Philosophy 446: Meanings and Propositions a Worksheet

Meanings and Propositions: A Worksheet

Philosophy 446 Spring 2005

Please work on these questions/problems and fill out these sheets individually. This will stand in place of your reading essay for the week, and it is due on Friday, February 25. Think Think Think!

Propositions are introduced into the metaphysical mix as a way of accounting for meaning. The metaphysics of meaning is motivated by realization that there are meaningful things in the world, e.g., smoke signals, tree rings, ringing church bells, and words, among many other things. But what can be said about meaning in general? Is it simply a property that some things have and others lack? Or is meaning to be explained in terms of meanings, i.e., things that exist in their own right? This chapter pursues the second strategy of explaining meaningfulness in terms of meanings. These meanings are called propositions, and they are to be understood as connected to thoughts and sentences. The following problem and questions are designed to get you thinking about these things.

1. Say that I think to myself, “I will finish today’s lecture on time,” where this thought does not seem linguistic to me (i.e., it isn’t like I’m talking to myself in my head). Then in a show of foolish bravado, I say out loud to the class, “I will finish today’s lecture on time!” Being the diligent scribe that you are, you write my remark down. Here we have three things—viz., a thought, an utterance, and an ink trail—that are all meaningful. Tell a story about why each is meaningful, about the relationship between the three in terms of their meaningfulness, and about the structure of their meaningfulness.

2. Propositions are introduced as bearers of truth values and as the referents of “that”-clauses. Explain what it is to be a bearer of a truth value and a referent of a “that”-clause. Give examples. How does this relate to the story you just told?

3. Go back to (1)—does your story commit you to realism about meanings? Do you have a problem with realism about meanings? Should meanings be in their own separate metaphysical category, or should they be assimilated to one of the others?

4. What is the relationship between meaningfulness in general and meanings? Can you have one without the other?