DOCSLIB.ORG

SCOTT SOAMES USC School of Philosophy 3709 Trousdale Parkway Los Angeles, CA 90089-0451 [email protected] / (213) 740-0798 October 2020

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
SCOTT SOAMES USC School of Philosophy 3709 Trousdale Parkway Los Angeles, CA 90089-0451 Soames@Usc.Edu / (213) 740-0798 October 2020 SCOTT SOAMES USC School of Philosophy 3709 Trousdale Parkway Los Angeles, CA 90089-0451 [email protected] / (213) 740-0798 October 2020 EDUCATION Stanford University, BA., 1968 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. Philosophy, 1976 ACADEMIC HONORS Phi Beta Kappa, 1967 Danforth Graduate Fellow, 1971-76 Woodrow Wilson Graduate Fellow, 1971 AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected in 2010. Albert S. Raubenheimer Award for excellence in research, teaching, and service, 2009. The Raubenheimer is the highest faculty honor of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences of the University of Southern California. Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences Fellowship 1998-99 Academic Year. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship 1989- 90. Title of Project: "Truth and Meaning" Class of 1936 Bicentennial Preceptorship, Princeton University, 1982-1985 National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship for 1978-79. Title of Project: "The Philosophical Investigation of Linguistic Theory" ACADEMIC POSITIONS Director of the School of Philosophy, University of Southern California, August 2007 – Distinguished Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Southern California, 2011 – Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Southern California, 2004 - 2010 Professor, Department of Philosophy, Princeton University, July 1989 - 2004 Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Princeton University, July 1985 - June 1989 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Princeton University, September 1980 - June 1985 Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Yale University, January 1976 - June 1980 Instructor, Linguistics Department, M.I.T., 1974-75 VISITING POSITIONS Franklin Pease Garcia Visiting Professor, Department of Humanities, Catholic Pontifical University of Peru, Lima Peru, May 18 – June 25, 2015. Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, Graduate School & University Center, City University of New York, Spring 1997. Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Washington, Summer 1989 Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Washington, January 1986 - June 1986, Summers 87, 88 EDITING Editor-in-Chief, The Princeton Series in the Foundations of Contemporary Philosophy -- a series of state-of-the-art books on important areas of research in contemporary analytic philosophy, written by leading experts in their fields. Each book is a high-level introduction to advanced thinking in an area. Although major questions and approaches are covered, the books are neither neutral literature surveys, nor highly specialized contributions filling gaps in already well-known research programs. Instead, each presents the author’s unifying vision of a field or topic as it is exists today – its recent history and leading themes, its significant new developments, and its most important unanswered questions. The series premise is that with so much specialized work being done on so many topics, there is a need to articulate synoptic views of active research areas, with an eye to developing common understandings and charting future progress. The books are designed to appeal to advanced undergraduates and graduate students, to provide specialists with new ideas and unifying perspectives, and to offer comprehensible explanations of neighboring fields to other working professionals. In addition to creating the series, choosing the authors and topics, and reviewing the manuscripts, I wrote the book in the Philosophy of Language. Other published books in the series include Philosophical Logic, Philosophy of Law, Truth, Epistemology, Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time, Philosophy of Physics: Quantum Theory, Philosophy of Biology, 3 and Philosophy of Mathematics. Books under contract and currently in progress include Philosophy of Natural Science, Metaphysics, Modality, Philosophy of Mind, Decision Theory, Ethics, Metaethics, Moral Responsibility, Political Philosophy, and Moral Psychology and Agency. International Advisory Board, Analytica, a journal for the study