Objection · Case 07 · Philosophy
If philosophers can’t agree whether a category mistake produces a meaningless sentence or a false one, does calling something a category mistake tell you much?
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
The disagreement is about the semantics, not about whether the error is real; on either account the sentence goes wrong by mismatching kinds. The use here requires only that demanding a physical test for a non-physical claim is an error of that sort, which both camps accept. Whether the resulting sentence is meaningless or merely false, it is not a good argument.
About this exhibit
This objection is to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Category Mistakes”.
The entry documents that the idea is widely used and also that scholars still debate its exact status, specifically whether a category mistake produces a sentence that is meaningless or one that is…