Philosophy of language Books

Book SynopsisLanguage, Cognition, and Human Nature collects together for the first time much of Steven Pinker''s most influential scholarly work on language and cognition. Pinker''s seminal research explores the workings of language and its connections to cognition, perception, social relationships, child development, human evolution, and theories of human nature. This eclectic collection spans Pinker''s thirty-year career, exploring his favorite themes in greater depth and scientific detail. It includes thirteen of Pinker''s classic articles, ranging over topics such as language development in children, mental imagery, the recognition of shapes, the computational architecture of the mind, the meaning and uses of verbs, the evolution of language and cognition, the nature-nurture debate, and the logic of innuendo and euphemism. Each outlines a major theory or takes up an argument with another prominent scholar, such as Stephen Jay Gould, Noam Chomsky, or Richard Dawkins. Featuring a new introduction by Pinker that discusses his books and scholarly work, this collection reflects essential contributions to cognitive science by one of our leading thinkers and public intellectuals.Trade ReviewPinker is a star, and the world of science is lucky to have him." * Richard Dawkins, The Times Literary Supplement, 2002 *Steven Pinker is among the best synthesizers in the cognitive sciences. He is unique in the breadth of his interests and the depth of his knowledge. To top it off, his elegant and witty writings speak equally to specialists and to literate individuals everywhere." * Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard University *Pinker is an intellectual giant in the field, one of the most important psychologists and thinkers in our day. This compilation is outstanding, a fitting crown on his career so far, although I suspect he has much more to contribute. Even though I'd read a handful of these papers before, there were some that I was unaware of that are gems. Even those I'd read before, I re-read, and got even more on the second reading." * David Buss, author of Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind *With wit and acumen, Pinker introduces us to some of his most important scientific contributions. These glimpses into the development of these foundational articles and of course the articles themselves will be of great interest to academics and to his many fans beyond the walls of academia." * David C. Geary, author of Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Difference *Pinker is a rarity among academic psychologists not only as a stylish writer, but also as a profound thinker with an ability to grasp the major issues of human nature and human evolution. Language, Cognition, and Human Nature: Selected Articles is as good an introduction as any into the range and depth of his thinking and will have general appeal beyond an academic readership." -Michael Corballis, PsycCRITIQUESTable of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Formal models of language learning ; 2. A computational theory of the mental imagery medium ; 3. Rules and connections in human language ; 4. When does human object recognition use a viewer-centered reference frame? ; 5. Natural language and natural selection ; 6. The acquisition of argument structure ; 7. The nature of human concepts: evidence from an unusual source ; 8. Why nature and nurture won't go away ; 9. The faculty of language: What's special about it? ; 10. So how does the mind work? ; 11. Deep commonalities between life and mind ; 12. Rationales for indirect speech: The theory of the strategic speaker ; 13. The cognitive niche: Coevolution of intelligence, sociality, and language ; Author Biography

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Book SynopsisWhen Toni Morrison declares that she can''t wait for the ultimate liberation theory to imagine its practice and do its work, she raises an issue at the heart of modern political thought: How should we understand freedom? And what does freedom mean in the shadow of racial slavery and colonialism? In this study of Toni Morrison''s writing, Lawrie Balfour explores Morrison''s reflections on the idea of freedom in her novels and nonfiction. While Morrison''s literary achievements are widely celebrated, her political thought has yet to receive the same attention. Balfour shows how Morrison''s writing illuminates the meanings of freedom and unfreedom in a democratic society founded on both the defense of liberty and the right to enslavement. Morrison''s fiction and meditations on the power of language challenge wishful notions of color-blindness and complaints that it is time to move beyond thinking and talking about race. Her attentiveness to the experiences of people no one inquired of--esTrade ReviewToni Morrison is yet another brilliant contribution to Balfour's body of work examining the political thought of black intellectuals, DuBois, and Baldwin. It makes a tremendous contribution to Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Black Studies, and American Intellectual History. Morrison scholars will find it especially important as well. * Farah Jasmine Griffin, Columbia University *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Freedom and Word-Work 1.

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Book SynopsisWords in Action explores the many ways in which language permeates our social world. Ishani Maitra and Mary Kate McGowan explain how tools from the philosophy of language can help illuminate how language works socially, and how we can challenge the injustices wrought by language use. Their accessible introduction to this growing subfield is suitable for both students and scholars.

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Book SynopsisThe influence of J. L. Austin on contemporary philosophy was substantial during his lifetime, and has grown greatly since his death, at the height of his powers, in 1960. Philosophical Papers, first published in 1961, was the first of three volumes of Austin''s work to be edited by J. O. Urmson and G. J. Warnock. Together with Sense and Sensibilia and How to do things with Words (both first published in 1962 and both still available), it has extended Austin''s influence far beyond the circle who knew him or read the handful of papers he published in journals.Table of ContentsAgathon and Eudaimonia in Ethics of Aristotle; Are there A Priori concepts?; The meaning of a word; Other minds; Truth; How to talk - some simple ways; Unfair to facts; A plea for excuses; Ifs and cans; Performative utterances; Pretending; Three ways of spilling ink; The line and the cave in Plato's Republic; Index

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Book SynopsisThe idea that truth might be relative has recently been taken seriously again in philosophy, after years of ill repute. Crispin Wright has been a leading critic of the new relativism: this volume charts the development of his thinking on the topic over two decades.Table of Contents1: On Being in a Quandary: Relativism, Vagueness, Logical Revisionism (2001) 2: Intuitionism, Realism, Relativism and Rhubarb (2006) 3: New Age Relativism and Epistemic Possibility: The Question of Evidence (2007) 4: Relativism about Truth itself: Haphazard thoughts about the Very Idea (2008) 5: Fear of Relativism (2008) 6: Trumping Assessments and the Aristotelian future (2009) (Co-authored with Sebastiano Moruzzi) 7: Assessment-Sensitivity: The Manifestation Challenge (2016) 8: Talking with Vultures (2017) (Co-authored with Filippo Ferrari) 9: The Variability of 'knows': An Opinionated Overview (2017) 10: Alethic Pluralism, Deflationism, and Faultless Disagreement (2021)

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Book SynopsisDavid Lewis (1941-2001) was a celebrated and influential figure in analytic philosophy. When Lewis died, he left behind a large body of unpublished notes, manuscripts, and letters. This volume contains two longer manuscripts which Lewis had originally intended to turn into books, and thirty-one shorter items. The longer manuscripts are ''The Paradoxes of Time Travel'', his David Gavin Young Lectures at the University of Adelaide, and ''Confirmation Theory'', which is based on a graduate course on probability and logic that he gave at UCLA. Lewis''s described his purposes in ''The Paradoxes of Time Travel'' as being, `(1) to solve a philosophical problem hitherto largely ignored or casually mis-solved by philosophers []; (2) to introduce the layman to various topics in metaphysics, since our problem turns out to connect with many more familiar ones; and (3) to show of several of my favorite doctrines and methods in metaphysics''. By contrast, ''Confirmation Theory'' is a technical work Table of ContentsFrederique Janssen-Lauret and Fraser MacBride: Editors' Introduction Frederique Janssen-Lauret and Fraser MacBride : An Intellectual Biography Of The Young David Lewis Part I: Longer Manuscripts The Paradoxes of Time Travel: The Gavin David Young Lectures at the University of Adelaide (1971) 1: Time Travel without Hyperkinesis 2: Mapping Exercise 3: Personal Identity and Personal Time 4: Reversed Causation 5: Changing the Past: Failure 6: Changing the Past: Success References Confirmation Theory (1969) 0: Intensional Semantics 1: Probability Measures 2: Rational Belief: Statistics 3: Rational Belief: Kinematics 4: Scientific Method 5: Principles of Indierence 6: Carnap's lm-system: One Family 7: Carnap's lm-system: Many Families 8: Hintikka's lm-pa-system Confirmation Theory Bibliography Part II: Short Posthumously Published Papers (1965-2001) 1: Particular and General Causal Claims (c. 1965-66) 2: On the Nature of Certain Nonidentities: A Reply to Montague (1968) 3: Reply to Sommers (1969) 4: Contagion without Rigidity (1971) 5: Counterfactual Probability (1971) 6: Reply to Davidson (1972) 7: Insatiable Quantifiers (1972) 8: Counterfactual and Objective Probability (1973) 9: Counterpart Theory Mk. II (1974) 10: To the Thursday Logic Seminar (1976) 11: Reply to Pollock (1979) 12: Supervenience of Chances (1979) 13: Reply to Adams (1979) 14: From Phenomenal to Epiphenomenal (1981) 15: The Monty Hall Problem (c. 1982) 16: Richter's Problem (1983) 17: Russian Roulette (1984) 18: Mass and Value (1985) 19: De Se Detectivism (1986) 20: A Fifth Solution to the Problem of Temporary Intrinsics (c. 1987) 21: Acceptance Speech for the Behrman Award (1991) 22: Reply to Cresswell (1991) 23: Exclusion (1991) 24: Modal Demifictionalism (1994) 25: Merlin and Morgana (1999) 26: Reply to Martin's reply (1999) 27: Nihil Obstat: An Analysis of Ability (2001) 28: Divine Evil (2001) 29: Double Explanation by Double Having (2001) 30: Jack Is Unprovable (2001) 31: You Can't Win (2001)

