Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

Volume 57, Issue 2, June 1997

Salmon Trapping

Call a sentential context semantically transparent if and only if all synonymous expressions are substitutable for one another in it salva veritate. Nathan Salmon has boldly advanced a refreshingly crisp semantic theory according to which belief contexts are semantically transparent. If he is right, belief contexts are much better behaved than widely suspected. Impressive as it is, this author does not believe that Salmon’s theory is completely satisfactory. This article tries to show that Salmon’s theory, in conjunction with a number of auxiliary but important claims he makes to buttress the theory, seems to lead to failure of semantic transparency of belief contexts.