more on this theme | more from this thinker
Full Idea
I defend a version of the holistic approach, and urge that we must give up the concept of reference as basic to an empirical theory of language.
Clarification
The 'holistic' approach looks at all of a language together
Gist of Idea
With a holistic approach, we can give up reference in empirical theories of language
Source
Donald Davidson (Reality without Reference [1977], p.136)
Book Ref
'Reference, Truth and Reality', ed/tr. Platts,Mark [RKP 1980], p.136
A Reaction
He proposes to connect language to the world via the concept of truth, rather than of reference. It is a brilliant idea, and is the key issue in philosophy of language. I go back to animals, which seem to care about situations rather than things.
6387 | A minimum requirement for a theory of meaning is that it include an account of truth [Davidson] |
6388 | Is reference the key place where language and the world meet? [Davidson] |
6389 | To explain the reference of a name, you must explain its sentence-role, so reference can't be defined nonlinguistically [Davidson] |
6390 | With a holistic approach, we can give up reference in empirical theories of language [Davidson] |
6391 | A theory of truth tells us how communication by language is possible [Davidson] |