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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The reference of predicates like 'is a Democrat' must be functions from objects to truth-values.

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

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Predicates like 'is a Democrat' express properties or universals, not functions — Frege's extensional reduction conflates meaning with formal mapping.
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    • 2.Two predicates can share the same function from objects to truth-values yet differ in semantic content, as 'is a creature with a heart' and 'is a creature with kidneys' demonstrate.
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    • 3.Reference must distinguish co-extensive predicates to do genuine semantic work, which functions from objects to truth-values structurally cannot accomplish.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Predicates in natural language exhibit context-sensitivity and vagueness that resists assignment of any determinate function from objects to truth-values, as argued by epistemicists and contextualists like Timothy Williamson and Charles Travis.
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    • 2.If the reference of 'is a Democrat' were a fixed function, sentences containing it would have determinate truth-values independent of context, but borderline cases and contested membership show otherwise.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.The reference of 'Barack Obama' is the man for which the name stands.
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    • 2.Reference is the power to affect truth-value.
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    • 3.Predicates like 'is a Democrat' combine with an object to yield a truth-value.
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    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.