Modern Philosophy of Language

440 Pages·1999·27.918 MB·

by  Maria Baghramian

Pp itED BY MARTA BACHRY MEAN
aeee ,
At the beginning of the twentieth century
philosophy took al inguistic turn. Traditional
metaphysical and epistemological
speculations on the nature of reality and
existence were replaced by questions about
the relationship between language, mind and
world. Language came to be seen both as a
source of puzzlement and a repository of yet
untapped knowledge. Philosophers started to
examine the interconnections between
language and thought by focusing on the
conditions of meaningfulness and the role of
language in shaping and communicating our
thoughts. The linguistic revolution also left a
wider legacy of philosophical style and
approach which is characterised by a method
of rigorous argumentation and a
preoccupation with language as both a
vehicle for expressing our thought and
representing the world.
Modern Philosophy of Language is an
anthology of seminal writings in modern
philosophy of language which traces major
developments and trends in one hundred
years of analytic philosophy of language. It
begins with selections from the writings of
Frege, Russell, and the Logical Positivists
that heralded the inception of modern
philosophy of language and set the agenda
for the discussion of issues of meaning and
reference for much of the twentieth century.
It traces the history of the subject through
selections of works by ‘ordinary language
philosophers’. It then brings the story of
modern philosophy of language up to date
by including landmark writings by
contemporary British and American
philosophers, including Noam Chomsky,
W. V. O. Quine, Donald Davidson, Hilary
Putnam and Michael Dummett.
£25.00 in UK only

MODERN PHILOSOPHY
OF LANGUAGE

MODERN
PHILOSOPHY
OF LANGUAGE
Edited by
MARIA BAGHRAMIAN
University College Dublin
J. M. Dent London
Consultant editor for this volume:
David Berman, Trinity College, Dublin
First published in Great Britain in 1998
by J. M. Dent
Introduction, chronology and selections
© J. M. Dent 1998
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in ar etrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
permission of both the copyright owner and the
above publisher of this book.
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN O 460 87866 2
Typeset by Selwood Systems, Midsomer Norton
Printed in Great Britain by
Butler & Tanner Ltd
Frome and London
J. M. Dent
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane
London, wc2H 9EA
CONTENTS
Note on the Editor vii
Note on the Texts viii
Chronology of Modern Philosophy of Language x
Introduction xxix
MODERN PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
I. GOTTLOB FREGE 3
‘On Sense and Reference’
2. BERTRAND RUSSELL 26
from ‘Descriptions and Incomplete Symbols’
3. ALFRED TARSKI 41
‘The Semantic Conception of Truth
and the Foundations of Semantics’
4. RUDOLF CARNAP 64
‘Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology’
5. LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN 86
Philosophical Investigations (§1-44)
6.J. L. AUSTIN 107
‘Performatives and Constatives’/
‘Conditions for Happy Performatives’
7.H.P. GRICE 124
‘Meaning’
Vi CONTENTS
8.W.V.O. QUINE 137
‘Two Dogmas of Empiricism’
9. DONALD DAVIDSON 162
‘Belief and the Basis of Meaning’
IO. KEITH DONNELLAN 178
‘Reference and Definite Descriptions’
II. SAUL KRIPKE 201
Naming and Necessity (from Lecture I)
I2. HILARY PUTNAM 222
from ‘The Meaning of “Meaning”’
13. GARETH EVANS 245
from ‘Proper Names’
I4. RUTH BARCAN MARCUS 265
‘Some Revisionary Proposals about Belief and Believing’
I5. NOAM CHOMSKY 290
‘Form and Meaning in Natural Languages’
16. MICHAEL DUMMETT 309
‘What do I Know when I Know a Language?’
17. TYLER BURGE 325
“Wherein is Language Social?’
18. RUTH GARRETT MILLIKAN 348
‘Epilogue’
Glossary of Terms 360
Acknowledgements 369
Index 371