Frege's puzzle - Salmon Flashcards
Cava with a=a and a=b written on the torso
Frege poses the problem that a=a and a=b should give the same information (as they are equal) but they clearly don’t
Venus with a planet on either hand
It’s not a problem about identity, but about pieces of information
Mom with a piece of paper with a smiling Mentana on a cloud on it, spitting seeds to it
The semantic role of a declarative sentence is to encode information (information content); pieces of information are abstract
Smiling Mentana on top of a scale, an arrow from him to one side where there’s Danilo between brackets outside an f; from here an arrow to other side where there’s Ditto; from here arrow to Dr Satne
Information content generates information value; it determines semantic intension, which is a function that determines the extension to any possible world; the extension of a singular term is its referent
Scale with Mentana on top and The Dictator on bottom, an arrow from Mentana to one side where there’s Dr Satne
According to the Naive Theory, the information value of a singular term is its referent in that context
“Socrates is Wise” in brackets outside an f with Playboy’s ears on top; under it Socrates and Thinker statue appearing from bottom at same time
According to Russel, the sentence states something about propositional functions, which are uniquely and co-instantiated
Scale with Mentana holding a piece of paper on top and Cava on bottom, arrow from paper going to one side where there’s Dr Satne doing kettlebell swings; from here an arrow to other side where there’s a street sign on a cloud; arrow from sign to Mentana
According to Frege, a sentence refers to its referent but it does so because it expresses its sense (conceptual representation); referent is what fits the sense in that occasion. The sense is its information value
Cava with a=a and a=b on the torso, with a green and b brown on clouds
Frege solves Frege’s puzzle saying that a=b is informative as it is constituted by the senses of a and b, which are different
Cava giving the name Babbo to Andrea, clouds above start raining
Frege recognises that which object a proper name names is due only to linguistic usage or human decision; this undermines his theory
a in a cloud with arrow going through Paul Pierce spitting seeds to a piece of paper with φa on it; on top there are Playboy’s ears and at bottom Cava
According to both Russel and Frege, the conceptual content of names semantically determines the truth conditions of its containing sentence φa, if the conceptual content of a satisfies φ
Lorenzo writing a while saying “deh”, arrow with clouds going from him to Dr Satne
A descriptional term is one that refers by way of properties or concepts
S Anna basket field with Mary and Eucharistic instead of baskets; Playboy’s ears and Cava in the middle, Cava on side of Eucharistic and crippled parishioner on side of Mary
Frege and Russel held that proper names and indexical singular terms are descriptional, and only relationally descriptional or thoroughly descriptional (Frege)
Dr Satne pointing at Diletta with champagne in glass; they both laugh at Lorenzo writing while saying “deh”
Theory of direct reference, thanks to examples of determining the wrong person (Kripke), says that proper names etc are nondescriptional
Mariaelena with Kripke’s beard arm-wrestling with Cava for Dr Satne spitting seeds
Disagreement between orthodox and direct-reference is not about existence of descriptive content, but about its semantic role to secure a referent
Scale with Mentana on top, on one side Aristotle with a baby with a spear and on the other Aristotle as judge of Faenza’s championship; difference sign bottom with Aristotle and Lazza
The information value cannot be relativized subjectively (be different from person to person); difference between this and relativization to a particular type of use
Elizabeth grandma as robot
Kripke’s argument that knowledge of this kind is a posteriori, instead of a priori and necessary
Scale with Mentana on top, arrow to Conte in a piece of paper with text around at bottom, one arrow to Robb Wolf arm-wrestling w/ mom’s dietician in one side, another arrow to me and Chiara Vadacca doing the same in the other
Other theories say that the information value of a name is contextual; one theory says that it is the criteria used by experts (404: they can disagree); another says that it is determined by causal chain of term acquisition (404: it identifies idiolect not cognitive information content)
Scale with Mentana on top, arrow to weed bag on bottom with a V on it; one arrow to Debra (puzzled) asking who’s winning at FIFA at babb’house; other to same scene said in English and pointing to “that thing” (lizard)
Verbal theories assert that the information value of a name is the name itself; one says that it is just the name itself (404: two people with same name); another that it is name and referent (404: indexicals and demostratives, other languages)
Scale with Mentana on top, arrow to Cava with military outfit holding a coke bottle on bottom; Tim calling it Coke in one side while James soda in the other
The Generalized Frege Strategy refuses that a term’s information value is whatever function of it (e.g. reference) in case of two terms where applies a=a and a=b
General Cava, arrow to scale with Mentana on top with a difference sign with two arrows: one, with gluten symbol on it, to Dr Satne, clouds and Helvetica; other with flour to V bag of weed (also gluten one to it)
Applying the Generalized Frege Strategy shows that the information value of names etc are more detailed than referents, conceptual contents, characters and expressions; these at the same time too specific
Italy licking an ice cream falling on a mattress with Mentana face on
Take seriously attitudes to information, these are “standing” states (no need of direct subjective experience), e.g. like an ice cream
Sarah Banks with two arrows, one to John Brown basketball player (one heart and one broken heart), the other to John Brown robber running away in BMW (two hearts)
Example of wife with husband that has double life; she loves him in both guises before but only in one later (she failed to recognise that it’s same person). We need 3 place relatizived relationship
Me having problems to pass automatic passport control; two arrows from this, one to me with a different look (beard, earring, braids) and one to Sarah Banks
All cases of recognition failure have in common change in appearance, either objective or subjective appearance
Orthodox Crux above me having problems to pass automatic passport control with empty set symbol at bottom; Marco De Mitri doing a sciattica to me after it
Objection from orthodox theories is that it is impossible to fail to recognise a proposition, but the mode through which one knows a particular object is part of how he apprehends a singular proposition containing that object
