The Case for Contextualism: Knowledge, Skepticism, and Context, Vol
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Semantical Paradox* Tyler Burge
4 Semantical Paradox* Tyler Burge Frege remarked that the goal of all sciences is truth, but that it falls to logic to discern the laws of truth. Perceiving that the task of determining these laws went beyond Frege’s conception of it, Tarski enlarged the jurisdiction of logic, establishing semantics as truth’s lawyer.1 At the core of Tarski’s theory of truth and validity was a diagnosis of the Liar paradox according to which natural language was hopelessly infected with contradiction. Tarski construed himself as treating the disease by replacing ordinary discourse with a sanitized, artificial construction. But those interested in natural language have been dissatisfied with this medication. The best ground for dis satisfaction is that the notion of a natural language’s harboring contradictions is based on an illegitimate assimilation of natural language to a semantical system. According to that assimilation, part of the nature of a “language” is a set of postulates that purport to be true by virtue of their meaning or are at least partially constitutive of that “language”. Tarski thought that he had identified just such postulates in natural language as spawning inconsistency. But postulates are contained in theories that are promoted by people. Natural languages per se do not postulate or Tyler Burge, “Semantical Paradox", reprinted from The Journal of Philosophy 76 (1979), 169-98. Copyright © 1979 The Journal of Philosophy. Reprinted by permission of the Editor of The Journal of Philosophy and the author. * I am grateful to Robert L. Martin for several helpful discussions; to Herbert Enderton for proving the consistency (relative to that of arithmetic) of an extension of Construction C3; to Charles Parsons for stimulating exchanges back in 1973 and 1974; and to the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation for its support. -
Putnam's Theory of Natural Kinds and Their Names Is Not The
PUTNAM’S THEORY OF NATURAL KINDS AND THEIR NAMES IS NOT THE SAME AS KRIPKE’S IAN HACKING Collège de France Abstract Philosophers have been referring to the “Kripke–Putnam” theory of natural- kind terms for over 30 years. Although there is one common starting point, the two philosophers began with different motivations and presuppositions, and developed in different ways. Putnam’s publications on the topic evolved over the decades, certainly clarifying and probably modifying his analysis, while Kripke published nothing after 1980. The result is two very different theories about natural kinds and their names. Both accept that the meaning of a natural- kind term is not given by a description or defining properties, but is specified by its referents. From then on, Putnam rejected even the label, causal theory of reference, preferring to say historical, or collective. He called his own approach indexical. His account of substance identity stops short a number of objections that were later raised, such as what is called the qua problem. He came to reject the thought that water is necessarily H2O, and to denounce the idea of metaphysical necessity that goes beyond physical necessity. Essences never had a role in his analysis; there is no sense in which he was an essentialist. He thought of hidden structures as the usual determinant of natural kinds, but always insisted that what counts as a natural kind is relative to interests. “Natural kind” itself is itself an importantly theoretical concept, he argued. The paper also notes that Putnam says a great deal about what natural kinds are, while Kripke did not. -
Canadian Journal of Philosophy a Defense Of
Canadian Journal of Philosophy A Defense of Derangement Author(s): Paul M. Pietroski Source: Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1994), pp. 95-117 Published by: Canadian Journal of Philosophy Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40231855 Accessed: 07-03-2019 17:45 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Canadian Journal of Philosophy is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Canadian Journal of Philosophy This content downloaded from 165.230.225.90 on Thu, 07 Mar 2019 17:45:29 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY 95 Volume 24, Number 1, March 1994, pp. 95 - 118 A Defense of Derangement PAULM.PIETROSKI McGill University Montreal, QC H3A2T7 Canada In a recent paper, Bar-On and Risjord (henceforth, 'B&R') contend that Davidson provides no good argument for his (in)famous claim that 'there is no such thing as a language/1 And according to B&R, if David- son had established his 'no language' thesis, he would thereby have provided a decisive reason for abandoning the project he has long advocated - viz., that of trying to provide theories of meaning for natural languages by providing recursive theories of truth for such languages. -