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Book SynopsisMark Richard presents an original picture of meaning according to which a word''s meaning is analogous to the biological lineages we call species. His primary thesis is that a word''s meaning - in the sense of what one needs to track in order to be a competent speaker - is the collection of assumptions its users make in using it and expect their hearers to recognize as being made. Meaning is something that is spread across a population, inherited by each new generation of speakers from the last, and typically evolving in so far as what constitutes a meaning changes in virtue of the interactions of speakers with their (linguistic and social) environment. Meanings as Species develops and defends the analogy between the biological and the linguistic, and includes a discussion of the senses in which the processes of meaning change are and are not like evolution via natural selection. Richard argues that thinking of meanings as species supports Quine''s insights about analyticity without reTable of ContentsIntroduction 1: Quine and the Species Problem 2: Internalism to the Rescue? 3: What Are Meanings, that We Might Share Them? 4: Conceptual Evolution 5: Meaning, Thought, and its Ascription 6: Sex and Conversation Coda Bibliography

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Book SynopsisPeter Adamson presents a lively introduction to six hundred years of European philosophy, from the beginning of the ninth century to the end of the fourteenth century. The medieval period is one of the richest in the history of philosophy, yet one of the least widely known. Adamson introduces us to some of the greatest thinkers of the Western intellectual tradition, including Peter Abelard, Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, and Roger Bacon. And the medieval period was notable for the emergence of great women thinkers, including Hildegard of Bingen, Marguerite Porete, and Julian of Norwich. Original ideas and arguments were developed in every branch of philosophy during this period - not just philosophy of religion and theology, but metaphysics, philosophy of logic and language, moral and political theory, psychology, and the foundations of mathematics and natural science.Trade ReviewAccessible and comprehensive. * Alban McCoy, The Tablet, Books of the Year 2019 *Peter Adamson's Medieval Philosophy gives fantastically compendious account of medieval philosophy. Adamson manages to be accessible, lucid, witty, incisive; luminously conveying the rambunctious ambivalences of the logic-chopping, devout, doubting, bawdy, bloodthirsty, mystical medievals. * Jane O'Grady, The Tablet *a volume that— despite its weight and heft—one could easily give to a non-philosopher as a first introduction to the field. For even the most obscure authors (such as that most prolific of medieval philosophers, Anon) and the most arcane of topics comes to life under Adamson's magic touch. But what is most impressive about the book is its sheer scope of knowledge. . . . If you want a good, light-touch, yet still not glossing over the difficulties, introduction to medieval philosophy, this is the book for you. * Sara L. Uckelman, Philosophical Quarterly *Adamson's history of medieval philosophy has, among its many merits, two great ones. First, is very clearly written and philosophically acute. . . .A second merit is that it proposes an updated interpretation of medieval philosophy, obtained by taking into account the most dominant trends present in literature. This makes Peter Adamson's volume a fine piece of work and a recommended volume. The history of medieval philosophy is investigated in its depth and full development, no significant gap can be found indeed in the proposed reconstruction. * Fabrizio Amerini, Philosophical Inquiries *Let me say at once on the evidence of this volume, [Adamson] succeeds brilliantly. Over some 78 sections he covers a huge range of figures ... Special attention is given - and rightly so - to female philosophers, such as Catherine of Siena ... This book (and the others in the series), which are a delight to read, will be of great interest to general readers, aside from students of culture. * Peter Costello, The Irish Catholic *Adamson writes with a light style, beginning each short chapter with an anecdote, which rewards both sticking with the long narrative and dipping in and out. * Nick Mattiske, Journey, Isolation Reading Recommendations *A staggering philosophical achievement ... the clarity of the animated text is further enhanced by the authors humour, bringing a light touch to complex matters ... This volume will surely attain classic status, and can be read either sequentially or consulted as a detailed encyclopaedia of mediaeval philosophy and its variegated personalities. * Paradigm Explorer *Table of ContentsPreface Early Medieval Philosophy 1: Arts of Darkness: Introduction to Medieval Philosophy 2: Charles in Charge: Alcuin and the Carolingian Period 3: Grace Notes: Eriugena and the Predestination Controversy 4: Much Ado About Nothing: Eriugena's Periphyseon 5: Philosophers Anonymous: The Roots of Scholasticism 6: Virgin Territory: Peter Damian on Changing the Past 7: A Canterbury Tale: Anselm's Life and Works 8: Somebody's Perfect: Anselm's Ontological Argument 9: All or Nothing: The Problem of Universals 10: Get Thee to a Nunnery: Heloise and Abelard 11: It's the Thought that Counts: Abelard's Ethics 12: Learn Everything: The Victorines 13: Like Father, Like Son: Debates over the Trinity 14: On the Shoulders of Giants: Philosophy at Chartres 15: The Good Book: Philosophy of Nature 16: One of a Kind: Gilbert of Poitiers on Individuation 17: Two Swords: Early Medieval Political Philosophy 18: Law and Order: Peter Lombard and Gratian 19: Leading Light: Hildegard of Bingen 20: Rediscovery Channel: Translations into Latin 21: Straw Men: The Rise of the Universities The Thirteenth Century 22: No Uncertain Terms: Thirteenth Century Logic 23: Full of Potential: Thirteenth Century Physics 24: Stayin' Alive: Thirteenth Century Psychology 25: It's All Good: The Transcendentals 26: Do the Right Thing: Thirteenth Century Ethics 27: A Light That Never Goes Out: Robert Grosseteste 28: Origin of Species: Roger Bacon 29: Stairway to Heaven: Bonaventure 30: Your Attention Please: Peter Olivi 31: None for Me, Thanks: Franciscan Poverty 32: Begin the Beguine: Hadewijch and Mechtild 33: Binding Arbitration: Robert Kilwardby 34: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Albert the Great's Natural Philosophy 35: The Shadow Knows: Albert the Great's Metaphysics 36: The Ox Heard Round the World: Thomas Aquinas 37: Everybody Needs Some Body: Aquinas on Soul and Knowledge 38: What Comes Naturally: Ethics in Albert and Aquinas 39: What Pleases the Prince: The Rule of Law 40: Onward Christian Soldiers: Just War Theory 41: Paris When it Sizzles: The Condemnations 42: Masters of the University: "Latin Averroism" 43: The Neverending Story: The Eternity of the World 44: Let Me Count the Ways: Speculative Grammar 45: Love, Reign Over Me: the Romance of the Rose 46: Frequently Asked Questions: Henry of Ghent 47: Here Comes the Son: The Trinity and the Eucharist 48: Once and for All: Scotus on Being 49: To Will or Not to Will: Scotus on Freedom 50: On Command: Scotus' Ethics 51: One in a Million: Scotus on Universals and Individuals The Fourteenth Century 52: Time of the Signs: the Fourteenth Century 53: After Virtue: Marguerite Porete 54: To Hell and Back: Dante Alighieri 55: Church and State: Theories of Political Authority 56: Keeping the Peace: Marsilius of Padua 57: Do As You're Told: Ockham on Ethics and Political Philosophy 58: A Close Shave: Ockham's Nominalism 59: What Do You Think? Ockham on Mental Language 60: Keeping it Real: Responses to Ockham 61: Back to the Future: Divine Foreknowledge 62: Trivial Pursuits: Fourteenth Century Logic 63: Quadrivial Pursuits: the Oxford Calculators 64: Get to the Point: Fourteenth Century Physics 65: Portrait of the Artist: John Buridan 66: Seeing is Believing: Nicholas of Autrecourt's Skepticism 67: On the Money: Medieval Economic Theory 68: Down to the Ground: Meister Eckhart 69: Men in Black: The German Dominicans 70: A Wing and a Prayer: Angels in Medieval Philosophy 71: Alle Maner of Thyng Shall be Welle: English Mysticism 72: Say it With Poetry: Chaucer and Langland 73: The Good Wife: Gender and Sexuality in the Middle Ages 74: The Most Christian Doctor: Jean Gerson 75: Morning Star of the Reformation: John Wyclif 76: The Prague Spring: Scholasticism Across Europe 77: Renaissance Men: Ramon Llull and Petrarch

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Book SynopsisThe Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of Language introduces readers to the main issues and theories in the philosophy of language as currently practised. Written by leading researchers and covering the central topics in the contemporary philosophical study of language, the twenty-seven chapters provide an overview of the state of the art, and a presentation of cutting-edge developments. Topics covered include: the nature of language; the nature and role of semantic and attitudinal content; the dynamics of communication and speech acts; meta-semantics and reference grounding; tense and modality; discourse dynamics and information structure; and the expressive, evaluative, subjective, and social aspects of language. Although some of the articles focus directly on technical issues following the recent approach of linguistically oriented philosophy of language, the majority of the contributions are primarily focused on foundational questions drawn from traditional philosophy of language. The volume offers a reconsideration of these foundational issues in a new light, while still bearing in mind the formal developments in recent literature, as well as a presentation of new foundational issues that have emerged as a result of these developments.