of analytic philosophy and its history, published by EL Centro do Estudios de Filosopfia Analitica, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos Press, Lima Peru. Editorial Advisory Board for Philosophical Perspectives, 2004 - Consulting Editor, Oxford International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2003. In addition to contributing 2 articles, I selected, oversaw and edited 10 others. Associate Editor, Linguistics and Philosophy, Reidel Publishing Company, April 1993 - Sept. 1997. Consulting Editor, Bradford Books, M.I.T. Press, 1982-1992. Associate Editor, Linguistics and Philosophy, Reidel Publishing Company, September 1982-1989. Topic Editor, Oxford International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Oxford University Press, 1987-1989. Editorial Board, Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, Reidel Publishing Company, 1984-1989 PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES Chair of Selection Committee Humanities and Social Science Category 400,000 Euro Frontiers of Knowledge Award BBVA Foundation Madrid, Spain, April 2019 Outside departmental reviewer and co-author of five-year report evaluating the Department of Philosophy, California State Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo, November 2005, October, 2011. Member of the Nominating Board for The Philosopher’s Annual, which selects the 10 best articles in philosophy published each year, 2011 - Member of the board of evaluators for philosophy of language, 4 the history of analytic philosophy, and for overall departmental strength, for the Leiter Report, 2009 - Advisory Committee to the Program Committee, Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, 2000 -- 2007 Chair of Program Committee for Philosophy of Linguistics, 10th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, 1995 Advisory Committee to the Program Committee, Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, 1993-97. Visiting Committee for the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, M.I.T., 1985-1996. Program Committee of the 9th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Section 14, Linguistics and Philosophy of Language, 1991. NEH Review Panel for Philosophy and Linguistics, Summer Seminar Program for College Teachers, 1980. Representative from philosophy on the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's "State of the Art Committee On Cognitive Science," 1978. I authored the section on the Philosophy of Language in the Committee's final report FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS BOOKS La Filosofia Analitica llega a la Mayoria de Edad: Wittgenstein, Schlick, Carnap, Gödel, and Tarski (translation of the Second Lima Lectures), Tecnos Press (a division of the Anaya Publishing Group in Spain) in cooperation with the University Press of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. The book is based on 8 lectures givin in 2017 at PUCP. Translations of My Books Translation of The World Philosophy Made into Chinese: Ginkgo (Beijing) Book Co., a frequent partner with OUP, CUP, & Wilely Translation of The World Philosophy Made into Arabic: Al Mada Group for Media, Culture, and Arts, Bagdad Iraq; publisher of books in science, history, humanities, politics, and the arts. Recent licenses include On Human Nature by Roger Scruton and On the Future by Martin Rees. Translation of The World Philosophy Made into Turkish: Totem Yayiniary. Totem publishes fiction and non-fiction titles, with a particular focus on literature, philosophy, psychology 5 and politics, including both classic and contemporary works. The philosophy list includes acclaimed international philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche ARTICLES Review of Roads to Reference, by Mario Gomez-Torrente in Teoria. “Viennese Lessons: Wittgenstein, Carnap, and Schlick,” Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook, SPRINGER "The Fruits of the Causal Theory of Reference," Routledge Handbook on Linguistic Reference,Heimir Geirson, ed, Routledge. "Philosophy of Language in the Twenty-First Century," in Cambridge Handbook in the Philosophy of Language, Piotr Stalmaszczyk, editor, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. “Propositions” forthcoming in the Rutledge Handbook of Propositions, Chris Tillman, editor. PUBLICATIONS 2019 – to the present BOOKS The World Philosophy Made: From Plato to the Digital Age, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2019, 439 pages. El