Ebook: Doing Worlds with Words: Formal Semantics without Formal Metaphysics

Doing Worlds with Words throws light on the problem of meaning as the meeting point of linguistics, logic and philosophy, and critically assesses the possibilities and limitations of elucidating the nature of meaning by means of formal logic, model theory and model-theoretical semantics. The main thrust of the book is to show that it is misguided to understand model theory metaphysically and so to try to base formal semantics on something like formal metaphysics; rather, the book states that model theory and similar tools of the analysis of language should be understood as capturing the semantically relevant, especially inferential, structure of language. From this vantage point, the reader gains a new light on many of the traditional concepts and problems of logic and philosophy of language, such as meaning, reference, truth and the nature of formal logic.

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Doing Worlds with Words throws light on the problem of meaning as the meeting point of linguistics, logic and philosophy, and critically assesses the possibilities and limitations of elucidating the nature of meaning by means of formal logic, model theory and model-theoretical semantics. The main thrust of the book is to show that it is misguided to understand model theory metaphysically and so to try to base formal semantics on something like formal metaphysics; rather, the book states that model theory and similar tools of the analysis of language should be understood as capturing the semantically relevant, especially inferential, structure of language. From this vantage point, the reader gains a new light on many of the traditional concepts and problems of logic and philosophy of language, such as meaning, reference, truth and the nature of formal logic.

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Doing Worlds with Words throws light on the problem of meaning as the meeting point of linguistics, logic and philosophy, and critically assesses the possibilities and limitations of elucidating the nature of meaning by means of formal logic, model theory and model-theoretical semantics. The main thrust of the book is to show that it is misguided to understand model theory metaphysically and so to try to base formal semantics on something like formal metaphysics; rather, the book states that model theory and similar tools of the analysis of language should be understood as capturing the semantically relevant, especially inferential, structure of language. From this vantage point, the reader gains a new light on many of the traditional concepts and problems of logic and philosophy of language, such as meaning, reference, truth and the nature of formal logic.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xvi
Introduction: Logic and the Problem of Meaning....Pages 1-7
Roots of Logical Schematization....Pages 8-25
Axiomatic Systems....Pages 26-47
Model Theory....Pages 48-75
Quantification....Pages 76-105
Truth....Pages 106-121
Denotation....Pages 122-137
Meaning....Pages 138-157
Criterial Reconstruction....Pages 158-176
Necessity....Pages 177-191
Language and the World....Pages 192-217
Back Matter....Pages 218-240

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Doing Worlds with Words throws light on the problem of meaning as the meeting point of linguistics, logic and philosophy, and critically assesses the possibilities and limitations of elucidating the nature of meaning by means of formal logic, model theory and model-theoretical semantics. The main thrust of the book is to show that it is misguided to understand model theory metaphysically and so to try to base formal semantics on something like formal metaphysics; rather, the book states that model theory and similar tools of the analysis of language should be understood as capturing the semantically relevant, especially inferential, structure of language. From this vantage point, the reader gains a new light on many of the traditional concepts and problems of logic and philosophy of language, such as meaning, reference, truth and the nature of formal logic.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xvi
Introduction: Logic and the Problem of Meaning....Pages 1-7
Roots of Logical Schematization....Pages 8-25
Axiomatic Systems....Pages 26-47
Model Theory....Pages 48-75
Quantification....Pages 76-105
Truth....Pages 106-121
Denotation....Pages 122-137
Meaning....Pages 138-157
Criterial Reconstruction....Pages 158-176
Necessity....Pages 177-191
Language and the World....Pages 192-217
Back Matter....Pages 218-240
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