Re: Loading different pages in an iframe

In article <slrngtu9gi.36r.spamspam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Ben C <spamspam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

....

By the way, Russell does also talk about the "objective reference" of a
proposition (to a fact, "the objective"), not just about the reference
of an individual word.

One might say then that the objective referred to by a causal
proposition was a configuration of the landscape of possible worlds.

This would be one way of upholding the rule that every meaningful
proposition should have an objective to refer to.


There are two separate though not really unconnected issues in regards
to sentences that purport to claim something about the world. One issue
is how the sentence as a whole relates to the world. On this, the
relation is truth or falsity.

The other issue is how the parts relate to each other in relation to
what the sentence as a whole purports about the world and how the parts
themselves relate to the world (if they do).

....

But in that case what is the objective reference of a proposition like
"A causes B"? This looks like a candidate for a (pseudo-)problem that
would be (pseudo-)solved by saying possible worlds were real.


It seems to me to be confusing to talk about the reference of a
proposition or sentence purporting to be true. Names and definite
descriptions can have a reference in the clear sense of the objects
themselves being the references. We all know what it means to say "that
tree" refers to the tree itself. What could be more primitive than this?

However, the predicate "is true" said of sentences purporting to say
something about the world is simply true of the sentence if the world is
as it purports it to be and not if it is not. Nothing is added to the
idea of truth by saying the sentence has a reference.

In the final count, with causal statements, there is an interesting
question of whether we can see what can make them true beyond that
primitive instinct to suppose some sort of agency like we seem to have
when we make things happen.

But I don't know what Russell's take on that is. Real possible worlds
might be considered a metaphysical superstition.

I suspect he would be like everyone else and not really believe Lewis.
He was even unhappy and tried hard to be rid of universals and classes
from his ontology.

--
dorayme
.

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