Surgimiento de la Filosophia Analytica: Frege, Moore, Russell y Wittgenstein translated by Francisco Melgar Wong, Jaime Castillo Gamboa, Pamela Lastres Dammert, Eduardo Villanueva Chingne; ed. Educard Villanueva Chigne. Tecnos Press (a division of the Anaya Publishing Group in Spain) in cooperation with the University Press of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, 2019, 265 pages. The book is based on 8 lectures given in English June 2015 at PUCP. ARTICLES "To What Should Originalists Be Faithful,"SSRN Research Papers, https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://ssrn.com/author=659784__;!!LIr3w8kk _Xxm!9E2RLP4Kh89UD7IxC_YvVLmM4XSfLcox39jMlINlgcGJ_k9vRg4Q4qfVKsXIqQ$ "Originalism and Legitimacy," GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY; Vol. 18, issue 2, 2020; pp. 242-85. Review of Frege’s Detour, by John Perry, in the Notre Dame Philosophical Review of Books; 2020.06.35; ndpr.nd.edu “What do we know about numbers and propositions and how do we 6 know it?,” ORGANON F: International Journal of Analytic Philosophy, On Line First, March 1, 2020, pp. 1-20, https://www.organonf.com/journal/soames/ Preface to Chinese
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Puzzles About Descriptive Names Edward Kanterian
    Puzzles about descriptive names Edward Kanterian To cite this version: Edward Kanterian. Puzzles about descriptive names. Linguistics and Philosophy, Springer Verlag, 2010, 32 (4), pp.409-428. 10.1007/s10988-010-9066-1. hal-00566732 HAL Id: hal-00566732 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00566732 Submitted on 17 Feb 2011 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Linguist and Philos (2009) 32:409–428 DOI 10.1007/s10988-010-9066-1 RESEARCH ARTICLE Puzzles about descriptive names Edward Kanterian Published online: 17 February 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract This article explores Gareth Evans’s idea that there are such things as descriptive names, i.e. referring expressions introduced by a definite description which have, unlike ordinary names, a descriptive content. Several ignored semantic and modal aspects of this idea are spelled out, including a hitherto little explored notion of rigidity, super-rigidity. The claim that descriptive names are (rigidified) descriptions, or abbreviations thereof, is rejected. It is then shown that Evans’s theory leads to certain puzzles concerning the referential status of descriptive names and the evaluation of identity statements containing them.
    [Show full text]
  • The Theory of Descriptions 1. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970): Mathematician, Logician, and Philosopher
    Louis deRosset { Spring 2019 Russell: The Theory of Descriptions 1. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970): mathematician, logician, and philosopher. He's one of the founders of analytic philosophy. \On Denoting" is a founding document of analytic philosophy. It is a paradigm of philosophical analysis. An analysis of a concept/phenomenon c: a recipe for eliminating c-vocabulary from our theories which still captures all of the facts the c-vocabulary targets. FOR EXAMPLE: \The Name View Analysis of Identity." 2. Russell's target: Denoting Phrases By a \denoting phrase" I mean a phrase such as any one of the following: a man, some man, any man, every man, all men, the present King of England, the present King of France, the centre of mass of the Solar System at the first instant of the twentieth century, the revolution of the earth round the sun, the revolution of the sun round the earth. (479) Includes: • universals: \all F 's" (\each"/\every") • existentials: \some F " (\at least one") • indefinite descriptions: \an F " • definite descriptions: \the F " Later additions: • negative existentials: \no F 's" (480) • Genitives: \my F " (\your"/\their"/\Joe's"/etc.) (484) • Empty Proper Names: \Apollo", \Hamlet", etc. (491) Russell proposes to analyze denoting phrases. 3. Why Analyze Denoting Phrases? Russell's Project: The distinction between acquaintance and knowledge about is the distinction between the things we have presentation of, and the things we only reach by means of denoting phrases. [. ] In perception we have acquaintance with the objects of perception, and in thought we have acquaintance with objects of a more abstract logical character; but we do not necessarily have acquaintance with the objects denoted by phrases composed of words with whose meanings we are ac- quainted.
