Examples of Intensional Statements
- Everyone who has read Huckleberry Finn knows that Mark Twain wrote it.
- It is possible that Aristotle did not tutor Alexander the Great.
- Aristotle was pleased that he had a sister.
To see that these are intensional, make the following substitutions: (1) "Mark Twain" → "The author of 'Corn-pone Opinions'"; (2) "Aristotle" → "the tutor of Alexander the Great"; (3) can be seen to be intensional given "had a sister" → "had a sibling with two X-chromosomes".
It will be noted that the intensional statements above feature expressions like "knows", "possible", and "pleased". Such expressions always, or nearly always, produce intensional statements when added (in some intelligible manner) to an extensional statement, and thus they (or more complex expressions like "It is possible that") are sometimes called intensional operators. A large class of intensional statements, but by no means all, can be spotted from the fact that they contain intensional operators.
Read more about this topic: Intensional Statement
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