The Semantics Controversy at the 1935 Paris Congress

Abstract

‪The debates on semantics and its philosophical significance that took place at the 1935 Paris Congress for Scientific Philosophy are of particular historical interest for two reasons. Firstly, they are generally recognized as one of the major events to have taken place at the Congress. Secondly, and more substantially, they were to play a decisive role in the future of semantics as a field of philosophy. The discussions were initiated by Carnap, who invited Tarski to deliver two lectures in Paris. The two of them, along with Kokoszynska, were to act as the principal champions of semantics. Neurath, who wrote the summary of the discussion, raised several objections against Tarskian semantics. In particular, he feared that semantics would introduce metaphysics (in the Vienna Circle’s sense) into philosophy. As subsequent developments would prove, it would be the defenders of semantics who would win the argument. ‪