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Single Idea 1619
[filed under theme 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 7. Meaning Holism / b. Language holism
]
Full Idea
This essay offered a verificationist account of language without the logical positivist error of supposing that verification could be reduced to a mere sequence of sense-experiences.
Clarification
Verificationism in language says meaning is entirely a matter of connections with actual experience
Gist of Idea
There is an attempt to give a verificationist account of meaning, without the error of reducing everything to sensations
Source
comment on Willard Quine (On What There Is [1948]) by Daniel C. Dennett - works
Book Ref
Quine,Willard: 'From a Logical Point of View' [Harper and Row 1963], p.1
A Reaction
This is because of Quine's holistic view of theory, so that sentences are not tested individually, where sense-data might be needed as support, but as whole teams which need to be simple, coherent etc.
The
16 ideas
with the same theme
[meaning always involves an entire language]:
9180
|
Holism says all language use is also a change in the rules of language
[Frege, by Dummett]
|
4142
|
To understand a sentence means to understand a language
[Wittgenstein]
|
1619
|
There is an attempt to give a verificationist account of meaning, without the error of reducing everything to sensations
[Dennett on Quine]
|
2334
|
Meaning holism tried to show that you can't get fixed meanings built out of observation terms
[Putnam]
|
2335
|
Understanding a sentence involves background knowledge and can't be done in isolation
[Putnam]
|
2336
|
Holism seems to make fixed definition more or less impossible
[Putnam]
|
2560
|
Can meanings remain the same when beliefs change?
[Rorty]
|
6394
|
The pattern of sentences held true gives sentences their meaning
[Davidson]
|
2477
|
If to understand "fish" you must know facts about them, where does that end?
[Fodor]
|
2433
|
For holists no two thoughts are ever quite the same, which destroys faith in meaning
[Fodor]
|
2761
|
If the meanings of sentences depend on other sentences, how did we learn language?
[Dancy,J]
|
3000
|
Meaning holism is a crazy doctrine
[Fodor]
|
7320
|
Holism cannot give a coherent account of scientific methodology
[Wright,C, by Miller,A]
|
3205
|
Semantic holism means new evidence for a belief changes the belief, and we can't agree on concepts
[Rey]
|
9381
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If some inferences are needed to fix meaning, but we don't know which, they are all relevant
[Fodor/Lepore, by Boghossian]
|
4606
|
To understand 'birds warble' and 'tigers growl', you must also understand 'tigers warble'
[Heil]
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