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“Well, That Depends on What You Mean by 'Φ'”

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“Well, That Depends on What You Mean by 'Φ'” “Well, that depends on what you mean by ‘φ’” On Substantive and Merely Verbal Disputes in Philosophy Ludvig F. Fuglestvedt Thesis presented for the degree of Master of Philosophy Supervised by Professor of Philosophy Herman Cappelen (University of Oslo, University of St. Andrews) and Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor Emeritus of Philosophy Barry Stroud (University of California, Berkeley) Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo, 2017 1 ©Ludvig F. Fuglestvedt, 2017 “Well, that depends on what you mean by ‘Ф’” On Substantive and Merely Verbal Disputes in Philosophy Ludvig F. Fuglestvedt http://www.duo.uio.no Artwork: Microsoft Office Word™ shapes 3 “Well, that depends on what you mean by ‘Ф’” On Substantive and Merely Verbal Disputes in Philosophy ii Abstract Are philosophers just talking past each other? Are they only arguing about what words mean? Is it all pointless? I often get that feeling, and many people on the street share that idea about what philosophers are up to, and there are also several philosophers who have placed related, deflationary, verdicts upon philosophy, that it is the mere analysis of language, such as members of 1930s’ Vienna Circle including Rudolf Carnap and A.J. Ayer, as well as some philosophers at the University of Oxford in the 1950s inspired by the ideas of Ludwig Wittgenstein. The problems tended to concern whether philosophical questions really are nonsensical, linguistic constructions with the mere illusion of depth. Related to that is the more pressing problem of whether philosophical disputes are merely verbal, pointless disagreements over language. This thesis in philosophy of language, or philosophical methodology, explores the problem of verbal disputes: that there may be many of them—or are there?—and that they are pointless—or are they? It starts by motivating the idea with a focus on the way it is presented in the philosophical paper “Verbal Disputes” by David Chalmers (2011) (chapter1). Then some arguments for and against the idea that philosophy is dominated by verbal disputes are discussed along with the idea that philosophical questions are questions of language and in what way mere words should matter to philosophers (chapter 2). Lastly, a response to the problem is discussed and dismissed. It says that philosophical disputes can be understood as disputes that are verbal but substantive nevertheless, what David Plunkett (2013, 2014, 2016) and others call “metalinguistic negotiations” (chapter 3). I attempt to maximize the magnitude of the arguments in “Verbal Disputes”, and offer a less diplomatic reading by which is a radical paper. I conclude that Plunkett’s theory in “Which Concepts Should we Use? Metalinguistic Negotiations and the Methodology of Philosophy” cannot provide a solution to the problems it poses. The thesis first and foremost renders the two authors’ statements, but aims to place the tension between them within a wider philosophical context. The author’s perspective that plays this part in this is made clear by such as “I think,” and “…it seems reasonable to suppose,” and contributions coming from me are otherwise confined to the more speculative, less analytical ends of each chapter, or opinionated conclusions. Typical analytical tools like the use/mention distinction and stipulative definitions are used, and when literature is surveyed and compared their terminology are merged, and textual references are given to primary sources. Footnotes contain helpful information, credit, and further reading. References are in the text and the literature list contains the full sources as well as works on which rely the provided interpretations. iii Acknowledgements The thought of being trapped within one’s own language, philosophizing privately in a system of ideas that makes sense only to oneself, isn’t it the worst? The esteemed fellow students and academic acquaintances that have helped me in this project have made sure that this dissertation is not a verbal dispute, and I am only the mediator between their many interesting perspectives, although they might not agree with the interpretations and arguments provided in this thesis. For reading and discussion, I am thankful to Conrad Bakka, Mark-Oliver Casper, Jørgen Dyrsdad, Patrick J. Winther-Larsen, Erlend Finke Owesen, and Hilde Vinje. And also to Derek Ball, Hannah Ginsborg, David Plunkett, Shamik Dasgupta, and Mons Andreas Nyquist for illuminating discussions, and special thanks for writing help to Herman Cappelen and Barry Stroud. Thanks also for funding from Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature (CSMN) and from Concept Lab at Instutitt for filosofi, ide-, og kunsthistorie og klassiske språk, Universitetet i Oslo. I became interested in this topic seeing a talk by Matti Eklund titled “Philosophy as Conceptual Engineering” at the Nordphil conference at the University of Oslo in 2015, and developed the interest as a result of a very engaging seminar the same year at the University of Uppsala, “Metaontology: Themes from Carnap and Quine.” L.F.F. iv Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................... iv Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ vi I. What is a verbal dispute? ....................................................................................................................................................... vi II. Is there a problem of verbal disputes in philosophy? ....................................................................................... viii III. Substantive verbal disputes ................................................................................................................................................. xi IV. “Philosophy as Conceptual Engineering” ...................................................................................................................xiv V. Thesis statement: If philosophy is verbal, it is verbal in the bad way ......................................................xvi VI. Disposition .................................................................................................................................................................................. xvii Chapter one—David Chalmers on verbal disputes 1.1. Verbal disputes defined ........................................................................................................................................................... 2 1.2. Substantivity and pointlessness ......................................................................................................................................... 9 1.3. Can there be broadly verbal disputes? ........................................................................................................................ 11 1.4. A heuristics oriented theory .............................................................................................................................................. 17 1.5. The method applied to philosophical disputes ...................................................................................................... 24 1.6. The subscript gambit.............................................................................................................................................................. 30 1.7. “Answers are answers” ......................................................................................................................................................... 34 1.8. Which disputes are verbal? ................................................................................................................................................ 37 1.9. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................................................... 43 Chapter two—Against the idea of theoretically conflicting conceptual analyses 2.1. Conceptual Analysis ............................................................................................................................................................ 47 2.2. Real Definition ......................................................................................................................................................................... 51 2.3. Questions of language and questions of reality ............................................................................................. 56 A summary of the argument .......................................................................................... 58 Externalism and natural kinds—Are questions about language questions about reality? ................................................................................................ 59 Linguistic evidence, contextualism, and transcendental arguments— Are questions about reality questions about language? .................................................. 61 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................
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