Single Idea 2433

[catalogued under 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 7. Meaning Holism / b. Language holism]

Full Idea

If what you are thinking depends on all of what you believe, then nobody ever thinks the same thing twice. …That is why so many semantic holists (Quine, Putnam, Rorty, Churchland, probably Wittgenstein) end up being semantic eliminativists.

Gist of Idea

For holists no two thoughts are ever quite the same, which destroys faith in meaning

Source

Jerry A. Fodor (The Elm and the Expert [1993], §1.2b)

Book Reference

Fodor,Jerry A.: 'The Elm and the Expert' [MIT 1995], p.6


A Reaction

If linguistic holism is nonsense, this is easily settled. What I say about breakfast is not changed by reading some Gibbon yesterday.