Predication and cartographic representation

Synthese 169 (1):175 - 200 (2009)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

I argue that maps do not feature predication, as analyzed by Frege and Tarski. I take as my foil (Casati and Varzi, Parts and places, 1999), which attributes predication to maps. I argue that the details of Casati and Varzi’s own semantics militate against this attribution. Casati and Varzi emphasize what I call the Absence Intuition: if a marker representing some property (such as mountainous terrain) appears on a map, then absence of that marker from a map coordinate signifies absence of the corresponding property from the corresponding location. Predication elicits nothing like the Absence Intuition. “F(a)” does not, in general, signify that objects other than a lack property F. On the basis of this asymmetry, I argue that attaching a marker to map coordinates is a different mode of semantic composition than attaching a predicate to a singular term.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
194 (#94,569)

6 months
11 (#128,523)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Michael Rescorla
University of California, Los Angeles

Citations of this work

Representation in Cognitive Science.Nicholas Shea - 2018 - Oxford University Press.
Are there different kinds of content?Richard Heck - 2007 - In Brian P. McLaughlin & Jonathan D. Cohen (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Mind. Blackwell. pp. 117-138.
Thinking with maps.Elisabeth Camp - 2007 - Philosophical Perspectives 21 (1):145–182.
Depiction, Pictorial Experience, and Vision Science.Robert Briscoe - 2016 - Philosophical Topics 44 (2):43-81.

View all 41 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

The Language of Thought.Jerry A. Fodor - 1975 - Harvard University Press.
Semantics in generative grammar.Irene Heim & Angelika Kratzer - 1998 - Malden, MA: Blackwell. Edited by Angelika Kratzer.
The Language of Thought.J. A. Fodor - 1978 - Critica 10 (28):140-143.

View all 44 references / Add more references