Premium
Concepts, Meanings and Truth: First Nature, Second Nature and Hard Work
Author(s) -
PIETROSKI PAUL M.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0017.2010.01389.x
Subject(s) - epistemology , cognition , alethiology , computer science , pragmatic theory of truth , work (physics) , mental representation , logical truth , linguistics , coherence theory of truth , cognitive science , psychology , philosophy , mechanical engineering , engineering , neuroscience
I argue that linguistic meanings are instructions to build monadic concepts that lie between lexicalizable concepts and truth‐evaluable judgments. In acquiring words, humans use concepts of various adicities to introduce concepts that can be fetched and systematically combined via certain conjunctive operations, which require monadic inputs. These concepts do not have Tarskian satisfaction conditions. But they provide bases for refinements and elaborations that can yield truth‐evaluable judgments. Constructing mental sentences that are true or false requires cognitive work, not just an exercise of basic linguistic capacities.