Goodman and the Demise of Syntactic and Semantic Models

Both seem to be good arguments, although there are significant differences between them. In Argument I, the conclusion follows deductively from its premises. If the premises are true so must be the conclusion. Rules of logic justify inferring one from the other. Not so with Argument II. No matter how many emeralds are examined and found to be green, it does not follow logically that all are. The question then is what sanctions or justifies concluding “All emeralds are green” in Argument II? One might claim that the conclusion is warranted on the grounds that it is an a priori truth; it states a relation of ideas. “Green” is part of the meaning of “emerald”, so of necessity all such gems are green. In that case, though, premise 1 in argument II plays no real role. There is no need to appeal to any empirical evidence to underwrite the conclusion, and there is no problem of induction. If, however, “All emeralds are green.” is taken to state an empirical fact, then