Situating Semantics

by O'Rourke, Michael; Washington, Corey

• ISBN13: 9780262651110
• ISBN10: 0262651114
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-30
• Publisher: Bradford Books

Summary

John Perry, Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University, is one of a handful of contemporary analytic philosophers to combine the focused approach of most current work in analytic philosophy with the more expansive systems-building of earlier analytic philosophers and contemporary philosophers in other disciplines. Perry, like W. V. O. Quine, Donald Davison, David Lewis, and Hilary Putnam, focuses on narrow topics across a broad range of subjects. In this volume, leading contemporary analytic philosophers contribute original essays in each of the areas that have been most influenced by Perry's work--metaphysics, language, and mind. Perry himself contributes detailed and original replies. After a comprehensive introduction to Perry's work by the editors that places semantics at the heart of Perry's philosophical strategy, the essays discuss Perry's contributions to the metaphysics of identity, the philosophy of language--in particular, contributions related to reference and unarticulated constituents--and the philosophy of mind. The essays and replies provide new perspectives on Perry's philosophical contributions over the last four decades, and yield insights into contemporary debates on these topics. Contributors: Robert Audi, Kent Bach, Patricia Blanchette, Herman Cappelen, Eros Corazza, Ernie Lepore, Brian Loar, Peter Ludlow, Genoveva Marti, Michael McKinsey, Stephen Neale, Michael O'Rourke, John Perry, François Recanati, Cara Spencer, Kenneth A. Taylor, and Corey Washington

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Situating Semantics	p. 1
An Overview of the Philosophy of John Perry
Prospects for a Naturalization of Practical Reason	p. 41
Instrumentalism and the Normative Authority of Desire
Mathematical Objects and Identity	p. 73
Substitution, Identity, and the Subject-Predicate Structure	p. 93
Relativized Propositions	p. 119
Understanding Temporal Indexicals	p. 155
Is There a Problem of the Essential Indexical?	p. 179
The Myth of Unarticulated Constituents	p. 199
Misplaced Modification and the Illusion of Opacity	p. 215
On Location	p. 251
Reflections on Reference and Reflexivity	p. 395
Thinking the Unthinkable	p. 427
An Excursion into Z-Land
Thinking about Qualia	p. 451
A Refutation of Qualia-Physicalism	p. 469
Situating Semantics	p. 507
A Response
Bibliography of John Perry's Publications	p. 577
Index	p. 587
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