Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Presupposition

  • Is Mariology a Part of the Presuppositionalist ‘Package Deal’? A Question for Flood

    Full disclosure: I am not a theologian. I am a philosopher of religion who, as part of his task, thinks about theologoumena which, on a broad interpretation of the term, are simply things said about God, a term which therefore includes not only official, dogmatic pronunciamenti of, say, the RCC's magisterium, but also includes conjectures,…

  • Two Senses of ‘Presupposition’ in Van Til and in General

    Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith, 4th ed., p. 279: "Thus the truth of Christianity appears to be the immediately indispensable presupposition of the fruitful study of nature." My gloss: The fruitful study of nature presupposes the truth of Christianity.  It is a fact that we study nature, and it is a fact…

  • Van Til on an Absolutely Certain Proof of Christianity

    Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith, 4th ed., p. 381: The best, the only, the absolutely certain proof of the truth of Christianity is that unless its truth be presupposed,there is no proof of anything. Van Til's  claim, to employ some Kantian jargon, is that the truth of Christianity is a condition of…

  • God, the Cosmos, Other Minds: In the Same Epistemological Boat?

    Tony Flood has gone though many changes in his long search for truth. He seems to have finally settled down in Van Til's presuppositionalism.  Tony  writes, God, the cosmos, and a plurality of minds other than one’s own are in the same epistemological boat. [. . .] To be skeptical about one but not the…

  • 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…

  • Presupposition and Excluded Middle

    If Socrates dies at time t, then Socrates was alive prior to t. If Socrates does not die at t, then Socrates was alive prior to t.  Since both 'Socrates dies at t' and 'Socrates does not die at t' entail 'Socrates was alive prior t,' we say that the latter is a semantic presupposition…

  • Implication and Presupposition

    Dave Bagwill asks: To be more clear: Do all propositions imply an ontology? Is 'imply' strong enough to bear the weight of 'assertion'? Or is 'imply' basically an equivalent of 'presuppose'? Still not clear enough. Dave. Not even the third question is clear since you didn't specify the  sense of 'imply.'  But the third question…

  • Another Round on (Semantic) Presupposition: An Inconsistent Pentad

    Ed writes, p = *Socrates has just stopped talking* q  = *Socrates was talking just now* 1. p presupposes q 2. If p presupposes q, then (p or not-p) entails q 3. It is necessary that p or not-p 4. It is necessary that q 5. It is not necessary that Socrates was talking just…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Is Assertion Closed Under Entailment? Assertion and Presupposition

    Suppose a person asserts that p. Suppose also that p entails q. Does it follow that the person asserting that p thereby asserts that q?  If so, and if p and q are any propositions you like, then assertion is closed under entailment.  If assertion is not closed under entailment, then there will be examples…