Propositional attitude reporting sentences concern cognitive relations people bear to propositions. A paradigm example is the sentence ‘Jill believes that Jack broke his crown’. Arguably, ‘believes, ‘hopes’, and ‘knows’ are propositional attitude verb and, when followed by a clause that includes a full sentence expressing a proposition (a that-clause) form propositional attitude reporting sentences. Attributions of cognitive relations to propositions can also take other forms. For example, ‘Jack believes what Jill said’ and ‘Jack believes everything Jill believes’ are both propositional attitude ascriptions, even though the attitude verb is not followed by a that-clause. Some philosophers and linguists also claim that sentences like ‘Jill wanted Jack to fall’, ‘Jack and Jill are seeking water’, and ‘Jack fears Jill’, for example, are to be analyzed as propositional attitude ascribing sentences, the first saying, perhaps, something to the effect that Jill wants that Jack falls, the second that Jack and Jill strive that they find water, and the third that Jack fears that Jill will hurt him. But such analyses are controversial. (See the entry on intensional transitive verbs.)
Having a successful theory of propositional attitude reports is important, as they serve as a converging point for a number of different fields, including philosophy of language, natural language semantics, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and epistemology.
In this article, we examine attempts to deal with a puzzle about propositional attitude reporting sentences that was first posed by Gottlob Frege in his 1892. Subsequent literature has been concerned with developing a semantic theory that offers an adequate treatment of this puzzle. We present the main theories and note the considerations that count in their favor and some of the problems that they face.
1. Frege’s puzzle — sep article on propositional attitude reporting
The search for definitions is often a matter of codifying what we actually do. It is a very hard thing to do perfectly, partly because the rigidity that goes along with that can end up in conflict with the more flexible and dynamic practices of actual use.To better understand the ready-existent regulations by which something operates is not the same as pigeonholing everything into rules of one’s own creation. — javra
There are various understandings of the world and some of the things in it that can't be communicated through propositional true/false knowledge. But there are other ways of communicating - poetry, pictures, music, dance.a mystic’s understanding of reality at large cannot be shared in the complete absence of JTB knowledge regarding this understanding, via which the understanding could then be convincingly communicated to others. — javra
Surely that example is easy to communicate in common-place ways. What is harder to communicate by means of articulate rules is different. Curiously, how to use words is one of them. But how to be respectful or friendly are not like that, either.More mundanely, though, most understandings among adult humans in a society are commonly held by all individuals (e.g., the understanding of which side of the road to drive on). — javra
Yes, but you know when the understanding clicks because you know when the child is using the words correctly.But consider how kids learn language: they must come to their own understanding regarding what words in their proper contexts signify. One cannot impart this understanding to children directly (in contrast to how a JTB can be directly imparted among adults), but can only lead the way toward it via affirmations and negations regarding what is correct. This until the understanding clicks. — javra
Doesn't this show that all three are interwoven as different aspects of knowledge?JTB, on the other hand, will require a) belief (that is both true and endlessly justifiable in valid manners in principle), b) some measure of understanding, and c) awareness. — javra
I was very pleased to see you include testimony. Because it enables us to pass on what we know It is critical to our practice of knowledge. We all stand on the shoulders of others and our society would be greatly impoverished if testimony were not an effective way of communicating it. However, accommodating it in the standard JTB framework is tricky. It requires acceptance of fallible justifications.The five justificatory routes identified in JTB+U illustrate this point. — Sam26
Yes, I agree with that.In this way, JTB+U brings Wittgenstein’s therapeutic insight into constructive form: it dissolves confusions about “know” by looking at use, and it offers a framework that captures the grammar of knowledge as it is lived in our forms of life. — Sam26
I thought that knowledge just is an attitude to a proposition. In what other form could it enter into philosophical consideration? I think it is useful to see "know" and "believe" in the context of "think", "suppose", "imagine", "deny", "assert" and Frege's puzzle is indeed a puzzle.Sometimes knowledge enters philosophical consideration in the form of a propositional attitude. — frank
