Abstract
Philosophers often talk about the things we say, or believe, or think, or mean. The things are often called ‘propositions’. A proposition is what one believes, or thinks, or means when one believes, thinks, or means something. Talk about propositions is ubiquitous when philosophers turn their gaze to language, meaning and thought. But what are propositions? Is there a single class of things that serve as the objects of belief, the bearers of truth, and the meanings of utterances? How do our utterances express propositions? Under what conditions do two speakers say the same thing, and what (if anything) does this tell us about the nature of propositions? There is no consensus on these questions—or even on whether propositions should be treated as things at all. During the second Propositions and Same-Saying workshop, which took place on July 19–21 2010 at the University of Sydney, philosophers debated these (and related) questions. The workshop covered topics in the philosophy of language, perception, and metaphysics. The present volume contains revised and expanded versions of the papers presented at the workshop.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Frege G. (1956) The thought: A logical inquiry. Mind 65(259): 289–311
Lewis D. (1986) On the plurality of worlds. Blackwell, Oxford, NY
Lycan W. (1994) Modality and meaning. Kluwer, Dordrecht
Nolan D. (1997) Impossible worlds: A modest Approach. Notre Dame Journal for Formal Logic 38(4): 535–572
Quine W. (1960) Word and object. MIT press, Cambridge, MA
Quine W. (1969) Ontological relativity and other essays. Cornell University Press, New York, NY
Quine W.V. (1951) Two dogmas of empiricism. Philosophical Review 60(1): 20–43
Soames S. (1987) Direct reference, propositional attitudes and semantic content. Philosophical Topics 15: 47–87
Stalnaker R. (1976a) Possible worlds. Noûs 10(1): 65–75
Stalnaker R. (1976b) Propositions. In: MacKay A., Merrill D. (eds) Issues in the philosophy of language. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, pp 79–91
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Briggs, R., Jago, M. Propositions and same-saying: introduction. Synthese 189, 1–10 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-012-0091-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-012-0091-1