For Want of Cognitively Defined Propositions
For Want of Cognitively Defined Propositions
A History of Insights and Missed Philosophical Opportunities
This chapter chronicles the troubled history of propositions in the thought of Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, Peter Strawson, and John Langshaw “J. L.” Austin. After noting the central role of propositions and propositional functions in Russell’s philosophical logic, it explains how and why his early Platonistic conception of propositions was defeated by the so-called problem of “the unity of the proposition.” It then shows how, by reversing one of his key explanatory priorities, the cognitive conception of propositions sketched in Chapter 3 can be used to solve the unity problem and to reinstate a conception of propositions capable of playing the role required of them in his philosophical logic. It argues that the tractarian theory of propositions suffers from three difficulties common to today’s “language of thought” theories of cognition. It concludes with a discussion of the rejection of propositions by ordinary-language philosophers who repudiated the idea that understanding expressions is, at bottom, knowing certain semantic facts about them.
Keywords: Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, Peter Strawson, John Langshaw, J. L.” Austin, tractarian theory, propositions
Princeton Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.