Content in Context

Abstract

On the traditional picture, sentences express content relative to context. This content then is, or determines, truth-conditional, propositional content, which is what we assert and believe, and which can guide our action. If I have a thought about the world, and I want to convey it to you, I should utter a sentence which, in this context, expresses that thought. You can then understand it, and come to believe it, and it might guide your action. But on the current proposal the context is constantly changing, even mid-utterance, and utterances are interpreted as instructions to update the context. What of our simple account of thought, communication, and action? This chapter shows our dynamic account still delivers propositional content. While utterances are semantically assigned dynamic meaning, this meaning serves as an instruction to build ordinary propositional content.