Pragmatist Semantics - A Use-Based Approach to Linguistic Representation

José L. Zalabardo defends a pragmatist account of the meaning of central semantic discourses-ascriptions of truth, of propositional attitudes, and of meanings. On Zalabardo's account, what makes the sentences of these discourses have the meanings they have are the procedures that regulate their acceptance and rejection.

List of contents

• Preface


• 1: Representational discourse


• 2: The open-question argument in ethics


• 3: The open-question argument in semantics


• 4: Some reactions


• 5: Pragmatist meaning grounds


• 6: Belief and desire


• 7: Meaning and truth


• 8: Harmony and abstraction


• 9: The primacy of practice


• Epilogue: The meaning grounds of meaning-ground specifications

About the author

José L. Zalabardo is Professor at the Philosophy Department at University College London. He was born in Madrid, and educated at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the University of St. Andrews, and the University of Michigan, where he obtained a PhD in 1994. He was a lecturer at the University of Birmingham from 1994 to 2000, when he joined UCL. He has published numerous articles in academic journals and collective volumes. He is also the author of Introduction to the Theory of Logic (Westview Press, 2000), Scepticism and Reliable Belief (OUP, 2012), and Representation and Reality in Wittgenstein's Tractatus (OUP, 2015), and the editor of Wittgenstein's Early Philosophy (OUP, 2012).

Summary

José L. Zalabardo defends a pragmatist account of the meaning of central semantic discourses—ascriptions of truth, of propositional attitudes, and of meanings. On Zalabardo's account, what makes the sentences of these discourses have the meanings they have are the procedures that regulate their acceptance and rejection.

Product details

• Authors: Zalabardo , José Zalabardo, José L. Zalabardo, Prof Jose (Professor of Philosophy Zalabardo, Prof Jose L. (Professor of Philosophy Zalabardo
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 27.04.2023
• EAN: 9780192874757
• ISBN: 978-0-19-287475-7
• No. of pages: 250
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Miscellaneous; Philosophy of Language, PHILOSOPHY / Metaphysics, PHILOSOPHY / Language, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Semantics, Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology, Philosophy: metaphysics and ontology, Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics, Semantics, discourse analysis, etc