Ways of Meaning: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Language

Abstract

Part 1 The elements of meaning: truth - conditions, predicates and definitions - theories of truth, Ramsey's theory of truth, simple truth-definitions, predicates and satisfaction, sequences as satisfiers, the workings of satisfaction, realism and correspondence, truth-bearers, some refinements theories of truth and theories of meaning - novelty and boundlessness in language use, some possible constraints on theories of meaning - holism and monism, the elimination of ... means that ..., meaning and truth-conditions, the role of the theory of meaning, a definition of sentence-meaning shades of meaning - traditional analysis, refining traditional analysis - conversational implicatures, the role of intentions in the theory of language use. Part 2 Some structures of meaning: the logical form of quantified sentences - standard truth-theories for the universal and existential quantifiers, the problem of non-standard quantifiers, the beginnings of a solution, logical form and inference reported speech - the problems of intentionality - reported speech - the problems, Quine's proposal, the Fregean proposal, Davidson's proposal, the varieties of reported speech names and objects - the object theory of proper names - objections, the object theory - some responses, names as austere predicates, names as ambiguous predicates adjectival constructions - the predicative-attributive distinction, implicit and explicit attributes - semantical attachment, why attributives are not one-place predicates, positive, comparative, superlative, Wheeler's proposal, some other possibilities actions and causes - events - understanding action-sentences - Davidson's proposal, understanding action-sentences - some problems, some logical form of singular causal sentences, singular causal statements - logical form and epistemology, some epistemological worries. Part 3 Language and reality: understanding and reality - understanding and paradox, vagueness and rules, rules and observationality, understanding and knowledge, language, reality and verification moral reality - the nature of ethical realism, relativism and reason, morality and action talk of a kind - words and kinds, explanatory kinds, the orders of things, knowing subjects and known objects, natural-kind words - Putnam's proposal, kind words and understanding, a moralizing postscript.