Cognitive Propositions
Scott Soames · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2014
The chapter argues that propositions are cognitive acts, operations, or event types, and sketches their role in perception, cognition, and the use of language. Simple and complex propositions, and their truth conditions, are explained, along with how agents entertain and acquire knowledge of them. The role of propositions in semantic theories is articulated. It is shown that propositions have both representational content, which imposes conditions the world must satisfy if they are to be true, and psychological content, which imposes conditions agents must satisfy to entertain them. This gives rise to pairs of representationally identical but cognitively distinct propositions that can be used to solve outstanding problems in the philosophy of language and mind.