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Book SynopsisIn everyday talk about language, we distinguish between what someone said and what they implied, or otherwise conveyed, a distinction carried into theorising about language and communication. Nothing is Said argues that it is a mistake to import the notion of saying into our models of basic linguistic communication.Trade ReviewThe book is lively and engaging, and contains lots of penetrating detailed discussions of core, significant issues. It is an important contribution to the Semantics/Pragmatics literature. * Arthur Sullivan, Journal of Pragmatics *The book contains lots of penetrating detailed discussions of core, significant issues. This is an important contribution to the Semantics/ Pragmatics literature. * Arthur Sullivan, Journal of Pragmatics *

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Book SynopsisPinpoints how dogwhistles and figleaves, two kinds of linguistic trick, distort political discourse and normalize racismIt is widely accepted that political discourse in recent years has become more openly racist and more accepting of wildly implausible conspiracy theories. Dogwhistles and Figleaves explores ways in which such changes--both of which defied previously settled norms of political speech--have been brought about. Jennifer Saul shows that two linguistic devices, dogwhistles and figleaves, have played a crucial role. Some dogwhistles (such as 88, used by Nazis online to mean Heil Hitler) serve to disguise messages that would otherwise be rejected as unacceptable, allowing them to be transmitted surreptitiously. Other dogwhistles (like the 1988 Willie Horton ad) work by influencing people in ways that they are not aware of, and which they would likely reject were they aware. Figleaves (such as just asking questions) take messages that could easily be recognized as unacceptablTrade ReviewIt's a scrupulous look at a damaging linguistic phenomenon that often hides in plain sight. * Publishers Weekly *What is interesting about Saul's study is the instability of meaning it reveals, the layers of deception employed not only by speakers, but by listeners, who are occasionally deluding themselves ... clear, engaging and very readable. * Roisin Kiberd, Irish Independent *There is no doubt that our current political climate is posing a threat to democracy. It is not only that we are polarized, but polarization is fueled by an onslaught of (often thinly veiled) manipulative speech and falsehoods. Media consumers absorb distorting messages without even being aware of it, and speakers are not held responsible. Dogwhistles and Figleaves provides an essential tool for seeing how our ability to communicate and to coordinate is being undermined. This theoretically rich and highly readable book is essential for those who value democracy, and the kind of public discourse that makes it possible. * Sally Haslanger, Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women's and Genders Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part 1: Racism 1: White Racism, White Folk Racial Theory, and White Racial Discourse 2: Racist Dogwhistles 3: Figleaves for Racism Part 2: Falsehood 4: The Rise of Blatant Falsehood and Wild Conspiracism 5: Figleaves, Dogwhistles, and Falsehood 6: Obvious Falsehoods Without Deniability 7: Dogwhistles, Figleaves, and the Fight Against Racism and Blatant Falsehood

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Book SynopsisJosé L. Zalabardo defends a pragmatist account of what grounds the meaning of central semantic discoursesascriptions of truth, of propositional attitudes, and of meanings. He argues that it is the procedures that regulate acceptance and rejection that give the sentences of these discourses their meanings, and explores the application of the pragmatist template to ethical discourse.The pragmatist approach is presented as an alternative to representationalist accounts of the meaning grounds of declarative sentences, according to which a sentence has the meaning it has as a result of links with the bits of the world that it purports to represent. Zalabardo develops a version of the open-question argument to support the claim that the meaning grounds of the discourses he focuses on cannot receive representationalist accounts. It is generally assumed that a declarative sentence cannot perform the function of representing the world unless it has a representationalist meaning ground. Zalabardo rejects this assumption, arguing that sentences with pragmatist meaning grounds can represent the world in exactly the same sense that sentences with representationalist meaning grounds do. This requires that there are states of affairs that the target sentences represent as obtaining, and Zalabardo develops an account of the nature of the states of affairs that can play this role for sentences with pragmatist meaning grounds.Pragmatist Semantics concludes by developing the suggestion that the meaning grounds of all our representational discourses might be ultimately pragmatist.Table of ContentsPreface 1: Representational discourse 2: The open-question argument in ethics 3: The open-question argument in semantics 4: Some reactions 5: Pragmatist meaning grounds 6: Belief and desire 7: Meaning and truth 8: Harmony and abstraction 9: The primacy of practice Epilogue: The meaning grounds of meaning-ground specifications

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Book SynopsisIn this in-depth work, Richards defines rhetoric as the study of misunderstanding and its remedies. Focusing on how words work in discourse, he examines the interaction of words with each other and with their contexts, demonstrating how a continual synthesis of meaning--or principle of metaphor--gives life to discussion. He also argues that we can better control and animate our use of words, and therefore decrease misunderstanding, by comprehending the waymeaning changes in discourse.Trade Review"Chosen largely to present the philosophy of language informing [Richards's] approach....Should stimulate thoughtful re-examinations of our own positions on the important issues Richards addresses."--Freshman English News "Masterful (and manageable)....Has long been needed."-D.G. Myers, Texas A&M University "A deftly compiled reader."--William Doreski, Keene State College "Written in a lively style...Coherent and valuable."--John F. Cox, University of Arizona "This is perhaps one of the best texts for rhetoric courses I've found, and I intend to use it each time I teach graduate/undergraduate rhetorical theory and other language-theory courses."--Professor Lynn Dianne Beene, University of New Mexico "....an important part of the foundation of contemporary rhetoric. Clear and to the point, Richards illuminates the place rhetoric occupies in human societies."--Dr. William O. Boggs, Slippery Rock University

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Book SynopsisThis reissue of an American philosophical classic includes a new preface by Cavell, in which he discusses the work''s reception and influence. The work fosters a fascinating relationship between philosophy and literature both by augmenting his philosophical discussions with examples from literature and by applying philosophical theories to literary texts. Cavell also succeeds in drawing some very important parallels between the British analytic tradition and the continental tradition, by comparing scepticism as understood in Descartes, Hume, and Kant with philosophy of language as practiced by Wittgenstein and Austin.Trade Review"An altogether remarkable work of American philosophy...that occupies the buffer zone between poetry and philosophy in a unique--and perhaps uniquely American way."--Critical Inquiry"An intensely personal and uniquely provocative book. Stanley Cavell is a philosophical original."--Review of MetaphysicsTable of ContentsPART ONE; WITTGENSTEIN AND THE CONCEPT OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE; PART TWO; SKEPTICISM AND THE EXISTENCE OF THE WORLD; PART THREE; KNOWLEDGE AND THE CONCEPT OF MORALITY; PART FOUR; SKEPTICISM AND THE PROBLEM OF OTHERS

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Book SynopsisThis book shows that given the new findings of cognitive linguistics, it is possible to offer a unified account of not only linguistic meaning but also that of meaning in a wide variety of social and cultural phenomena. It is suggested that cognitive linguistics is a much more comprehensive enterprise than is commonly accepted--both inside and outside the field. The book presents a comprehensive account of meaning in many linguistic and cultural phenomena that is crucially based and dependent on cognitive capacities that human understanders and producers of language possess independently of their ability to use language.Trade ReviewThis newest addition to the Kövecses canon will stand as one of his most engaging and conclusive works. Thus, it is highly recommended for all metaphor researchers and scholars. For a broader readership, the book is engaging as well as pedagogical. Thus, it is highly recommended as a fine overall introduction to the cognitive linguistics of metaphor and as an exceptional overview of the important roles of culture, history, and of course, context in figurative communication.

