Ways of Meaning: Introduction to a Philosophy of Language - Softcover

Platts, Mark De Bretton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0710000014 ISBN 13: 9780710000019

Publisher: Routledge, 1979

Synopsis

The philosophy of language is not an isolated philosophical discipline of merely technical interest to other philosophers. Rather, as Mark Platts shows, the philosophy of language can help to solve traditional problems in other areas of philosophy, such as metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Ways of Meaning provides a clear, comprehensive introduction to such issues at the forefront of philosophy. Assuming only minimum knowledge of elementary formal logic, the book shows how taking truth as the central notion in the theory of meaning can clarify the relations between language, reality, and knowledge, and thus illuminate the nature of each. This second edition of the book contains a new chapter on the notions of natural-kind words and natural kinds. Unlike other discussions of the subject, this one places the semantic issues involved in the context of questions about the relations between knowing subjects and known objects. The author has also added a bibliography of further readings published since the first edition appeared in 1979.

About this title

Review

-- Peter Ludlow, State University of New York at Stony Brook

" This is the book that turned on a generation of philosophers of language--turned them on to the Davidsonian program, that is ... More than that, he surveyed a number of natural language constructions, showing how they could be handled in such a framework, and thereby mapping out the landscape of what has since become a full-blown philosophical research program." -- Peter Ludlow, State University of New York at Stony Brook

& quot; This is the book that turned on a generation of philosophers of language--turned them on to the Davidsonian program, that is ... More than that, he surveyed a number of natural language constructions, showing how they could be handled in such a framework, and thereby mapping out the landscape of what has since become a full-blown philosophical research program.& quot; -- Peter Ludlow, State University of New York at Stony Brook

"This is the book that turned on a generation of philosophers of language--turned them on to the Davidsonian program, that is ... More than that, he surveyed a number of natural language constructions, showing how they could be handled in such a framework, and thereby mapping out the landscape of what has since become a full-blown philosophical research program."--Peter Ludlow, State University of New York at Stony Brook

From the Back Cover

This second edition of the book contains a new chapter on the notions of natural-kind words and natural kinds. Unlike other discussions of the subject, this one places the sematic issues involved in the context of questions about the relations between knowing subjects and known objects. The author has also added a bibliography of further readings published since the first edition appeared in 1979.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1979
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0710000014
• ISBN 13: 9780710000019
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288