outmoded language and thinking. For the first part, Quine in his Two Dogmas of ...
- 22.8k
3
votes
Is mathematics analytic or synthetic?
For the sake of the OP, I will assume that some version of the analytic/synthetic distinction is defensible. More specifically, I will assume that we can differentiate between analyzing a question ...
- 12.5k
0
votes
Is mathematics analytic or synthetic?
all true mathematical statement are "true by defintion"
Define "true" and "false".
It is simply not possible to define words only using more words without circularity ...
- 6,241
0
votes
What are the philosophical solutions to "ship of Theseus" problem of identity?
The phrase 'the ship of Theseus' is inherently vague, as is the phrase 'the same ship'. Whether something is 'the same ship' or not, depends on what you intended to mean by the term 'the same ship'. ...
- 13.4k
0
votes
What are the philosophical solutions to "ship of Theseus" problem of identity?
First of all, we must accept that everything changes over time. So trying to solve the identity problem by reference to the material aspect of the thing does not lead us anywhere.
The only candidate ...
- 1,680
0
votes
What are the philosophical solutions to "ship of Theseus" problem of identity?
A thorough analysis and a model of the Theseus ship paradox were presented in an article by Dinis:
Dinis, Bruno. Equality and near-equality in a nonstandard world. Log. Log. Philos. 32 (2023), no. ...
- 887
0
votes
What are the philosophical solutions to "ship of Theseus" problem of identity?
The ship of me probably does not contain a single atom that it contained when I was born. Does that matter? Do atoms have identity? If not, then one is the same as another. My consciousness has been ...
- 1,890
0
votes
Can a question be bullshit?
Yes. There is a lot of it about, and it is dangerous, as Frankfurt points out. I prefer bollocks (English) or skitters (Scots).
- 1,890
2
votes
What's the name of a fallacy when a debater selectively picks facts and ignores others?
There is no single strategy for dealing with fallacies. This is because there are both psychological and philosophical aspects to a debate. This online article (https://effectiviology.com/guide-to-...
2
votes
What's the name of a fallacy when a debater selectively picks facts and ignores others?
The selective use of history to explain or justify an argument could fall under multiple fallacies.
Their argument could be based on confirmation bias because they have focused a portion of history ...
- 21
11
votes
Accepted
What's the name of a fallacy when a debater selectively picks facts and ignores others?
It is the cherry picking fallacy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_picking
Edit:
Thanks to gidds for pointing out the number of different names for this fallacy. Here are a few:
Cherry Picking
(...
0
votes
Why do some philosphers including Russell paraphrase this sentence?
In the philosophy of language, there is a notion known as deep structure which originates with Noam Chomsky. It is the idea that when one uses language for others, that one provides a shallow syntax ...
- 22.8k
1
vote
Why do some philosphers including Russell paraphrase this sentence?
Note that, "There is an x," can be reordered as, "An x is there," where "there" is an indexical for something like the world/reality/existence (as an atmosphere or ...
- 12.5k
5
votes
Why do some philosphers including Russell paraphrase this sentence?
In Fregean terms, a phrase has both a sense and a denotation. For a phrase like "the king of England", the sense is the concept of being king of England, and the denotation is the actual man ...
- 7,560
0
votes
Difficulty finding real life examples of the bad reasons fallacy, is this fallacy committed often?
I think that I may just have witnessed a bad reasons fallacy. In yet another JFK assassination documentary, someone stated that the wound in JFK's throat was obviously an entry wound, and the wound to ...
- 1,890
1
vote
In what shape do opposites exist?
The opposite of A is necessarily not A, but not A is not necessarily the opposite of A. For example, both big and industrious are not small, but industrious is not the opposite of small.
Opposites are ...
- 13.4k
3
votes
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
As you know, a fake nose is not a nose.
I disagree. You seem to conflate the definitions of "nose" and "genuine nose"; which lies at the basis for your claim, but I'd like to ...
- 1,292
6
votes
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
By your argument a "rubber duck" is nonsense too, as is a "prosthetic leg".
Avoiding this type of pedantry/sophistry just renders human conversation too tiring to bother. Anything ...
- 161
1
vote
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
Would you consider the part of a statue that is in the middle of the face and is meant to look like a nose and contains nostrils to be a 'real' nose, or even a nose at all? What about Frosty's '...
- 131
4
votes
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
Wittgenstein spent a lot of time on this sort of thing. Is the word "cat" a cat. No. Is a photograph of a cat a cat? No. Is a fake nose a nose? No. But the statement "That nose is fake&...
- 1,890
11
votes
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
"Fake" in "fake nose" typically means the nose is artificial (e.g. man-made and surgically inserted), not that it's not a nose.
One might go one step further and say that it ...
- 5,522
45
votes
Accepted
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
You understand what the sentence means; therefore, it is not nonsense. We can perform all sorts of analyses to try to analyse why the sentence is meaningful (e.g. the "nose" refers both to ...
- 2,037
0
votes
Accepted
Can semantics work independently apart from philosophy?
It implies grammar can work independently apart from semantics.
This is trivial. All speakers of a language know that it is always possible to speak meaningless but grammatical sentences.
This is ...
- 6,241
0
votes
Can semantics work independently apart from philosophy?
The grammar does provide meaning, and is not distinct from it. There are multiple types of semantics. Chomsky's sentence has lexical semantics because you know what each of the words mean. Sentential ...
- 22.8k
1
vote
Omniscience leads to necessitarianism
Let's work in a temporal logic with five tenses Pa, Pr, F, N, and Æ: "It was true that," "It is true that," "It will be true that," "It is never true that," and,...
- 12.5k
0
votes
"Unround circles don't exist." Is it nonsense?
Language is about what symbols mean in groups. Language games are possible because the same symbols in the same groups in informal language can have multiple different meanings.
That is:
"The X Y ...
- 3,525
2
votes
"Unround circles don't exist." Is it nonsense?
Welcome!
Is the sentence you offer:
All circles are not unround.
nonsense? This is a good question.
The first thing you need to understand is that language is conventional. What that means is that ...
- 22.8k
0
votes
"Unround circles don't exist." Is it nonsense?
"unround circles don't exist" is exactly the same sentence as "unround circle is a contradiction". In that sense, neither is more or less nonsensical than the other.
- 2,232
3
votes
"Unround circles don't exist." Is it nonsense?
This is a really a matter of idiom in language. Saying unround circles don't exist is just another way of saying all circles are round. It is like saying odd even numbers don't exist. The sort of ...
- 13.4k
5
votes
"Unround circles don't exist." Is it nonsense?
"In this sort of predicament, always ask yourself: How did we learn
the meaning of this word ("good", for instance)? From what sort of
examples? In what language-games? Then it will be ...
- 20.5k
-1
votes
How does a language contain its own semantics?
To my understanding, the key sentence is a few lines above.
... it has not always been kept in mind that the semantical concepts have
a relative character, that they must always be related to a ...
- 1,680
0
votes
Is necessary existence a property?
If it is then why?
My dog exists.
The Unicorn doesn't.
So, existence is a property of my dog, but it is not of the Unicorn.
doesn't it follow that necessary existence is also not a property?
The ...
- 6,241
Top 50 recent answers are included