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Truthmaker theory and the entailment principle
Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2023 5:00 pm
by PeteOlcott
One such principle in truthmaker theory is the entailment principle: if X is a truthmaker for Y,
then X is a truthmaker for anything entailed by Y.
While seemingly quite plausible, the entailment principle runs into an immediate difficulty:
the problem of trivial truthmakers for necessary truths. ‘Socrates is a philosopher’ also
entails ‘2 + 2 =4’, at least when entailment is thought of on the model of necessary truth
preservation.
https://iep.utm.edu/truth-ma/
The author of this article is quite brilliant and very well established in this field.
How could he possibly construe: {‘Socrates is a philosopher’ also entails ‘2 + 2 =4’} ?
Re: Truthmaker theory and the entailment principle
Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2023 5:19 pm
by Impenitent
I believe that he was claiming that in every existing world where the first claim is true, it is also the case that (in that existing world) the second claim is also true... (although the evidence for the veracity of the truth claims is different) ...
interesting article
-Imp
Re: Truthmaker theory and the entailment principle
Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2023 5:44 pm
by PeteOlcott
Impenitent wrote: ↑Thu Aug 24, 2023 5:19 pm
I believe that he was claiming that in every existing world where the first claim is true, it is also the case that (in that existing world) the second claim is also true... (although the evidence for the veracity of the truth claims is different) ...
interesting article
-Imp
{‘Socrates is a philosopher’ also entails ‘2 + 2 =4’}
seems to be a break from reality
because semantic relevance is missing.
Re: Truthmaker theory and the entailment principle
Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2023 5:24 pm
by PeteOlcott
Impenitent wrote: ↑Thu Aug 24, 2023 5:19 pm
I believe that he was claiming that in every existing world where the first claim is true, it is also the case that (in that existing world) the second claim is also true... (although the evidence for the veracity of the truth claims is different) ...
interesting article
-Imp
Further on in the article the same author say this:
Generally speaking, truthmaker theorists attempt to articulate a hyperintensional account of entailment that is more modally discriminating than standard entailment. For example, one might think that some sort of
relevance notion of entailment is at stake (for example, Restall 1996); the hope is to develop a conception of entailment that maintains that while ‘Socrates is a philosopher’ en-tails ‘Someone is a philosopher’, it does not entail ‘2 + 2 =4’.
That makes much more sense.