作業
Sample Homework Assignments
Condition (ii) in Gamut's Definition
Here is Gamut's definition of the correct use of a statement again:
A speaker S makes correct use of a sentence A in order to make a statement before a listener L just in case:
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S believes that A is true;
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S believes that L does not believe that A is true;
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S believes that A is relevant to the subject of the conversation;
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For all sentences B of which A is a logical consequence (and which are not equivalent to A), 1-3 do not all hold with respect to B.
My Claim: For any given B of which A is a logical consequence, condition (ii) cannot be the reason why the speaker did not utter B.
Task: Explain why. (Email your answer to me by Lecture 3.)
Homework (Due in Lecture 10)
Think about the answering machine "paradox" which concerns the outgoing message "I am not here right now".
The system we have in place says that "I" with respect to c, i denotes the speaker of c (Sc), that "here" denotes the location of Sc at the time of the utterance (tc), that "now" denotes the time of the utterance (tc). Show that we straightforwardly predict that "I am not here now" cannot be uttered truthfully.
Given this system, what could be said to explain why the outgoing message is not in fact useless?
Or, would you argue that the system needs to be changed? If so, how?
Write up to two pages on this topic. Due in lecture 10, email submission prior to class ok and even preferred.
