x

LESSWRONG
LW

Mason Broxham

Message

1

4mo

Can questions rigidly designate intentions?

tl;dr: If yes, then the problem of modelling the intentional outlook of a representational system may be reducible to the problem of modelling a subset of that system's context structuring questions under sufficient counterfactual variation. Introduction: I argue that questions (on a standard interpretation of question semantics) sometimes function like...

Nov 21, 20251

Mason Broxham

Subscribe

Message

1

4mo

Can questions rigidly designate intentions?

tl;dr: If yes, then the problem of modelling the intentional outlook of a representational system may be reducible to the problem of modelling a subset of that system's context structuring questions under sufficient counterfactual variation. Introduction: I argue that questions (on a standard interpretation of question semantics) sometimes function like...

Nov 21, 20251

Can questions rigidly designate intentions?

Mason Broxham

3mo

tl;dr: If yes, then the problem of modelling the intentional outlook of a representational system may be reducible to the problem of modelling a subset of that system's context structuring questions under sufficient counterfactual variation.

Introduction:

I argue that questions (on a standard interpretation of question semantics) sometimes function like a halfway house between descriptive and normative content and that the mechanism mediating this relationship strongly resembles rigid designation. Descriptive content covers facts and objective reality and normative content covers shoulds and oughts. Hume taught us all that we can't get an ought from an is, but shall the twain never meet? Wilfrid Sellars tells us that the world perceived by an observer (even... (read 1370 more words →)

1