Synopses & Reviews
What is the function of concepts pertaining to meaning in sociolinguistic practice? In this study, the authors argue that we can approach a satisfactory answer by displacing the standard picture of meaning talk as a sort of description with picture that takes seriously the similarity between meaning talk and various types of normative injunction. In their discussion of this approach, they investigate the more general question of the nature of the normative, as well as a range of important topics specific to the philosophy of language, including the work of Quine, Sellars and Wittgenstein.
Synopsis
This study addresses a range of central topics in Anglo-American philosophy of language.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. The ends and means of translation: critical reflections on Quine's indeterminacy of translation thesis; 2. Synonymy, analyticity and a priori authority; 3. Where do we go from here? A pragmatist account of normative judgement; 4. The epistemology of meaning and the analysis of meaning; 5. Robust meaning theories and canonical dispositionalism; 6. Reduction and naturalism; 7. Realism and factuality.