Based on the new experimental evidence, we argue that a link between a conditional antecedent and the consequent is semantically expressed rather than pragmatically conveyed. In our paper, we focus on particular kinds of links which conditionals may convey in a context. For instance, a conditional ‘If p, q’ may convey a thought equivalent to ‘p will cause q’, ‘p is the best explanation for q’, ‘q follows from p’, etcetera. The traditional theoretical literature on conditionals seems to imply that these specific links are generated pragmatically and are akin to conversational implicatures. In order to test this hypothesis, we used a well-recognized linguistic test from ‘reinforceability’ (i.e., susceptibility to a non-redundant affirmation), which serves to distinguish between a semantic and pragmatic level of meaning, and we designed an experimental study based on that test. The outcome of our study is that specific links conveyed by conditionals exhibit features of semantic entailments rather than conversational implicatures. This result accords with some of the recent findings in empirical investigations on conditionals. In the final part of our paper, we discuss various accounts of conditionals which can accommodate the results of our study.
Kazimierz Twardowski was renowned as an outstanding philosopher, teacher, and organizer of academic life. No less famous was his style of work, depicted in many recollections of his students. In the paper, I present three aspects of good mental work: a) stoic inspiration for Kazimierz Twardowski's style of work, b) the place of the techniques of mental work in the program of pragmatic logic according to the views of Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz and Tadeusz Kotarbiński, and c) selected contemporary approaches consistent with the direction provided by the Lvov-Warsaw School. By exploring a new perspective in the study of good mental work by linking it to the ancient philosophy of life as well as to the most recent developments in the theory of good mental work, the paper reveals unexplored insights into the tradition of the Lvov-Warsaw School, demonstrating its significance, depth, and relevance to modern times.
The article aims to present the tradition of the ‘clarity-makers’, i.e. members of the Lvov-Warsaw School, its methodological postulates and scientific style. In the first part, the author presents Kazimierz Twardowski as a teacher and refers to the problem of style clarity and ambiguity. In the second part, the author reconstructs the characteristics of the language and style of the School presented by Maria Rzeuska and confronts it with the recipes for the intelligibility of expressions formulated by Walery Pisarek. In the third part, the author presents the results of the textual analysis carried out to illustrate how the postulates of clarity and justification were reflected in the style of writings of selected LWS representatives. The preliminary results confirm that the representatives’ declared desire to clearly express their thoughts manifests in their texts. The presented results also seem to indicate the need to revise various quantitative observations on the scientific style based on larger samples.
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