Table of Contents
Contents
List of figures and tables
Preface
Introduction
1 eight preparatory notes
2 cognitive meaning and expressive meaning
3 meaning and force
4 context-dependence
5 the roles of propositions
6 compositionality, structure and understanding
note
1 Naïve semantics and the language of logic
1 naïve theory: singular terms, predicates and reference
2 truth and meaning for atomic sentences
3 logical syntax and logical operators
historical notes
chapter summary
study questions
primary reading
notes
2 Fregean semantics
1 two problems for naïve semantics
2 the sense-reference distinction
3 the distinction extended
4 compositionality again; the reference of a sentence
5 applying the theory
6 substitutivity and extensionality
7 the analysis of propositional attitudes
8 the objectivity of sense
9 predicate reference and the concept horse problem
10 further discussion: the context principle
historical notes
chapter summary
study questions
primary reading
secondary reading
notes
3 Russellian semantics
1 the task for russell
2 the theory of definite descriptions
3 Applying the theory of descriptions
4 names as disguised definite descriptions
5 knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description
historical notes
chapter summary
study questions
primary reading
secondary reading
notes
4 Russell’s Theory of Judgement, The Early Wittgenstein, and Logical Positivism
- propositions, facts, and russell’s theory of judgement
- The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
- verificationism i: ayer
- verificationism ii: carnap’s logical empiricism
- the vienna circle and the protocol debate
historical notes
chapter summary
study questions
primary reading
secondary reading
notes
5 Kripke on naming and necessity
1 necessity, possibility and possible worlds: a primer
2 the descriptivist paradigm
3 kripke’s objections to the description theory of proper names
4 rigid designation
5 fixing the reference i: causal chains
6 fixing the reference ii: descriptions
7 lingering issues from russell and frege
8 further discussion: intensional semantics
historical notes
chapter summary
study questions
primary reading
notes
6 Context dependence, indexicality and natural kinds
1 indexicals and demonstratives
2 putnam on natural kind terms and essence
3 is meaning in the head?
4 the actual world as a context
5 two-dimensionalism: context of utterance versus circumstance of evaluation
6 further discussion: rigid designation again
7 the indispensability of indexicals
8 indexicals and fregean sense
historical notes
chapter summary
study questions
primary reading
note
7 Pragmatics
1 mood and force revisited
2 speech act theory
3 implicature
4 some applications of the concept of implicature
5 presupposition; strawson’s and donnellan’s objections to russell’s theory of descriptions
6 metaphor
historical notes
chapter summary
study questions
primary reading
secondary reading
note
8 The propositional attitudes
1 extensionality revisited
2 referential opacity and frege on the attitudes
3 further discussion: multiple hyper-intensional embedding
4 de re and de dicto necessity
5 de re and de dicto belief
6 ralph’s predicament
7 belief attributions and explicit indexicals; belief de se
8 an implicit indexical element
9 direct reference, the attitudes, and the semantic de re
historical notes
chapter summary
study questions
primary reading
notes
9 Davidson’s philosophy of language
1 methodology
2 the general form of a theory of meaning
3 the exact form of a theory of meaning
4 the empirical confirmation of a theory of meaning: radical interpretation
5 the principle of charity and the interdependence of belief and meaning
historical notes
chapter summary
study questions
primary reading
secondary reading
notes
10 Quine’s philosophy of language
1 quine’s naturalism
2 the jungle linguist
3 indeterminacy
4 meaning and analytic truth
5 the argument of ‘two dogmas of empiricism’
6 quine proposes replacement, not analysis
7 the place of naturalism
historical notes
chapter summary
study questions
primary reading
secondary reading
11 The Late Wittgenstein
1 language games
2 family resemblance, tools and cities
3 to follow a rule i
4 to follow a rule ii
5 private language
historical notes
chapter summary
study questions
primary reading
secondary reading
12 Modern directions
- assertion
- context-relativity
- fictional objects
- inferentialism
- slurs
chapter summary
study questions
primary reading
secondary reading
Glossary
Bibliography
Index