Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

I present a paradoxical combination of desires. I show why it's paradoxical, and consider ways of responding to the paradox. I show that we're saddled with an unappealing disjunction: either we reject the possibility of the case, or we revise some bit of classical logic. I argue that denying the possibility of the case is unmotivated on any reasonable way of thinking about mental content. So, I argue, the best response is a non-classical one, according to which certain desires are neither determinately satisfied nor determinately not satisfied. Thus, theorizing about mental attitudes can help constrain the space of possibilities for adequate solutions to semantic paradoxes more generally.