Oxford University Thesis
Aaron Sloman: Knowing and Understanding (1962)
Relations between meaning and truth, meaning and necessary truth, meaning and synthetic necessary truth
AbstractThe avowed aim of the thesis is to show that there are some synthetic necessary truths, or that synthetic apriori knowledge is possible. This is really a pretext for an investigation into the general connection between meaning and truth, or between understanding and knowing, which, as pointed out in the preface, is really the first stage in a more general enquiry concerning meaning. (Not all kinds of meaning are concerned with truth.) After the preliminaries (chapter one), in which the problem is stated and some methodological remarks made, the investigation proceeds in two stages. First there is a detailed inquiry into the manner in which the meanings or functions of words occurring in a statement help to determine the conditions in which that statement would be true (or false). This prepares the way for the second stage, which is an inquiry concerning the connection between meaning and necessary truth (between understanding and knowing apriori). The first stage occupies Part Two of the thesis, the second stage Part Three. In all this, only a restricted class of statements is discussed, namely those which contain nothing but logical words and descriptive words, such as "Not all round tables are scarlet" and "Every three-sided figure is three-angled". (The reasons for not discussing proper names and other singular definite referring expressions are given in Appendix I.)NOTE:
This web page is loosely based on the corresponding ORA web page, though I have added a table of contents, which would otherwise be available only in one of the PDF files.I have also begun to add additional information about some of the contents, since the PDF files are not searchable.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Sizes of PDF files are given below.
They have not been converted to
searchable text.)
|
Title page,
Abstract, ---------------------------------- PDF Preface and Acknowledgements --- PDF (includes Chapter one) |
| Part or Chapter Title | Page | Link to PDF file |
|---|---|---|
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- | --------------------------- |
| PART ONE: SOME PRELIMINARIES | ||
| Chapter one: Introduction | . . 1 | . . .PDF (includes Preface) |
| ..... 1.A. The problems | . . 1 | |
| ..... 1.B. Methodological remarks | . . 5 | |
| ..... 1.C. The programme | . 13 | |
| - | ||
| PART TWO: MEANING AND TRUTH | ||
| Chapter two: Propositions and meanings | . 18 | |
| ..... 2.A. Criteria of identity | . 18 | |
| ..... 2.B. General facts about language | . 24 | |
| ..... 2.C. Universals and strict criteria | . 38 | |
| ..... 2.D. The independence of universals | . 50 | |
| - | ||
| Chapter three: Semantic rules | . 63 | |
| ..... Introduction | . 63 | |
| ..... 3.A. F-words | . 64 | |
| ..... 3.B. Logical syntheses | . 70 | |
| ..... 3.C. How properties explain | . 83 | |
| ..... 3.D. Non-logical syntheses | . 93 | |
| ..... 3.E. Concluding remarks and qualifications | 102 | |
| - | ||
| Chapter four: Semantic rules and living languages | 107 | |
| ..... 4.A. Indefiniteness | 107 | |
| ..... 4.B. Ordinary language works | 117 | |
| ..... 4.C. Purely verbal rules | 125 | |
| - | ||
| Chapter five: Logical form and logical truth | 129 | |
| ..... Introduction | 129 | |
| ..... 5.A. Logic and syntax | 130 | |
| ..... 5.B. Logical techniques | 144 | |
| ..... 5.C. Logical Truth | 166 | |
| ..... 5.D. Some generalisations | 176 | |
| ..... 5.E. Conclusions and qualifications | 181 | |
| - | PART THREE: MEANING AND NECESSARY TRUTH | |
| Chapter six: Analytic propositions | 194 | |
| ..... 6.A. Introduction | 194 | |
| ..... 6.B. Some unsatisfactory accounts of the distinction | 199 | |
| ..... 6.C. Identifying relations between meanings | 217 | |
| ..... 6.D. Indefiniteness of meaning | 229 | |
| ..... 6.E. Knowledge of analytic truth | 236 | |
| ..... 6.F. Concluding remarks | 249 | |
| - | ||
| Chapter seven: Kinds of necessary truth | 260 | |
| ..... Introduction | 260 | |
| ..... 7.A. Possibility | 261 | |
| ..... 7.B. Necessity | 272 | |
| ..... 7.C. Synthetic necessary connections | 283 | |
| ..... 7.D. Informal proofs | 294 | |
| ..... 7.E. Additional remarks | 319 | |
| - | ||
| Chapter eight: Concluding summary | 329 | |
| - | ||
| APPENDICES | 335 | |
| ..... . . I. Singular referring expressions | 335 | |
| ..... .. II. Confusions of formal logicians | 340 | This appendix presents arguments against the view that a natural language must include a formal system, and that logic is just a matter of syntax. One of the key points, also made by Frege, is that semantics cannot emerge from syntax alone: we also need to take account of the functions of the symbols used, not just their form. |
| ..... . III. Implicit knowledge | 357 | |
| This appendix gives examples of several kinds of implicit knowledge, including allowing for the deployment of implicit knowledge to be unreliable sometimes (Compare Chomsky's Competence/Performance distinction, 1965). The ability to do logic and mathematics, as well as many other kinds of things, depends on the use of implicit knowledge, which can be very difficult to make explicit. (At that point I knew nothing about the young science of AI which was beginning to provide new techniques for articulating implicit knowledge.) | ||
