Language and scientific explanation : Where does semantics fit in? / Eran Asoulin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Asoulin, Eran, author.

Series:

Conceptual Foundations of Language Science

Language:

English

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (96 p.)

Place of Publication:

Language Science Press 2020

[s.l.] : Language Science Press, 2020.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book discusses the two main construals of the explanatory goals of semantic theories. The first, externalist conception, understands semantic theories in terms of a hermeneutic and interpretive explanatory project. The second, internalist conception, understands semantic theories in terms of the psychological mechanisms in virtue of which meanings are generated. It is argued that a fruitful scientific explanation is one that aims to uncover the underlying mechanisms in virtue of which the observable phenomena are made possible, and that a scientific semantics should be doing just that. If this is the case, then a scientific semantics is unlikely to be externalist, for reasons having to do with the subject matter and form of externalist theories. It is argued that semantics construed hermeneutically is nevertheless a valuable explanatory project.

Notes:

CC BY

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9783961102631

3961102635

Publisher Number:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3894134