Abstract

The philosophical problem of pictorial conversational implicatures can be summarized as follows: We have three propositions that are independently plausible and jointly inconsistent. (Non-P) Anti-propositionalism: pictures do not have context-independent, conventionally encoded propositional content (propositional function). (C) Only those representations can be used to convey conversational implicatures which have associated with them a context-independent, conventionally encoded propositional content (function). (I) Pictures can be used to convey conversational implicatures. There are three ways of responding to the problem: affirm (Non-P) and (C) while denying (I); affirm (C) and (I) while denying (Non-P); or affirm (Non-P) and (I) while denying (C).