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    Propositions expressed by sentences like 'Violet is a chi... — Carmelics
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    Home/Philosophy of Language
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    Propositions expressed by sentences like 'Violet is a child' should have different truth-values with respect to different times, motivating the inclusion of a time index in semantic evaluation.

    Truth & Knowledge
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.A-theorists hold that predicates like 'is a child' correspond to A-series properties that a thing can have at one time and lack at another time.
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    • 2.The proposition expressed by 'Violet is a child' predicates this A-series property of Violet.
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    • 3.If a property can be had at one time and lacked at another, then propositions predicating that property of an individual should vary in truth-value across times.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Eternalist propositions are complete entities with times built in: 'Violet is a child at t' is timelessly true or false, requiring no index.
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    • 2.Frege and Russell treated propositions as abstract objects with determinate, unchanging truth-values, making temporal indexing a category error.
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    • 3.If a proposition's truth-value could change, the same proposition would violate the law of non-contradiction across times, undermining classical logic.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.B-theorists (e.g., Mellor in 'Real Time') hold that 'is a child' implicitly contains a relational temporal argument, so apparent change reflects propositional incompleteness, not index-sensitivity.
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    • 2.Once the hidden temporal relatum is made explicit, the sentence expresses distinct complete propositions at each time rather than one proposition with varying truth-values.
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    Topics

    Philosophy of LanguageTruth & Knowledge

    Key Terms

    Semantic evaluation(as used in logic and philosophy of language)
    The process of figuring out whether a statement is true or false by examining what the words actually mean.
    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.
    time index(Formal semantics)
    A parameter representing a time, used as a second index alongside a possible world when evaluating the truth-value of a proposition.
    truth-value(logic and philosophy of language)
    Whether a statement is true or false. Two statements can have different truth-values if one is true and the other is false.

    Related

    A-theorists hold that predicates like 'is a child' correspond to A-series proper...B-theorists (e.g., Mellor in 'Real Time') hold that 'is a child' implicitly cont...Eternalist propositions are complete entities with times built in: 'Violet is a ...Frege and Russell treated propositions as abstract objects with determinate, unc...
    +4 moreShow less
    If a property can be had at one time and lacked at another, then propositions pr...If a proposition's truth-value could change, the same proposition would violate ...

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: meaning
    View source passageHide passage
    The motivations for temporalism are both metaphysical and semantic. On the metaphysical side, A-theorists about time (see the entry on time) think that corresponding to predicates like “is a child” are A-series properties which a thing can have at one time, and lack at another time. (Hence, on this view, the property corresponding to “is a child” is not a property like being a child in 2014, since that is a property which a thing has permanently if at all, and hence is a B-series rather than A
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

    Once the hidden temporal relatum is made explicit, the sentence expresses distin...
    The proposition expressed by 'Violet is a child' predicates this A-series proper...

    Similar

    On temporalism, the proposition 'Violet is a child' incorporates no re...82%The semantic content of a sentence must lack temporal qualification, m...76%If '∃x Parent(x)' entails that children exist, then the sentence is on...76%Two names that refer to the same object can differ in meaning, allowin...74%
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit