Quine and Davidson are among the leading thinkers of the twentieth century. Their influence on contemporary philosophy is second to none, and their impact is also strongly felt in disciplines such as ...linguistics and psychology. This book is devoted to both of them, but also questions some of their basic assumptions. Hans-Johann Glock critically scrutinizes their ideas on ontology, truth, necessity, meaning and interpretation, thought and language, and shows that their attempts to accommodate meaning and thought within a naturalistic framework, either by impugning them as unclear or by extracting them from physical facts, are ultimately unsuccessful. His discussion includes interesting comparisons of Quine and Davidson with other philosophers, particularly Wittgenstein, and also offers detailed accounts of central issues in contemporary analytic philosophy, such as the nature of truth and of meaning and interpretation, and the relation between thought and language.
Since 2016, there has been an explosion of academic work that fixes its subject matter using the terms 'fake news' and 'post-truth'. In this paper, I argue that this terminology is not up to scratch, ...and that academics and journalists ought to completely stop using the terms 'fake news' and 'post-truth'. I set out three arguments for abandonment. First, that 'fake news' and 'post-truth' do not have stable public meanings, entailing that they are either nonsense, context-sensitive, or contested. Secondly, that these terms are unnecessary, because we already have a rich vocabulary for thinking about epistemic dysfunction. Thirdly, I observe that 'fake news' and 'post-truth' have propagandistic uses, meaning that using these terms legitimates anti-democratic propaganda, and risks smuggling bad ideology into conversations.
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This paper is focused on the relationship between (post)structuralist philosophical thinking about language and mind, and between language as an instrument of such inquiry and a means of ...exteriorizing its results. This makes the topic important for both philosophers and linguists. I pay particular attention to Jaroslav Peregrinʼs text How we Constructed our own Mind. The text is part of the SYNv10 corpus. This enables a view of the popularization philosophical study through the prism of corpus statistics. I focus on the frequency of the parts of speech. I deal with the properties of the most frequent representatives of important parts of speech and their grammatical categories, especially the verbal person and relative pronouns. Particles are a means of introducing a human dimension into the text. The representation of particles for the certain modality is especially surprising. Modal verbs, indefinite pronouns and indefinite pronominal adverbs aid their effect.
Alex Byrne’s article, “Are Women Adult Human Females?”, asks a question that Byrne treats as nearly rhetorical. Byrne’s answer is, ‘clearly, yes’. Moreover, Byrne claims,
woman
is a biological ...category that does not admit of any interpretation as (also) a social category. It is important to respond to Byrne’s argument, but mostly because Byrne’s argument is a paradigmatic instance of a wider phenomenon. The slogan “women are adult human females” is a political slogan championed by anti-trans activists, appearing on billboards, pamphlets, and anti-trans online forums. In this paper, I respond to Byrne’s argument, revealing significant problems with its background assumptions, content, and methodology.
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Slurs Croom, Adam M.
Language sciences (Oxford),
05/2011, Volume:
33, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Slurs possess interesting linguistic properties and so have recentlyattracted the attention of linguists and philosophers of language. For instance the racial slur
nigger is explosively derogatory, ...enough so that just hearing it mentioned can leave one feeling as if they have been made complicit in a morally atrocious act. (Jennifer Hornsby has suggested that slurs might count as “hate speech” and so raise questions “about the compatibility of the regulation of hate speech with principles of free speech” (2001, p. 129). Chris Hom further suggests that, “the use of an epithet may count as a literal threat, and hence no longer merit freedom of speech protection under the First Amendment” (2008, p. 440). A close analysis of slurs is clearly required before we can make informed decisions about this serious issue.) Indeed, the very taboo nature of these words makes discussion of them typically prohibited or frowned upon. Although it is true that the utterance of slurs is illegitimate and derogatory in most contexts, sufficient evidence suggests that slurs are not always or exclusively used to derogate. In fact, slurs are frequently picked up and appropriated by the very in-group members that the slur was originally intended to target. This might be done, for instance, as a means for like speakers to strengthen in-group solidarity. So an investigation into the meaning and use of slurs can give us crucial insight into how words can be used with such derogatory impact, and how they can be turned around and appropriated as vehicles of rapport in certain contexts among in-group speakers. In this essay I will argue that slurs are best characterized as being of a mixed descriptive/expressive type. Next, I will review the most influential accounts of slurs offered thus far, explain their shortcomings, then provide a new analysis of slurs and explain in what ways it is superior to others. Finally, I suggest that a family-resemblance conception of category membership can help us achieve a clearer understanding of the various ways in which slurs, for better or worse, are actually put to use in natural language discourse (note that in this article slurs will be mentioned but not used. Although I have considered not even mentioning such a derogatory term as
nigger in the first place, I chose it because on the one hand there is a substantive literature on the term upon which to draw to aid in the analysis of slurs in general, and on the other hand, this term highlights the fact that slurs possess a forcefully potent affective component that is clearly a key aspect to their employment).