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Book SynopsisCombining up-to-date scholarship with clear and accessible language and helpful exercises, Metaphor: A Practical Introduction is an invaluable resource for all readers interested in metaphor. This second edition includes two new chapters-on ''metaphors in discourse'' and ''metaphor and emotion''-along with new exercises, responses to criticism and recent developments in the field, and revised student exercises, tables, and figures.Trade ReviewAn excellent introduction to conceptual metaphor, one which undergraduate students, graduate students, and general readers will find accessible yet thought-provoking. This edition has been significantly updated and improved, while retaining the features that have made it a well-loved book for students, such as clear expression, interesting exercises with a useful key, concise chapter summaries, and a very handy index of metaphors and metonymies. * Linguist List *Table of ContentsGLOSSARY; SOLUTIONS TO EXERCISES; REFERENCES; GENERAL INDEX; METAPHOR AND METONYMY INDEX

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Book SynopsisLa Peste (in English The Plague), originally published in 1947 by the Nobel Prize-winning writer Albert Camus, chronicles the progression of deadly bubonic plague as it spreads through the quarantined Algerian city of Oran. While most discussions of fictional examples within aesthetics are either historical or hypothetical, Camus offers an example of pestilence fiction. Camus chose fiction to convey facts--about plagues in the past, his own bout with tuberculosis at age seventeen, living under quarantine away from home for several years, and forced separation from his wife who remained in Algiers while he was abroad in Nazi-occupied France. His own lived experiences undergird an imaginative account of shared human realities with which we can identify: vulnerability to the disease, isolation, fear, and finally humanitarianism. The Plague teaches us to neither covet nor expect what we so casually took for granted. This collection of original essays on philosophical themes in The Plague is of special relevance during and in the aftermath of Covid-19 but also provides reflections that will be of lasting value to those interested in this classic work of literature. The novel explores questions of enduring importance. Do we collectively meet the threshold of ethical behaviour posed by Camus who wrote, What''s true of all the evils in the world is true of plague as well. It helps men to rise above themselves? Or does the absurd undermine the compassionate? Do heroes dutifully fight a plague with common decency, or does human nature resign itself to the normalization of uncontrollable suffering and death? There are myriad ways to approach the novel and this volume encourages readers to ponder human dilemmas in fictional Oran informed by our current pandemic.Trade ReviewRecommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice *Table of ContentsEmily Dickinson (1830-1886) poem Series Editor's Foreword Acknowledgements List of Contributors List of Illustrations Introduction, Peg Brand Weiser Chapter 1: The Plague and the Present Moment, Steven G. Kellman Chapter 2: Present in Effacement: The Place of Women in Camus's Plague and Ours, Jane E. Schulz Chapter 3: The Meaning of a Pandemic, Andrew Edgar Chapter 4: Grief and Human Connection in The Plague, Kathleen Higgins Chapter 5: Examining the Narrative Devolution of the Physician in Camus's The Plague, Edward B. Weiser Chapter 6: Horror and Natural Evil in The Plague, Cynthia A. Freeland Chapter 7: 'I Can't Breathe': Covid-19 and The Plague's Tragedy, Margaret E. Gray Chapter 8: Modern Death, Decent Death, and Heroic Solidarity in The Plague, Peg Brand Weiser

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Book SynopsisTrade Reviewthis book is excellent. * Choice *Table of ContentsAbbreviations Preface Chapter 1: Introduction Part I: The Bipartite Reading and the Role of Agreement Chapter 2: The Justificatory Question (§185) Chapter 3: The Justificatory Investigation (X-§201) Chapter 4: The Grammatical Investigation (§§199-242) Chapter 5: Agreement (§§240-242) Chapter 6: The Twofold Investigation: Philosophical Methodology and the Tractatus 1 Part II: Wittgenstein and Meaning Skepticism Chapter 7: Wittgenstein and Kripke Chapter 8: Kripkensteinean Skepticism through a Wittgensteinean Lens Chapter 9: Dispositions: an Exegetical Aside Chapter 10: Notions of Uniformity: A 'Wittgensteinean' Solution and its Precursors Chapter 11: Relativism: Communities, Languages, and Forms of Life Chapter 12: Kripke v. Wittgenstein: Some Final Remarks Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSomeone fails to shake your outstretched hand, puts you down in front of others, or makes a joke in poor taste. Should we take offence? Wouldn''t it be better if we didn''t? In the face of popular criticism of people taking offence too easily, and the social problems that creates, Emily McTernan defends taking offence as often morally appropriate and socially valuable. Within societies marred by inequality, taking offence can resist the day-to-day patterning of social hierarchies. This book defends the significance of details of our social interactions. Cumulatively, small acts, and the social norms underlying these, can express and reinforce social hierarchies. But by taking offence, we mark an act as an affront to our social standing. We also often communicate our rejection of that affront to others. At times, taking offence can be a way to renegotiate the shared social norms around what counts as respectful treatment. Rather than a mere expression of hurt feelings then, to take offence can be to stand up for one''s standing. When taken by those deemed to have less social standing, to take offence can be a direct act of insubordination against a social hierarchy. Taking offence can resist everyday inequalities. In unequal societies, the inclination to take offence at the right things, and to the right degree, may even be a civic virtue. These right things at which to take offence include many of the very instances that the opponents of a culture of taking offence find most objectionable: apparently trivial and small-scale details of our social interactions.Trade ReviewIn On Taking Offence, Emily McTernan develops a new, subtle, and compelling account of what it is to take offence and why taking offence is sometimes, but not always, morally justified. McTernan's admirably clear and judicious style, many vivid and timely examples, and significant moral sensitivity make this book a 'must read' for those who are interested in the nature and value of respect and, more generally, in central aspects of the moral life beyond rights and duties * Adam Cureton, Professor of Philosophy, University of Tennessee *Emily McTernan offers an analysis of taking offence that insightfully gets past the troubling public rhetoric around this emotion. McTernan provides a sorely needed repositioning of this emotion that encourages long overdue philosophical attention to social standing and status. She lucidly details how offence can serve both to defend and destabilize social status arrangements and suggests how each of these may stimulate important moral progress. * Amy Olberding, Presidential Professor of Philosophy, University of Oklahoma *Taking offence - how it feels, when it's appropriate, and when steps should be taken to make it less likely to happen - are familiar components of day-to-day moral and political interactions. Yet political philosophers have tip-toed around the subject, rarely engaging beyond questions of legal regulation. In her nuanced, entertaining, clear sighted and highly original analysis Emily McTernan relates taking offence to the idea of social standing and demonstrates that it should attract the attention of anyone concerned with questions of equality. * Jonathan Wolff, Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. Taking offence: An emotion reconsidered 1.1. Philosophers on taking offence 1.2. An analysis of taking offence 1.3. Distinguishing offence 1.4. Rethinking offence: Domestic, not catastrophic 1.5. The limits of offence 1.6. Towards a defence: From victimhood to social standing 2. What taking offence does 2.1. Social standing and the role of social norms 2.2. Taking offence and reinforcing norms 2.3. Taking offence and renegotiating norms 2.4. In defence of negotiating social norms 2.5. On negotiating through offence 3. Do sweat the small stuff: The nature and significance of social standing 3.1. Between excess and deficiency 3.2. Social standing as an equal part I: Why the 'small stuff' matters 3.3. Social standing as an equal part II: The power to set the terms 3.4. In defence of the significance of affronts 3.5. Resisting by taking offence 4. The limits of justified offence: On anger, intent, and uptake 4.1. Anger, offence, and the act 4.2. Contesting offence 4.3. 'But I didn't mean it': On intention and blame 4.4. 'But that's not offensive': Disagreement and the offensive 4.5. When offence lacks uptake 5. Only joking!: On the offensiveness of humour 5.1. Theories of humour and the offensive 5.2. Some linguistics of jokes 5.3. How offensive jokes function 5.4. The riskiness of humour 6. A corrective civic virtue: Weighing the costs and benefits of offence 6.1. Offence as a civic virtue: Arguments from equality and civility 6.2. The costs of offence to the offending party 6.3. Justifying the costs of offence 6.4. Burdens on the offended 7. A social approach, our lives online, and the social emotions 7.1. A regulatory turn 7.2. Taking offence online 7.3. The social emotions beyond offence Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisVatsyayana''s Commentary on the Nyaya-sutra is one of classical India''s most important philosophical works. This Guide offers both a map and interpretation of this challenging canonical text, suitable for any student or novice reader.Treating them as a single hybrid text, the Nyaya-sutra with Vatsyayana''s commentary systematizes in skeletal form centuries of ancient Indian philosophical developments concerning logic, epistemology, and dialectics, while also defending a realist categorial metaphysics. It offers a number of epistemological and methodological insights that inform intellectual inquiry in the Subcontinent for over a millennium. Vatsyayana''s Commentary also provides sophisticated arguments for distinct positions in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and value theory that stand amongst the best contributions to world philosophy.This guide, accessible to students and researchers not familiar with classical Indian philosophy, provides a distilled, accessible Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Principles of Selection, Organization, and Translation Outline of the Text Chapter 1 - The Central Topics of Nyaya Chapter 2 - Epistemology and Philosophy of Language Chapter 3 - Objects of Knowledge Chapter 4 - Objects of Knowledge and the Knowledge that Leads to the Supreme Good Chapter 5 - Dialectics Appendix A - Thematic reading plans and recommended scholarship Appendix B - V=atsy=ayana's philosophical commitments summarized Appendix C - Immediate inference, postulation, and contraposition: on V=atsy=ayana's logical

