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Article 2535 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,sci.philosophy.tech,sci.logic
Subject: Re: 'understanding'
Message-ID: <1992Jan08.005939.10233@spss.com>
Date: 8 Jan 92 00:59:39 GMT
References: <1992Jan7.105117.7193@husc3.harvard.edu> <1992Jan7.191853.17310@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> <1992Jan7.162542.7202@husc3.harvard.edu>
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In article <1992Jan7.162542.7202@husc3.harvard.edu> zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes:
>Understanding is a faculty of grasping with the mind the concept or
>proposition that constitutes the cognitive content of a singular term or a
>declarative sentence, in virtue of expressing which the term or sentence
>can be said to be meaningful, and may denote a certain object or a
>truth-value.  This definition, like all other attemps at real definition,
>is theory-laden, and should be handled with great care.

Could you also please supply your definitions of "grasping" and "concept"? 

Is the clause beginning "in virtue of..." intended to be restrictive
or merely informational?  If the former, what is "meaningful"?

Why "may" in "may denote"?  Do you mean the term may denote something
besides an object or a truth-value, or that it may not denote anything at all?


