Saying the Same Thing

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Saying the Same Thing
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Concepts

• Counting by
• Sentence token
• Sentence type
• Proposition
• Statement
• Synonomy
• Ambiguity
• Context Dependence
• Sense
• Reference
• Indexical

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What were doing here

• Arguing that there are necessary truths
• Explaining how sentences have meaning in virtue
  of the families to which they belong
• Noting that the meaning of a sentence depends on
  the language in which it figures and, sometimes,
  its context of utterance.

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Different Ways of Counting
8 individual objects
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Different Ways of Counting
3 colors
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Different Ways of Counting
2 shapes
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Are they the same?
Same shape, Different color
Different shape, Same color
The Moral we can count things in different ways,
and come up with different correct answers when
counting the same objects. There are 4 individual
objects, 3 colors and 2 shapes represented in
this picture.
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Count the letters . . .

• BANANA

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Counting by TYPE

• BANANA

There are 3 letters of the alphabet in banana
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Counting by TOKEN

• BANANA

There are 6 individual letters in banana
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Type/Token Ambiguity

• My husband and I drive the same car.
• Tweedledee and Tweedledum are identical twins.

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2 sentence tokens - 1 sentence type

1. John is Pauls brother
2. John is Pauls brother

TYPE and TOKEN arent different kinds of things
like apples and oranges--theyre just two
different ways of counting the same things. We
can count sentences by token or by type.
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1 proposition

1. John is Pauls brother
2. John is Pauls brother
3. John is the male sibling of Paul

1, 2 and 3 express the same proposition because
they have they have the same sense, i.e.
dictionary-meaning. They are synonymous.
Counting by PROPOSITION is another way of
counting sentences
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What are propositions really???

• Equivalence class
• example denominations of bills
• We can group things in different ways
• Equivalence relation
• reflexive
• symmetric
• transitive

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Equivalence Class

• 14 bills 4 denominations
• More about equivalence classes here

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Synonomy

• You should eschew obfuscation.
• You should avoid obscurity.
• Snow is white.
• Owsnay isay itewhay.
• Sentences are synonymous when they express the
  same proposition.

tomAHto
tomato
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Ambiguity

• Im high!
• Flying planes can be dangerous.
• A sentence is ambiguous when it can be used to
  express different propositions.

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Context Dependence

• A sentence is context dependent when what it says
  depends upon the context of utterance, that is
  where, when, by whom and in what circumstances it
  is said.
• Examples of context dependent sentences
• I am a philosopher
• Los Angeles is to the north of here
• Its 10 am now.
• This dang thing is heavy!

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Plato and Aristotle saying that theyre
philosophers
Im aphilosopher
Im aphilosopher
Plato is a philosopher
Aristotle is a philosopher
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Indexicals

• Words whose reference changes systematically
  depending on where, when, by whom and in what
  circumstances they are uttered.
• Examples I, you, he, today, yesterday, tomorrow,
  here, there, this, that, now

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Sense/ReferenceDistinction

• meaning is ambiguous!
• bachelor means unmarried male who never has
  been married.
• I mean him!
• Frege Auf Sinn und Bedeuting
• Sense dictionary-meaning
• Reference aboutness, picking out

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Sense and Reference
square
sense
square
reference
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Same Statement

• Sentences make the same statement when they say
  the same thing about the same thing.
• Example
• 50 is even.
• The number of states in the US is even.
• 1 is always true but2 was not true in 1812!

1812 Flag
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Example A Question from an Old Quiz
Its my shoe.
Its my shoe.
Its your shoe.
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Which sentences say the same thing?

1. stated Sep 12, 2013 Today is Thursday.
2. stated Sep 13, 2013 Today is Thursday.
3. stated Sep 13, 2013 Yesterday was Thursday.

It depends on how you count!
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Same proposition/different statements

1. stated Sep 12, 2013 Today is Thursday.
2. stated Sep 13, 2013 Today is Thursday.
3. stated Sep 13, 2013 Yesterday was Thursday.

1 and 2 have the same sense--same
dictionary-meaning
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Same statement/different propositions

1. stated Sep 12, 2013 Today is Thursday.
2. stated Sep 13, 2013 Today is Thursday.
3. stated Sep 13, 2013 Yesterday was Thursday.

1 and 3 dont have the same dictionary-meaning
but they pick out the same day. They say the same
thing about the same thing.
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Translating into timeless sentences

1. stated Sep 12, 2013 Today is Thursday.
2. stated Sep 13, 2013 Today is Thursday.
3. stated Sep 13, 2013 Yesterday was Thursday.

1 Sep 12, 2013 is a Thursday. 2 Sep 13,
2013 is a Thursday.
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1. stated Sep 12, 2013 Today is Thursday.
2. stated Sep 13, 2013 Today is Thursday.
3. stated Sep 13, 2013 Yesterday was Thursday.

context-dependent
1 Sep 12, 2013 is a Thursday. 2 Sep 13,
2013 is a Thursday.
not context-dependent
We can translate context-dependent sentences into
sentences that are not context-dependent
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Remember her?
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Summing up so far

• We distinguished different ways of counting
  sentences
• by sentence token
• by sentence type
• by proposition
• by statement
• We noted that some sentences were
  context-dependent because they included
  indexicals but
• that they could be translated into
  context-independent sentences.

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The Moral of the Story

• When we ask whether two sentences (or speakers)
  are saying the same thing we need to be clear
  about what were asking.
• Expressing the same proposition?
• Making the same statement?
• Uttering the same noises (or making the same
  marks)?

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A Puzzle About Necessary Truths

• How We Argue in Philosophy
• When we want to argue for a thesis we need to
  respond to objections
• So sometimes we consider an argument for
  something we want to show is false
• In order to refute it
• We will consider a bad argument that is supposed
  to show there are no necessary truths
• And refute it

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Bad argument(supposed to show there are no
necessary truths)

• 2 2 4 - true
• 2 2 5 - false
• English
• 4
• 5
• Actual World

• 2 2 4 - false
• 2 2 5 - true
• English
• 4
• 5
• W

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This argument can be generalized!

• It is contingent that any given word has the
  sense it does we can change language!
• So it seems there can be no necessary truths!
• But this is crazy changing language doesnt
  change the world! So we have to respond to this
  threat!

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Theyre making the different noises
but expressing the same mathematical truth!


2 2 4
2 2 5
English-Speaker
English-Speaker
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Now theyre making the same noises
but expressing the different mathematical
propositions!


2 2 4
2 2 4
English-Speaker
English-Speaker
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Changing language doesnt change the world!
True

False

• 2 2 4 - true
• 2 2 5 - false
• English
• 4
• 5
• Actual World

• 2 2 4 - false
• 2 2 5 - true
• English
• 4
• 5
• W

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Lincolns Riddle
If you call a tail a leg, then how many legs does
a dog have?
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Changing language doesnt change the world!
Four. Calling a tail aleg doesnt makeit one.
The End