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    texto do Peter Van Inwagen- time and cause

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    texto do Peter Van Inwagen- time and cause

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    4 views11 pages

    Human Body

    Uploaded by

    Adriana Matos
    texto do Peter Van Inwagen- time and cause

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 11
    TIME AND CAUSE Essays Presented to Richard Taylor PETER YAN INWAGEN D, REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES SERIES IN PHILOSOPHY ator: WILFRID SELLARS, Unberiy of Pitsburg KEITH LEHRER, Univer of Dowd of Conan Ears JONATHAN BENNETT, Syracuse Untersty ALAN GIBBARD, Uniery of Pitsburgh ROBERT STALNAKER, Comell Univesity ROBERT G. TURNBULL, Oho State Unbersy VOLUME 19 PHILOSOPHERS AND THE WORDS “HUMAN BODY" Sing, 0 Goda, he nos aus Aci tin atts sono ie pc of ‘ist ec, dade he beer mo ie epee Bee 4.1 Austin once began » paper by listing specimens of sens and spcimens ‘of onset, Tall othe se, SPECIMENS OF SENSE (1) His doctor told him he must not go on abusing his Body tht wy. (@) Anatomy isthe study ofthe strate ofthe human body @) Alice ol James sb hugeed for bis body ()—_Hlsbody was covered wth cr (5) The force of the expen had seul ton his nbs from hi bay. (© A°bran might be removed from one body and Implanted ia another. (7) The undertaker ald out Ad's body. (8) Tete inthe Resurrection ofthe Body SPECIMENS OF NONSENSE (A) Apenonis isnot] Satta wth his body. () Tis easonable for eachotusto bale tht thoughts and fetings sre sociated with other human bode. (©) person might have [cud aot have ferent bode t iferat stages of ice (©) Eight (could not] fine had a diferent body fom the one 1 ine. ams Pee en een (ed), Tm and Ce, 183-238 inp © 1980 by Rese ae Company, 234 PETER VAN INWAGEN (©) There might [could not] be two pessoas isbing the same body. (©) That poor gil in the hospital realy dead, even though the doctors are Keeping ne body ale (©) Wis an open quest wheter, when I we the word J refer to my body orto sone other thing (After the Resurect, one wil [vil not] have the same body one has inthe preset age. ‘My purposes in ths paper are to expan in what sense ofnonsens I contend ‘AY are none, o argue for he conclusion that (A)-(H ae nonsense, land to explain why my argumests donot lead to the absurd concison that (1)-(@) ae nonsense, In what sense do I thnk (A)-(H) ae nonsense? Tis cla, I ada, i | caealy sted one. I do not mean that the Englsh sntoncer displayed shove are ‘onsen To calla syntactically correct Engh sentence made ‘of real English words nomsens” must be to claim that that sentence could not be used by someone speaking English to express proposition, sk 3 ‘Question, sue &corsmand, and soon. Or, tla, must e to lam that {hat sentence could nt e's ied unis worde wre fo change tei mean ngs, or uns the user and his anlence had extablsod some spec conven tion (IF say, "The Abwlute is subsumed under a continue of porous variation’, 1! mean “Orcutt isthe spy")- And T think that at least some ‘mong (A)-(H) ae not ‘nonsense’ inthis ene. Take (E), for example, This Sentence might be wed by an Eaglshapeaing interplanetary explore 10 ony 10 the other menbes of his expeiton, among whom no spec lnguste cooventions aria for fic bout the dsrbaton of population ina certain ce of panei. ‘So Tam not calling sentences nonsense, What I mean is roughly tht ‘pplealy when pilowophers uta or ince sentenos lke (A) (H), they 4 talking or waiting nonsense. By philosophers, mean people engaged, haps unwitaly, lathe phlosophical enterprise, whether or aot they ‘ue profesional, academic phlomphen. [Someone who utters sentence (©) is alnost eetainy doing pilowphy, even if he has never heard of the subject] "When Tsay that somone i aking nonseme I mean that he is tering or insebing words and purports to be expressing a proposition — ‘that ly serting something of Ulla how thing sre ~ by doing thi uterg PHILOSOPHERS AUD THE WORDS ‘HUMAN BoDY' 285. or inscbing, and that he fs to 1 sal nat explicitly discus nonsensical tempts a questions, commands, and s on. But eveything I my will be ppliable to ues of language other than assertion, mus tans) That {sto my, to tak nonsense isto represent oneself a saying something when ‘nei nly uttering words, Bu Imus append two qualifications fo thi, or Shalbe misunderstood, First, Ihave 20 theory sat how one shoul separate sens fom non sense. (By a theory, I mean something ike the Verification Theory of Mean: Ing) T do aot understand what phllowpher say at least la typical ear, ‘when they vuter sentences lk (A)-(H, and I thik the reason I do ot understand them is that they have Tae to expan wht they mean by the word Body a they we it, And Tei the veson they Ie fled explain what they mean Is that there i nothing, o nothing coherent, that they do mean. [There a Ivo alternative hypothe tha equally well explain my incompreension:() do aot understand them because Iam ‘ot lever enough; (2) Ido nc understand them becatse I am too deve by half T have comsinced mysif by some sophisti means or other that what is perfectly pin is obser. Naturally enough, I rject Both thee ypothee| ‘Second, it isnot my ftenon to int anyone. I is very had to make any sense ‘at all wen talking about pilowophical matters, and itis ot necessary digrace fr a powopher to lps nto nonsense, I ot, oF should not be, anymore insuling to sy to 8 pilonoper, ‘What you sy Is ‘onsen, than it sto sa, Wiat you my is fk’ Very grat philompher, losers whose shoes I am not ft oun, have talked mos nomen Descartes Medians, for example, is amos ently nonsense. And yet Descartes was a reat plilowoper, a phlospher deserving of oaly the very ighest admiration. Is this « pandox? Not cel, If1 know that mos of he [Mediaions is nonsense, 1d not dscove thi for yal: [wasshowa by 4 pluloopher no lest great than Desates; It was not witha my powes to

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