Insensitive Semantics
A Defense of Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism
Published on 8. May 2008
232 pages
978-0-470-75491-7 (ISBN)
Description
Insensitive Semantics is an overview of and contribution tothe debates about how to accommodate context sensitivity within atheory of human communication, investigating the effects of contexton communicative interaction and, as a corollary, what a context ofutterance is and what it is to be in one.
* * Provides detailed and wide-ranging overviews of the centralpositions and arguments surrounding contextualism
* * Addresses broad and varied aspects of the distinction betweenthe semantic and non-semantic content of language
* * Defends a distinctive and explanatorily powerful combination ofsemantic minimalism and speech act pluralism
* * Confronts core problems which not only run to the heart ofphilosophy of language and linguistics, but which arise inepistemology, metaphysics, and moral philosophy as well
Reviews / Votes
"This book is an ingenious defense of two positions notwidely thought to be compatible: truth-conditional semantics andsemantic minimalism. Cappelen and Lepore's highlycontroversial views are already, and will continue to be, at thecenter of inquiry into the nature of linguisticcommunication." Jason Stanley, University ofMichigan "Cappelen and Lepore have performed a singular service inbringing together the threads of the contextualist debate, and informulating a minimalist alternative to some current trends."James Higginbotham, University of Southern California "This is a pleasingly spare yet instructivelysophisticated account of how Davidsonians can accommodate themassive context sensitivity of language use. Good stuff."Paul Pietroski, University of Maryland "This is a book of considerable importance, which dealswith a topic currently at the center of research in the philosophyof language. As a result, Insensitive Semantics has been andwill continue to be widely discussed ...This book pushes thediscussion of context-sensitivity forward in new and usefuldirections. Read it and learn from it." Journal ofLinguisticsMore details
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01/2008
Wiley
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Herman Cappelen | Ernest LePore
Insensitive Semantics
A Defense of Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism
Book
11/2004
1st Edition
Wiley
€143.50
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Herman Cappelen | Ernest LePore
Insensitive Semantics
A Defense of Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism
Book
11/2004
1st Edition
Wiley
€54.00
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Persons
Herman Cappelen is Associate Professor of Philosophy atVassar College and the University of Oslo. He has publishedextensively in philosophy of language and mind, including articlesin Noûs, Mind, Mind & Language,Analysis, and Synthese.
Ernie Lepore is Professor of Philosophy at RutgersUniversity. He is author of Meaning and Argument (revisededition, Blackwell, 2003) and, with Jerry Fodor, of Holism(Blackwell, 1991). He is editor of Truth and Interpretation(Blackwell, 1989), and co-editor, with Zenon Pylyshyn, of Whatis Cognitive Science? (Blackwell, 1999), as well as generaleditor of the Blackwell series Philosophers and TheirCritics.
Content
Preface.
Acknowledgements.
1. Overview.
Part I: From Moderate to Radical Contextualism.
2. Exegesis: The Methodology of Contextualism.
3. The Instability of Context Shifting Arguments.
4. Diagnosis: Why Context Shifting Arguments are Misused.
5. The Instability of Incompleteness Arguments.
6. Digressions: Binding and Hidden Indexicals.
Part II: Refutation of Radical Contextualism.
7. Objections to Radical Contextualism (I): Fails ContextSensitivity Tests.
8. Objection to Radical Contextualism (II):Makes CommunicationImpossible.
9. Objections to Radical Contextualism (III): InternalInconsistencies.
Part III: Semantic Minimalism and Speech ActPluralism.
10. Semantic Minimalism.
11. Semantics and Metaphysics.
12. Semantics and Psychology.
13. Speech Act Pluralism.
References.
Index
