Reading...
Play button
Play button
Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
38 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
|
What does Wittgenstein's "beetle in a box" metaphor mean?
|
Wittgenstein's "beetle in the box" metaphor is used to examine private language. The metaphor says that everyone has a box that only they can look into, and everyone claims that it is a "beetle". Everyone could have a different thing in their box, but since they call it a beetle, no one would know.
The point is that if we cannot look into other's boxes, then it doesn't matter whether or not there truly is a beetle in the box doesn't matter. This applies to the language-game; if we can't experience others' private experiences, it makes no difference what we call them. |
|
|
What is an analytic truth vs. a synthetic truth?
|
An analytic truth is a truth that simply follows from the meaning and definition of the word, while a synthetic truth requires more knowledge than the definition to understand the truth of the statement.
Example of an analytic truth: All triangles have three sides. Example of a synthetic truth: All creatures with hearts have kidneys. (This is a synthetic truth because having kidneys is not part of the definition of having a heart.) |
|
|
What is a "truth condition?"
|
In Gottleb Frege’s system, to know the ‘truth conditions’ of a sentence is to know is to know in what circumstances, or under what conditions, it would be true. In order to know the truth conditions of a sentence, one must know its sense. In the example given in the text, the truth condition of the sentence: “The Morning Star is the Evening Star” is that both of its referents (“Morning Star” and “Evening Star”) are the same; that is, that “Morning Star” and “Evening Star” are co-referential terms.
|
|
|
What are connectives, conjunctions, disjunctions, and conditionals?
|
What are “connectives”,”conjunctions”, “disjuctions”, and “conditionals”?
Connectives are words that connect sentences to each other (and, or, if). They include: Conjunctions: S and T is the conjunction of S and T. He enjoyed both reading and playing badminton. Disjunctions: S or T is the disjunction of S and T. You must choose one alternative or the other; you can’t have your cake and eat it too! Conditionals: If S, then T is the conditional of S and T If I continue walking in a straight line, then I will ultimately reach the location from which I began. |
|
|
What does "Co-referential" mean?
|
Two words or phrases with the same reference
Example: "Male," "Opposite of female" |
|
|
What are Natural and Artificial languages?
|
Natural vs. Artificial Language
A Natural Language is one that is used by a human community with a natural history and culture, while an Artificial Language is a language that is developed for a specific use. Examples of Natural Languages: English, French, German, and Spanish Examples of Artificial Languages: HTML, C++, Short Code, LISt/LISP, BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, and ALGOL |
|
|
What is the "linguistic turn"?
|
The "linguistic turn" is a term made popular by the American philosopher Richard Rorty. The linguistic turn explains the recent shift to a focus on the language employed in doing philosophy. Questions about words and sentences are just as significant as traditional philosophical questions about concepts and ideas. Only by understanding our use of language can we understand whether what we are saying is true or false, which is of extreme philosophical importance.
|
|
|
What is meant by the term "possible-world semantics"?
|
The term "possible-world semantics" refers to the method of using the idea of other possible worlds to understand reference and meaning. Everything that could have existed but does not exist in the actual world actually does exist in the possible worlds.
Example: According to possible-world semantics, the statement "It is necessary that 2+2=4" is only true if 2+2=4 in every other possible world. |
|
|
What is "Satisfying the Predicate?"
|
Satisfying the predicate is putting a subject in front of a predicate that makes the sentence true.
Example: the predicate is "is in Canada." If the subjuect were Vancouver BC, then the sentence would be true, so the predicate would be satisfied. |
|
|
Universal vs. Existential Quantifiers:
|
Universal Quantifiers are statements we use to make the claim that everything is the universe satisfies an open claim.
For example: All children (X) crave chocolate cover espresso beans (X). (X could stand for anything). Existential Quantifiers are statements we use to make claims about the existence of something that satisfies an open sentence. Example: There exists an Evelyn (X) such that Evelyn (X) eats chocolate covered espresso beans in the morning(F). In Existential quantifiers, X is only true when is satisfies F. |
|
|
What are Assertions?
|
Declarative sentences or positive statements that are often made with no proof, support or logic.
|
|
|
What is the primacy of the sentence?
|
Primacy of the sentence refers to Frege's theory that the meanings of words or phrases depend on the context of the sentence in which they are used. The single word alone does not necessarily have the meaning a person is looking for, but rather refers to some object or thought.
For example, saying the word "dog" alone has little meaning. In order to understand what a person is talking about, they must use it correctly in a sentence. |
|
|
What is the meaning of 'a priori' and 'a posteriori?'
|
'A priori' and 'a posteriori' are Latin terms meaning 'prior to' and 'posterior to,' respectively. 'A priori' truths refer to knowledge gained by reasoning alone and are always considered necessary, whereas 'a posteriori' truths must be discovered or experienced to be understood.
