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Chapter 4 - The Logical Form of Negative Action Sentences I

The Case for Deflationism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2021

Jonathan D. Payton
Jonathan D. Payton
Affiliation:
Bilkent University, Ankara
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Summary

In this chapter I introduce Neo-Davidsonian semantics as a general approach to the semantics of action sentences, and compare a simple Neo-Davidsonian treatment of negative action sentences to the Deflationist alternative sketched in Chapter 2. I then use this discussion to build a case on behalf of Deflationism, by showing that the simple Neo-Davidsonian treatment makes very bad predictions about the behaviour of adverbs, predictions which Deflationism avoids.

Keywords

action sentencesnegative action sentencesNeo-Davidsonian semanticsnegative existentialsadverbsDonald DavidsonHugh Mellor
Type
Chapter
Information
Negative Actions
Events, Absences, and the Metaphysics of Agency
 , pp. 86 - 111
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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