Quasi-Realism, Negation, and the Frege-Geach Problem

Unwin, Nicholas (1999) Quasi-Realism, Negation, and the Frege-Geach Problem. The Philosophical Quarterly, 49 (196). pp. 337-352. ISSN 1467-9213

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Abstract

Every expressivist theory of moral language requires a solution to the Frege-Geach problem, i.e., the problem of explaining how moral sentences retain their meaning in unasserted (e.g., conditional and disjunctive) contexts. An essential part of Blackburn’s ‘quasi-realist project’, i.e., the project of showing how we can earn the right to treat moral sentences as if they have ordinary truth-conditions, is to provide a sophisticated solution. I show, however, that simple negated contexts provide a fundamental difficulty, since accepting the negation of a sentence is easily confused with merely refusing to accept that sentence. I argue that Blackburn’s model-set semantics for his ‘Hooray!’ and ‘Boo!’ operators requires logical apparatus to which he is not entitled. I consider various modifications, but show that they do not succeed.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
The Philosophical Quarterly
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/researchoutput/libraryofcongress/b1
Subjects:
?? PHILOSOPHYPHILOSOPHYB PHILOSOPHY (GENERAL) ??
ID Code:
57973
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
19 Oct 2012 10:49
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
18 Sep 2023 00:35