Otto Räsänen (Corpus Christi College): 'Two Concepts of Thinking'
Abstract: If I become the first person to ever fall down a particular set of stairs on the 11th day of a month, I will have (painfully) struck up the making-true relation to the proposition that OR is the first person ever to fall down that particular set of stairs on the 11th of a month. Of course, we would not describe this as an instance of my thinking the proposition in question. There are many lessons to be drawn from such an event, but one is that thinking cannot involve just *any* old relation to a proposition. Presumably entirely mindless things like falling rocks can strike up similar relations to propositions as in my hypothetical scenario. So, what kind of relation do I need to strike up with a proposition to count as thinking it? In my talk, I will outline a minimal kind of answer to the question ‘what kind of propositional relation is involved in acts of thinking?’, and suggest it brings to light a distinction between a thin and a thick concept of thinking.
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