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    A sentence S expresses the proposition p if and only if t... — Carmelics
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    A sentence S expresses the proposition p if and only if three conditions are satisfied: speakers typically utter S only if they believe p and come to believe p upon hearing S; community members believe this regularity holds; and belief in this regularity (including belief that others share it) gives members reason to perpetuate it.

    Philosophy of Language
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    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Speakers typically utter S only if they believe p, and typically come to believe p upon hearing S.
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    • 2.Members of the community believe that the above regularity is true.
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    • 3.The fact that members believe the regularity holds, and believe others believe it too, gives them a good reason to continue acting so as to sustain that regularity.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Sentences can express propositions in languages with no community of speakers, such as extinct or artificial languages with a single author.
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    • 2.If proposition-expression requires an actual community regularity, then a solitary speaker's novel sentence expresses nothing, which contradicts compositional semantics.
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    • 3.Grice's foundational work shows sentence meaning reduces to speaker meaning plus conventions, not to descriptive behavioral regularities among populations.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Kripke's rule-following considerations demonstrate that no finite pattern of communal behavior can uniquely fix which rule governs an expression's use.
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    • 2.If the regularity described in P1 underdetermines which proposition S expresses, then satisfying all three conditions is insufficient for proposition-expression.
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    Topics

    Philosophy of Language

    Key Terms

    express (in philosophy of language)(in philosophy of language)
    When a sentence 'expresses' a proposition, it means the sentence communicates or stands for that particular idea or meaning.
    if and only if(in logic and philosophical definitions)
    A logical phrase meaning both directions must be true: A happens exactly when B happens, and if B happens, then A must happen. It's a two-way requirement, not just one direction.
    necessary and sufficient conditions(in philosophical analysis)
    A 'necessary' condition is something that must be true for something else to happen; a 'sufficient' condition is something that guarantees it will happen. This phrase describes what must be true (and what's enough) for a definition to apply.
    proposition(Used in the context of a semantic theory sensitive to differences in subject matter.)
    The content expressed by a sentence, individuated at least in part by the subject matter of the sentence and the contents of its subsentential expressions.
    regularity(Violated in de Finetti's lottery when each ticket is assigned probability 0)
    The property of a probability function whereby every possible event (every non-empty set of outcomes) receives positive probability

    Related

    Grice's foundational work shows sentence meaning reduces to speaker meaning plus...If proposition-expression requires an actual community regularity, then a solita...If the regularity described in P1 underdetermines which proposition S expresses,...Kripke's rule-following considerations demonstrate that no finite pattern of com...
    +4 moreShow less
    Members of the community believe that the above regularity is true.Sentences can express propositions in languages with no community of speakers, s...

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: meaning
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    There are different ways to make this rough idea precise (see the entry on convention). According to one important view, a sentence S expresses the proposition p if and only if the following three conditions are satisfied: (1) speakers typically utter S only if they believe p and typically come to believe p upon hearing S, (2) members of the community believe that (1) is true, and (3) the fact that members of the community believe that (1) is true, and believe that other members of the communi
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

    Speakers typically utter S only if they believe p, and typically come to believe...
    The fact that members believe the regularity holds, and believe others believe i...

    Similar

    For a sentence S to express a proposition p in some group, there must ...83%Determinacy requires that a speaker must believe and implicate p for t...81%Asserting a proposition implies that the speaker believes what she ass...80%A speaker holds a sentence to be true in part because of what the spea...79%
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit