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Ideas for 'The Elm and the Expert', 'The Second Sex' and 'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism'

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3 ideas

19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 2. Semantics
Broad semantics holds that the basic semantic properties are truth and denotation [Fodor]
     Full Idea: Broad semantic theories generally hold that the basic semantic properties of thoughts are truth and denotation.
     From: Jerry A. Fodor (The Elm and the Expert [1993], §1.2b)
     A reaction: I think truth and denotation are the basic semantic properties, but I am dubious about whole-hearted broad semantic theories, so I seem to have gone horribly wrong somewhere.
19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 3. Predicates
Russell uses 'propositional function' to refer to both predicates and to attributes [Quine on Russell]
     Full Idea: Russell used the phrase 'propositional function' (adapted from Frege) to refer sometimes to predicates and sometimes to attributes.
     From: comment on Bertrand Russell (The Philosophy of Logical Atomism [1918]) by Willard Quine - Philosophy of Logic Ch.5
     A reaction: He calls Russell 'confused' on this, and he would indeed be guilty of what now looks like a classic confusion, between the properties and the predicates that express them. Only a verificationist would hold such a daft view.
19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 6. Truth-Conditions Semantics
Externalist semantics are necessary to connect the contents of beliefs with how the world is [Fodor]
     Full Idea: You need an externalist semantics to explain why the contents of beliefs should have anything to do with how the world is.
     From: Jerry A. Fodor (The Elm and the Expert [1993], §4)
     A reaction: Since externalist semantics only emerged in the 1970s, that implies that no previous theory had any notion that language had some connection to how the world is. Eh?