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    If the truth-conditional content of a sentence is always ... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The reference of an expression must be relativized to both a context of utterance and a circumstance of evaluation, not just a context of utterance alone.

    If the truth-conditional content of a sentence is always fully determined relative to a rich, occasion-specific context, then introducing circumstances as a second index is a theoretical posit that violates Occam's razor.

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    1 reason for
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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Context already encodes speaker intention, temporal reference, and demonstrative content without additional formal machinery.
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    • 2.Circumstances as a separate index multiply entities unnecessarily; a single context parameter achieves all explanatory work.
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    • 3.Empirical semantic phenomena like indexicals and demonstratives can be fully explained by pragmatic context without formal possible worlds.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Context and circumstance serve distinct functions: context fixes content, while circumstances determine truth-value of that content.
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    • 2.Modal and counterfactual reasoning requires evaluating sentences across multiple possible worlds, which context alone cannot provide.
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    • 3.Occam's razor penalizes unmotivated posits, but circumstances solve genuine explanatory problems that context-only views leave unresolved.
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    Key Terms

    Circumstances (in philosophy)(in semantics and modal logic)
    The objective features of the world at a given time and place—like whether it's raining, what objects exist, and what properties they have.
    Context (in philosophy of language)(in semantics)
    The specific details of a situation in which words are spoken—like who's speaking, when, where, and what they're pointing at—that affect what those words actually mean.
    Index (or indexical)(in semantics and formal philosophy)
    In philosophy, a way of keeping track of different factors (like time, place, or perspective) that can change how we evaluate whether something is true.
    Occam's Razor(Philosophy of science)
    A principle favoring more ontologically parsimonious theories over less parsimonious ones.
    Occasion-specific(in philosophy of language)
    Depending on the particular time, place, and circumstances of a specific moment or event.
    Theoretical posit(in philosophy of science and metaphysics)
    An assumption or thing you propose to exist in your theory in order to explain something, even though you can't directly observe it.
    Truth-conditional content(in semantics and philosophy of language)
    The meaning of a sentence defined by the specific conditions under which that sentence would be true or false.

    Connections

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    Philosophy of Language1 linked

    Related

    Circumstances as a separate index multiply entities unnecessarily; a single cont...Context already encodes speaker intention, temporal reference, and demonstrative...Context and circumstance serve distinct functions: context fixes content, while ...Empirical semantic phenomena like indexicals and demonstratives can be fully exp...

    Details

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    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
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    +3 moreShow less
    Modal and counterfactual reasoning requires evaluating sentences across multiple...Occam's razor penalizes unmotivated posits, but circumstances solve genuine expl...The reference of an expression must be relativized to both a context of utteranc...