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Book SynopsisMichael Dummett is one of the most important and influential of contemporary philosophers; this book covers his work in the closely related fields of metaphysics and the philosophy of language.Trade ReviewDummett is clear and concise. * The Philosophers' Magazine *An impressive collection by one of the most influential of living English philosophers ... Reading him, one has the impression of being at the hub of the discussion in the philosophy of language and his points in other areas are invariably authoritative and original. It is welcome as an elaborate and useful contribution to contemporary philosophical thinking. * History and Philosophy of Logic *His observations are of great interest ... The publishers should be thanked for making it less likely that these important papers will escape the attention of philosophers. * International Philosophical Quarterly *Table of Contents1. What is a Theory of Meaning? (I) ; 2. What is a Theory of Meaning? (II) ; 3. What do I Know When I Know a Language? ; 4. What does the Appeal to Use do for the Theory of Meaning? ; 5. Language and Truth ; 6. Truth and Meaning * ; 7. Language and Communication ; 8. The Source of the Concept of Truth ; 9. Mood, Force, and Convention * ; 10. Frege and Husserl on Reference ; 11. Realism ; 12. Existence ; 13. Does Quantification Involve Identity? ; 14. Could there be Unicorns? + ; 15. Causal Loops ; 16. Common Sense and Physics ; 17. Testimony and Memory * ; 18. What is Mathematics About? ; 19. Wittgenstein on Necessity: Some Reflections ; 20. Realism and Anti-Realism *

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Book SynopsisThis volume contains thirteen papers, including two previously unpublished, by Gareth Evans, a brilliant philosopher who died in 1980 at the age of 34. The treatments of problems about language are here informed by a lively sense of interconnections with issues in metaphysics and the problem of mind, and some of the papers are primarly directed to problems in these fields. Anyone who is concerned with the central questions of philosophy will be interested in this collection.Trade ReviewGareth Evans ... was widely regarded as the most brilliant and exciting philosopher of his generation ... The present volume now collects his previously published papers ... together with two substantial unpublished pieces ... These two papers, like the older ones, exemplify Evans's great virtues--his ability to develop sophisticated arguments with great clarity, his lightly worn technical expertise, and above all his capacity to get to the very heart of philosophical issues. This is analytical philosophy of the very highest quality. Those who already know Evans's work will be grateful to have his scattered papers brought together in this handsome volume; and any professional philosopher or advanced student unfamiliar with his work has an intellectual treat in store. * British Book News *

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Book SynopsisSubjective, Intersubjective, Objective is the long-awaited third volume of philosophical writings by Donald Davidson, whose influence on philosophy since the 1960s has been deep and broad. His first two collections, published by OUP in the early 1980s, are recognized as contemporary classics. Now Davidson presents a selection of his work on knowledge, mind, and language from the 1980s and the 1990s. We all have knowledge of our own minds, knowledge of the contents of other minds, and knowledge of the shared environment. Davidson examines the nature and status of each of these three sorts of knowledge, and the connections and differences among them. Along the way he has illuminating things to say about truth, human rationality, and the relations among language, thought, and the world.This new volume offers a rich and rewarding feast for anyone interested in philosophy today, and is essential reading for anyone working on its central topics.Trade ReviewDavidson's philosophical project is one of the most remarkable and productive of the twentieth century. * Kirk Ludwig, Mind Journal *There is a wealth of fascinating ideas here ... Davidson's project is ambitious, but his vision is immensely powerful and its execution highly ingenious. It is a very considerable achievement at the intersection of epistemology, philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. * Philosophical Investigations *Davidson writes philosophy like Wagner wrote operas: nothing less than everything is ever at stake. * Jerry Fodor, London Review of Books *Ces essais contiennent les principes de sa théorie de la connaissance. Réconcilier, comme ce volume s'en donne le programme, connaissance de soi, connaissance d'autrui, et connaissance du monde commun, n'est pas un programme aisé. Quoi qu'il en soit, l'ambition est là, et la constance, la profondeur de la recherche de Davidson depuis une vingtaine d'années sont manifestes. A peu près tous les thèmes classiques de la philosophie analytique sont ici retravaillés, approfondis, et modifiés, dans une prose extrêmement travaillée. Peu de philosophes ont eu une influence si forte sur la philosophie de ces derniè res dé cennies, aussi bien dans les pays anglophones qu'en Europe. Qu'on suive ou non Davidson dans son ambitieux projet, qui ne vise rien moins qu'à concilier naturalisme et normativité, la lecture de ce volume est un must. * Pascal Engel, Revue Philosophique *Table of Contents1. FIRST PERSON AUTHORITY (1984) ; 7. RATIONAL ANIMALS (1982) ; 10. A COHERENCE THEORY (1983)

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Book SynopsisTruth, Language, and History is the much-anticipated final volume of Donald Davidson''s philosophical writings. In the four groups of essays that comprise it, Davidson continues to explore the themes that occupied him for more than fifty years: the relations between language and the world; speaker intention and linguistic meaning; language and mind; mind and body; mind and world; mind and other minds. He asks: what is the role of the concept of truth in these explorations? And, can a scientific world view make room for human thought without reducing it to something material and mechanistic? Davidson''s underlying picture, which can be seen in many of these essays, is that we are acquainted directly with the world, not indirectly via some intermediary such as sense-data, representations, or language itself; that thought emerges in the first place through interpersonal communication in a shared material world, and continues to develop as we engage each other in dialogue; and that languagTrade Review'While every one of the five volumes of Davidson's essays is a philosophical treasure trove, all containing influential and important essays, this final volume is especially interesting since it encompasses a number of key topics that are of special significance in Davidson's thinking. . . . One of the great merits of this volume is that it does indeed give a sense of the breadth of Davidson's thinking, and of the extent to which it extended beyond the usual confines of traditional "analytic" philosophy. . . . the radical and idiosyncratic character of Davidson's thinking is still, it seems to me, very much underappreciated and often unrecognised . . . The hope is that the publication of the essays in this volume, along with the essays included in the other four . . . will eventually give rise to a more integrated appreciation of Davidson's work - work that constitutes one of the landmarks of twentieth-century philosophy' * Jeff Malpas, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsTRUTH ; LANGUAGE ; ANOMALOUS MONISM ; HISTORICAL THOUGHTS

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Book SynopsisProvides a comprehensive introduction to the major philosophical theories attempting to explain the workings of language.Trade ReviewOriginal, provocative, and illuminating....Deserves to be widely read. Blackburn's mastery of the issues, and of the extensive literature, is very impressive, his philosophical judgment is good, and his treatment of the issues is consistently intelligent, sensitive, fair-minded, and insightful. * Nous *

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Book SynopsisAn attempt to provide a unified solution to a number of philosophical puzzles through a study of blindspots, ie consistent propositions that cannot be rationally accepted by certain individuals even if they are true.Trade Review'the book is challenging and extremely interesting. It will, I am certain, provike a good deal of exciting philosophical discussion.'Times Literary Supplement'Blindspots is full of stimulating discussions of innumerable philosophically interesting puzzles and problems ... It shows a lively sense of humour ... and reveals a knack for the provocative' Lloyd Humberstone, Monash University, Australasian Journal of Philosophy

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Book SynopsisLaw, Language, and Legal Determinancy discusses the role of language within law, and the role of philosophy of language in understanding the nature of law. The book argues that the major re-thinking of the common and `common sense'' views about law that have been proposed by various recent legal theorists are unnecessary.Trade Reviewa densly-packed, yet subtle book ... his analysis is inclusive and succinct * Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies *

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Book SynopsisVagueness leads to indeterminacies in the application of the law in many cases. This book responds to the challenges that those indeterminacies pose to a theory of law and adjudication.The book puts controversies in legal theory in a new light, using arguments in the philosophy of language to offer an explanation of the unclarities that arise in borderline cases for the application of vague expressions. But the author also argues that vagueness is a feature of law, and not merely of legal language: the linguistic and non-linguistic resources of the law are commonly vague.These claims have consequences that have seemed unacceptable to many legal theorists. Because law is vague, judges cannot always decide cases by giving effect to the legal rights and obligations of the parties. Judges cannot always treat like cases alike. The ideal of the rule of law seems to be unattainable. The book offers a new articulation of the content of that ideal. It argues that the pursuit of justice and the Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. Linguistic Indeterminacy ; 3. Sources of Indeterminacy ; 4. Vagueness and Legal Theory ; 5. How not to Solve the Paradox of the Heap ; 6. The Epistemic Theory of Vagueness ; 7. Vagueness and Similarity ; 8. Vagueness and Interpretation ; 9. The Impossibility of the Rule of Law ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisPaolo Mancosu presents a series of innovative studies in the history and the philosophy of logic and mathematics in the first half of the twentieth century. The Adventure of Reason is divided into five main sections: history of logic (from Russell to Tarski); foundational issues (Hilbert''s program, constructivity, Wittgenstein, Gödel); mathematics and phenomenology (Weyl, Becker, Mahnke); nominalism (Quine, Tarski); semantics (Tarski, Carnap, Neurath). Mancosu exploits extensive untapped archival sources to make available a wealth of new material that deepens in significant ways our understanding of these fascinating areas of modern intellectual history. At the same time, the book is a contribution to recent philosophical debates, in particular on the prospects for a successful nominalist reconstruction of mathematics, the nature of finitist intuition, the viability of alternative definitions of logical consequence, and the extent to which phenomenology can hope to account for the exaTrade ReviewThis book contains an enormous amount of material that historians will wish to consult. Mancosu convincingly demonstrates that there is a great deal more that we can still learn about the origins of modern mathematical logic. * Michael Potter, Philosophia Mathematica *Table of ContentsPART 1: HISTORY OF LOGIC; OART 2: FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS; PART 3: PHENOMENOLOGY AND MATHEMATICS; PART 4: NOMINALISM; PART 5: THE EMERGENCE OF SEMANTICS: TRUTH AND LOGICAL CONSEQUENCE

