True or False essays

True or False essays In this paper I attempt to explain Strawsons neither true nor false argument against Russells theory of descriptions. In order to explain this I will first give the relevant parts of Russells theory of descriptions that Strawson addresses as having problems. Then I will give Strawsons theory of descriptions. Finally I will compare the two theories showing where the arguments differ, and why Strawson believed there was a problem with Russells theory. After giving Strawsons conclusion I will then assess Strawsons argument stating whether or not it was successful. In Russells theory of descriptions he addresses a problem that arises in finding the truth value of certain sentences. Consider the following statement; The director of E.T. is tall. In order for the sentence to meet the requirements of truth conditions the sentence has to have the ability to be shown true or false. Then the object of reference must hold a certain relation. So in the example if the director of E.T. is tall then sentence is true. However, if the director of E.T. is not tall then the sentence is false. Yet what happens when there is no object of reference at all. In line with the following example, what happens if there is no director of E.T.? If there is no director of E.T. then deciding whether he/she is tall would prove rather difficult. In order to overcome this problem Russell says that we must reveal the underlying structure for sentences of this type. We must consider the sentence not as it is, but we must convert it, and instead think of it existentially. There exists a director of E.T. and he holds the property or relation of being tall. What Russell has done is add an extra requirement in order to satisfy the truth conditions of the sentence. That requirement is to find the existence of a unique salient object of reference. In this case a person, who ex...