Lewis attempts the synthesis of two rival accounts: the thesis, according to which languages are a semantic system abstracted from the nature and history of human affairs; and the antithesis, according to which language is a rational, convention-governed human social activity. Upon answering an extended series of objections, Lewis concludes that the philosophy of language is best understood as a single subject.
Keywords: artificial language, Chomsky, convention, grammar, Saul Kripke, natural language, philosophy of language, pragmatics, Quine, semantics, truthfulness