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    Ambiguous use of a term can create the illusion that a fa... — Carmelics
    Home/Philosophy of Language
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Ambiguous use of a term can create the illusion that a fallacious argument is a real deduction

    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.There are more things than there are names for them
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    • 2.Some names must therefore denote more than one thing, creating ambiguous terms and expressions
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    • 3.When the ambiguous use of a term goes unnoticed, the argument appears valid
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Grice's cooperative principle shows that competent speakers disambiguate terms through contextual implicature, not formal structure alone.
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    • 2.If hearers routinely resolve ambiguity via pragmatic inference, the illusion of validity collapses before deductive assessment begins.
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    • 3.Therefore ambiguity is a failure of communication, not a structural property capable of making invalid arguments appear formally valid.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Quine's thesis of indeterminacy of translation entails that no term has a fixed, singular meaning isolable from a broader web of beliefs.
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    • 2.If meaning is holistically determined, the boundary between 'ambiguous' and 'univocal' use is itself indeterminate, undermining the claim's diagnostic precision.
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    Topics

    Philosophy of LanguageTruth & Knowledge

    Related

    Grice's cooperative principle shows that competent speakers disambiguate terms t...If hearers routinely resolve ambiguity via pragmatic inference, the illusion of ...If meaning is holistically determined, the boundary between 'ambiguous' and 'uni...Quine's thesis of indeterminacy of translation entails that no term has a fixed,...
    +4 moreShow less
    Some names must therefore denote more than one thing, creating ambiguous terms a...There are more things than there are names for themTherefore ambiguity is a failure of communication, not a structural property cap...When the ambiguous use of a term goes unnoticed, the argument appears valid

    Similar

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    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: fallacies
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    Aristotle devotes considerable space to explaining how the appearance condition may arise. At the outset he mentions the argument that turns upon names (SR 1 165a6), saying that it is the most prolific and usual explanation: because there are more things than names, some names will have to denote more than one thing, thereby creating the possibility of ambiguous terms and expressions. That the ambiguous use of a term goes unnoticed allows the illusion that an argument is a real deduction. The ex
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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