Philosophical essays. Volume 2, The philosophical significance of language / Scott Soames.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Soames, Scott.

Series:

Philosophical Essays ; Volume 2

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language and languages--Philosophy.

Language and languages.

Linguistics.

Semantics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (474 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The two volumes of Philosophical Essays bring together the most important essays written by one of the world's foremost philosophers of language. Scott Soames has selected thirty-one essays spanning nearly three decades of thinking about linguistic meaning and the philosophical significance of language. A judicious collection of old and new, these volumes include sixteen essays published in the 1980's and 1990's, nine published since 2000, and six new essays. The essays in Volume 1 investigate what linguistic meaning is; how the meaning of a sentence is related to the use we make of it; what we should expect from empirical theories of the meaning of the languages we speak; and how a sound theoretical grasp of the intricate relationship between meaning and use can improve the interpretation of legal texts. The essays in Volume 2 illustrate the significance of linguistic concerns for a broad range of philosophical topics--including the relationship between language and thought; the objects of belief, assertion, and other propositional attitudes; the distinction between metaphysical and epistemic possibility; the nature of necessity, actuality, and possible worlds; the necessary a posteriori and the contingent a priori; truth, vagueness, and partial definition; and skepticism about meaning and mind. The two volumes of Philosophical Essays are essential for anyone working on the philosophy of language.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

The Origins of These Essays

Introduction

PART ONE. Reference, Propositions, and Propositional Attitudes

ESSAY ONE. Direct Reference, Propositional Attitudes, and Semantic Content

ESSAY TWO. Why Propositions Can't Be Sets of Truth-Supporting Circumstances

ESSAY THREE. Belief and Mental Representation

ESSAY FOUR. Attitudes and Anaphora

PART TWO. Modality

ESSAY FIVE. The Modal Argument: Wide Scope and Rigidified Descriptions

ESSAY SIX. The Philosophical Significance of the Kripkean Necessary A Posteriori

ESSAY SEVEN. Knowledge of Manifest Natural Kinds

ESSAY EIGHT. Understanding Assertion

ESSAY NINE. Ambitious Two-Dimensionalism

ESSAY TEN. Actually

PART THREE. Truth and Vagueness

ESSAY ELEVEN. What Is a Theory of Truth?

ESSAY TWELVE. Understanding Deflationism

ESSAY THIRTEEN. Higher-Order Vagueness for Partially Defined Predicates

ESSAY FOURTEEN. The Possibility of Partial Definition

PART FOUR. Kripke, Wittgenstein, and Following a Rule

ESSAY FIFTEEN. Skepticism about Meaning: Indeterminacy, Normativity, and the Rule-Following Paradox

ESSAY SIXTEEN. Facts, Truth Conditions, and the Skeptical Solution to the Rule-Following Paradox

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612531446

9781400833184

1400833183

9781282531444

1282531441

9780691136820

0691136823

OCLC:

814522316