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    Carmelics

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    Made withinDC&Austin
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that One may be pessimistic about the prospects of foundational theories of meaning due to the underdevelopment of natural language semantics

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Foundational theories of meaning are answerable to semantic theorizing, since a clear view of semantic facts is required before those facts can be explained
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Natural language semantics is not yet advanced enough to provide a clear grip on the semantic facts that foundational theories of meaning aim to analyze
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Formal semantics for natural language routinely idealizes away from context-dependence, vagueness, and polysemy, which are pervasive features of ordinary meaning.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.A foundational theory that explains only the idealized fragment cannot claim to explain meaning in the philosophically robust sense required by theories of understanding.
      ?

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    • 3.Since the hard cases—indexicality, vagueness, metaphor—remain formally intractable, the semantic facts most in need of foundational explanation are precisely those least illuminated.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Quine's indeterminacy of translation thesis shows that no behavioral evidence can uniquely fix semantic facts, leaving semantics without a stable empirical base.
      ?

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    • 2.Without a stable empirical base, semantic theories multiply underdetermined hypotheses, making foundational theories built on them similarly unstable.
      ?

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    Statements
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    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42