[FOM] Reply to Franzen, Heck, Davis

[charles silver]

Hartley Slater writes:

> Unfortunately, there is another option for substitution than the ones
> you have considered, so it would certainly be best if the intended
> reading was precisely indicated.  I refer to the case where no quotes
> are involved at all: after the 'then' the 'G' is short for 'that-G',
> as in, for instance, 'If snow is white, then that snow is white is
> true', which may also be written 'if snow is white, then it is true
> that snow is white'.

     Unfortunately (and here I use the word 'unfortunately'
seriously, not clandestinely to set up a clever philosophical
trap to be sprung later on my unsuspecting opponents),
use-mention wordplay now seems firmly enshrined in philosophical
discourse.  Philosophers seem to think they are making profound
points by blathering on about such stuff.  I see no foundational
significance here and do not believe the current fussing is in any
way fruitful.  To keep use-mention aficionados entertained, 
I recommend the following fun-filled exercise (ripped off 
from a well-known elementary text): Put quotes where they 
belong in the following sentence (from Lewis Carroll): 
The song A-sitting On a Gate is called Ways and Means 
although its name is The Aged Aged Man, which in turn 
is called Haddock's Eyes. (Please do *not* submit
your solution to the list.)

  Charles "Charlie" ""Chal"" Silver, "Philosopher" extraordinaire.