Example: The understanding that the Morning Star refers to the same celestial object as the Evening Star is considered an 'a posteriori' truth, as this knowledge stems from fact (or, more specifically, experience of fact), not reason. Mathematical theorems, on the other hand, are viewed as 'a priori' truths. |
|
|
What is Frege’s Theory of Meaning of philosophical semantics?
|
Frege’s Theory of the Meaning of Philosophical Semantics tries to explain what must be known about the words and sentences of a language in order to understand the way people use them. The fundamental idea of his theory is that the meaning of a word is only what is necessary to know about the word in order to use it in language. Frege believes that a word on its own does not have any meaning; its meaning depends upon how it is used in a sentence.
Ex. The word “dog” does have meaning, but unless it is being used in a sentence, we do not know what the meaning is. “I have a pet dog” refers to a dog being a domesticated animal, whereas “My friend is a dog” means a male acquaintance of questionable moral standards. Thus the context of the word gives the words its meaning. |
|
|
What is the Necessity of Identity?
|
This is the theory that states once we know the context in which we use a word that word has a “fixed identity”. It can not change once we know the meaning, we should know the meaning in every possible world.
For example: If we know “the morning star” always refers to “the evening star” than the sense of the meaning should always refer to “the evening star” |
|
|
What is satisfying the value of the variable?
|
One may satisfy the variable by swapping the variable in an open sentence with a word that completes the sentence.
Take, for example, the sentence "______ went to lunch." By replacing the variable with a noun, say "Billy", one can satisfy the value of the variable. |
|
|
What are logical properties of words?
|
Logical properties of words are the ways the word's prescence affects the validity of the sentence used as either a premise or a conclusion. However, most words cannot be fully understood simply by its logical properties, but muist also be understood by having a sense of the word.
An example given by Kwame Anthony Appiah is the color red. Even if one understands the logical properties of the word, one cannot have a concept of "red" without understanding what red things look like. |
|
|
What is a compositionality thesis?
|
The compositionality thesis is derived from the idea that the meaning of a sentence is composed of the meanings of its parts. If two words or phrases have the same meaning, states the compositionality thesis, then we should be able to switch them in a sentence without changing the sentence's meaning.
According to the compositionality thesis, the sentence "it is one o'clock in the morning” means the same thing as the sentence “it is one hour past midnight.” |
|
|
What is an argument? What are the premises and conclusions of an argument?
|
An argument is a sequence of declarative sentences that leads to a final sentence, which is its conclusion. The premises of an argument are the sentences that support its conclusion.
The following is an argument: Cheese has a pleasing flavor (premise). Cheese is important to the economy of several European countries (premise). Eating cheese is a rewarding activity because it has a pleasant taste and benefits economies (conclusion). |
|
|
Sententional (propositional) attitudes
|
Propositional attitudes involve people's attitudes toward an object or idea. Examples: "I doubt that ________" or "I hope that _______". The blank can be filled to complete a sentence and expresses a proposition (Allen believes that Mark is a leprechaun)
|
|
|
paradox of analysis
|
The paradox of analysis involves replacing a word with a definition to form what should be the same sentence. So if "grom" is defined as a beginning surfer (like Allen), then the sentences "Someone who is a grom is a grom" is the same as "Someone who is a grom is a beginning surfer". However, one of the sentences appears redundant while the other appears informative, even though they should mean EXACTLY the same thing.
|
|
|
What are Gottlob Frege's 'sense' and 'reference' (referent)?
|
The referent of a word is what it refers to (Venus). The sense of the word is how it is refered to (Morning Star vs Evening Star).
Take the case of the female who gave birth to you. You can refer to her as mother, mummy, mumsy, mom, parental unit, old bag, whatever you like. All are different senses, but each refers to the same thing. |
|
|
What is the difference between necessary and contingent?
|
A necessary truth is true in every possible world. A bachelor is a single male. Contingent refers to things only possible in some worlds. (Cucumbers are green, water freezes at 0 degrees centigrade).
|
|
|
A necessary truth is true in every possible world. A bachelor is a single male. Contingent refers to things only possible in some worlds. (Cucumbers are green, water freezes at 0 degrees centigrade).
|
A proposition is a sentence that affirms or denies a predicate of a subject (something is or isn't something)
Ex. Socrates is a mortal All men are mortals |
|
|
Validity (formal)/Soundness
|
Validity is when a conclusion follows logically from its premises. Soundness is when the conclusion follows from the premises and both the conclusions and premises are true.
Ex. The shirt is green Green things photosynthesize Conclusion: The shirt photosynthesizes. This argument is valid, but not sound. |
|
|
What is "truth value"?
|
In logic, truth or falsity of a given proposition or statement. Logical connectives, such as disjunction and negation, can be thought of as truth-functions, because the truth-value of a compound proposition is a function of, or a quantity dependent upon, the truth-values of its component parts.
|
|
|
Examples of Wittgenstein’s Beetle in a Box
|
1) Maud says, “I have a sweater.” You cannot see the sweater as it is under a jacket. The problem is that you now must assume she indeed has a sweater when there is no guarantee that what she is calling a sweater is what you call a sweater.
