ABSTRACT
For Bolzano analyticity, like truth and falsity, is a property of propositions (Sätze an sich). He takes the concept of a proposition to resist analysis or conceptual decomposition (Erklärung), but there are other ways of ‘achieving an understanding (Verständigung)’ of a concept.3
Consider a report of the following type: ‘Johanna said that copper conducts electricity, Jeanne said the same thing, though in different words, and Joan believes what they said.’ Here a that-clause is used to single out something that is (1) said by different speakers, (2) distinct from the linguistic vehicles used for saying it, and (3) believed by somebody. ‘Now, this is the sort of thing I mean by proposition,’ Bolzano would say, ‘propositions are sayables and thinkables, possible contents of sayings and thinkings, that can be singled out by thatclauses.’4