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Book SynopsisJohn Hawthorne and David Manley present an original treatment of the semantic phenomenon of reference and the cognitive phenomenon of singular thought. In Part I, they argue against the idea that either is tied to a special relation of causal or epistemic acquaintance. Part II challenges the alleged semantic rift between definite and indefinite descriptions on the one hand, and names and demonstratives on the other--a division that has been motivated in part by appeals to considerations of acquaintance. Drawing on recent work in linguistics and philosophical semantics, Hawthorne and Manley explore a more unified account of all four types of expression according to which none of them paradigmatically fits the profile of a referential term. On the preferred framework put forward in The Reference Book, all four types of expression involve existential quantification but admit of uses that exhibit many of the traits associated with reference--a phenomenon that is due to the presence of whatTrade Review'John Hawthorne and David Manley have two main objectives in this excellent book. The first is to demolish the common assumption, following Bertrand Russell, that some kind of acquaintance is required for both (singular) reference and singular thought. The second is to establish a semantic uniformity among four kinds of noun phrases - specific indefinite descriptions, definite descriptions, demonstratives, and proper names ... a wonderful book. The authors' writing style is lively . . . readable, and clear, and their very careful consideration of all sides of every issue should leave readers with a whole new appreciation of the complexity of those issues, and a sense that many of their automatic assumptions about the functioning of noun phrases in English (and most likely other languages as well) need to be revised.' * Barbara Abbott, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsPART I: AGAINST ACQUAINTANCE; PART II: BEYOND ACQUAINTANCE

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Book SynopsisThis volume presents twenty-two uncollected philosophical essays by Sir Peter Strawson, one of the leading philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century. The essays (two of them previously unpublished) are drawn from seven decades of work, from 1949 to 2003. They span the broad range of Strawson''s work: metaphysics, epistemology, philosophical logic, philosophy of language, ethical theory, and history of philosophy, along with metaphilosophical reflections and intellectual autobiography.Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. Ethical Intuitionism ; 2. In Defence of a Dogma ; 3. Construction and Analysis ; 4. Proper Names ; 5. The Post-Linguistic Thaw ; 6. Analysis, Science, and Metaphysics ; 7. Bennett on Kant's Analytic ; 8. Does Knowledge have Foundations? ; 9. Knowledge and Truth ; 10. Scruton and Wright on Anti-Realism ; 11. Perception and its Objects ; 12. Liberty and Necessity ; 13. Sensibility, Understanding, and the Doctrine of Synthesis ; 14. Two Conceptions of Philosophy ; 15. Review of Paul Grice, Studies in the Way of Words ; 16. Knowing from Words ; 17. What have we learned from Philosophy in the Twentieth Century? ; 18. A Category of Particulars ; 19. Paul Grice ; 20. Why Philosophy? ; 21. Intellectual Autobiography ; 22. A Bit of Intellectual Autobiography ; Index

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Book SynopsisWhat does talk of meaning mean? All thinking consists in natural happenings in the brain. Talk of meaning though, has resisted interpretation in terms of anything that is clearly natural, such as linguistic dispositions. This, Kripke''s Wittgenstein suggests, is because the concept of meaning is normative, on the ''ought'' side of Hume''s divide between is and ought. Allan Gibbard''s previous books Wise Choices, Apt Feelings and Thinking How to Live treated normative discourse as a natural phenomenon, but not as describing the world naturalistically. His theory is a form of expressivism for normative concepts, holding, roughly, that normative statements express states of planning. This new book integrates his expressivism for normative language with a theory of how the meaning of meaning could be normative. The result applies to itself: metaethics expands to address key topics in the philosophy of language, topics which in turn include core parts of metaethics. An upshot is to lessen tTrade ReviewThe book is rich in original ideas and arguments, and the topics canvassed or commented on are significant and bewildering in their number ... serious students of the relevant topics should find its study rewarding, and clearly it is essential reading for anyone working on meaning and normativity. * Teemu Toppinen, Ethics *the most ambitious and innovative attempt to explain meaning since Paul Horwich and Robert Brandom developed their theories in the nineties ... I hope that this splendid book will find a wide audience. It is wonderfully stimulating, opening up vast new territories for investigation. * Christopher S. Hill, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. Normativity and Community ; 3. Kripke's Wittgenstein on Meaning ; 4. Correct Belief ; 5. Horwich on Meaning ; 6. The Normative Meaning Role ; 7. Reference, Truth, and Context ; 8. Meaning and Plans ; 9. Interpreting Interpretation ; 10. Expressivism, Non-Naturalism, and Us ; Appendix 1: The Objects of Belief ; Appendix 2: Schroeder on Expressivism ; References ; Index

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Book SynopsisSome things in the world--intentional items such as words, thoughts, portraits, and passport photos--are about things, whereas other things in the world--sticks, stones, and fireflies--are not about anything. Necessary Intentionality is a study of aboutness, or intentionality, with a focus on the following question: are intentional items typically about whatever they are about as a matter of necessity, or is their aboutness, rather, a matter of mere contingency? Consider, for example, a particular name referring to a particular person, or a specific belief with respect to some particular thing that it is such and so. Is it possible for the name not to have referred to the person and for the belief not to have been about the thing? Ori Simchen defends a negative answer to such questions. That the name refers to the person is necessary for the name and that the belief is about the thing is necessary for the belief. Simchen articulates his overall position in two main stages. In the firstTrade ReviewIn Necessary Intentionality, Ori Simchen crafts razor-sharp arguments for a surprising package of theses in metaphysics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. On Simchen's view, all modal facts are determined by the essences of actual particular objects, a wordâs being of a given type depends necessarily on what the word is about, and a thought of a given type cannot occur absent its particular object. In developing these views, Simchen rejects many bits of prevailing philosophical wisdom ... Most radically, he develops a parameter-based account of cognitive states that explains much about cognition while doing entirely without mental representations or mental content. Simchen masterfully integrates these strands into a single coherent picture and in doing so provides a model of careful, substantive philosophical investigation. * Professor Robert D. Rupert, University of Colorado at Boulder *A sustained defense of the necessary aboutness of language and of cognitive states, based on an account of modality according to which the space of possibilities is determined by the natures of existing particular things. Simchen revisits arguments about, among other topics, actualism, essentialism, rigidity, the de re/de dicto distinction, and the distinction between narrow and wide content shedding new light on old themes. This book should be of interest to anyone working on reference, modality or cognition. * Professor Genoveva Marti of Western University, Ontario *Table of ContentsMODALITY; INTENTIONALITY

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Book SynopsisPart of the "Oxford Readings in Philosophy" series, this volume presents a selection of the major writings in the debate on the nature of meaning and reference which started 100 years ago with Frege's essay "On Sense and Reference". This subject lies at the heart of the philosophy of language.Trade Review`Since the 1960's, the Oxford Readings in Philosophy have provided an essential service to all teachers of the subject. ... in a colourful and attractive new format, but the essential aim of the series remains unchanged: to introduce students, as gently as is realistically possible, to the best work in a given area. ... the volume on time is very wide-ranging Cogito:Winter 1993`Excellent for my second year undergraduate course - right on the topics - and making central papers easily available.' Martin Bell, University of York`This is a valuable collection of articles: the quality is outstanding, and the choice is excellent, for courses on the philosophy of language.' David Bell, University of Sheffield`This is a really excellent book.' Hugh Bredin, Queen's University, Belfast`It is excellent for teaching the subject in a British University' Dr G. McCulloch, University of Nottingham`A very useful anthology of seminal essays in this field.' Stephen P. Thornton, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland`This is an excellent selection of articles.' R. Fellows, University of Bradford`Excellent, nicely priced volume with many of the classic texts.' D.E. Cooper, University of Durham`This is an excellent collection of articles.' Maria Baghramian, University College Dublin`An extremely useful collection on meaning and reference containing classic papers students ought to read.' Dr C. Macdonald, University of Manchester`One of the most useful texts in the series Oxford Readings in Philosophy. It has the most important of the relevant essays.' B.B. Rundle, Trinity College, OxfordTable of ContentsOn sense and reference, Gottlob Frege; letter to Jourdain, Gottlob Frege; descriptions, Bertrand Russell; on referring, P.F. Strawson; mind and verbal dispositions, W.V. Quine; truth and meaning, Donald Davidson; on the sense and reference of a proper name, John McDowell; what does the appeal to use do for the theory of meaning, Michael Dummett; meaning and reference, Hilary Putnam; identity and necessity, Saul Kripke; Putnam's doctrine of natural kind words and Frege's doctrines of sense, reference and extension - can they cohere?, David Wiggins; the causal theory of names, Gareth Evans; Frege's distinction between sense and reference, Michael Dummett; Wittgenstein on following a rule, John McDowell.

