Category: Assertion
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Do Fire Alarms Make Assertions?
The Opponent writes, The alarm means 'there is a fire in the building'. An assertion has taken place, that there is a fire. But it is triggered by a sensor in the building. So asserting is not just something people do. This is a loose way of talking quite in order in ordinary life, but…
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Assertion and Truth In Itself
The Ostrich reports that he gave up on my transcendental argument from assertion to truth when he came to this paragraph: To further unpack the concept of assertion, we note that whatever is asserted is asserted to be true independently of one's asserting it. Of course, it does not follow from one's asserting that p…
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A Transcendental Argument from Assertion to Truth
We start with a fact: we make assertions. The fact is actual, so it must be possible. What are the conditions of its possibility? What has to be the case for assertion to be possible? I will argue that there has to be truth for assertion to be possible. We proceed by unpacking the concept…
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Battling the Bad Ostrich over Assertion
BV said: I will now pose a problem for the view that assertion = proposition. Suppose I give the following valid argument, an instance of modus ponens. By 'give an argument,' I mean that I assert its premises, and I assert its conclusion as following from the premises, and this in the presence of one…
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Two Senses of ‘Assertion’
Ed e-mails: The crux is what is meant by ‘assertion’. Aristotle’s system is quite clear. We have two terms on the left and right, and the copula in the middle, plus a negation sign which (in Latin) can either appear on the left of the copula (a parte ante) or the right (a parte post).…
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More on Assertion and Presupposition
I continue to worry this technical bone, which is not a mere technicality, inasmuch as the topic of presupposition opens out upon some very Big Questions indeed. Anyway, back to work. I thank Ed Buckner for getting me going on this. ………………… It should be obvious that one does not assert everything that the content…
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Did Kepler Die in Misery?
Either he did or he didn't. Suppose I say that he did, and you say that he didn't. We both presuppose, inter alia, that there was a man named 'Kepler.' Now that proposition that we both presuppose, although entailed both by Kepler died in misery and Kepler did not die in misery is no part…
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Assertion and Presupposition: An Argument for a Distinction
1) Someone, such as Sophomore Sam, who asserts that there are no truths does not assert that there are truths. And yet 2) That there are no truths entails that there is at least one truth. (Why? Because it is impossible for the first proposition to be true and the second false.) Therefore 3) If…