Title: The Access Problem for Act-type Theories of Propositions<\/p>\n
Abstract: Recent work on propositions has seen the rise of act-type theories, according to which propositions are types of cognitive acts that derive their representational and truth-conditional properties from the token cognitive acts of agents. Act-type theories have been gaining traction as part of a rejection of what is called the \u2018Fregean conception\u2019, a \u201ctraditional\u201d conception of propositions according to which they are intrinsically representational, mind- and language-independent abstracta, while cognitive attitudes such as belief and doubt derive their representational properties from their relation to propositions. Act-type theorists present two main objections to the Fregean conception:<\/p>\n
However, in their attempt to evade the difficulties that plague the Fregean conception, act-type theorists run into problems of their own\u2014mainly centering around the crucial notion of predication<\/em>. Peter Hanks has argued that the notion of predication at the heart of Scott Soames\u2019 theory cannot explain representation and is incoherent (Hanks 2015: 36-39). And in a recent paper, Indrek Reiland endorses Hanks\u2019 criticism of Soames, but argues that Hanks\u2019 attempt to address objections to his own notion of predication is unsuccessful (Reiland 2019). Reiland offers a modified version of Hanks\u2019 view that allegedly succeeds where Hanks\u2019 proposed solution fails. I argue that the way Reiland modifies his view leads to a particularly acute version of the Access Problem. I then point out that this is a problem for Hanks and Soames as well, and that, by examining the way in which their theories face the Access Problem, we can see that they are also unable to solve the Explanation Problem.<\/p>","excerpt":"","slug":"metaphysics-seminar-10","image":false,"all_day":false,"start_date":"2021-11-22 15:00:00","start_date_details":{"year":"2021","month":"11","day":"22","hour":"15","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"end_date":"2021-11-22 17:00:00","end_date_details":{"year":"2021","month":"11","day":"22","hour":"17","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_start_date":"2021-11-22 15:00:00","utc_start_date_details":{"year":"2021","month":"11","day":"22","hour":"15","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_end_date":"2021-11-22 17:00:00","utc_end_date_details":{"year":"2021","month":"11","day":"22","hour":"17","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"timezone":"Europe\/London","timezone_abbr":"GMT","cost":"","cost_details":{"currency_symbol":"","currency_code":"","currency_position":"prefix","values":[]},"website":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/event\/metaphysics-seminar-5-2021-11-22\/","show_map":false,"show_map_link":false,"hide_from_listings":false,"sticky":false,"featured":false,"categories":[{"name":"Metaphysics and Logic group","slug":"metaphysics-and-logic-group","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":25,"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","description":"","parent":0,"count":195,"filter":"raw","id":25,"urls":{"self":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/philevents\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories\/25","collection":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/philevents\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories"}}],"tags":[],"venue":{"id":19,"author":"1","status":"publish","date":"2020-01-29 15:33:14","date_utc":"2020-01-29 15:33:14","modified":"2026-06-15 22:23:12","modified_utc":"2026-06-15 21:23:12","url":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/philevents\/venue\/edgecliffe-g03\/","venue":"A virtual seminar by Zoom","slug":"edgecliffe-g03","address":"The University","city":"精东传媒","country":"United Kingdom","zip":"KY16 9L","website":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/venue\/edgecliffe-g03-2\/","json_ld":{"@type":"Place","name":"A virtual seminar by Zoom","description":"","url":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/philevents\/venue\/edgecliffe-g03\/","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"The University","addressLocality":"精东传媒","postalCode":"KY16 9L","addressCountry":"United Kingdom"},"telephone":"","sameAs":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/venue\/edgecliffe-g03-2\/"},"show_map":true,"show_map_link":true,"global_id":"www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/philevents?id=19","global_id_lineage":["www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/philevents?id=19","www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche?id=4853"]},"organizer":[],"custom_fields":[],"json_ld":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Event","name":"Metaphysics Seminar Lorraine Keller (Saint Joseph\u2019s University)","description":"<p>Title: The Access Problem for Act-type Theories of Propositions Abstract: Recent work on propositions has seen the rise of act-type theories, according to which propositions are types of cognitive acts…<\/p>\\n","url":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/philevents\/event\/metaphysics-seminar-10\/","eventAttendanceMode":"https:\/\/schema.org\/OfflineEventAttendanceMode","eventStatus":"https:\/\/schema.org\/EventScheduled","startDate":"2021-11-22T15:00:00+00:00","endDate":"2021-11-22T17:00:00+00:00","location":{"@type":"Place","name":"A virtual seminar by Zoom","description":"","url":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/philevents\/venue\/edgecliffe-g03\/","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"The University","addressLocality":"精东传媒","postalCode":"KY16 9L","addressCountry":"United Kingdom"},"telephone":"","sameAs":"https:\/\/www.st-andrews.ac.uk\/arche\/venue\/edgecliffe-g03-2\/"},"performer":"Organization"},"is_virtual":false,"virtual_url":null,"virtual_video_source":""}