Semantic Properties
(Churchland IP3 292a)
Semantic properties are things that are true of something that
have to do with meaning.
Some semantic properties:
- meaning (specific propositional contents)
- truth value (true or false)
- consistency
- entailment
- reference
Argument against reductive materialism:
- If thoughts were brain states, then semantic properties would be
true of brain states.
- Semantic properties are not true of brain states.
- Therefore, thoughts
are not brain states. (1, 2: modus
tollens)
Churchland's response: Deny premise 2.
Richard Lee,
rlee@uark.edu,
last modified: 5 December 2004
