David Lewis, Attitudes De Dicto and De Se: Outline
I Content of Desire What is the content of our expectation/desire? Option 1 : Miscellaneous objects; particular objects(this cat)/Meinongian incomplete objects(unspecified cat)/proposition Option 2 : Unified Propositional Object Defending 2 : There are several advantages of adopting 2 Avoid suspicious Meinongian objects Our attitudes are characterized more fully Example : If the content of “I want a cat” is a cat, it is still unclear whether I want to be an owner of a cat, or I want to be accompanied by a cat. Explains the causal roles of attitudes better than miscellaneous framework why? Option 3 : Unified properties Lewis will argue that, option 3 is better than option 2 because it has all the features that option 2 has, and sometimes does better than option 2 II proposition vs. property Definition (proposition) A proposition is a set of possible worlds, a region of logical space. There are other ways to understand propositions, Lewis does not in...