    [Show full text]
  • Russell's Theory of Descriptions
    Russell’s theory of descriptions PHIL 83104 September 5, 2011 1. Denoting phrases and names ...........................................................................................1 2. Russell’s theory of denoting phrases ................................................................................3 2.1. Propositions and propositional functions 2.2. Indefinite descriptions 2.3. Definite descriptions 3. The three puzzles of ‘On denoting’ ..................................................................................7 3.1. The substitution of identicals 3.2. The law of the excluded middle 3.3. The problem of negative existentials 4. Objections to Russell’s theory .......................................................................................11 4.1. Incomplete definite descriptions 4.2. Referential uses of definite descriptions 4.3. Other uses of ‘the’: generics 4.4. The contrast between descriptions and names [The main reading I gave you was Russell’s 1919 paper, “Descriptions,” which is in some ways clearer than his classic exposition of the theory of descriptions, which was in his 1905 paper “On Denoting.” The latter is one of the optional readings on the web site, and I reference it below sometimes as well.] 1. DENOTING PHRASES AND NAMES Russell defines the class of denoting phrases as follows: “By ‘denoting phrase’ I mean a phrase such as any one of the following: a man, some man, any man, every man, all men, the present king of England, the centre of mass of the Solar System at the first instant of the twentieth century, the revolution of the earth around the sun, the revolution of the sun around the earth. Thus a phrase is denoting solely in virtue of its form.” (‘On Denoting’, 479) Russell’s aim in this article is to explain how expressions like this work — what they contribute to the meanings of sentences containing them.
    [Show full text]
  • Russell's Theory of Descriptions
    Russell’s theory of descriptions September 23, 2004 1 Propositions and propositional functions . 1 2 Descriptions and names . 3 2.1 Indefinite descriptions do not stand for particular objects in the same waynamesdo ............................... 3 2.2 Three puzzles caused by the assimilation of definite descriptions to names . 4 2.2.1 The problem of negative existentials . 4 2.2.2 Substitution failures . 5 2.2.3 The law of the excluded middle . 5 2.3 The distinction between primary and secondary occurrence . 5 3 Russell’s theory of descriptions . 6 3.1 Indefinite descriptions . 6 3.2 Definite descriptions . 6 3.3 ‘Everyone’, ‘someone’ . 7 3.4 Strengths of Russell’s theory . 7 4 Objections to Russell’s theory . 7 4.1 Incomplete definite descriptions . 7 4.2 Other uses of ‘the’: generics . 7 4.3 The view that sentences containing descriptions say something about propositional functions . 8 5 Russell’s view of names . 8 6 The metaphysical importance of Russell’s theory . 8 1 Propositions and propositional functions Russell (unlike contemporary theorists) means by ‘proposition’, as he puts it, “pri- marily a form of words which expresses what is either true or false.” Roughly, then, ‘propositions’ in Russell refers to ‘declarative sentences.’ Propositional functions are something else: “A ‘propositional function,’ in fact, is an expression containing one or more undetermined constituents, such that, when values are assigned to 1 these constituents, the expression becomes a proposition. Examples of propositional functions are easy to give: “x is human” is a propositional function; so long as x remains undetermined, it is neither true nor false, but when a value is assigned to x it becomes a true or false proposition.” (An Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Logical Atomism in Russell and Wittgenstein
    OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRST-PROOF, 04/15/11, SPi c h a p t e r 1 0 logical atomism in russell and wittgenstein i a n p r o o p s I n t r o d u c t i o n Russell and Wittgenstein develop diff erent, though closely related, versions of a posi- tion that has come to be known as ‘logical atomism’. Wittgenstein’s version is presented in the Tractatus , and discussed in the various pre-Tractatus manuscripts. Russell’s is pre- sented most fully in a set of eight lectures given in Gordon Square, London in early 1918. Th ese lectures, which are familiar to us today under the title ‘Th e Philosophy of Logical Atomism’ (Russell 1918/1956 : 175–281 , hereaft er ‘PLA’), were originally serialized in the Monist during the years 1918 and 1919. In them Russell attempts to synthesize his own ideas with those of Wittgenstein’s 1913 Notes on Logic . Although PLA is oft en treated as the defi nitive presentation of Russell’s logical atomism, we should not forget that Russell had already arrived at many elements of this doctrine before he encountered Wittgenstein. Th is earlier, pure Russellian, brand of logical atomism is fi rst set out in Russell’s 1911 article ‘Analytical Realism’ 1 —a text in which the phrase ‘logical atomism’ appears for the fi rst time. (See Monk 1996 , 200 .) It is further developed in certain chap- ters of the Problems of Philosophy of 1912. 2 Analytical realism, Russell explains, is a form of atomism because it maintains—in contrast to the British Hegelianism of Bradley, McTaggart, Joachim, and others,3 fi rst, 1 Th is work was composed in the summer of 1911, and so before Russell’s fi rst encounter with Wittgenstein.
