A Companion to the Philosophy of Language

by Hale, Bob; Wright, Crispin; Miller, Alexander

• ISBN13: 9780631213260
• ISBN10: 0631213260
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-06-04
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Written by an international assembly of leading philosophers, this volume provides a survey of contemporary philosophy of language. As well as providing a synoptic view of the key issues, figures, concepts and debates, each essay makes new and original contributions to ongoing debate. Topics covered include: rule following, modality, realism, indeterminacy of translation, inscrutability of reference, names and rigid destination, Davidson's programme, meaning and verification, intention and convention, radical interpretation, tacit knowledge, metaphor, causal theories of semantics, objects and criteria of identity, theories of truth, force and pragmatics, essentialism, demonstratives, reference and necessity, identity, meaning and privacy of language, vagueness and the sorites paradox, holisms, propositional attitudes, analyticity.

Author Biography

Bob Hale is Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. His philosophical interests lie mainly in the philosophy of mathematics and the philosophy of logic and language, and he has written numerous articles in all of these areas. He is also author of Abstract Objects (Blackwell Publishers, 1997).

Crispin Wright is Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at the University of St Andrews. He has published widely in the philosophy of mathematics, logic and language including Frege's Conception of Numbers as Objects (1983), Truth and Objectivity (1992), and Realism, Meaning, and Truth, Second Edition (Blackwell Publishers, 1993).

Table of Contents

Preface	viii
Notes on Contributors	x
PART I MEANING AND THEORIES OF MEANING
Meaning and truth conditions: from Frege's grand design to Davidson's	3	(26)
David Wiggins
Meaning, use, verification	29	(31)
John Skorupski
Intention and convention	60	(27)
Anita Avramides
Pragmatics	87	(21)
Charles Travis
A guide to naturalizing semantics	108	(19)
Barry Loewer
Meaning and privacy	127	(19)
Edward Craig
Tacit knowledge	146	(29)
Alexander Miller
Radical interpretation	175	(22)
Jane Heal
Propositional attitudes	197	(30)
Mark Richard
Holism	227	(21)
Christopher Peacocke
Metaphor	248	(23)
Richard Moran
PART II LANGUAGE, TRUTH AND REALITY
Realism and its oppositions	271	(38)
Bob Hale
Theories of truth	309	(22)
Ralph C. S. Walker
Analyticity	331	(38)
Paul Artin Boghossian
Rule-following, objectivity and meaning	369	(28)
Bob Hale
The indeterminacy of translation	397	(30)
Crispin Wright
Putnam's model-theoretic argument against metaphysical realism	427	(31)
Bob Hale
Crispin Wright
Sorites	458	(29)
R. M. Sainsbury
Timothy Williamson
PART III REFERENCE, IDENTITY AND NECESSITY
Modality	487	(28)
Bob Hale
Essentialism	515	(19)
Graeme Forbes
Reference and Necessity	534	(21)
Robert Stalnaker
Names and rigid designation	555	(31)
Jason Stanley
Indexicals and demonstratives	586	(27)
John Perry
Objects and criteria of identity	613	(21)
E. J. Lowe
Relative identity	634	(19)
Harold Noonan
Glossary	653	(38)
Index	691