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RE: [jboske] Opacity and belief



John:
> > And Rosta scripsit:
> >
> > > I believe there is a distinction between
> > >
> > >    John said furze is not gorse
> > >    John said "Furze is not gorse"
> > >
> > > in the former, I describe John's dicta/beliefs using my words. In the
> > > latter, I report his words/beliefs using his words. I take de dicto
> > > to be the former
> >
> > I think this particular distinction is blurred in these belief-
> > discussions, perhaps because we have no belief-verb in English that
> > accepts a quotation

True. It's important that we deblur it, though.

> > > > > There is no problem with reporting this in Lojban. We just need one
> > > > > predicate that denotes what Pierre's 'Londres' denotes and another
> > > > > predicate that denotes what his 'London' denotes
> > > >
> > > > I don't think that such predicates can exist.  Pierre's London is a real
> > > > place, but his Londres is a projection of a concept that doesn't refer
> > >
> > > How come? I don't see them as having a different status. Both Pierrean
> > > London and Pierrean Londres are concepts/categories/kinds. Whether
> > > things in the real world actually instantiate them is neither here nor
> > > there
> >
> > As I said before, this leeds to a sort of dualism, in which there are
> > plain objects and kinds, and there is one or more kinds for every plain
> > object.  Indeed, it is difficult to see why one should have plain objects
> > at all, since kinds more than cover them

Indeed. This is exactly what I think. Plain objects are just bits of
world that we believe match the properties of the Kind.

> > But I cannot swallow this for Lojban

Well, I think we shouldn't have to swallow one another's ontological
ejaculates, so long as we can each tell a coherent and broadly
satisfactory story about the phenomena at issue.

--And.