Jessica Pepp Dissertation Final Draft
UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Locating Semantic Reference Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3z15t80z Author Pepp, Jessica Alden Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Locating Semantic Reference A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy by Jessica Pepp 2012 ⓒ Copyright by Jessica Pepp 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Locating Semantic Reference by Jessica Pepp Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 Professor Joseph Almog, Chair The dissertation studies a question of longstanding interest in the philosophy of language, which I call the “Reference Determination Question.” The question is: what determines that a linguistic expression (such as a name, indexical, demonstrative, or description) refers to a particular thing? In one way or another, the question seeks a reduction of reference in terms of other features of speakers, words, and the things to which they refer. Until the work of Saul Kripke and Keith Donnellan in the 1960s and 1970s, such a reduction seemed available. According to what I call the “Condition View,” the reference of a linguistic expression is whatever, if anything, uniquely satisfies the conditions that the user of the expression associates with it. I show how this view fits within a broader picture of language, which I call the “Capture Picture.” The Capture Picture envisions linguistic reference as a speaker’s reaching out from her interior experience to capture a particular thing in the world outside that experience. -
Intellectual Norms and Foundations of Mind Author(S): Tyler Burge Source: the Journal of Philosophy, Vol
Journal of Philosophy, Inc. Intellectual Norms and Foundations of Mind Author(s): Tyler Burge Source: The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 83, No. 12 (Dec., 1986), pp. 697-720 Published by: Journal of Philosophy, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2026694 Accessed: 11-04-2017 02:21 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Journal of Philosophy, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Philosophy This content downloaded from 128.97.244.236 on Tue, 11 Apr 2017 02:21:34 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY VOLUME LXXXIII, NO. 12, DECEMBER 1986 -1-- 0 -4- INTELLECTUAL NORMS AND FOUNDATIONS OF MIND* T WO paramount tasks for philosophy are articulating the na- ture of propositional attitudes and articulating the nature of the intellectual norms that govern thinking about objective matters. The first task is fundamental to explicating the notion of mind. The second is fundamental to saying what is significant and distinctive about being human. With respect to the first task, I have previously argued that prop- ositional mental-state and event kinds are nonindividualistically individuated. -
Definite Descriptions Are Ambiguous FELIPE S
(Forthcoming in Analysis 68: 4) Definite descriptions are ambiguous FELIPE S. AMARAL 1. The problem Keith Donnellan (1966) contrasted two uses of definite descriptions, the referential and the attributive. In using a definite description referentially the speaker communicates content about a particular object in mind,1 whereas in using the same description attributively the speaker communicates content about whatever object uniquely satisfies the description. Assuming that definite descriptions have a quantificational attributive meaning, the main problem raised by Donnellan’s contrast between uses is whether descriptions also have a referential meaning.2 If they do, it is plausible to think that the definite article is ambiguous between a referential and an attributive meaning. In what follows, I will call this thesis `Ambiguity’. For ease of exposition, I will take it as a thesis about English. The most influential arguments against Ambiguity invoke the independently motivated Gricean distinction between what a speaker means and what he or she says (Grice 1989). According to these arguments, we do not need to postulate a referential meaning for definite descriptions to account for referential uses. We can account for such uses in terms of what a speaker means but does not literally say. Thus, in using a definite description referentially the speaker means or communicates content about a particular object in mind, but what the speaker literally says is determined by the description’s quantificational attributive meaning. We are then told that on the grounds of parsimony this account of referential uses is superior to Ambiguity (see Grice 1969; Kripke 1977; Bach 1981; Neale 1990). -
