Ontic Correlates of Questions on Ontological Basis of Erotetics

Abstract

The main intuitions underlying presented analyses may be expressed as follows. Any question corresponds to a certain incomplete image of situation – an image with a gap – and expresses the will of filling this gap. For example, the question "Who loves Isolde?" refers to the image of the situation in which the relation of love occurs; Isolde is the second argument of this relation, and the first argument of it is "empty". Asking "Who loves Isolde?" we express our desire of filling the gap. To identify correctly ontic correlates of questions we ought to accept the view that semantic function of questions consists in indicate a certain image of situation and questioner's attitude to this image. On the basis of these assumptions, semantic functions of questions as well as many other important erotetic notions are explicated. Analyses are illustrated by fragments from Roman Ingarden's famous work "Essential questions" ("Essentiale Fragen").