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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Quine's thesis of the indeterminacy of translation entails that no unique logical representation of a natural language sentence is ever fully determinate.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Indeterminacy of *translation* between languages doesn't entail indeterminacy within a single language's internal logical structure.
      ?

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    • 2.Multiple logically equivalent formulations can represent the same truth-conditions; equivalence doesn't mean representation is indeterminate.
      ?

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    • 3.Speakers demonstrably have determinate competence with logical operators; this constrains representation even if some underdetermination exists.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Translation underdetermination shows multiple logically distinct formulas can preserve all behavioral/observational equivalences in translation.
      ?

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    • 2.If translation is indeterminate, the source language itself lacks determinate logical structure independent of translation schemes.
      ?

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    • 3.Natural language semantics depend partly on holistic theory-choice, not isolated sentence meanings, undermining unique logical representation.
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