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The Meaning of Imperatives
Author(s) -
Charlow Nate
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
philosophy compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.973
H-Index - 25
ISSN - 1747-9991
DOI - 10.1111/phc3.12151
Subject(s) - meaning (existential) , epistemology , semantics (computer science) , modal , truth condition , sociology , computer science , philosophy , chemistry , polymer chemistry , programming language
This article surveys a range of current views on the semantics of imperatives, presenting them as more or less conservative with respect to the Truth‐Conditional Paradigm in semantics. It describes and critiques views at either extreme of this spectrum: accounts on which the meaning of an imperative is a modal truth‐condition, as well as various accounts that attempt to explain imperative meaning without making use of truth‐conditions. It briefly describes and encourages further work on a family of views lying somewhere in the middle. On such views, an imperative will semantically determine, without having as its meaning, a modal truth‐condition, which figures centrally in accounting for various aspects of its meaning.