Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Arts
Major
Philosophy
Date of Defense
7-17-2009
Graduate Advisor
Berit Brogaard, Ph.D.
Committee
Gualtiero Piccinini
Jon McGinnis
Abstract
The last few years have seen a growing interest in the semantic analysis of epistemic modal claims. By my lights, the most appealing analysis of epistemic modals is the relativistic approach. However, in their paper, “CIA Leaks”, Kai von Fintel and Anthony Gillies present some problems they think the relativistic approach must explain. I aim to defend a variation on the relativistic analysis of epistemic modals. I argue that when we determine the truth-value of sentences containing epistemic modals, we are free to evaluate modal claims from contexts other than the standard context of utterance. This freedom to evaluate the modal claims from different contexts is what I call contextual projection. When contextual projection takes place the sentence can be either true or false, appropriate or inappropriate. Furthermore, I will argue that the general phenomenon that is contextual projection is a common occurrence observable in ordinary language use.
OCLC Number
514249618
Recommended Citation
Dauer, Jeffrey Joseph, "Epistemic Modals and Contextual Projection" (2009). Theses. 211.
https://irl.umsl.edu/thesis/211