    [Show full text]
  • Adopted from Pdflib Image Sample
    1 WITH REFERENCE TO TRUTH: STI~IES IN REFERENTIAL SEMANTICS by DOUGLAS FILLMORE CANNON A.B., Harvard University 1973 SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS AND PHILOSOPHY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in PHILOSOPHY at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY June 1982 <e> Douglas Fillmore Cannon 1982 The author hereby grants to M.I.T. permission to reproduce and to dis­ tribute publicly copies of this thesis document in ~hole or in part. Signature of Author__________~-.;~~~---•. ~....;;;""",,---.::l----- Certified by------------------__._1r--------- I < George Boolas Thesis Supervisor Accepted by aL~ «) ~"0 ~ilijarvis Thomson MA5~HUS~~fl~I~~~artment Graduate Committee OF TEtHNOlOSY Archives JUL 8 1982 2 WITH REFERENCE TO TRUTH: STUDIES IN REFERENTIAL SEMANTICS by DOUGLAS FILLMORE CANNON Submitted to the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy on April 8, 1982, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy ABSTRACT In the first parts of my thesis I explore two philosophical programs in the area of referential semantics, namely, rigid designation accounts of proper names and naturalistic theories of truth. I conclude with an inquiry into the theory of truth for mathematics and its relationship to mathematical Platonism. In Part One, I confront Kripke's well-known views with Quine's pro­ posal that proper names correspond to a kind of predicate. I argue that the belief that proper names are rigid designators is unjustified and that many questions about the reference of terms in various possible worlds have no determinate answer. I take issue with Kripke's emphasis on the question, "How is the reference of names determined?", and suggest that it reflects dubious philosophical presuppositions.
    [Show full text]
  • Frege's Theory of Sense and Reference
    THEORIA, 2008, 74, 181–218 doi:10.1111/j.1755-2567.2008.00018.x Frege’s Theory of Sense and Reference: Some Exegetical Notes1 by SAUL A. KRIPKE The City University of New York, Graduate Center Abstract: Frege’s theory of indirect contexts and the shift of sense and reference in these contexts has puzzled many. What can the hierarchy of indirect senses, doubly indirect senses, and so on, be? Donald Davidson gave a well-known ‘unlearnability’ argument against Frege’s theory. The present paper argues that the key to Frege’s theory lies in the fact that whenever a reference is specified (even though many senses determine a single reference), it is specified in a particular way, so that giving a reference implies giving a sense; and that one must be ‘acquainted’ with the sense. It is argued that an indirect sense must be ‘immediately revelatory’ of its reference. General principles for Frege’s doctrine of sense and reference are sated, for both direct and indirect quotation, to be understood iteratively. I also discuss Frege’s doctrine of tensed and first person statements in the light of my analysis. The views of various other authors are examined. The conclusion is to ascribe to Frege an implicit doctrine of acquaintance similar to that of Russell. Keywords: Frege, sense and reference, indirect senses, immediately revelatory senses, tensed and first person statements, doctrine of acquaintance, backward road IN TRANSLATING Frege’s terms “Sinn” and “Bedeutung”, I follow Max Black’s translation as “sense” and “reference”, or “referent”. For a long time this was standard, although other translations have been proposed, and later some have thought that standard German usage should be followed in the translation of “Bedeutung”.
    [Show full text]
  • What Is Frege's Theory of Descriptions?
