Description

The Grammar of Meaning Normativity and Semantic Discourse This study addresses a range of central topics in Anglo-American philosophy of language. Mark Norris Lance (Author), John O'Leary-Hawthorne (Author) 9780521583008, Cambridge University Press Hardback, published 11 December 1997 468 pages 22.4 x 14.5 x 3 cm, 0.65 kg Review of the hardback: 'The Grammar of Meaning contains a lot of interesting philosophy. It ingeniously defends the radical claim that meaning-ascriptions do not have worldly truth-makers, but are more like endorsements or recommendations. And there is much more, including a subtle investigation of normativity itself.' William G. Lycan, University of North Carolina What is the function of concepts pertaining to meaning in socio-linguistic 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 a 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. 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. Subject Areas: Social & political philosophy [ HPS ], Philosophy of language [ CFA ]