tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post3584449002376194126..comments2024-03-28T13:23:50.623-05:00Comments on Alexander Pruss's Blog: Illocutionary force and propositionsAlexander R Prusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-25048993500141017862014-03-15T07:23:16.336-05:002014-03-15T07:23:16.336-05:00If speech acts are thus multiplied, then how many ...If speech acts are thus multiplied, then how many speech acts I made may depend on what you later do. For you might have a choice about how many papers to write. This isn't fatal, but surprising.<br /><br />How about this? A command can still be analyzed as a proposition and an illocutionary force. But the proposition is a normative one. Basically, the proposition is one that describes the intended normative effect. The illocutionary force we might call: legislation.<br /><br />Then there is a difference between legislating that for each paper you write you have reason to make it 2-4 pages long, and legislating that you have reason to make each paper you write 2-4 pages long. <br /><br />A neat thing about this approach is that it lets us handle subtleties of conditional commands. There is a difference between commanding that the material conditional if p then q be true, and conditionally commanding q on p. Commanding the conditional directly gives you reason to bring about ~p or q. But the conditional command doesn't directly give you a reason to do anything if in fact p. (You do indirectly have reason to bring about ~p or q, since by so doing you ensure you don't disobey the command.) <br /><br />In the normative framework, the difference is between legislating that you have reason to bring about ~p or q, and legislating that if p, you have reason to bring about q.<br /><br />Of course, in a fuller story, the reasons in the proposition will be of some specific sort.<br /><br />There are other subtle phenomena that can be nicely modeled here. Let's say I command you to do A or B, preferably A. Then I legislate that you have a fully authoritative reason for doing A or B, and a less fully authoritative reason for doing A.<br /><br />Moreover, we get to unify commands and requests: both attempt to legislate a normative proposition, just ones with different kinds of reasons. And while only some have the authority to make the legislation of the command-reasons come off, we all have the authority to make the legislation of request-reasons come off. (The latter is a substantive claim about the human community. I suspect that some slave owners might say that slaves have no authority to create request-reasons for owners.)<br /><br />This requires normative claims to be of a sort to have truth value, of course.Alexander R Prusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-41850426134456430432014-03-14T14:09:05.686-05:002014-03-14T14:09:05.686-05:00Suppose I ask Bill, “How many pages did you write ...Suppose I ask Bill, “How many pages did you write for your papers for Dr. Pruss?” The question is ambiguous. Understood collectively, the true answer is “16”. Understood distributively, it is “8 and 8”. Since in the latter case there are as many answers as papers, I am inclined to think there are multiple questions, or question-acts if you like, going on.<br /><br />This suggests two options which may in fact be the same thing. The first is that when I give distributive commands, ask distributive questions, or make distributive assertions, I am not issuing just one speech act. I am properly understood as issuing multiple acts, e.g. commanding for each paper: Make it 2-4 pages. Then if Bill disobeys one command he can still obey the others.<br /><br />The other, maybe weirder, option is to think that quantification applies (not to propositions per se? but) to speech acts. E.g. the logical form of what is going on is, For each paper P: Make it the case that: P is between 2-4 pages. As opposed to, Make it the case that: For each paper P: P is between 2-4 pages.<br /><br /><br />Heath Whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13535886546816778688noreply@blogger.com