Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

P hilosophy of language, philosophy of mind [from Latin continere , contain] That which a mental or propositional attitude is about or means, and hence also called mental content or propositional content. The content of a belief, intention, hope, and other attitude is typically expressed in language by a that-clause, for example, “I believe that it will rain tomorrow ” or “I fear that you will be late .” The logical structure of such sentences is puzzling. For most attitudes the sentences are not extensional, and it is difficult to understand their structure and why they have it. Content seems to be abstract and language-dependent and to have truth conditions, but it is also generally considered to be a distinctive feature of thought. We can distinguish between the narrow content and the broad or wide content of what we say or think. Narrow content is about the same objects and properties whatever the circumstances, whilst broad or wide content incorporates certain aspects of one's embedding situation or environment and can vary in what it is about according to these circumstances. Suppose two liquids seem exactly similar in surface properties, but have different internal constitutions. According to narrow content, we should use different terms for the two liquids, but according to broad content, the situation in which they both could be used alike could allow us to ... log in or subscribe to read full text