[lit-ideas] Re: Malt, Coffee & Chuck Taylor

  • From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 15:35:04 +0100 (BST)

--- wokshevs@xxxxxx wrote:

> Apologies for my naivete and pedantry.

Accepted.

> 
> I would have thought that "The coffee is hot" has no truth-value precisely
> because the expression does "depend on subjective criteria" - which is to
> say,
> no criteria or conditions at all. (At least when formulated in the
> abstract.)
> It has no cognitive significance, as it used to be said. 

This is a misunderstanding. It has "cognitive significance" (I for one
understood the statement and, sugar, I've burnt my mouth by disbelieving
you). It is false to say that where criteria are 'subject-dependent' there is
no truth-value or objective truth (what burns my mouth does objectively burn
my mouth, even if other mouths would not burn). The argument offered confuses
many things - but fundamentally it confuses the ontic with the epistemic i.e.
the correspondence of a statement with reality is an ontic relationship (does
the state of affairs _exist_ as posited) and is not to be confused with an
epistemic relationship (how do we _know_ this).

Donal
Onticaria


                
___________________________________________________________ 
Try the all-new Yahoo! Mail. "The New Version is radically easier to use" ? The 
Wall Street Journal 
http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. lit-ideas
  3. Archive
  4. 06-2006