Reference Without Referents Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Reference Without Referents book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.
Author : Richard Mark Sainsbury Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand Page : 280 pages File Size : 47,6 Mb Release : 2005 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines ISBN : 9780199241804
Reference Without Referents by Richard Mark Sainsbury Pdf
Reference is a central topic in philosophy of language. This book sets out a new approach to the concept, which promises to bring to an end some long-standing debates in semantic theory. It also includes an historical survey. It will be of interest to those working in logic, mind, and metaphysics.
Reference without Referents by R. M. Sainsbury Pdf
Reference is a central topic in philosophy of language, and has been the main focus of discussion about how language relates to the world. R. M. Sainsbury sets out a new approach to the concept, which promises to bring to an end some long-standing debates in semantic theory. There is a single category of referring expressions, all of which deserve essentially the same kind of semantic treatment. Included in this category are both singular and plural referring expressions ('Aristotle', 'The Pleiades'), complex and non-complex referring expressions ('The President of the USA in 1970', 'Nixon'), and empty and non-empty referring expressions ('Vulcan', 'Neptune'). Referring expressions are to be described semantically by a reference condition, rather than by being associated with a referent. In arguing for these theses, Sainsbury's book promises to end the fruitless oscillation between Millian and descriptivist views. Millian views insist that every name has a referent, and find it hard to give a good account of names which appear not to have referents, or at least are not known to do so, like ones introduced through error ('Vulcan'), ones where it is disputed whether they have a bearer ('Patanjali') and ones used in fiction. Descriptivist theories require that each name be associated with some body of information. These theories fly in the face of the fact names are useful precisely because there is often no overlap of information among speakers and hearers. The alternative position for which the book argues is firmly non-descriptivist, though it also does not require a referent. A much broader view can be taken of which expressions are referring expressions: not just names and pronouns used demonstratively, but also some complex expressions and some anaphoric uses of pronouns. Sainsbury's approach brings reference into line with truth: no one would think that a semantic theory should associate a sentence with a truth value, but it is commonly held that a semantic theory should associate a sentence with a truth condition, a condition which an arbitrary state of the world would have to satisfy in order to make the sentence true. The right analogy is that a semantic theory should associate a referring expression with a reference condition, a condition which an arbitrary object would have to satisfy in order to be the expression's referent. Lucid and accessible, and written with a minimum of technicality, Sainsbury's book also includes a useful historical survey. It will be of interest to those working in logic, mind, and metaphysics as well as essential reading for philosophers of language.
Reference and Referent Accessibility by Thorstein Fretheim,Jeanette K. Gundel Pdf
The papers in this volume are concerned with the question of how a speaker’s intended referent is interpreted by the addressee. Topics include the interpretation of coreferential vs. disjoint reference, the role of intonation, syntactic form and animacy in reference understanding, and the way in which general principles of utterance interpretation constrain possible interpretations of referring expressions. The collection arises from a workshop on reference and referent accessibility which was held at the 4th International Pragmatics Conference in Kobe, Japan, July 25-30, 1993.
Author : R. M. Sainsbury Publisher : Unknown Page : 280 pages File Size : 48,6 Mb Release : 2005 Category : Language and languages ISBN : OCLC:475427400
Thinking about Things by Mark Sainsbury,Richard Mark Sainsbury Pdf
Mark Sainsbury presents an original account of how language works when describing mental states, based on a new theory of what is involved in attributing attitudes like thinking, hoping, and wanting. He offers solutions to longstanding puzzles about how we can direct our thought to such a diversity of things, including things that do not exist.
Reference and Identity in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Scriptures by Dean Edward Buckner Pdf
In Reference and Identity in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Scriptures: The Same God?, D. E. Buckner argues that all reference is story-relative. We cannot tell which historical individual a person is talking or writing about or addressing in prayer without familiarity with the narrative (oral or written) which introduces that individual to us, so we cannot understand reference to God, nor to his prophets, nor to any other character mentioned in the Jewish, Christian, or Muslim scriptures, without reference to those very scriptures. In this context we must understand God as the person who “walked in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen. 3:8), and who is continuously referred to in the books of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, as well as the Quran. Further developing ideas presented by the late Fred Sommers in his seminal The Logic of Natural Language, Buckner argues that singular reference and singular conception is empty outside such a context.
Our words and ideas refer to objects and properties in the external world; this phenomenon is central to thought, language, communication, and science. But great works of fiction are full of names that don't seem to refer to anything! In this book Kenneth A. Taylor explores the myriad of problems that surround the phenomenon of reference. How can words in language and perturbations in our brains come to stand for external objects? Reference is essential to truth, but which is more basic: reference or truth? How can fictional characters play such an important role in imagination and literature, and how does this use of language connect with more mundane uses? Taylor develops a framework for understanding reference, and the theories that other thinkers-past and present-have developed about it. But Taylor doesn't simply tell us what others thought; the book is full of new ideas and analyses, making for a vital final contribution from a seminal philosopher.
