inter-stratal tension

Modality and Propositional Attitudes

Feb 03

ChRIS CLÉiRIGhbook publication No Comments

Title: Modality and Propositional Attitudes
Publication Year: 2016
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
http://cambridge.org

Book URL: http://bit.ly/1SrfhY8

Author: Michael Hegarty

Hardback: ISBN:  9781107085763 Pages:  Price: U.S. $ 110.00
Hardback: ISBN:  9781107085763 Pages:  Price: U.K. £ 69.99

Abstract:

This book shows that the semantic analysis of modal notions of possibility and
necessity can be used to enhance our understanding of the interpretation of
reports of belief or emotional state. It introduces intuitive notation and
terminology to express ideas in modern theories of modal interpretation that
are normally represented in complex logical formulas, effectively updates the
1960s-era link between possible worlds and the semantics of propositional
attitude ascriptions, and reconciles two disparate views of the role of events
in semantic interpretation, that of Donald Davidson and that of David Lewis.
It reduces a host of variable behaviors of propositional attitude ascription
to an intuitive and precise distinction between ascriptions that merely
express a commitment to propositional content versus ones that attribute a
mental state to the holder of the propositional attitude. This leads to an
explanation of the nature and effects of the language disorder of fluent
aphasia.

Part I. Modality and Propositional Attitudes: 1. Epistemic modality; 2. Root
modality; 3. Bare attitude ascriptions; 4. Presupposition filtering and
bouletic ascriptions; Part II. Events and Propositional Attitudes: 5. Events
and states; 6. Full attitude ascriptions: individuating mental states through
propositional content; 7. Lower interpretation of negation; 8. Events in
epistemic and root modal interpretation; 9. Attitude ascription in child
development and Wernicke’s aphasia.