Material implication and general indicative conditionals

Philosophical Quarterly 47 (187):195-211 (1997)
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Abstract

This paper falls into two parts. In the first part, I argue that consideration of general indicative conditionals, e.g., sentences like If a donkey brays it is beaten, provides a powerful argument that a pure material implication analysis of indicative if p, q is correct. In the second part I argue, opposing writers like Jackson, that a Gricean style theory of pragmatics can explain the manifest assertability conditions of if p, q in terms of its conventional content – assumed to be merely (p⊃q) – and the conversational implicature contents which utterance of if p, q may gain in certain contexts. I also defend the pragmatic approach against a recent objection by Edgington that appeal to pragmatics cannot explain what we are inclined to say about the believability conditions, as opposed to the assertability conditions, of indicative if p, q

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Stephen Barker
Nottingham University

Citations of this work

Compositionality.Zoltán Gendler Szabó - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Indicative and subjunctive conditionals.Brian Weatherson - 2001 - Philosophical Quarterly 51 (203):200-216.
Quantifiers and 'if'-clauses.Kai von Finkel - 1998 - Philosophical Quarterly 48 (191):209-214.

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References found in this work

Word and Object.Willard Van Orman Quine - 1960 - Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press.
Reference and generality.P. T. Geach - 1962 - Ithaca, N.Y.,: Cornell University Press. Edited by Michael C. Rea.
Indicative conditionals.Robert Stalnaker - 1975 - Philosophia 5 (3):269-286.

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