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Ole Holten Pind, Dignāga’s Philosophy of Language: Pramāṇasamuccayavṛtti V on anyāpoha. Part 1: Text; Part 2: Translation and Annotation (Sitzungsberichte/Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. ...Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Bd. 871; Beiträge zur Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens, Nr. 92). Edited by Ernst Steinkellner. Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2015, lxxix + 63; 255 pp., ISBN 978-3-7001-7865-1, €85,00 (paperback).
Discussions on the relationship between Aristotelian logic and Arabic grammar were continued by linguists of the modern period as was among the early period linguists. These discussions focused on ...the purpose and functions of logic and grammar, as well as whether logic was effective in the formation and development of grammar. Discussions about the mentioned effect brought up the concept of the originality of Arabic grammar. This study deals with the discussion of whether Aristotelian logic was effective in the formation of Arabic grammar; and aims to clarify matters such as the existence, if any, the mentioned effect and to what extent it occurred in terms of method and content. In the study, firstly, information will be presented in the historical context of the subject, about the works of Syriac grammar, the first Arabic translations of the logic, the works of Sībawayhi’s teachers that have not survived and the grammar schools of Alexandria and Pergamum. Then, the views on the discussion in question will be discussed by taking into account the other works of the authors, by referring to the basic grammar works, Aristotle’s logic books and some Aristotle translations made in both the classical and modern periods. In the discussion of whether Aristotelian logic has an effect on Arabic grammar, the expression “Arabic grammar “ refers to al-Kitāb of Sībawayhi and the works produced before him, but which have not survived to the present day, since the problem addressed in the study is whether logic has an effect on the formation of Arabic grammar. There is no discussion about the influence of logic in later periods. In fact, in the debates between Sīrāfī and Mattā, the traces of the objections developed against the logic and the intellectual disputes between the grammarians and the logicians can be followed. Regarding the formation of the Arabic grammar, the works of Abu’l-Aswad Al-Du’alī and his students are pointed out in the sources. It was stated that the fact of lahn was especially influential in the beginning of these studies, and besides, an intellectual effort to reveal the features of Arabic language and to study the Qur’ān in terms of language was also mentioned. After these basic studies, the prominent names in the period up to the works of Khalīl and Sībawayhi were divided into groups as part of Basra and Kūfa grammar schools. In this context, the debate on whether Aristotelian logic was effective in the formation of these studies has been dealt with by three views in the modern period. Ibrāhīm Al-Madkūr clearly states that Aristotelian logic has affected Arabic grammar in terms of content and method in the formative period. In order to prove this, after emphasizing the cultural environment in which Arabic grammar birth, he compares Sībawayhi’s Al-Kitāb with Aristotle’s studies on logic. According to him, combination of various factors, including logic, in the formative period or the fact that Aristotelian logic is effective in determining its direction does not detract from the value of Arabic grammar. ʻAbd Al-Rahmān Al-Hāj Sāleh, on the other hand, after referring to the studies published in the West and the Arab world on the discussion, states that the effect of logic on Arabic grammar was seen in later periods and emphasizes that it draws a completely different direction from logic in matters that are shown as examples of the existence of the effect. According to him, the first Arabic grammarian who used Aristotle’s words is Al-Rummānī and the effect of philosophy and logic began at the end of the third century (ah.), intensified in the fourth century, and Arab thought lost its originality. ʻAbduh Al-Rājihī, on the other hand, after making remarks about the historical process related to Greek grammar schools, works and Syriac grammar and the transfer of logic to Arabic; compares Aristotle’s expressions with the expressions of Sībawayhi by quoting from English and early Arabic translations. In the study, three texts in question will be listed according to their publication dates; and the main ideas, opinions and results emphasized in the articles will be discussed by giving different opinions on the same point; and in order to avoid repetitions the names Madkūr, Sāleh and Rājihī will be used to point to the authors.