    What is Frege’s Theory of Descriptions? Francis Jeffry Pelletier and Bernard Linsky 1 Introduction1 When prompted to consider Frege’s views about definite descriptions, many philosophers think about the meaning of proper names, and some of them can cite the following quotation taken from a footnote Frege’s 1892 article “Uber¨ Sinn und Bedeutung.”2 In the case of an actual proper name such as ‘Aristotle’ opinions as to the Sinn may differ. It might, for instance, be taken to be the following: the pupil of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Anybody who does this will attach another Sinn to the sentence ‘Aristotle was born in Stagira’ than will a man who takes as the Sinn of the name: the teacher of Alexander the Great who was born in Stagira. So long as the Bedeutung remains the same, such variations of Sinn may be tolerated, although they are to be avoided 1We are grateful to Harry Deutsch, Mike Harnish, Theo Janssen, Gregory Lan- dini, Jim Levine, Leonard Linsky, Nathan Salmon, Gurpreet Rattan, Peter Simons, Peter Stanbridge, Kai Wehmeier, an anonymous referee, and audiences at Simon Fraser University, the Society for Exact Philosophy, the Western Canadian Philo- sophical Association, and the Russell vs. Meinong Conference for helpful comments on various aspects of this paper. 2In our quotations, we leave Bedeutung, Sinn, and Bezeichnung (and cognates) untranslated in order to avoid the confusion that would be brought on by using ‘nominatum’, ‘reference’, and ’meaning’ for Bedeutung, and ‘meaning’ or ‘sense’ for Sinn. We got this idea from Russell’s practice in his reading notes (see Linsky 2004).
    [Show full text]
  • Scott Soames Reply to Critics of Reference And
    Scott Soames Reply to Critics of Reference and Description: The Case Against Two-Dimensionalism Robert Stalnaker and David Chalmers Central Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association Chicago, Illinois April 29, 2006 Scott Soames Reply to Robert Stalnaker and David Chalmers Reply to Stalnaker I begin with Bob’s defense of what he takes to be a modest, nonsemantic version of two- dimensionalism – one that tries to illuminate instances of the Kripkean necessary aposteriori, without, as he puts it, factoring them “into a part that is necessary, but purely conceptual, and a part that is empirical but contingent.” The key to this not-too-ambitious form of two-dimensionalism is its fidelity to Kripke’s insight that we understand possibilities in terms of the objects and properties we find in the world. To the extent we are ignorant or mistaken about these, Bob reminds us, we will be ignorant or mistaken about the world-states we use them to define. I agree. We part company over how to understand such error and ignorance. We are often ignorant of the properties, essential or accidental, of even those objects with which we are well acquainted, and have no trouble identifying. For example, some people who know my son Greg don’t know that he was born in New Haven, which is accidental, or that I am his father, which we may take to be essential. As a result, one epistemic possibility, compatible with what they know, is that Greg was born in Princeton, and another is that someone other than me – my brother Steve perhaps – is his father.
    [Show full text]
  • Compositionality in Davidson's Early Work
    JOURNAL FOR THE HISTORY OF ANALYTICAL PHILOSOPHY COMPOSITIONALITY IN DAVIDSON’S EARLY WORK VOLUME 7, NUMBER 2 PETER PAGIN EDITOR IN CHIEF MARCUS ROSSBERG, UnIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT Davidson’s 1965 paper, “Theories of Meaning and Learnable EDITORIAL BOARD Languages”, has (at least almost) invariably been interpreted, ANNALISA COLIVA, UC IRVINE by others and by myself, as arguing that natural languages must HENRY JACKMAN, YORK UnIVERSITY have a compositional semantics, or at least a systematic seman- KEVIN C. KLEMENt, UnIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS tics, that can be finitely specified. However, in his reply to me in CONSUELO PRETI, THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY the Żegleń volume, Davidson denies that compositionality is in ANTHONY SKELTON, WESTERN UnIVERSITY any need of an argument. How does this add up? MARK TEXTOR, KING’S COLLEGE LonDON AUDREY YAP, UnIVERSITY OF VICTORIA In this paper I consider Davidson’s first three meaning theoretic RICHARD ZACH, UnIVERSITY OF CALGARY papers from this perspective. I conclude that Davidson was right in his reply to me that he never took compositionality, or system- EDITOR FOR SPECIAL ISSUES atic semantics, to be in need of justification. What Davidson had SANDRA LaPOINte, MCMASTER UnIVERSITY been concerned with, clearly in the 1965 paper and in “Truth and Meaning” from 1967, and to some extent in his Carnap critique REVIEW EDITORS from 1963, is (i) that we need a general theory of natural language SEAN MORRIS, METROPOLITAN STATE UnIVERSITY OF DenVER meaning, (ii) that such a theory should not be in conflict with SANFORD SHIEH, WESLEYAN UnIVERSITY the learnability of a language, and (iii) that such a theory should DESIGN AND LAYOUT bring out how knowledge of a finite number of features of a lan- DaNIEL HARRIS, HUNTER COLLEGE guage suffices for the understanding of all the sentences of that KEVIN C.
