Sentence examples for circumstances of evaluation from inspiring English sources
The horizontal axis represents those same possible worlds as circumstances of evaluation, relative to which we evaluate the truth or falsity of the proposition expressed.
The foregoing suggests a pleasingly minimalist answer to this question: perhaps, since contents are things which together with circumstances of evaluation determine a reference, contents just are functions from circumstances of evaluation to a reference.
The main question is whether circumstances of evaluation need contain any indices other than a possible world.
The content of a linguistic expression, at a context, determines a corresponding intension, which is a function from possible worlds (circumstances of evaluation, really) to extensions.
Propositions, on Kaplan's theory, have truth-values with respect to circumstances of evaluation, which Kaplan identifies with pairs of times and possible worlds, \(\langle t, w \rangle\).
Given this usage, we can think of circumstances of evaluation — the things which play the theoretical role outlined in §2.1.5 — as made up of indices.
Since with respect to that circumstance of evaluation the terms will differ in reference, their intensions which are just functions from circumstances of evaluations to referents must also differ.
This is a two-dimensional intension, since there are two distinct roles that possibilities play here: as a context of use, and as a circumstance of evaluation (a possible situation relative to which we evaluate whether the relevant object exists or the relevant kind or property is instantiated).
On the view being discussed, an expression like "according to the Greek myth" is, qua intensional operator, a circumstance-shifting operator, one that shifts the circumstance of evaluation of the sentence following it.