Tekstas kaip gyvatvorė Subačius, Paulius V
Archivum Lithuanicum,
12/2022
24
Journal Article
Open access
Text, what it is and what it is like, has always been a topic of discussion in philology. In turn, the variety of description of text and the interconnected definitions of work and document have been ...enormous, and specifying them never ends. As we operate in abstract nouns qualifying human activity, the conceptual metaphor that we choose considerably affects the direction of thinking. The article proposes a critical overview of commonly used images of text: net, structure, fluid water, forest, garden etc., and suggests a new metaphor, ‘text as a hedgerow’. This concept differs particularly from former organicist imagination drawing on the vitality of a wild plant, in that it directs the view to the meeting point of spontaneity and reasoning, the involuntary and the planned, the natural and the acculturated or tamed. Besides the spontaneous pull towards the sun (in the case of literature, towards fame), the image of a hedgerow implies conscious grafting, orderly pruning, and planned shaping. Even more important is the tension between the function prescribed by the author, the editor or the reader, and uninhibited and unpredictable growth. The natural structures of branching out and leafing, determined by vegetative conditions that enact the tendencies of syntactic connectivity, and the tension of form imposed by the pruner, are always complicated. From a processual point of view, we can distinguish two modes of operation that are both opposite and complementary: not restricting freedom of growth and cyclically restraining to prevent exceeding imaginary boundaries. The dialectics of genres characteristic of all human activity in this respect seem to express the whole scale of the means of cultivation. The function of a hedgerow to separate, conceal and cover, as well as the possibility to peep through a gap and slip through it, is beneficial for the philological imagination. The world behind a text (the referential plane) and the behind-the-text consciousness (the intentional plane) on both sides of the textual hedgerow are separated from readers by the text so that they can cast a glance. However, if they try to get in, they are scratched and damage the hedgerow. Genetic criticism usually records only frozen phases of revision and rewriting, not to mention stills of textual changes that have remained in manuscripts. In the best case, crossed-out and inserted words help reconstruct how the pruner worked with the tools, from which side he/she started, and if the job was accomplished, and in how many stages. The article calls for ways to convey the processuality of genesis and to refresh the debate on the methodology of scholarly editing.
In this paper I present my own argument in support of the thesis that de dicto beliefs are, in at least one sense, more basic than de re beliefs. This argument rests on the fact of the progress of ...civilization, which appears, as I try to demonstrate, not to be possible without de dicto beliefs constituting a key part of the mental processes of the inventor. My argument is to counterweigh the force of Tyler Burge’s argument for the fundamentality of de re beliefs, leading to the conclusion that beliefs de re are a necessary condition of language understanding and having propositional attitudes at all (Burge 1977, p. 347-348). The first part of the paper is devoted to the examination of the structure of different versions of transcendental arguments – objective and subjective, the second part focuses on an analysis of Burge’s argument from language understanding, while the aim of the third part is to present the Reader with the argument from the progress of civilization. The exposition of the argument is followed by a discussion of certain possible objections which the argument may face.
Precis: "Enactivist Interventions" Gallagher, Shaun
Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition,
03/2019, Volume:
176, Issue:
3
Book Review, Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
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