2) Ted complains of having knee pain. The problem is that this is a private state and implies that both Ted and the pain exist as separate entities. The pain is actually something Ted is experiencing, not an object, so is subject to change. This makes it so that the meaning of “pain” is variable and is therefore meaningless. The issue illustrated here is that the possibility of changing meanings of one word makes that word meaningless: only publicly known and agreed upon words and uses of these words can have meaning. |
|
|
Sentential Logic / Propositional Logic
|
Sentential (propositional) logic is that which deals with arguments that contain the words “and,” “or,” “not” and “if.” These terms are then represented, respectively, by the symbols “&”, “V”, “~”, and “→”. Using sentential logic one can reduce the argument “if the item is orange, it reflects light with the wavelength of 590 nm” to the premises O → F (where O is orange, and F is five hundred ninety). Then the claim O can be made, and the conclusion is F.
|
|
|
Truth Value
|
The truth value of a sentence remains the same when co-referentials are interchanged. If one co-referential is true in a sentence, then its truth value is that the sentence is true. This also means that the truth value when the co-referential is interchanged with the co-referential that was initially in the sentence is true as well. The truth value is what determines whether a sentence is true or false.
|
|
|
What is linguistic determinism?
|
Linguistic determinism is the view that language determines the way we think about the world. However, there is evidence to suggest that thought is possible without language: babies and animals think without language, some people (ie: Albert Einstein) claim that their ideas come to them first as images, it’s unclear how language could have arisen in the first place, et.. An example of linguistic determinism would be the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which states that language determines our experience of reality, and we can see and think only what our language allows us to see and think. For example, the Inuit have many words for snow, which shows that reality determines language, rather than the other way around.
|
|
|
Speech Act
|
Linguists define speech acts as "complete meaningful utterances". The central speech acts are assertion(getting someone to believe something), questioning(getting someone to tell us something), and ordering (trying to make someone do something).
Ex. The central speech act of the sentence: "Mark is tired." is assertion, as the sentence's purpose is to make people believe that Mark is tired. |
|
|
Extensional contexts/Intensional Contexts
|
In Philosophy of language, a context in which a subsentential expression (X) appears is called extensional if and only if (X) can be replaced by an expression with the same extension and necessarily preserve truth-value. The extension of a term is the set of objects that that term denotes.
Take the case of Clark Kent, who is Superman. Suppose that Lois Lane fell out of a window and Superman caught her. Thus the statement, "Clark Kent caught Lois Lane," is true because it has an extensional context. The names "Superman" and "Clark Kent" have the same extension, which is to say that they both refer to the same person, i.e. that superhero who is vulnerable to kryptonite. Anybody that Superman caught, Clark Kent caught. In opposition to extensional contexts are intensional contexts, where synonymous terms cannot be substituted in without potentially compromising the truth-value. Suppose that Lois Lane believes that Clark Kent will investigate a news story with her. The statement, "Lois Lane believes that Superman will investigate a news story with her," is false, even though Superman is Clark Kent. This is because 'believes' is typically an intensional context. |
|
|
What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
|
According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, language determines one’s experience of reality, and one is limited by language in what one is allowed to see or think. The hypothesis says that social groups are, for the most part, unconsciously built upon the language of the social group. The hypothesis states that we see and hear and experience in the way that we do largely because the language habits of our community give us a predisposition towards certain interpretations. This concept, that language determines the way we think is known as a form of linguistic determinism. An example is the experiment of Peter Farb, whom asked bilingual Japanese women the same set of questions in both English and Japanese. Their answers were markedly different depending upon the language spoken. Farb maintains that this is because they were members of two languages worlds: the English speaking world containing their husbands and families, and the Japanese speaking world in which they communicated solely with one another. However, critics maintain that it is the reality that determines the language.
|
|
|
What is a "quantifier"
|
A quantifier is, in a basic sense, a pronoun that does not specifically describe a one, singular noun. A quantifier implies plurality. Words such as "much", "all", "everybody", and "somebody" are examples of quantifiers.
|
|
|
What is the lottery paradox?
|
When a valid argument is made in which the premises are merely probable, a conclusion that is actually less probable (and more incorrect) can be drawn. For example, if you were to buy 100 lottery tickets, and argue with the premises that each ticket won't win (probable,not certain), a (incorrect) conclusion can be drawn that no lottery tickets will win at all.
|
|
|
Two words are Euphemisms when...
|
They have the same denotation but different connotations. For example, “passed away” and “died” are euphemisms: they mean the same thing, but “passed away” is associated with feelings of peace and serenity while “died” lacks such connotation.
|
|
|
What is a metaphor?
|
A metaphor is a direct comparison between seemingly unrelated subjects to imply a meaning not readily apparent if the metaphor were taken literally. Different langauges, and often different dialects, have unique metaphors that don't translate well.
Miranda has got her head in the clouds. Marvin is a pillar of the community. |
|
|
What is an idiom?
|
An idiom is an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements, as kick the bucket or hang one's head, or from the general grammatical rules of a language, as the table round for the round table, and that is not a constituent of a larger expression of like characteristics.
|
