Clear meaning

Clear meaning

1. The principle of charity: Choose the most plausable interpretation

   • Sources of confusion:
     • Other sources
       • Descriptive vs evaluating meaning: Your opinion, or objetive truth?
       • Emphasis: The word you fokus on in a sentence could determine the meaning
       • Necessary vs sufficient conditions
         • Necessary: -A=-B, but +A is not=+B - må være 18 år for å stemme, men ikke alle som er 18 år stemmer
         • Sufficient: +A=+B, but -A is not=-B - 100% på prøven garanterer A, men dersom ikke 100% på prøven kan man fortsatt få A ved eks 99%
       • True synthetic statment or analytic statment
         • Synthetic: could be true or false and you are claiming either/or
         • Analytic: Reach the conclusion by critical thinking and it could not be otherwise: all bachelores are unmaried
     • Vaguness: Sentence which lacks precise meaning at all
     • Ambiguity
       • (2) Words used as distributive or collectively: Confusing a thing within a class with the whole class
       • (1) Ambiguity: Words or sentences with two precise, but different menings
         • Refersntial ambiguity: One word in the sentece make the sentence unclear
         • Grammatical ambiguity: The way the sentece is put together grammaticly makes the meaning unclear
       • (3) Words used or mentioned: Refer to the word itself or to what the word referes to
         • Alice have 5 letters: Does it mean that there is 5 letters in the name, or that the girl own 5 letters?