1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Propositions
Propositions are routinely invoked by philosophers, linguists, logicians, and other theorists engaged in the study of meaning, communication, and the mind. To investigate the nature of propositions is to investigate the very nature of our connection to each other, and to the world around us. As one of the only volumes of its kind, The Routledge Handbook of Propositions provides a comprehensive overview of the philosophy of propositions, from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Comprising 33 original chapters by an international team of scholars, the volume addresses both traditional and emerging questions concerning the nature of propositions, and our capacity to engage with them in thought and in communication. The chapters are clearly organized into the following three sections:
I. Foundational Issues in the Theory of Propositions
II. Historical Theories of Propositions
III. Contemporary Theories of Propositions
Essential reading for philosophers of language and mind, and for those working in neighboring areas, The Routledge Handbook of Propositions is suitable for upper-level undergraduate study, as well as graduate and professional research.
Introduction
Adam Russell Murray and Chris Tillman
Part I: Foundational Issues in the Theory of Propositions
1. The Linguistic Basis for Propositions
Peter van Elswyk
2. Propositions, Posits, and States of Affairs
Mark Richard
3. Instrumentalism about Structured Propositions
Ori Simchen
Part II: Historical Theories of Propositions
4. Ancient Theories of Propositions
Dimitrios Dentsoras
5. Medieval Theories of Propositions: Ockham and the Later Medieval Debate
Susan C. Brower-Toland
6. Lockean Propositions
Lewis Powell
7. Kant, Propositions, and Non-Fundamental Metaphysics
Damian Melamedoff-Vosters
8. Bolzano’s Theory of Satz an sich
Sandra Lapointe
9. Frege on Thoughts
Mark Textor
10. Russell on Propositions
Dominic Alford-Duguid and Fatema Amijee
Part III: Contemporary Theories and Further Issues
11. Propositions as (Flexible) Types of Possibilities
Nate Charlow
12. Truthmaker Accounts of Propositions
Mark Jago
13. Syntactically Structured Propositions
Jeffrey C. King
14. Propositions as Interpreted Abstracta
Thomas Hodgson
15. The View of Propositions as Types of Actions
Peter Hanks
16. Cognitive Propositions: Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Empirical Adequacy
Scott Soames
17. Propositions as Cambridge Properties
Jeff Speaks
18. Why 0-Adic Relations Have Truth Conditions: Essence, Ground, and Non-Hylomorphic Russellian Propositions
Cody Gilmore
19. Propositions without Parts
Lorraine Juliano Keller
20. Hylomorphic Propositions
Ben Caplan, Chris Tillman, and Eileen Nutting
21. Temporal Propositions and Our Attitudes toward the Past and the Future
Berit Brogaard
22. Frege's Other Puzzle: Relativity in Propositional Content
Stephen Schiffer
23. Propositions and Attitudes De Se
Neil Feit
24. Propositional Dependence and Perspectival Shift
Adam Russell Murray
25. Attitudinal Objects and Propositions
Friederike Moltmann
26. Propositions as Objects of the Attitudes
Ray Buchanan and Alex Grzankowski
27. The Varieties of Gappy Propositions
Seyed N. Mousavian
28. Plenitudinous Russellianism
Joshua Spencer
29. Semantic Relationism
Chulmin Yoon
30. Propositions and Questions
David Braun
31. The Propositional Benacerraf Problem
Jesse J. Fitts
32. Reference, Propositions, and the World
Richard Gaskin
33. Propositional Paradox
Harry Deutsch
Biography
Adam Russell Murray is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Manitoba. He works primarily in metaphysics and the philosophy of language.
Chris Tillman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Manitoba. His research interests include metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophical logic, and philosophy of art.
