Abstract

Propositions are the result of hypostatization in accordance with the principle of the identification of indiscernibles wherever differences among inscribed or uttered statemental units are systematically ignored. Criteria for identity of propositions are, thus, to be found in each context of discourse about statemental units where qualitatively different units are treated as interchangeable. Ayer's notion of proposition as opposed to statement, Goodman's notion of replication, and the notion of constructional definition or reduction are discussed in the light of this thesis. The so-called "problem of identifying propositions" is shown to be a bogus problem because the propositions simpliciter to be identified are incoherently conceived, though in the course of discussion the prospect appears that many different and limitedly applicable sets of criteria for identification of propositions relative to different discourses can be given