Philosophical Quarterly 58 (231):214–233 (2007)
Abstract |
I aim to show how and why some definitions can be benignly circular. According to Lloyd Humberstone, a definition that is analytically circular need not be inferentially circular and so might serve to illuminate the application-conditions for a concept. I begin by tidying up some problems with Humberstone's account. I then show that circular definitions of a kind commonly thought to be benign have inferentially circular truth-conditions and so are malign by Humberstone's test. But his test is too demanding. The inferences we actually use to establish the applicability of, e.g., colour concepts are designed to establish warranted assertability and not truth. Understood thus, dispositional analyses are not inferentially circular.
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Keywords | Colour Conceptual Analysis |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
Reprint years | 2008 |
DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9213.2007.522.x |
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References found in this work BETA
Two Types of Circularity.I. L. Humberstone - 1997 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 57 (2):249-280.
'P, Therefore, P' Without Circularity.Roy A. Sorensen - 1991 - Journal of Philosophy 88 (5):245-266.
`P, Therefore, P' Without Circularity.Roy A. Sorensen - 1991 - Journal of Philosophy 88 (5):245-266.
Two Types of Circularity.I. L. Humberstone - 1997 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 57 (2):249-280.
View all 10 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Computing Mechanisms Without Proper Functions.Joe Dewhurst - 2018 - Minds and Machines 28 (3):569-588.
Philosophical Analysis: The Concept Grounding View.Joachim Horvath - 2018 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 97 (3):724-750.
A Correspondence Theory of Objects? On Kant's Notions of Truth, Object, and Actuality.Alberto Vanzo - 2008 - History of Philosophy Quarterly 25 (3):259-275.
Metaethics Out of Speech Acts? Moral Error Theory and the Possibility of Speech.Jonas Olson - 2019 - In Christopher Cowie & Richard Rowland (eds.), Companions in Guilt Arguments in Metaethics. Routledge. pp. 73-85.
View all 6 citations / Add more citations
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