Sentence, Proposition, Judgment, Statement, and Fact: Speaking about the Written English Used in Logic

The five ambiguous words—sentence, proposition, judgment, statement, and fact—each have meanings that are vague in the sense of admitting borderline cases. This paper discusses several senses of these and related words used in logic. It focuses on a constellation of recommended primary senses. A judgment is a private epistemic act that results in a new belief; a statement is a public pragmatic event involving an utterance. Each is executed by a unique person at a unique time and place. Propositions and sentences are timeless and placeless abstractions. A proposition is an intensional entity; it is a meaning composed of concepts. A sentence is a linguistic entity. A written sentence is a string of characters. A sentence can be used by a person to express meanings, but no sentence is intrinsically meaningful. Only propositions are properly said to be true or to be false—in virtue of facts, which are subsystems of the universe. The fact that two is even is timeless; the fact that Socrates was murdered is semi-eternal; the most general facts of physics—in virtue of which propositions of physics are true or false—are eternal. As suggested by the title, this paper is meant to be read aloud.