The Oberlin Colloquium in Philosophy: Program History
The Oberlin Colloquium in Philosophy: Program History 1960 FIRST COLLOQUIUM Wilfrid Sellars, "On Looking at Something and Seeing it" Ronald Hepburn, "God and Ambiguity" Comments: Dennis O'Brien Kurt Baier, "Itching and Scratching" Comments: David Falk/Bruce Aune Annette Baier, "Motives" Comments: Jerome Schneewind 1961 SECOND COLLOQUIUM W.D. Falk, "Hegel, Hare and the Existential Malady" Richard Cartwright, "Propositions" Comments: Ruth Barcan Marcus D.A.T. Casking, "Avowals" Comments: Martin Lean Zeno Vendler, "Consequences, Effects and Results" Comments: William Dray/Sylvan Bromberger PUBLISHED: Analytical Philosophy, First Series, R.J. Butler (ed.), Oxford, Blackwell's, 1962. 1962 THIRD COLLOQUIUM C.J. Warnock, "Truth" Arthur Prior, "Some Exercises in Epistemic Logic" Newton Garver, "Criteria" Comments: Carl Ginet/Paul Ziff Hector-Neri Castenada, "The Private Language Argument" Comments: Vere Chappell/James Thomson John Searle, "Meaning and Speech Acts" Comments: Paul Benacerraf/Zeno Vendler PUBLISHED: Knowledge and Experience, C.D. Rollins (ed.), University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964. 1963 FOURTH COLLOQUIUM Michael Scriven, "Insanity" Frederick Will, "The Preferability of Probable Beliefs" Norman Malcolm, "Criteria" Comments: Peter Geach/George Pitcher Terrence Penelhum, "Pleasure and Falsity" Comments: William Kennick/Arnold Isenberg 1964 FIFTH COLLOQUIUM Stephen Korner, "Some Remarks on Deductivism" J.J.C. Smart, "Nonsense" Joel Feinberg, "Causing Voluntary Actions" Comments: Keith Donnellan/Keith Lehrer Nicholas Rescher, "Evaluative Metaphysics" Comments: Lewis W. Beck/Thomas E. Patton Herbert Hochberg, "Qualities" Comments: Richard Severens/J.M. Shorter PUBLISHED: Metaphysics and Explanation, W.H. Capitan and D.D. Merrill (eds.), University of Pittsburgh Press, 1966. 1965 SIXTH COLLOQUIUM Patrick Nowell-Smith, "Acts and Locutions" George Nakhnikian, "St. Anselm's Four Ontological Arguments" Hilary Putnam, "Psychological Predicates" Comments: Bruce Aune/U.T. -
PHIL-36 - Philosophy of Language Amherst College Spring 2009 – Visiting Prof
PHIL-36 - Philosophy of Language Amherst College Spring 2009 – Visiting Prof. Kevin C. Klement (UMass faculty member) Mondays and Wednesdays 12:30pm-1:50pm in Cooper House 201. Course description: “Caesar was stabbed.” With those words, I can make a claim about someone who lived in the distant past. How is that possible? How do our words succeed in picking out particular portions of reality, even ones with which we have had no contact? How does language enable us to convey thoughts about everything from Amherst College, to the hopes of a friend, to the stars beyond our galaxy? What are the thoughts, or the meanings, that our words carry? And whatever they turn out to be, how do they come to be associated with our words: through some mental activity on our part, or instead through our shared use of language? This course covers selected topics in 20th century analytic philosophy of language, including meaning, reference, naming, truth, speech acts, propositional attitudes, translation, and the nature of linguistic representation. Contact info: You may e-mail me at [email protected], which is often the best way to reach me. I have a mailbox in the Amherst College philosophy department office (208 Cooper House). My office at UMass is 353 Bartlett Hall, and I also have access to Prof. Alexander George’s Office (307 Cooper House) for meetings at Amherst College. My UMass office phone is 545-5784. My office hours there are Tuesdays 2:30-3:30pm, Thursdays 11am-12pm and other times by appointment. I am also happy to make an appointment to meet with you at AC instead. -
Vindicating a Critique
Aporia vol. 17 no. 2—2007 Vindicating a Critique JASON A. HILLS N “Reference and Definite Descriptions,” Keith Donnellan distinguishes Ibetween attributive and referential uses of definite descriptions. He uses this distinction to show that Bertrand Russell’s theory of definite descrip- tions fails to account for the referential use. Saul Kripke, in “Speaker’s Reference and Semantic Reference,” claims that to successfully provide a counterexample to Russell’s theory, Donnellan’s distinction should be semantic rather than pragmatic. Kripke then argues that Donnellan’s refer- ential use is actually pragmatic—not sematic—and therefore does not refute Russell’s theory. A significant part of this debate concerns truth-values. Kripke argues that Donnellan’s assignment of truth-value to