{"id":4016,"date":"2019-01-07T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T14:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2019\/01\/07\/another-round-on-semantic-presupposition-an-inconsistent-pentad\/"},"modified":"2019-01-07T14:10:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T14:10:00","slug":"another-round-on-semantic-presupposition-an-inconsistent-pentad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2019\/01\/07\/another-round-on-semantic-presupposition-an-inconsistent-pentad\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Round on (Semantic) Presupposition: An Inconsistent Pentad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed writes,<\/span><\/p>\n

p = *Socrates has just stopped talking*<\/span><\/p>\n

q  = *Socrates was talking just now*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

1. p presupposes q<\/span><\/p>\n

2. If p presupposes q, then (p or not-p) entails q<\/span><\/p>\n

3. It is necessary that p or not-p<\/span><\/p>\n

4. It is necessary that q<\/span><\/p>\n

5. It is not necessary that Socrates was talking just now<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We agree with (1) in some sense<\/em>. In (2), we try to sharpen that sense, i.e. of \u2018presupposition\u2019. (3) is a logical truth. So is (4): if the antecedent is necessary, so is the consequent. (5) is obviously true (unless we hold the necessity of the past, but the example could be changed with the same problematic result).<\/span>  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

My feeling is that we are not being sharp enough about \u2018presupposition\u2019. What exactly is it?<\/span><\/p>\n

……………………………………………..<\/span><\/p>\n

The above propositions are collectively inconsistent: they cannot all be true.  But there is a philosophical problem only if all of the propositions are plausible. (2), however, is not at all plausible and seems to reflect a blunder on Ed' s part.  The idea behind semantic presupposition is that if p presupposes q, then both p and its negation entail q. What Ed should have written is<\/span><\/p>\n

   <\/span>    2* If p presupposes q, and p is true, then p entails q, and if p is false, then not-p entails q.<\/span>
<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For example, if I stop talking at time t, then my stopping entails my talking immediately before t; if I keep talking at t, then that also entails my talking immediately before t.  The proposition presupposed is the same whether I stop talking or keep talking.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clearly (2) and (2*) are different propositions. So I solve the pentad by rejecting (2) and its consequences.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “Another Round on (Semantic) Presupposition: An Inconsistent Pentad”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,378],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aporetics","category-presupposition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}