יום ב' ,   19.12.05,   18:00 - 20:00
חדר 449 בנין גילמן

דר' דורון אביטל - אוניברסיטת קולומביה ואוניברסיטת תל-אביב

"The Standard Extended: Frege, Wittgenstein
 and Kripke on propositions and rules
"

Frege offers us a matrix of four possible elements: the sense and reference of a singular term; the sense of reference of a predicate. The matrix offers four possible accounts for the idea of the proposition: (1) the proposition as a composition of senses (Frege's account); (2) the proposition as a composition of referents; and two more heterogeneous compositions, namely: (3) the proposition as a composition of the sense of a predicate and the reference of a singular term; and its orthogonal rotation: (4) the proposition as a composition of the sense of a singular term and the reference of a predicate. I term the latter two options de re and de dicto, respectively, and argue at length that this is the correct analysis for the idea of the proposition.

 I suggest two requirements that objects of belief (propositions) must satisfy: (i) they must express a meaningful condition; and (ii) they must relate to an object of the independent reality (the argument of the condition). I argue that the two readings de re and de dicto are the only two options out of the four listed that satisfy the two requirements. I use the suggested structure to show that "The Paradox of Following a Rule" (I refer to it as "The Paradox of the Intended Model") as presented by Wittgenstein (and Kripke) as well as Kripke's "A Puzzle about Belief" are in fact orthogonal equivalents of the same type of paradox, and have de re or de dicto (respectively) readings as their logical underpinning. I draw a general conclusion by way of which propositions reflect standards (or rules) that are materialized in the form of a choice of representative objects (examples of the rules), and show the mechanism by which the extension of the rules is thus generated. In this, I show that the same logical mechanism is at work both in "standard" and "non-standard" extensions of rules. In the life of a rule, there may be a moment at which a choice or a judgment is necessary on how to extend the rule. Rules are not "railroads to infinity," but rather a concrete mechanism of extension which is open to misuse as well as to extension that requires a choice or a judgment.  



ד"ר ליאו קורי , יו"ר



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