The Role of Presuppositions in Context-Shifting Mechanism

Abstract

Purpose The main aim of this paper is to explain the notion of context shifting mechanism and the role of presupposition in this mechanism, in the context of John Hawthorne-Stewart Cohen debate. In section 1, I discuss John Hawthorne’s argument, by way of posing a paradox, against (Ascriber) Contextualism. In responding to Hawthorne’s paradox, Cohen speaks about the shifting of the context with an example (the Basketball Case). Section 2 begins with the example, the Basketball Case, which was offered by Stewart Cohen as a response to John Hawthorne’s paradox.