Subject: Philosophy Book Title: The Seas of Language
The Seas of Language
Dummett, Michael
Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Oxford
Print publication date: 1996
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2003
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-823621-4
doi:10.1093/0198236212.001.0001
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2003
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-823621-4
doi:10.1093/0198236212.001.0001
Abstract:
The book contains articles in metaphysics and philosophy of language written between 1975 and 1992. Dummett defends the verificationist theory of meaning, according to which in order to know the meaning of a statement one must be in possession of a procedure to verify it. He also argues for the link between bivalence and the metaphysical doctrine of realism. Other topics discussed include refutation of instrumentalism, mathematical applicability, backward causation, and the analysis of the concept of existence.
Keywords: anti-realism, bivalence, causation, Davidson, Michael Dummett, Frege, meaning, Quine, realism, theory of meaning, verificationism, Wittgenstein
Keywords: anti-realism, bivalence, causation, Davidson, Michael Dummett, Frege, meaning, Quine, realism, theory of meaning, verificationism, Wittgenstein
Table of Contents
Preface
1. 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
Index
doi:10.1093/0198236212.001.0001
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