Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Situation semantics, philosophy: Situation semantics assumes that the meaning of sentences is determined by the set of possible situations in which they are true. Thus, in concrete situations there is an already given meaning of the used linguistic means from the history of usage. In the discussion of this theory, one of the issues is the distinction between situations and worlds. See also Possible world semantics, Situations, Attitude semantics, Centered worlds, Context/contextuality, Propositions, Propositional attitudes, Fine-grained/coarse-grained, Internalism, Externalism._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Maxwell J. Cresswell on Situation Semantics - Dictionary of Arguments
I 63 Situation Semantics/Barwise/Perry: possible worlds (poss.w.) are too big to explain what the speaker of a sentence knows. Possible World: complete possible situations. >Situations, >Possible worlds, >Facts. CresswellVsBarwise: Situations need only be partial in the sense that they are small possible worlds. >Barwise/Perry. I 69 CresswellVsBarweise/Perry: disjunction: their construction requires that situations are considered as possible worlds: E.g. I am at home or at the university: as a proposition incomplete, because both made true. The situation can only be one of the two. Making true/truthmaker: the total (disjunction) does not have to be made true by an alternative, because it can also be made true by another alternative. >Truthmakers. I 72 Situations seem incomplete. (E.g. Does the dog bark loudly or quietly?) - But they are not as incomplete as propositions. >Propositions. I 71 Problem: Total situation: The machine is working (shows red or green). - still contradiction: is the situation described by a or by b? If the signal was neither showing red nor green, the incompleteness would be too radical. >Descriptions, >Incompleteness. I 73 Incomplete/situation/Barwise/Perry: E.g. naked infinitives with "see". Joe saw Fred coming in and Sally was smoking or not smoking. >Naked infinitive. Cresswell: so everything possible; but then they are possible worlds. Everything that can be a possible world is a possible world. Possible worlds do not have to be large, they can be as small as situations at Barwise/Perry. Different: Aspect/Hintikka: (= incompleteness of possible world): all facts about who slept during the lecture. >Aspects. CresswellVsHintikka: we do not want lists, these are metaphysical here. Solution/Cresswell. "Everything that interests us in the situation". ((s) So lists after all.) Thus the truth of the propositions can be determined. I 74 Definition essentially incomplete/Cresswell: a situation is essentially incomplete when it only needs to be part of an accumulation of situations (disjunction). CresswellVsBarwise: but this does not work with naked infinitives with "see": E.g. of "Ralph saw Ortcutt or Hortcutt hide the letter". - at "Ralph saw... or saw... ". (This is not a that-sentence!) >That-clause. This is not possible if seeing should be a relation between subject and situation. - ((s) Then only one of the two.) >Seeing. I 77 Situation Semantics/CresswellVs: knows only one kind of entities (situations). - instead: possible world semantics: three types: 1. possible world, single and complete (assessed with regard to truth) 2. Propositions: classes of possible worlds, are in logical relations and are the meanings of sentences in a context 3. Individuals (individuals) among them events. >Possible world semantics. Situations/Cresswell: can be considered as one of each of these kind of entities._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Cr I M. J. Cresswell Semantical Essays (Possible worlds and their rivals) Dordrecht Boston 1988 Cr II M. J. Cresswell Structured Meanings Cambridge Mass. 1984 |
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> Counter arguments against Cresswell
> Counter arguments in relation to Situation Semantics
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-28