Truth Deflationism, Meaning Deflationism, and Counterfactual Blindness

Abstract Both proponents and critics of Truth Deflationism have argued that, according to Truth Deflationism, truth is a use-independent feature of sentences. And this seems to entail a form of Meaning Deflationism, according to which deflationists can completely avoid metasemantic questions. Here I show that the only arguments for Use-Independence from Truth Deflationism require what I call Counterfactual Blindness: they are blind to the counterconventional reading of standard counterfactuals. I close by suggesting that Counterfactual Blindness also leads to gridlock in some other philosophical debates, including debates over quasi-realism in metaethics and two-dimensionalism in the philosophy of language and mind.