Must we mean what we say?¹

This is a later, greatly expanded, version of the paper read as part of the symposium mentioned in Mates’ first note. Since writing the relevant portions of this paper, I have seen three articles which make points or employ arguments similar to those I am concerned with: R. M. Hare, “Are Discoveries About the Uses of Words Empirical?”;, Journal of Philosophy, November 1957; G. E. M. Anscombe, “On Brute Facts”;, Analysis, January, 1958; S. Hampshire and H. L. A. Hart, “Decision, Intention and Certainty”;, Mind, January, 1958. But it would have lengthened an already lengthy paper to have tried to bring out more specifically than will be obvious to anyone’ reading them their relevance to what I have said.

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Notes

This is a later, greatly expanded, version of the paper read as part of the symposium mentioned in Mates’ first note. Since writing the relevant portions of this paper, I have seen three articles which make points or employ arguments similar to those I am concerned with: R. M. Hare, “Are Discoveries About the Uses of Words Empirical?”;, Journal of Philosophy, November 1957; G. E. M. Anscombe, “On Brute Facts”;, Analysis, January, 1958; S. Hampshire and H. L. A. Hart, “Decision, Intention and Certainty”;, Mind, January, 1958. But it would have lengthened an already lengthy paper to have tried to bring out more specifically than will be obvious to anyone’ reading them their relevance to what I have said.