How is it that words come to stand for the things they stand for? Is the thing that a word stands for - its reference - fully identified or described by conventions known to the users of the word? Or is there a more roundabout relation between the reference of a word and the conventions that determine or fix it? Do words like 'water', 'three', and 'red' refer to appropriate things, just as the word 'Aristotle' refers to Aristotle? If so, which things are these, and how do they come to be referred to by those words? In Roads to Reference, Mario Gómez-Torrente provides novel answers to these and other questions that have been of traditional interest in the theory of reference. The book introduces a number of cases of apparent indeterminacy of reference for proper names, demonstratives, and natural kind terms, which suggest that reference-fixing conventions for them adopt the form of lists of merely sufficient conditions for reference and reference failure. He then provides arguments for a new anti-descriptivist picture of those kinds of words, according to which the reference-fixing conventions for them do not describe their reference. This book also defends realist and objectivist accounts of the reference of ordinary natural kind nouns, numerals, and adjectives for sensible qualities. According to these accounts these words refer, respectively, to 'ordinary kinds', cardinality properties, and properties of membership in intervals of sensible dimensions, and these things are fixed in subtle ways by associated reference-fixing conventions.
Author : Kate Scott Publisher : Cambridge University Press Page : 201 pages File Size : 47,5 Mb Release : 2019-11-07 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines ISBN : 9781107177574
Philosophy of Language: The Key Thinkers by Barry Lee Pdf
Playing a key role in our lives, as a vehicle for our thoughts and a powerful medium of communication, language is at the centre of philosophical investigation. The fifteen specially commissioned essays in this book introduce and explore the ideas of major philosophers who have shaped philosophical thinking about language, providing insights into crucial developments in this fascinating field over the last 140 years. Chapters examine the work of Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Austin, Quine, Chomsky, Grice, Davidson, Dummett, Kripke and Derrida. This second edition broadens coverage of the area with new chapters on Susan Stebbing and on recent developments in feminist philosophy of language. Featuring contributions from Arif Ahmed, Kent Bach, Thomas Baldwin, Michael Beaney, Siobhan Chapman, Kirk Ludwig and other leading experts in the field, Philosophy of Language: The Key Thinkers provides a thorough introduction to the puzzles, debates and ideas that animate contemporary philosophy of language. It is an ideal resource for undergraduate students in philosophy, linguistics and related disciplines.
Author : Jacques Havet Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG Page : 684 pages File Size : 49,8 Mb Release : 2019-06-04 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines ISBN : 9783111616582
Reference and Representation in Thought and Language by María Ponte,María de Ponte,Kepa Korta Pdf
This volume offers novel views on the precise relation between reference to an object by means of a linguistic expression and our mental representation of that object, long a source of debate in the philosophy of language, linguistics, and cognitive science. Chapters in this volume deal with our devices for singular reference and singular representation, with most focusing on linguistic expressions that are used to refer to particular objects, persons, or places. These expressions include proper names such as Mary and John; indexicals such as I and tomorrow; demonstrative pronouns such as this and that; and some definite and indefinite descriptions such as The Queen of England or a medical doctor. Other chapters examine the ways we represent objects in thought, particularly the first-person perspective and the self, and one explores a notion common to reference and representation: salience. The volume includes the latest views on these complex topics from some of the most prominent authors in the field and will be of interest to anyone working on issues of reference and representation in thought and language.
Towards a Realist Philosophy of History by Adam Timmins Pdf
Towards a Realist Philosophy of History argues for the radical—at least in contemporary historical theory—view that historians are by and large successful in their goal of providing accurate knowledge and understanding about the historical past. Adam Timmins provides a philosophical framework that supports this endeavor, as well as highlighting some of the issues with the "strong constructivist" accounts common in contemporary historical theory. Among other things, the book provides a realist construal of colligatory concepts, historiographical reference, and the use of narrative, as well as examining the mechanisms of historiographical progress. The work also provides some much-needed criticism of aspects of the strong constructivist position, such as the contemporary adoption of “irrealism” and the idealist implications of this, that has have yet failed to make their way into the existing literature. The book proves that historical theory has not “moved on” from the realism-idealism debate and that realism with regards to the products of historiography is still very much a live option.
There are in this volume sentences written as long ago/ as 1957. What was then projected as the third part of a modest discussion of then current issues has, through some fifteen revisions, now expanded into its own three parts. Of the project as originally conceived, the first part, itself grown too large, was published (prematurely, I now believe) in 1965 (Stratification of Behaviour). The second part, which was to be on language proper, was abandoned around 1967; such materials on language as I need for the present work are now mostly compressed into Chapter 1, with some scatterings retained in Chapters 2 and 14. My scheme discovered problems with which I have been much preoccupied. I have been less enjoyably delayed by missteps. Additions were put on and the renovations have been incessant. Even in the course of my ultimate revisions, I ran into slippery stretches and soft spots I could only gesture at repairing. But now time is running out and my energy is ebbing, and I must allow the work to come to its conclusion, with reservations certainly and not without a sense of despair. If the reception of this volume warrants, the two following parts will be wound up in what I hope may be fairly short order.
