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    A proposition with an empty subject idea is trivially false. — Carmelics
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    A proposition with an empty subject idea is trivially false.

    Philosophy of LanguageTruth & Knowledge
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Bolzano's truth condition requires the subject idea of a proposition to be non-empty for the proposition to be true.
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    • 2.When the subject idea is empty, the truth condition cannot be satisfied.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Meinong's theory of objects holds that non-existent objects (golden mountains, round squares) can still serve as genuine referents grounding meaningful predication.
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    • 2.If Meinongian subsistence allows empty-seeming subject ideas to genuinely denote objects beyond existence, the subject idea is not truly empty and the falsity claim loses its footing.
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    • 3.Russell's own paraphrase strategy shows 'The present king of France is bald' is false for substantive logical reasons, not trivially, undermining the triviality component of Bolzano's claim.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Free logic (Lambert, van Fraassen) demonstrates that propositions with empty singular terms need not receive a truth value at all, rendering them neither true nor false.
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    • 2.If propositions with empty subject ideas lack truth value rather than bearing falsity, Bolzano's trivial falsity claim commits a category error by presupposing bivalence without justification.
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    Topics

    Philosophy of LanguageTruth & Knowledge

    Related

    Bolzano's truth condition requires the subject idea of a proposition to be non-e...Free logic (Lambert, van Fraassen) demonstrates that propositions with empty sin...If Meinongian subsistence allows empty-seeming subject ideas to genuinely denote...If propositions with empty subject ideas lack truth value rather than bearing fa...
    +3 moreShow less
    Meinong's theory of objects holds that non-existent objects (golden mountains, r...Russell's own paraphrase strategy shows 'The present king of France is bald' is ...When the subject idea is empty, the truth condition cannot be satisfied.

    Similar

    Variants with empty subject ideas are trivially false under Bolzano's ...93%When the subject idea is empty, the truth condition cannot be satisfie...86%Bolzano's truth condition requires the subject idea of a proposition t...86%A proposition '[A has b]' can only be true if it is about something, i...85%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: bolzano
    View source passageHide passage
    As far as our first example \(S_1\) is concerned, there are true as well as false variants of it with respect to every single extra-logical part of it and also with respect to every sequence of such parts. But now let us consider the following expamle \(S_2\): [Every German philosopher is European]. It has true as well as false [German]-variants, [European]-variants, ([German], [philosopher])-variants, ([German], [European])-variants, ([philosopher], [European])-variants and also ([German], [phi
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit