Philosophical Semantics

Philosophical Semantics PDF

Author: Claudio Costa

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2020-03

Total Pages: 494

ISBN-13: 9781527544727

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This book offers an innovative systematic approach to the problems of meaning, reference and related issues, unifying in promising ways some of the best insights, not only of exponential philosophers like Wittgenstein and Frege, but also of some influential later theorists like Michael Dummett, Ernst Tugendhat, John Searle and Donald Williams. Moreover, it exposes some main errors popularized by clever formalist-oriented philosophers, from Willard Van Orman Quine to Saul Kripke and Hilary Putnam. In this way, it shows how some older major approaches could regain their central importance and how the cartography of philosophy of language could be once more redrawn. The book is clearly written, and will be of interest to anyone with basic training in analytic philosophy.

The Foundations of Philosophical Semantics

The Foundations of Philosophical Semantics PDF

Author: John L. Pollock

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2017-03-14

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1400886465

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Although philosophical semantics has become both a discipline in its own right and the source of the analytic techniques used in the rest of philosophy, its foundations have themselves been problematic. To provide a unified account of the field, John L. Pollock discusses issues including the nature of possible worlds, modalities, counterfactuals, and causation. Originally published in 1985. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Semantics-Pragmatics Boundary in Philosophy

The Semantics-Pragmatics Boundary in Philosophy PDF

Author: Maite Ezcurdia

Publisher: Broadview Press

Published: 2013-03-14

Total Pages: 591

ISBN-13: 1554810698

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The boundary between semantics and pragmatics has been important since the early twentieth century, but in the last twenty-five years it has become the central issue in the philosophy of language. This anthology collects classic philosophical papers on the topic, along with recent key contributions. It stresses not only the nature of the boundary, but also its importance for philosophy generally.

Semantics for Reasons

Semantics for Reasons PDF

Author: Bryan R. Weaver

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2019-05-16

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 0198832621

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Semantics for Reasons is a book about what we mean when we talk about reasons. It not only brings together the theory of reasons and natural language semantics in original ways but also sketches out a litany of implications for metaethics and the philosophy of normativity. In their account of how the language of reasons works, Bryan R. Weaver and Kevin Scharp propose and defend a view called Question Under Discussion (QUD) Reasons Contextualism. They use this view to argue for a series of novel positions on the ontology of reasons, indexical facts, the reasons-to-be-rational debate, moral reasons, and the reasons-first approach.

Philosophical Semantics

Philosophical Semantics PDF

Author: Claudio Ferreira Costa

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2019-01-29

Total Pages: 494

ISBN-13: 1527527425

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This book offers an innovative systematic approach to the problems of meaning, reference and related issues, unifying in promising ways some of the best insights, not only of exponential philosophers like Wittgenstein and Frege, but also of some influential later theorists like Michael Dummett, Ernst Tugendhat, John Searle and Donald Williams. Moreover, it exposes some main errors popularized by clever formalist-oriented philosophers, from Willard Van Orman Quine to Saul Kripke and Hilary Putnam. In this way, it shows how some older major approaches could regain their central importance and how the cartography of philosophy of language could be once more redrawn. The book is clearly written, and will be of interest to anyone with basic training in analytic philosophy.

Old and New Questions in Physics, Cosmology, Philosophy, and Theoretical Biology

Old and New Questions in Physics, Cosmology, Philosophy, and Theoretical Biology PDF

Author: Alwyn Van der Merwe

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 904

ISBN-13: 1468488309

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Simply to say that this is a collection of essays in honor of the late Wolfgang Yourgrau (1908-1979) is to explain, at least for-the obviously many-"insiders," the unusually wide-ranging title of the present volume. In a Foreword to the Proceedings of the First International Colloquium (focusing on logic, physical reality, and history), held at the University of Denver in May of 1966 under their leadership, Wolfgang Y ourgrau and Allen Breck wrote, in an oblique reference to C. P. Snow: "Indeed there are not two or three or four cultures: there is only one culture; our generation has lost its awareness of this . . . . Historians, logicians, physicists-all are banded in one common enterprise, namely in their des ire to weave an enlightened fabric of human knowledge. " Augment, if you will, the foregoing categories of scholars with biologists, philos ophers, cosmologists, and theologians-all of whom, in addition to historians, Wolf gang Yourgrau, by dint of his inextinguishable enthusiasm and charismatic qualities, assembled in Denver for the Second and Third International Colloquia (in 1967 and 1974, respectively)-and a few other besides, and one arrives at a statement of the credo wh ich Y ourgrau not only professed, but consistently exemplified throughout his adult life.

Philosophical Semantics and Term Meaning

Philosophical Semantics and Term Meaning PDF

Author: Charles Schlee

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2012-05-03

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13: 1469126486

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In this book the author presents a meanings-as-entities view of term meaning utilizing set theory. In doing so the author discusses limitations of customary formal semantic theories, argues for the primacy of term meaning, provides an account of analyticity based on synonymy, discusses possible-worlds semantics, provides a defense of our traditionaland common-senseview of meanings as entities, and sketches an approach to bridging the gap between formal semantics and natural language. The author discusses the views of many philosophers, including Carnap, Donnellan, Hintikka, Kripke, Linsky, Quine, Russell, and Searle.

Meaning Diminished

Meaning Diminished PDF

Author: Kenneth A. Taylor

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-04-11

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0192525190

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Meaning Diminished examines the complex relationship between semantic analysis and metaphysical inquiry. Kenneth A. Taylor argues that we should expect linguistic and conceptual analysis of natural language to yield far less metaphysical insight into what there is - and the nature of what there is - than many philosophers have imagined. Taking a strong stand against the so-called linguistic turn in philosophy, Taylor contends that philosophers as diverse as Kant, with his Transcendental Idealism, Frege, with his aspirational Platonism, Carnap with his distinction between internal and external questions, and Strawson, with his descriptive metaphysics, have placed too much confidence in the ability of linguistic and conceptual analysis to achieve deep insight into matters of ultimate metaphysics. He urges philosophers who seek such insight to turn away from the interrogation of language and concepts and back to the more direct interrogation of reality itself. In doing so, he maps out the way forward toward a metaphysically modest semantics, in which semantics carries less weighty metaphysical burdens, and toward a revisionary and naturalistic metaphysics, untethered to the a priori analysis of ordinary language.

Inquisitive Semantics

Inquisitive Semantics PDF

Author: Ivano Ciardelli

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-12-27

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 019881478X

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This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. This book presents a new logical framework to capture the meaning of sentences in conversation. The traditional approach equates meaning with truth-conditions: to know the meaning of a sentence is to know under which circumstances it is true. The reason for this is that linguistic and philosophical investigations are usually carried out in a logical framework that was originally designed to characterize valid argumentation. However, argumentation is neither the sole, nor the primary function of language. One task that language more widely and ordinarily fulfils is to enable the exchange of information between conversational participants. In the framework outlined in this volume, inquisitive semantics, information exchange is seen as a process of raising and resolving issues. Inquisitive semantics provides a new formal notion of meaning, which makes it possible to model various concepts that are crucial for the analysis of linguistic information exchange in a more refined and more principled way than has been possible in previous frameworks. Importantly, it also allows an integrated treatment of statements and questions. The first part of the book presents the framework in detail, while the second demonstrates its benefits in the semantic analysis of questions, coordination, modals, conditionals, and intonation. The book will be of interest to researchers and students from advanced undergraduate level upwards in the fields of semantics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, and logic.