'For the person or persons that hold dominion, can no more combine with the keeping up of majesty the running with harlots drunk or naked about the streets, or the performances of a stage player, or the open violation or contempt of laws passed by themselves than they can combine existence with non-existence'.

- Benedict de Spinoza. Political Treatise. 1677.




Monday, January 05, 2015

Philosophical Grammar 114


114. The sense of a proposition and the sense of a picture. The different grammar of the expressions:

“This picture shows people at a village inn.”
“This picture shows the coronation of Napoleon.”



word-language – at least in modern western culture – is the primary propositional form

the picture – like word-language – is a propositional form –

in many indigenous pre-written word cultures – the picture-proposition is central

in written Chinese and some other Asian languages the characters are logograms –

and so in these languages it can be argued that there is no distinction between the sense of a word and the sense of a picture

a proposition is a proposal – that which is put – and that which is forward for consideration –

logically speaking a proposition – a proposal – is open to question – open to interpretation –

what form it takes – be that  of words – picture – music – dance – etc – is logically irrelevant

what is relevant is that – in whatever form – the proposition – is recognized as a proposal – open to question – open to interpretation

“This picture shows people at a village inn.”
“This picture shows the coronation of Napoleon.”

yes – these proposals can be given different ‘grammatical’ descriptions 

any proposition can be variously described



© greg t. charlton. 2015.