Insensitive semantics : a defense of semantic minimalism and speech act pluralism / Herman Cappelen and Ernie Lepore.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cappelen, Herman.

Contributor:

LePore, Ernest, 1950-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Semantics.

Semantics (Philosophy).

Context (Linguistics).

Minimalist theory (Linguistics).

Speech acts (Linguistics).

Physical Description:

xii, 219 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2005.

Summary:

Since the end of the nineteenth century, philosophy of language has been plagued by an extensive and notoriously confusing literature on how to draw the distinction between semantic and non-semantic content. This debate, at its deepest level, is about how to accommodate context sensitivity within a theory of human communication.

Insensitive Semantics is a book about this debate, investigating the effects of context on communicative interaction and, as a corollary, what a context of utterance is and what it is to be in one. To this end, the authors defend a combination of two views: semantic minimalism and speech act pluralism. If these views are right, then many philosophers and linguists are guilty of some profound mistakes, with wide-ranging implications for not only philosophy of language but also epistemology, metaphysics, moral philosophy, and other branches of philosophy.

Contents:

Part I From Moderate to Radical Contextualism

2 Exegesis: The Methodology of Contextualism 17

3 The Instability of Context Shifting Arguments 39

4 Diagnosis: Why Context Shifting Arguments are Misused 53

5 The Instability of Incompleteness Arguments 59

6 Digressions: Binding and Hidden Indexicals 69

Part II Refutation of Radical Contextualism

7 Objections to Radical Contextualism (I): Fails Context Sensitivity Tests 87

8 Objections to Radical Contextualism (II): Makes Communication Impossible 123

9 Objections to Radical Contextualism (III): Internal Inconsistency 128

Part III Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism

10 Semantic Minimalism 143

11 Semantics and Metaphysics 155

12 Semantics and Psychology 176

13 Speech Act Pluralism 190.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-214) and index.

ISBN:

1405126744

1405126752

OCLC:

55887417