This is what Davidson tried to bring out by translating natural languages into first order language. It didn't quite work. — Banno
Just nailing down the terminology. — Srap Tasmaner
That's one of the things that made it interesting. Perhaps we need a seperate thread on where Davidson went wrong.Davidson wants to treat language as purely extensional. — Srap Tasmaner
Cool. But what is sense? How do we fill that out?We Fregeans have sense as well as reference. — Srap Tasmaner
Both. — Banno
(If I did, what is that? Is it a case of bad use, or incorrect meaning? :P ) — Noble Dust
Both. Bad use amounts to incorrect meaning. — Banno
Also, not to nitpick, but just in good faith, how accurately can we do this? Is this a deal-breaker? I could take the entire following paragraph that you wrote in your post that I just quoted and analyze the terminology, but could I nail down the terminology beyond a reasonable doubt? If we had to do this with every paragraph written and communicated, we wouldn't actually communicate anything. — Noble Dust
I'm not clear about this. Are you talking about the impossibility of defining everything, or about some sort of indeterminacy? — Srap Tasmaner
I'm more or less just defending Fregean orthodoxy these days until I'm convinced to stop. — Srap Tasmaner
There was a time when I was inclined to say that words never refer to things, but that people, by their utterances, refer to things. Only I think logic needs reference and doesn't need utterance, so I can't hand reference over to utterance. — Srap Tasmaner
But they also have the same extension. I don't see how your example works for you. — Banno
In general, you can mean something by what you say, and have it be different from what you literally say. — Srap Tasmaner
The literal meaning is what logic deals with; the other is pragmatics or something. — Srap Tasmaner
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