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Book SynopsisBertrand Russell famously distinguished between ''knowledge by acquaintance'' and ''knowledge by description''. For much of the latter half of the twentieth century, many philosophers viewed the notion of acquaintance with suspicion, associating it with Russellian ideas that they would wish to reject. However in the past decade or two the concept has undergone a striking revival in mainstream ''analytic'' philosophy--acquaintance is, it seems, respectable again. This volume showcases the great variety of topics in philosophy of mind, epistemology, and philosophy of language for which philosophers are currently employing the notion of acquaintance. It is the first collection of new essays devoted to the topic of acquaintance, featuring chapters from many of the world''s leading experts in this area. Opening with an extensive introductory essay, which provides some historical background and summarizes the main debates and issues concerning acquaintance, the remaining thirteen contributions are grouped thematically into four sections: phenomenal consciousness, perceptual experience, reference, and epistemology.Table of ContentsThomas Raleigh: Introduction: The Recent Renaissance of Acquaintance Part I: Phenomenal Consciousness 1: Joseph Levine: Consciousness is Acquaintance 2: Sam Coleman: Natural Acquaintance 3: Alex Grzankowski and Michael Tye: What Acquaintance Teaches 4: M. G. F. Martin: Betwixt Feeling and Thinking: Two-Level Accounts of Experience Part II: Perceptual Experience 5: David Woodruff Smith: Acquaintance in an Experience of Perception-cum-Action 6: Tom Stoneham: Dreaming, Phenomenal Character and Acquaintance 7: Jonathan Knowles: Relationalism, Berkeley's Puzzle and Phenomenological Externalism 8: Anders Nes: Conceptualism and the Explanatory Role of Experience Part III: Reference 9: John Campbell: Acquaintance as Grounded in Joint Attention 10: Jessica Pepp: Principles of Acquaintance Part IV: Epistemology 11: Richard Fumerton: Acquaintance: The Foundation of Knowledge and Thought 12: Katalin Farkas: Objectual Knowledge 13: Bill Brewer: Visual Experience, Revelation and the Three Rs

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Book SynopsisThis book offers a concise but comprehensive entry-level guide to the study of meaning in context. There can be a big difference between what a speaker says and what they mean - i.e. between literal meaning and intended meaning. A speaker who says I need coffee can mean anything from ''Please buy more coffee'' to ''I''m really sleepy''. How is a hearer to know? In this book, Betty Birner explores how we get from what is said to what is meant, from the perspective of both the speaker and the hearer, dealing with a range of context-dependent issues in language along the way: literal and non-literal meaning, implicature, speech acts, reference, definiteness, presupposition, and information structure. She reveals how language users can infer each other''s meanings using not just what is being said but also the context and an assumption of rationality and cooperation. This slim guide summarizes the most important and foundational theories in the field of linguistic pragmatics, illustrated with plenty of real-life examples, and including a helpful glossary of key terms. Written in a lively and accessible style, the book will appeal to a wide range of readers, from undergraduate and graduate students of pragmatics to general readers interested in how we successfully communicate with one another.Trade ReviewSumming up, Pragmatics: A slim guide is a valuable tool for anyone interested in the study of pragmatics. * Nicolas Ruytenbeek, Ghent University, Linguist List *Just what a slim guide should be: brisk, authoritative, even-handed, accessible, entertaining. Birner deftly traverses the theoretical and empirical landscape of contemporary pragmatics from (non-)literality to speech acts, from presupposition to implicature, from reference to information structure, enlivened at each stop with illustrative data from Poe's tales to political innuendo. * Laurence R. Horn, Yale University *Combining elegant exposition and well-chosen examples, this book serves not only to introduce the study of pragmatics to a new audience, but also to shed new light on several widely-discussed topics. * Chris Cummins, University of Edinburgh *Table of Contents1: Introduction 2: Literal vs. non-literal meaning 3: Implicature 4: Speech acts 5: Reference 6: Definiteness and anaphora 7: Presupposition 8: Information structure 9: New directions 10: Conclusion Glossary

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Book SynopsisLogical monism is the claim that there is a single correct logic, the ''one true logic'' of our title. The view has evident appeal, as it reflects assumptions made in ordinary reasoning as well as in mathematics, the sciences, and the law. In all these spheres, we tend to believe that there are determinate facts about the validity of arguments. Despite its evident appeal, however, logical monism must meet two challenges. The first is the challenge from logical pluralism, according to which there is more than one correct logic. The second challenge is to determine which form of logical monism is the correct one. One True Logic is the first monograph to explicitly articulate a version of logical monism and defend it against the first challenge. It provides a critical overview of the monism vs pluralism debate and argues for the former. It also responds to the second challenge by defending a particular monism, based on a highly infinitary logic. It breaks new ground on a number of fronts and unifies disparate discussions in the philosophical and logical literature. In particular, it generalises the Tarski-Sher criterion of logicality, provides a novel defence of this generalisation, offers a clear new argument for the logicality of infinitary logic and replies to recent pluralist arguments.Trade ReviewOne True Logic is the first monograph to explicitly articulate a version of logical monism and defend it against the first challenge. It provides a critical overview of the monism vs pluralism debate and argues for the former. It also responds to the second challenge by defending a particular monism, based on a highly infinitary logic. It breaks new ground on a number of fronts and unifies disparate discussions in the philosophical and logical literature. * MathSciNet *In One True Logic: A Monist Manifesto, Griffiths and Paseau set out to defend the doctrine known as logical monism. In short, the book is part of an ongoing debate between logical pluralists and logical monists...Their work is challenging yet worth the effort. It advances a strong defense of logical monism by offering just as strong objections to logical pluralism. Anyone interested in the philosophy of logic must read this book! * Choice *a bold and original book. Its discussion of foundational questions about logic is detailed and mathematically rigorous. At the same time, it is admirably clear and approachable. It is also fun to read. Its uncompromising style ...its precise argumentation, and its dialectical clarity make it an engaging and thought-provoking investigation into the nature of logical consequence... full of original arguments worthy of discussion... a fascinating and rich book. * Erik Stei, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsIntroduction Prologue 1: Conceptions of Logical Consequence 2: What is Monism? 3: Against Pluralism 4: The LIFGIFS Hypothesis 5: Beyond the Finitary 6: Isomorphism Invariance 7: Towards the One True Logic 8: The Heterogeneity Objection 9: The Overgeneration Objection 10: The Absoluteness Objection 11: The Intensional Objection Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThis book develops a theory of enriched meanings for natural language interpretation that uses the concept of monads and related ideas from category theory, a branch of mathematics that has been influential in theoretical computer science and elsewhere. Certain expressions that exhibit complex effects at the semantics/pragmatics boundary live in an enriched meaning space, while others live in a more basic meaning space. These basic meanings are mapped to enriched meanings only when required compositionally, which avoids generalizing meanings to the worst case. Ash Asudeh and Gianluca Giorgolo show that the monadic theory of enriched meanings offers a formally and computationally well-defined way to tackle important challenges at the semantics/pragmatics boundary. In particular, they develop innovative monadic analyses of three phenomena - conventional implicature, substitution puzzles, and conjunction fallacies - and demonstrate that the compositional properties of monads model linguistic intuitions about these cases particularly well. The analyses are accompanied by exercises to aid understanding, and the computational tools used are available on the book''s companion website. The book also contains background chapters on enriched meanings and category theory. The volume is interdisciplinary in nature, with insights from semantics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, psychology, and computer science, and will appeal to graduate students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines with an interest in natural language understanding and representation.Table of Contents1: Introduction Part I: Background 2: Enriched meanings in semantics and pragmatics 3: Category theory Part II: Case Studies 4: Conventional implicature 5: Perspectival reference 6: Uncertainty and conjunction fallacies Part III: Composition and Interactions 7: Monad combinatorics 8: Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThis book explores conversational units of language - vocatives, interjections, particles, and illocutionary complementizers - in Ibero-Romance languages. It draws on naturalistic data and elicited judgements to offer new insights into colloquial grammar and morphosyntactic variation in Romance and into the organization of grammar more broadly.Trade ReviewThis is an excellent book. * Patrícia Amaral, Journal of Pragmatics *Table of ContentsGeneral preface Acknowledgements List of abbreviations 1: Introduction 2: A grammar for the utterance Part I: Mapping utterances 3: Vocatives 4: Interjections and particles 5: Doing things with utterance grammar Part II: Illocutionary complementizer constructions 6: The expression of affect 7: Utterances without commitment 8: The grammar of dialogue 9: Conclusions References Index

