Logical Reasoning

PT139 · S4 · Q15 Linguist: You philosophers say

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Linguist: You philosophers say that we linguists do not have a deep understanding of language, but you have provided no evidence.

Linguist's Original Claim:

You've provided no evidence that we linguists lack a deep understanding of language.

Philosopher's Conclusion

This cannot be the case ("J and I are siblings" is not identical in meaning to "I and J are siblings")

Philosopher's Evidence (for)

For two things to identical, they must have all the same attributes, and these two sentences are physically different.

Evaluate

If we were the linguist, how would we defend ourselves? According to us, "J and I are siblings" is identical in meaning to "I and J are siblings". (That does seem accurate, to say they have identical meaning)

The philosopher is saying .

Okay, sure, but we never said they were identical in physical appearance. We said they were identical in meaning. Two things can look physically different but mean the same thing.

This philosopher is proving that the these two sentences are not identical, which we agree with. We only said they were identical in meaning. Does the philosopher think that these two sentences have different meanings?

Goal

Look for an answer addressing the disconnect between the more limited claim made by the linguists, "X an Y are identical in meaning", and the broader claim being attacked by the philosopher, "X and Y are identical."

15.

Of the following, which one is the strongest logical counter that the linguist can make to the philosopher?

  1. Two things can have a

    Unrelated to Goal

    This isn't speaking to our objection that the philosophers are analyzing whether or not two claims are identical, whereas we only said they were identical in meaning, not in all attributes. We're not trying to convince the philosopher that these two sentences are in fact identical; we're just trying to reiterate our original claim (untouched by his rebuttal) that these two sentences are in fact identical in meaning.

    5% picked this

  2. Two sentences can be identical

    Upside Down Ingredients

    This has a great structure, but the ingredients are inverted from what they should be. We linguists are saying, "Two sentences can be non-identical physically, and yet still be identical in meaning."

    10% picked this

  3. It is necessarily true that

    True vs. Identical in Meaning

    The philosophers were never debating whether claim 1 logically entails claim 2. That is a separate issue. The claim that "all lions are hairy" logically entails that "some lions are hairy", but that doesn't mean that they are physically identical or identical in meaning. So convincing the philosophers that one claim proves the other is not actually doing our intended job, which is convincing them that these two claims are identical in meaning.

    7% picked this

  4. Correct

    The issue is not whether

    Why this is right

    This speaks to our objection that the philosophers took the conversation somewhere else. We only commented on whether two claims were identical in meaning, i.e. whether they mean the exact same thing. We never said they were the exact same sentence. We said the two sentences have the exact same meaning.

    Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    78% picked this

  5. A linguist has more experience

    Never Correct

    Haha, this is a funny response, but there's no such thing as "logically countering them" by saying "you're wrong, because I'm the boss, and I said so". We have to engage with the philosopher's ideas, not disqualify them from speaking their ideas.

    0% picked this

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