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Spring, 2014
Note: this assignment is for students in Group I only (see syllabusfor a list of group assignments).
Due, as an attachment, via the “Assignments” tool on
ecommons, by midnight Thurs., May 8.
eCommons site
Please respond to the following question in
two pages or less (double spaced). (Needless to say this should be
your own original work.)
In “Languages and Language,” Lewis writes: “The
objection suggests that, among decent men, truthfulness in ℒ is
a social contract. I agree; but there is no reason why it cannot be a
social contract and a convention as well, and I think it is” (p. 31
in the version that’s up on
eCommons; p. 185 in
Philosophical Papers vol. 1). Explain how this is supposed to
work. Do “decent men” (or, er, decent people) have two completely
different reasons to be truthful, or is it, at least in part, just the
same reason regarded two different ways?