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Book SynopsisThis collection of papers by Eva Picardi (1948-2017), one of the most influential Italian philosophers of her generation, examines the work of Gottlob Frege. Picardi combines theoretical and historical considerations to bring out the significance of his work for contemporary philosophy of language.Table of ContentsIntroduction, by Annalisa Coliva Part I: Frege in Context--Logic and Psychology 1: The Logic of Frege's Contemporaries 2: Kerry and Frege on Concept and Object 3: Sigwart, Husserl, and Frege on Truth and Logic, or Is Psychologism Still a Threat? 4: Frege's Anti-Psychologism 5: Frege, Peano, and Russell on the Primitive Ideas of Logic Part II: Frege's Philosophy of Language 6: Über Sinn und Bedeutung: An Elementary Exposition 7: The Chemistry of Concepts 8: Assertion and Assertion Sign 9: A Note on Dummett and Frege on Sense-Identity 10: Michael Dummett's Interpretation of Frege's Context Principle: Some Reflections Part III: Frege s Legacy 11: Carnap Interpreter of Frege 12: Frege and Davidson on Predication 13: Davidson and Frege on the Unity of the Proposition: Some Remarks 14: Was Frege a Proto-Inferentialist?

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Book SynopsisOxford Pragmatism uncovers and explores the unrecognized impact of American pragmatism on the Oxford linguistic philosophy that thrived from the 1930s to the 1950s, made famous by Gilbert Ryle and J. L Austin.

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Book SynopsisThis is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.If we don''t know what the words ''democracy'' and ''democratic'' mean, then we don''t know what democracy is. This book defends a radical view: these words mean nothing and should be abandoned. The argument for Abolitionism is simple: those terms are defective and we can easily do better, so let''s get rid of them. According to the abolitionist, the switch to alternative devices would be a significant communicative, cognitive, and political advance.The first part of the book presents a general theory of abandonment: the conditions under which language should be abandoned. The rest of the book applies this general theory to the case of ''democracy'' and ''democratic''. Cappelen shows that ''democracy'' and ''democratic'' are semantically, pragmatically, and communicatively Table of ContentsPreface & Acknowledgements Part I: A Theory of Abandonment 1: Introduction 2: Arguments for Abandonment 3: Abandonment compared to Elimination, Reduction, Replacement, and Amelioration 4: Abandonment and Communication Part II: Some Data about 'Democracy' 5: The Ordinary Notion of 'Democracy': Methodological Preamble 6: Some Data about 'Democracy' and 'Democratic' Part III: Abandonment of 'Democracy'? 7: Problems with 'Democracy' 8: Better than 'Democracy': A Chapter of Good Cheers 9: Consequences of Abandoning 'Democracy' Part IV: Democracy Ameliorated 10: Ameliorations of 'Democracy' 11: Verbal Disputes about 'Democracy' Part V: Efforts to Defend Democracy 12: Objections and Replies Bibliography

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Book SynopsisPhilosophy of language has been at the center of philosophical research at least since the start of the 20th century. Since that ''linguistic turn'' much of the most important work in philosophy has related to language. But until now there has been no regular forum for outstanding original work in this area. That is what Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Language offers. Anyone wanting to know what''s happening in philosophy of language could start with these volumes.Table of Contents1: Josh Dever: Scoreboards Without Scorekeepers 2: Rachel Goodman: Singularism vs. Descriptivism 3: Mitch Green: Verbal Signaling 4: Richard Kimberly Heck: Disquotation, Translation, and Context-Dependence 5: Thomas Hofweber: The Place of Philosophy of Language in Metaphysics 6: Marga Reimer: On Lying, 'Strictly Speaking' 7: Nathan Salmon: À Propos de Pierre, Does He... or Doesn't He? 8: Jeff Speaks: The Schmidentity Strategy 9: Stephen Yablo: Leverage: A Theory of Cognitive Content

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Book SynopsisTruth and Paradox offers a comprehensive account of truth values and the norms governing claims about truth, based on a new approach to logic and semantics. Since the seminal work of Tarski in the mid-twentieth century, the Liar paradox and other related paradoxes have stood in the way of a precise philosophical account of truth. Tim Maudlin draws on analogies from mathematical physics to explicate the origin of classical truth-value gaps, and to provide an account of truth that avoids any hierarchy of languages or of truth predicates. He also closely investigates our reasoning about truth, including apparently unobjectionable reasoning about the paradoxical sentences. The fallacies in that reasoning are located not in any inferences concerning truth, but in the foundations of standard logic. Blocking the paradoxical arguments requires emendation of classical logic, and the requisite emendations call into question the existence of any a priori logical truths. Maudlin also includes a diTrade ReviewTim Maudlin's Truth and Paradox is a terrific book... the perspective it casts on [the] situation is completely novel ... sure to interest a wide range of philosophers, not just those with special interest in the paradoxes...lucid and lively, a pleasure to read. * Hartry Field, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research *Tim Maudlin offers a theory of truth that arises from a foundationalist picture of language. The picture is attractive, and Maudlin builds on it courageously (indeed, fearlessly) ... a though-provoking book, one that offers a novel way of conceptualizing a fixed-point theory of truth. * Anil Gupta, MIND *Table of Contents1. Two Versions of the Liar Paradox ; 2. On the Origin of Truth Values ; 3. What is Truth, and What is a Theory of Truth? ; 4. A Language That Can Express Its Own Truth Theory ; 5. The Norms of Assertion and Denial ; 6. Solving the Inferential Liar Antinomy ; 7. Reasoning about Permissible Sentences ; 8. The Permissibility Paradox ; 9. The Metaphysics of Truth ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe Law of Non-Contradiction-that no contradiction can be true-has been a seemingly unassailable dogma since the work of Aristotle, in Book Gamma of the Metaphysics. It is an assumption challenged from a variety of angles in this collection of original papers. Twenty-three of the world''s leading experts investigate the ''law'', considering arguments for and against it and discussing methodological issues that arise whenever we question the legitimacy of logical principles. The result is a balanced inquiry into a venerable principle of logic, one that raises questions at the very centre of logic itself. The aim of this volume is to present a comprehensive debate about the Law of Non-Contradiction, from discussions as to how the law is to be understood, to reasons for accepting or re-thinking the law, and to issues that raise challenges to the law, such as the Liar Paradox, and a ''dialetheic'' resolution of that paradox. One of the editors contributes an introduction which surveys the Trade ReviewReview from previous edition Since dialetheism has, in recent years, scrounged its way from being a view easily defeated by the dreaded incredulous stare to being a major (but still sometimes ignored) contender in the contest for an adequate logical account of the semantic and set-theoretic paradoxes (or an adequate logical theory in general), the volume is to be commended merely for its existence. The fact that it contains, not just a number of good philosophers taking this view seriously, but also a lot of seriously good philosophy increases its worth. * Roy Cook, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsPART I: SETTING UP THE DEBATE ; PART II: WHAT IS THE LNC? ; PART III: METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN THE DEBATE ; PART IV: AGAINST THE LNC ; PART V: FOR THE LNC

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Book SynopsisFrançois Recanati argues against the traditional understanding of the semantics/pragmatics divide and puts forward a radical alternative. Through half a dozen case studies, he shows that what an utterance says cannot be neatly separated from what the speaker means. In particular, the speaker''s meaning endows words with senses that are tailored to the situation of utterance and depart from the conventional meanings carried by the words in isolation. This phenomenon of ''pragmatic modulation'' must be taken into account in theorizing about semantic content, for it interacts with the grammar-driven process of semantic composition. Because of that interaction, Recanati argues, the content of a sentence always depends upon the context in which it is used. This claim defines Contextualism, a view which has attracted considerable attention in recent years, and of which Recanati is one of the main proponents.Trade ReviewThe book is an important contribution to the debate on the relationship between semantics and pragmatics, and to discussions of particular linguistic phenomena featured in the case studies. Anyone interested in any of these issues should certainly read it. * Karen Lewis, Mind *a rich and provocative book, which is eloquently written ... There is no doubt in my mind that Truth-Conditional Pragmatics will become a standard reference for future discussions pertaining to semantics, pragmatics and the distinction between the two. * Berit Brogaard, Analysis *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Compositionality, Flexibility, and Context-Dependence ; 2. Adjectives: A Case Study ; 3. Weather Reports ; 4. Pragmatics and Logical Form ; 5. Embedded Implicatures ; 6. Indexicality and Context-Shift ; 7. Open Quotation ; 8. Open Quotation Revisited ; References

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