    [Show full text]
  • AMBIGUOUS ARTICLES an ESSAY on the THEORY of DESCRIPTIONS by FRANCESCO PUPA a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty In
    AMBIGUOUS ARTICLES AN ESSAY ON THE THEORY OF DESCRIPTIONS by FRANCESCO PUPA A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Philosophy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2008 ii © 2008 FRANCESCO PUPA All Rights Reserved iii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Philosophy in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. David M. Rosenthal Date Chair of Examining Committee John Greenwood Date Executive Officer Michael Devitt Robert W. Fiengo David M. Rosenthal Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv Abstract AMBIGUOUS ARTICLES AN ESSAY ON THE THEORY OF DESCRIPTIONS by Francesco Pupa Adviser: Professor Michael Devitt What, from a semantic perspective, is the difference between singular indefinite and definite descriptions? Just over a century ago, Bertrand Russell provided a standard philosophical response. Descriptions are quantifier phrases, not referring expressions. As such, they differ with respect to the quantities they denote. Indefinite descriptions denote existential quantities; definite descriptions denote uniquely existential quantities. Now, while most philosophers were busying themselves defending and expanding upon Russell’s position, some linguists were, quietly and independently, developing a radically different response. Descriptions, some linguists held, were referring expressions, not quantifier phrases. Accordingly, descriptions differ with respect to their rules of reference. Indefinite descriptions refer to ‘novel’ items, definite descriptions to ‘familiar’ ones. Although some philosophers, most prominently Peter Strawson, would independently propose their own familiarity theories and although many linguists of a model-theoretic bent would join lock-step with the Russellians, little attempt was made to bridge the gap between these two seemingly incompatible responses.
    [Show full text]
  • 49 Revisiting Russell's Theory of Descriptions by Patrick Henning
    Revisiting Russell’s Theory of Descriptions By Patrick Henning (California State University, Fullerton) Abstract: Bertrand Russell’s theory of definite descriptions played a significant role in the development of philosophy of language. However, the shift from semantics to pragmatics in the narrative of language philosophy seemed to leave Russell’s theory in the past as an important but obsolete stepping stone. There is a chance that Russell may have been dismissed too casually, and if so, the grounds on which his theory is rejected must be carefully re-evaluated. In this paper I examine two problems with Russell’s theory that extend beyond the most well-known direct criticisms. In particular, I investigate problems with Russell’s approach to egocentricity as well as his treatment of descriptions of fictional subjects. I then proceed to explore the high-level implications of these problems. Bertrand Russell’s theory of definite descriptions, first presented in “On Denoting”, played a significant role in the development of philosophy of language. The shift from semantics to pragmatics (initiated in part by P. F. Strawson’s reply to Russell: “On Referring”) in the narrative of language philosophy seemed to leave Russell’s theory in the past as an important stepping stone that has since been superseded by newer theories. “Mr. Strawson on Referring”, Russell’s subsequent attempt to uphold his theory in the face of changing trends, is “seldom taken seriously, at least not as a well-reasoned and successful defense against Strawson's superior criticism” (Austin, 531). However there is a chance that Russell may have been dismissed too casually, and if so, the grounds on which his theory is rejected must be carefully re-evaluated.
    [Show full text]