Introduction
In this essay, I shall argue that there is no established truth-functional account of the meaning of indicative conditionals that is not subject to criticism but that the equivalence thesis - a truth-functional account of the meaning of indicative conditionals - is worth saving.
Throughout the course of the essay, I will discuss two different attempts to defend truth-functionality: the principle ‘assert the stronger instead of the weaker’ and the supplemented equivalence thesis. The principle was proposed by Grice in his William James lectures on ‘Logic and Conversation’ as a conversational explanation of why a conditional - which has been interpreted using the truth-table for the material conditional - can fail to be assertible even though the negation of its antecedent or the truth of the consequent is assertible. Whereas, Jackson defends a version of the equivalence thesis he refers to as the supplemented equivalence thesis in ‘On Assertion and Indicative Conditionals’. I intend to argue that Jackson successfully refutes the Gricean attempt to defend truth-functionality and provides convincing reasons to suggest that the equivalence thesis is worth saving. In order to evaluate these attempts at defending truth-functionality, I shall begin by defining some basic terms.
Indicative Conditional and Material Conditional Distinction
A sentence in the indicative mood is one that states how things actually are e.g. ‘Alice is wearing suncream’. An indicative conditional sentence is a statement of the form ‘If A, then C’ e.g. ‘If it is sunny outside, then Alice is wearing suncream’. Indicative conditionals differ from subjunctive conditionals because a subjunctive conditional is a conditional statement that indicates wha...
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...ive. However, I remain reluctant to conclude that his thesis is an ultimately correct truth-functional account of the meaning of indicative conditionals due to the number of objections that Jackson acknowledges. Nevertheless, I believe that Jackson proposes several philosophically convincing reasons which support the thought that all indicative conditionals are material conditionals.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I have argued that Jackson successfully refutes the Gricean attempt to defend a truth-functional account of the meaning of indicative conditionals. Furthermore, I have examined his alternative line of defence and several reasons he proposes to support a truth-functional account. Although I am reluctant to conclude that his theory is an ultimately correct account, I have argued that he proposes several reasons which prove establishing an account is worthwhile.
Philippa Foot starts her piece with a description of hypothetical imperatives, presumably in order to contrast them with categorical imperatives. She uses the classic Kantian description that a hypothetical imperative is a means to an end, not an end in itself. So the “ought” of a hypothetical imperative says that we ought to do something only because we want something else. Categorical imperatives, on the other hand, ought to be followed as an end in themselves and have a special rational authority — a “special dignity” (160). Foot wants to know why that could be. She wants to know what aspect of categorical imperatives gives them their special importance. In this pieces, she explores two common explanations,
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Since the arrival of our twins undesirable behavior has manifested in one of our 11 yr. old. While initially very conscienscious in helping attend to the infants & her ordinary duties, she has become accustomed to playing with them mostly now. This play in itself is great, except they no longer get the changing & feeding expected. Furthermore she uses them as an excuse now to put off doing the minimal domestic maintenance formerly performed. She is generally unresponsive to negative reinforcement options. Past experience shows she responds best to tactile & humanistic behaviorist techniques, backed up by specific instruction from our sacred texts observed in our household.
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Grice’s theory of implicature centers on what he has named the “Cooperative Principle,” and how it relates directly to conversational implications that occur in our daily speech. In the implicature section of his essay “Logic and Conversation,” Grice explains that there are common goals of conversation that we try to achieve within our discussions. For example, some of these common goals are that there is a shared aim of the conversation, each person’s contributions to the conversation should be dependent upon each other, and the conversation continues until it is mutually agreed that it is over. In order to preserve these goals, we find it easiest, as cooperative human beings, to stick to the Cooperative Principle, and along with it, the maxims that Grice lays out. Based on an assumption that we do not generally deviate from this Cooperative Principle without good reason, we can find out things that are implicitly stated. Implicature is the part of our spoken language when these maxims are broken purposefully, and it involves the implicitly understood form of communication: things that are implied or suggested. While Grice’s theory of implicature is a very careful assessment of implied statements, there are some faults that are found within his argument. Because of these issues, Grice’s theory neither offers a solution to the formalist and infomalist problems, nor provides an infallible method of evaluating implicature in everyday conversation.