Well, there's some truth to that. But I think that it misses the point and over-extends a useful idea. It would be a bit misleading, wouldn't it, to parse "I wish I had a red flower for a buttonhole" as expressing a positive attitude to the proposition "I have a red flower for my buttonhole"; the object of my positive attitude is the red flower, once it appears in my buttonhole.Some philosophers and linguists also claim that sentences like ‘Jill wanted Jack to fall’, ‘Jack and Jill are seeking water’, and ‘Jack fears Jill’, for example, are to be analyzed as propositional attitude ascribing sentences, — sep article on propositional attitude reporting
I was very pleased to see you include testimony. Because it enables us to pass on what we know It is critical to our practice of knowledge. We all stand on the shoulders of others and our society would be greatly impoverished if testimony were not an effective way of communicating it. However, accommodating it in the standard JTB framework is tricky. It requires acceptance of fallible justifications. — Ludwig V
Yes, that's quite right. I think, though, that philosophers have always been more interested in how new knowledge is acquired, so tend to focus on that. What they don't pay enough attention to, in my opinion, is how important the spread of knowledge is and how dependent new knowledge is on knowledged that has already been acquired.Much of our knowledge comes through — Sam26
That's complicated. Some probabilistic reasoning is absolutely certain. The odds of a coin toss are exactly and without doubt 1/2. Empirical probabilities less so, although in practice they seem to work quite well. I don't know how reliable Bayesian probabilities are, but, given the difficulty of verifying them (in one-off cases), I set even less store by them. But note that probabilities have no meaning unless and until there are outcomes - at which point the probability becomes 1 or 0.Almost all justification is fallible, not just testimony. Why? Because most knowledge relies on probabilistic reasoning, including science. — Sam26
Some probabilistic reasoning is absolutely certain. — Ludwig V
So where does probabilistic reasoning fit? An example of a conclusion that can approach certainty in degree, but never be absolutely certain in kind. Bear in mind, that probability is, by definition, defined by an outcome, of which the probability, by definition, is 1 or perhaps 0. (I'm not saying the outcome always has to happen, just that each probability defines an outcome.)By contrast, probabilistic reasoning always carries qualification: no matter how small the probability of error, there remains some chance that the conclusion is false. Thus, probabilistic conclusions can approach certainty in degree, but they can never be absolutely certain in kind. — Sam26
So where does probabilistic reasoning fit? An example of a conclusion that can approach certainty in degree, but never be absolutely certain in kind. Bear in mind, that probability is, by definition, defined by an outcome, of which the probability, by definition, is 1 or perhaps 0. (I'm not saying the outcome always has to happen, just that each probability defines an outcome.) — Ludwig V
Sam26
You’re right that to say “truth is a maintenance project of cognition” is itself an epistemic claim. But that doesn’t undermine my point... it reinforces it. The fact that I can’t step outside the framework of justification to make my claim is precisely what I mean when I call truth a “maintenance project.” To describe truth is always to participate in it, never to stand above — DifferentiatingEgg
↪JoshsI think we’re converging on a similar point. I would agree that “truth” does not wear a single face. Its criteria shift depending on the language-game: in a courtroom truth is tied to testimony and records, in science it is tied to predictive success but also to the testimony and documentation that communicate, test, and replicate those predictions, and in mathematics it is tied to logical necessity. To borrow Wittgenstein’s term, these are family resemblances rather than a unitary essence.
Where I’d want to add a note of caution is that the factivity of truth still matters across those contexts. However we construe it, “p” being true always implies that things are as “p” says they are. Otherwise we lose the very grammar that distinguishes knowledge from conviction. — Sam26
In this sense, JTB+U performs a Wittgensteinian clarification: it dissolves the illusion that justification alone guarantees comprehension. “U” distinguishes genuine justification from parroting, algorithmic correctness, or social conformity. Philosophically, that difference is now urgent—especially in an age where machines can simulate justification without understanding.
This is important, because it's easy to suppose your point is correct. — Sam26
Someone could parrot an explanation of how a belief is justified without really 'getting' the explanation. It is very difficult, though, to say just what "getting" an explanation consists in other than the feeling or sense of getting it.
In What Computers Can't Do and What Computers Still Can't Do Hubert Dreyfus argued that computers will never be genuinely intelligent because they cannot understand context.
Yet the LLMs do seem to be able to do that, even though I cannot imagine how it would possible that they do that. Is it just a matter of parroting so sophisticated as to be able to fool us into thinking they do understand context?
It begs the question as to how we grasp context, and I don't have an answer for that, but can only think that it must somehow be a matter of feeling. I can't imagine a computer having a feeling for context—but then what do I know? — Janus
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