In his "Meaning and Formal Semantics in Generative Grammar" (Erkenntnis 80(1):61-87, 2015), Stephen Schiffer Schiffer argues that truth-conditional semantics is a poor fit with generative ...linguistics. In particular, he thinks that it fails to explain speakers' abilities to understand the sentences of their language. In its place, he recommends his "Best Bet Theory"—a theory which aims to directly explain speakers' abilities to mean things by their utterances and know what others mean by their utterances. I argue that Schiffer does not provide good reason to prefer the Best Best Theory over truth-conditional semantics in the context of generative linguistics. First, his negative arguments against the truth-conditional approach are unpersuasive, and second, the Best Bet Theory involves an explanatory circularity which makes it unfit for linguistic theorizing. I conclude that the Best Bet Theory is thus not even a viable competitor to truth-conditional semantics in generative linguistics.
Are social groups real in any sense that is independent of the thoughts, actions, and beliefs of the individuals making up the group? Using methods of philosophy to examine such longstanding ...sociological questions, Margaret Gilbert gives a general characterization of the core phenomena at issue in the domain of human social life. After developing detailed analyses of a number of central everyday concepts of social phenomena--including shared action, a social convention, a group's belief, and a group itself--she proposes that the core social phenomena among human beings are "plural subject" phenomena. In her analyses Gilbert discusses the work of such thinkers as Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Max Weber, and David Lewis. "Gilbert's book aims to ... exhibit some general and structural features of the conceptual scheme in terms of which we think about social groups, collective action, social convention, and shared belief... It offers an important corrective to individualistic thinking in the social sciences..."--Michael Root, Philosophical Review "In this rich and rewarding work, Margaret Gilbert provides a novel and detailed account of our everyday concepts of social collectivity. In so doing she makes a seminal contribution to ... some vexed issues in the philosophy of social science... An intellectually pioneering work."--John D. Greenwood, Social Epistemology
On Social Facts Gilbert, Margaret
2020, 1992, 2020-07-07
eBook
Are social groups real in any sense that is independent of the thoughts, actions, and beliefs of the individuals making up the group? Using methods of philosophy to examine such longstanding ...sociological questions, Margaret Gilbert gives a general characterization of the core phenomena at issue in the domain of human social life. After developing detailed analyses of a number of central everyday concepts of social phenomena--including shared action, a social convention, a group's belief, and a group itself--she proposes that the core social phenomena among human beings are "plural subject" phenomena. In her analyses Gilbert discusses the work of such thinkers as Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Max Weber, and David Lewis. "Gilbert's book aims to... exhibit some general and structural features of the conceptual scheme in terms of which we think about social groups, collective action, social convention, and shared belief... It offers an important corrective to individualistic thinking in the social sciences..."--Michael Root, Philosophical Review "In this rich and rewarding work, Margaret Gilbert provides a novel and detailed account of our everyday concepts of social collectivity. In so doing she makes a seminal contribution to... some vexed issues in the philosophy of social science... An intellectually pioneering work."--John D. Greenwood, Social Epistemology
Pleonastic possible worlds Steinberg, Alexander
Philosophical studies,
07/2013, Volume:
164, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The role of possible worlds in philosophy is hard to overestimate. Nevertheless, their nature and existence is very controversial. This is particularly serious, since their standard applications ...depend on there being sufficiently many of them. The paper develops an account of possible worlds on which it is particularly easy to believe in their existence: an account of possible worlds as pleonastic entities. Pleonastic entities are entities whose existence can be validly inferred from statements that neither refer to nor quantify over them as a matter of conceptual necessity. Definitions are proposed that ensure that this is the case for possible worlds.
SCHIFFER ON VAGUENESS EKLUND, MATTI
Pacific philosophical quarterly,
March 2006, Volume:
87, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
: I go through, and criticize, Stephen Schiffer's account of vagueness and the sorites paradox. I discuss his notion of a happy‐face solution to a paradox, his appeal to vagueness‐related partial ...belief, his claim that indeterminacy is a psychological notion, and his view that the sorites premise and the inference rule of modus ponens are indeterminate.
Norris discusses Donald Davidson's and Stephen Schiffer's ideas on the limits of analysis from some of Davidson's essays and Schiffer's book "Remnants of Meaning." Schiffer is correct that the ...defeatist "solution" cannot come close to describing or explaining what makes convergence possible.
Schiffer on Meaning and Value Sturgeon, Nicholas L.
The Journal of philosophy,
11/1990, Volume:
87, Issue:
11
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Moral realism is a more interesting position than Stephen Schiffer portrays it to be. Schiffer's opinion on the issue of moral realism and moral cognitivism is examined.
A relativist alternative to the concept of antirealism is presented in relation to Stephen Schiffer's article on moral cognitivism and realism. Schiffer's concept of cognitivist antirealism is ...discussed.
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