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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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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 structure of the secret entails that possessing a secret and not possessing it are simultaneous.

    ?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.Knowing-that and communicating-that are categorically distinct mental acts, as Grice's distinction between natural and non-natural meaning establishes.
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    • 2.Forming an internal representation of a secret does not constitute an illocutionary act of disclosure, since disclosure requires an addressee.
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    • 3.Therefore, representing a secret to oneself breaks no communicative promise and leaves possession of the secret intact.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Wittgenstein's private language argument implies that secrets are constituted through social practices of concealment, not through a private inner representation.
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    • 2.If secrecy is a social practice rather than a mental state, one can participate in that practice—actively withholding—without any self-directed representation that 'breaks' a promise.
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    • 3.The supporting argument therefore commits a category error by treating keeping-a-secret as an episode of inner speech rather than a sustained pattern of behavior.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.To keep a secret one must form a representation of it to oneself, which breaks the promise not to tell.
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    • 2.Breaking the promise not to tell is equivalent to not keeping the secret.
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    • 3.Thus the act of keeping the secret is identical with the act of not keeping the secret.
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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.