sentences such as “Her hus- band is kind to her,” where “her husband” is used referentially, does not differ from the assignment given by Russell’s theory. I will consider this claim; using the concept of analysis I will argue that the two theories do of- fer different accounts of truth-value. I will also argue that even a pragmatic ambiguity, as given by Donnellan, is sufficient to prove that Russell does not offer a complete account of reference. Russell’s Theory, In Brief Without going into detail nor considering his argumentation in fa- vor of it, I will briefly outline Russell’s theory. In his essay “On Denoting,” Russell presents a method of translating English sentences into a format where the logical proposition contained in a sentence is not hidden by the grammar of normal English sentences (213–14). -
IF YOU BELIEVE YOU BELIEVE, YOU BELIEVE. a CONSTITUTIVE ACCOUNT of KNOWLEDGE of ONE’S OWN BELIEFS Peter BAUMANN
IF YOU BELIEVE YOU BELIEVE, YOU BELIEVE. A CONSTITUTIVE ACCOUNT OF KNOWLEDGE OF ONE’S OWN BELIEFS Peter BAUMANN ABSTRACT: Can I be wrong about my own beliefs? More precisely: Can I falsely believe that I believe that p? I argue that the answer is negative. This runs against what many philosophers and psychologists have traditionally thought and still think. I use a rather new kind of argument, – one that is based on considerations about Moore's paradox. It shows that if one believes that one believes that p then one believes that p – even though one can believe that p without believing that one believes that p. KEYWORDS: self-knowledge, Moore’s paradox, second-order beliefs Can I be wrong about my own beliefs? More precisely: Can I falsely believe that I believe that p? Can I have a false second-order belief that I believe that p (where the belief that p is a first-order belief)? The question is whether a sentence of the following form can be true: (1) S believes that he believes that p, but he does not believe that p.1 If all instantiations of the scheme (1) are false, then the following holds: (2) If S believes that he believes that p, then he does believe that p. In other words, all our second-order beliefs are true: BBp Bp.2 This is the claim I will argue for. However, prima facie it seems that it is possible to have a false second-order belief with the following content: 1 For the sake of simplicity, I am not adding temporal indices except where clarity demands it. -
4210F: Survey of Philosophy of Language
THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY Course Outline Philosophy 4210F/9xxx and Ling 9453L: Survey of Philosophy of Language Summer Term 2020 Instructor: R. Stainton Intersession May 11- Jun 26 StH Room 3126 Day and Time: Wed, Fri 12:30-3:30 Office Hours: TBA Classroom: STVH 1145 E-mail: [email protected] PREREQUISITE Philosophy 2260F/G DESCRIPTION A survey of foundational and highly influential texts from 20th Century Analytic Philosophy of Language. Emphasis will be on twin topics of special interest to contemporary linguistic theorizing: 1) contrasting conceptions of linguistic meaning, including Frege-Russell-Davidson style truth-conditional approaches; Ordinary Language Philosophy’s use-oriented approaches; and the mentalist semantics familiar from Grice and generative grammar. 2) The contrast between semantics vs. pragmatics and attempts to trace a boundary between them. This latter section will conclude with a detailed case study on definite descriptions, indexicals and singular reference. Authors include: Austin, Davidson, Donnellan, Fodor, Frege, Grice, Kaplan, Kripke, Russell, Searle, Strawson and Wittgenstein. TEXTS Robert J. Stainton (2000). Perspectives in the Philosophy of Language. Peterborough: Broadview. Paul Elbourne (2011). Meaning: A Slim Guide to Semantics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. • Note: Kripke’s “Speaker’s Reference and Semantic Reference” and Kaplan’s “Demonstratives” will be made available online OBJECTIVES - To overview key issues in contemporary philosophy of language and semantics/pragmatics. - To fine-tune students’ ability to read, think and write at the most sophisticated level. READINGS I. The Formalist Tradition • Gottlob Frege (1892), “On Sense and Reference” • Bertrand Russell (1919), “Descriptions” • Donald Davidson (1967), “Truth and Meaning” • Saul Kripke (1971), “Identity and Necessity” II. -
Burge-Foundations of Mind.Pdf
Foundations of Mind This page intentionally left blank Foundations of Mind Philosophical Essays, Volume 2 TYLER BURGE CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox26dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York Tyler Burge 2007 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Burge, Tyler.