Properties and Propositions

Properties and Propositions
Author: Robert Trueman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2021-01-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1108840477

Articulates and defends a novel theory of properties and propositions, based on Frege's insight that properties are not objects.

New Thinking about Propositions

New Thinking about Propositions
Author: Jeffrey C. King
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191502707

Philosophy (especially philosophy of language and philosophy of mind), science (especially linguistics and cognitive science), and common sense all sometimes make reference to propositions—understood as the things we believe and say, and the things which are (primarily) true or false. There is, however, no widespread agreement about what sorts of things these entities are. In New Thinking about Propositions, Jeffrey C. King, Scott Soames, and Jeff Speaks argue that commitment to propositions is indispensable, and that traditional accounts of propositions are inadequate. They each then defend their own views of the nature of propositions.

Logical Properties

Logical Properties
Author: Colin McGinn
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2003
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780199262632

Identity, existence, predication, necessity, and truth are fundamental philosophical concerns. Colin McGinn treats them both philosophically and logically, aiming for maximum clarity and minimum pointless formalism. He contends that there are real logical properties that challenge naturalistic metaphysical outlooks. These concepts are not definable, though we can say a good deal about how they work. The aim of Logical Properties is to bring philosophy back to philosophical logic.

Truth and Truthmakers

Truth and Truthmakers
Author: D. M. Armstrong
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2004-05-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521547239

This book, first published in 2004, makes a compelling case for truthmaking and its importance in philosophy.

New Essays on the Nature of Propositions

New Essays on the Nature of Propositions
Author: David Hunter
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 499
Release: 2017-10-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317510275

These are exciting times for philosophical theorizing about propositions, with the last 15 years seeing the development of new approaches and the emergence of new theorists. Propositions have been invoked to explain thought and cognition, the nature and attribution of mental states, language and communication, and in philosophical treatments of truth, necessity and possibility. According to Frege and Russell, and their followers, propositions are structured mind- and language-independent abstract objects which have essential and intrinsic truth-conditions. Some recent theorizing doubts whether propositions really exist and, if they do, asks how we can grasp, entertain and know them? But most of the doubt concerns whether the abstract approach to propositions can really explain them. Are propositions really structured, and if so where does their structure come from? How does this structure form a unity, and does it need to? Are the representational and structural properties of propositions really independent of those of thinking and language? What does it mean to say that an object occurs in or is a constituent of a proposition? The volume takes up these and other questions, both as they apply to the abstract object approach and also to the more recently developed approaches. While the volume as a whole does not definitively and unequivocally reject the abstract objection approach, for the most part, the papers explore new critical and constructive directions. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy.

Nature's Metaphysics

Nature's Metaphysics
Author: Alexander Bird
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2007-08-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199227012

Bird, a world-leader in the field, offers an original approach to key issues in philosophy. He discusses hot topics in metaphysics and the philosophy of science.

New Essays on the Nature of Propositions

New Essays on the Nature of Propositions
Author: David Hunter
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2017-10-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317510283

These are exciting times for philosophical theorizing about propositions, with the last 15 years seeing the development of new approaches and the emergence of new theorists. Propositions have been invoked to explain thought and cognition, the nature and attribution of mental states, language and communication, and in philosophical treatments of truth, necessity and possibility. According to Frege and Russell, and their followers, propositions are structured mind- and language-independent abstract objects which have essential and intrinsic truth-conditions. Some recent theorizing doubts whether propositions really exist and, if they do, asks how we can grasp, entertain and know them? But most of the doubt concerns whether the abstract approach to propositions can really explain them. Are propositions really structured, and if so where does their structure come from? How does this structure form a unity, and does it need to? Are the representational and structural properties of propositions really independent of those of thinking and language? What does it mean to say that an object occurs in or is a constituent of a proposition? The volume takes up these and other questions, both as they apply to the abstract object approach and also to the more recently developed approaches. While the volume as a whole does not definitively and unequivocally reject the abstract objection approach, for the most part, the papers explore new critical and constructive directions. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy.

Essays in the Metaphysics of Modality

Essays in the Metaphysics of Modality
Author: Alvin Plantinga
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2003-05-15
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0195103769

This volume collects the most important articles on the metaphysics of modality by philosopher Alvin Plantinga. The focus is on such fundamental issues in metaphysics as the nature of abstract objects.

Propositional Content

Propositional Content
Author: Peter Hanks
Publisher: Context & Content
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2015
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0199684898

Peter Hanks defends a new theory about the nature of propositional content. According to this theory, the basic bearers of representational properties are particular mental or spoken actions. Propositions are types of these actions, which we use to classify and individuate our attitudes and speech acts. Hanks abandons several key features of the traditional Fregean conception of propositional content, including the idea that propositions are the primary bearers of truth-conditions, the distinction between content and force, and the concept of entertainment. The main difficulty for this traditional conception is the problem of the unity of the proposition, the problem of explaining how propositions have truth conditions and other representational properties. The new theory developed here, in its place, explains the unity of propositions and provides new solutions to a long list of puzzles and problems in philosophy of language.