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    The beliefs of the speaker are irrelevant to the day an u... — Carmelics
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    Home/Philosophy of Language
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    The beliefs of the speaker are irrelevant to the day an utterance of 'today' is about.

    Philosophy of Language
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Uses of 'today' are about whatever day they occur on, regardless of the descriptions the speaker associates with the expression.
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    • 2.Uses of 'today' are about whatever day they occur on, regardless of how the speaker conceives of the day of the utterance.
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    • 3.If sense were determined by the speaker's beliefs and sense determines reference, then a speaker who believes they live in 1204 would be referring to 1204 with 'today'.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Frege's puzzle about cognitive significance shows that coreferential terms can differ in meaning based on the epistemic states of speakers.
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    • 2.If 'today' and 'yesterday' can differ in cognitive value for a speaker who loses track of time, then the speaker's beliefs partly constitute which day 'today' presents.
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    • 3.A purely externalist account of 'today' cannot explain why a time-disoriented speaker's sincere assertion 'Today is Tuesday' expresses a different mental state than one who knows the date.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Kaplan's own framework distinguishes character from content, but the determination of context presupposes that an agent is correctly situated within that context.
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    • 2.Bonjour and internalist epistemologists argue that semantic reference without any grounding in the speaker's epistemic access produces a kind of semantic blindness incompatible with genuine propositional attitudes.
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    • 3.A speaker systematically deceived about which day it is—as in cases discussed by Burge regarding deference and incomplete understanding—may fail to entertain the proposition their words literally express.
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    Topics

    Philosophy of Language

    Connections

    1 topic

    Truth & Knowledge1 linked

    Related

    A purely externalist account of 'today' cannot explain why a time-disoriented sp...A speaker systematically deceived about which day it is—as in cases discussed by...Bonjour and internalist epistemologists argue that semantic reference without an...But believing one lives in 1204 and possessing accurate descriptive information ...
    +6 moreShow less
    Frege's puzzle about cognitive significance shows that coreferential terms can d...If 'today' and 'yesterday' can differ in cognitive value for a speaker who loses...If sense were determined by the speaker's beliefs and sense determines reference...Kaplan's own framework distinguishes character from content, but the determinati...Uses of 'today' are about whatever day they occur on, regardless of how the spea...Uses of 'today' are about whatever day they occur on, regardless of the descript...

    Similar

    Uses of 'today' are about whatever day they occur on, regardless of ho...88%A speaker can refer to the day of utterance with 'today' without havin...86%Uses of 'today' are about whatever day they occur on, regardless of th...86%The reference of 'today' is determined by when the speaker is located,...83%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: propositions-singular
    View source passageHide passage
    The first objection is the irrelevancy of belief objection. Believing that you live in that time and possessing accurate descriptive information of the medieval age does not make your uses of ‘today’ about 1 August 1204, even though that is the date that best fits your conception of the date of your utterance. Uses of ‘today’ are about whatever day they occur on, whatever descriptions one associate with one's uses of the expression and however one conceives of the day of one's utterance. But if
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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