Reply to Sawyer on brains in vats

Abstract

However, I do not. In fact, I never say that BIVese is not disquotational and do not think this is true. I agree with Sawyer that the only sense to be given to the general claim that a language L is disquotational is that for any declarative sentence S of L the result of writing (or otherwise producing) the quotation mark name of S, followed by the string of symbols of L that mean: is true iff, followed by S itself, is a true sentence of L (with comparable conditions having to be satisfied mutatis mutandis for other categories of L expressions). And I agree that BIVese is fully disquotational in this sense.