Deflating the paradox of the answering machine
Deflating the paradox of the answering machine

Summary/Abstract: What motivates the quest for truth? Truth and language are intertwined. On the one hand you cannot have truth in the absence of language. On the other hand the lack of even a basic notion of truth is at odds with the way we employ language in our daily life. Moreover, truth is of great importance for science and mathematics. But, a conception of truth which is at odds with the way we use language puts us in difficulty and is a threat for communication. Efficiency at the communicative level is based on these two entwined themes: truth and language. Our interest is to see how language works and why it happens that a wide shared view about a certain fact is rendered false by a semantic theory while considered true by the speakers of the language. An example of this sort is the so-called paradox of the answering machine

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