| ..... . IV. Philosophical analysis | 372 | |
| The ideas about implicit knowledge in Appendix III are used in Appendix IV to explain some of the puzzling features of the activity of conceptual analysis (disagreeing with R.M. Hare's explanation). This leads to further discussion of the nature of philosophical analysis and the claim that it cannot be concerned merely with properties of concepts: it must also be concerned with the world those concepts are used to describe, which may support different sets of concepts. This theme was taken up again many years later in my paper disguishing logical topography from logical geography in http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cosy/papers/#dp0703 | ||
| ..... .. V. Further examples | 381 | |
| ..... . VI. Apriori knowledge | 386 | |
| - | ||
| ..... Bibliography | 389 |
Downloadable Chapters
| Label | Size | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Title page and abstract - sloman.pdf | 1.9 MB | Adobe PDF Document |
| Preface, TOC and Ch 1 - sloman.pdf | 3.7 MB | Adobe PDF Document |
| Ch 2 - sloman.pdf | 8.7 MB | Adobe PDF Document |
| Ch 3 sloman.pdf | 7.2 MB | Adobe PDF Document |
| Ch 4 - sloman.pdf | 3.9 MB | Adobe PDF Document |
| Ch 5 - sloman.pdf | 12.2 MB | Adobe PDF Document |
| Ch 6 - sloman.pdf | 12.5 MB | Adobe PDF Document |
| Ch 7 - Sloman.pdf | 13 MB | Adobe PDF Document |
| Ch 8 - sloman.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe PDF Document |
| Appendices - sloman.pdf | 9.7 MB | Adobe PDF Document |
| Bibliography - sloman.pdf | 374.4 kB | Adobe PDF Document |
NOTE: the web page from which the following items were originally copied has been replaced by this one..
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Part of the following collections:
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Oxford Theses (Useless link!) |
Title Information | |
| Title | Knowing and understanding |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Relations between meaning and truth, meaning and necessary truth, meaning and synthetic necessary truth |
Author/Contributor name (Personal) (http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/ora/authority) | |
| Name: (family) | Sloman |
| Name: (given) | Aaron |
| Name as on item | A. Sloman |
| Affiliation (website) | http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/ |
| Affiliation (institution) | University of Oxford |
| Affiliation (faculty) | Faculty of Literae Humaniores |
| Affiliation (OxfordCollege) | St Antony's College |
Author/Contributor name (http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/ora/authority) | |
| Name as on item | Aaron Sloman |
| Role | Copyright Holder |
| Affiliation (rightsOwnership) | Sole authorship |
| Affiliation (ThirdPartyCopyright) | No Third Party copyright |
Author/Contributor name (Personal) (http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/ora/authority) | |
| Name: (family) | Pears |
| Name: (given) | D.F. |
| Name: (Terms of Address) | Mr |
| Role (Text) | Supervisor |
| Type of Resource | text |
| Genre (typeofwork) | thesis |
Origin Information | |
| Date Created | 1962 |
| Date Issued | 1962 |
Language | |
| Language Term (Code) (RFC 3066) | en |
Physical Description | |
| Digital provenance | digitized other analog |
| Abstract | The avowed aim of the thesis is to show that there are some synthetic necessary truths, or that synthetic apriori knowledge is possible. This is really a pretext for an investigation into the general connection between meaning and truth, or between understanding and knowing, which, as pointed out in the preface, is really the first stage in a more general enquiry concerning meaning. (Not all kinds of meaning are concerned with truth.) After the preliminaries (chapter one), in which the problem is stated and some methodological remarks made, the investigation proceeds in two stages. First there is a detailed inquiry into the manner in which the meanings or functions of words occurring in a statement help to determine the conditions in which that statement would be true (or false). This prepares the way for the second stage, which is an inquiry concerning the connection between meaning and necessary truth (between understanding and knowing apriori). The first stage occupies Part Two of the thesis, the second stage Part Three. In all this, only a restricted class of statements is discussed, namely those which contain nothing but logical words and descriptive words, such as "Not all round tables are scarlet" and "Every three-sided figure is three-angled". (The reasons for not discussing proper names and other singular definite referring expressions are given in Appendix I.) |
Subject | |
| Genre | Meaning (Philosophy) |
| Genre | truth |
| Topic | Philosophy |
| Tiny URL (Handle) | http://tinyurl.com/3kdfqf |
| Identifier (pid) | ora:928 |
Additional Information | |
| Name of Degree | DPhil |
| Level of Degree | Doctoral |
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