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Functional Role Semantics
Inferential role semantics (also conceptual role semantics, functional role semantics, procedural semantics, semantic inferentialism) is an approach to the theory of meaning that identifies the meaning of an expression with its relationship to other expressions (typically its inferential relations with other expressions), in contradistinction to denotationalism, according to which denotations are the primary sort of meaning. Overview Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is considered an early proponent of what is now called inferentialism.P. Stekeler-Weithofer (2016)"Hegel's Analytic Pragmatism", University of Leipzig, pp. 122–4. He believed that the ground for the axioms and the foundation for the validity of the inferences are the right consequences and that the axioms do not explain the consequence. In its current form, inferential role semantics originated in the work of Wilfrid Sellars. Contemporary proponents of semantic inferentialism include Robert Brandom, Gilbert Harman, Pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inference
Inferences are steps in logical reasoning, moving from premises to logical consequences; etymologically, the word '' infer'' means to "carry forward". Inference is theoretically traditionally divided into deduction and induction, a distinction that in Europe dates at least to Aristotle (300s BC). Deduction is inference deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true, with the laws of valid inference being studied in logic. Induction is inference from particular evidence to a universal conclusion. A third type of inference is sometimes distinguished, notably by Charles Sanders Peirce, contradistinguishing abduction from induction. Various fields study how inference is done in practice. Human inference (i.e. how humans draw conclusions) is traditionally studied within the fields of logic, argumentation studies, and cognitive psychology; artificial intelligence researchers develop automated inference systems to emulate human inference. Statist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Fodor
Jerry Alan Fodor ( ; April 22, 1935 – November 29, 2017) was an American philosopher and the author of works in the fields of philosophy of mind and cognitive science. His writings in these fields laid the groundwork for the modularity of mind and the language of thought hypotheses, and he is recognized as having had "an enormous influence on virtually every portion of the philosophy of mind literature since 1960." At the time of his death in 2017, he held the position of State of New Jersey Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at Rutgers University, and had taught previously at the City University of New York Graduate Center and MIT. Life and career Jerry Fodor was born in New York City on April 22, 1935, and was of Jewish descent. He received his degree (''summa cum laude'') from Columbia University in 1956, where he wrote a senior thesis on Søren Kierkegaard. and studied with Sidney Morgenbesser and Arthur Danto. He then earned a PhD in philosophy from Princeton Univer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theories Of Language
A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, and research. Theories can be scientific, falling within the realm of empirical and testable knowledge, or they may belong to non-scientific disciplines, such as philosophy, art, or sociology. In some cases, theories may exist independently of any formal discipline. In modern science, the term "theory" refers to scientific theories, a well-confirmed type of explanation of nature, made in a way consistent with the scientific method, and fulfilling the criteria required by modern science. Such theories are described in such a way that scientific tests should be able to provide empirical support for it, or empirical contradiction (" falsify") of it. Scientific theories are the most reliable, rigorous, and comprehensive form of scientific k ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Formal Semantics (logic)
In logic, the semantics of logic or formal semantics is the study of the meaning and interpretation of formal languages, formal systems, and (idealizations of) natural languages. This field seeks to provide precise mathematical models that capture the pre-theoretic notions of truth, validity, and logical consequence. While logical syntax concerns the formal rules for constructing well-formed expressions, logical semantics establishes frameworks for determining when these expressions are true and what follows from them. The development of formal semantics has led to several influential approaches, including model-theoretic semantics (pioneered by Alfred Tarski), proof-theoretic semantics (associated with Gerhard Gentzen and Michael Dummett), possible worlds semantics (developed by Saul Kripke and others for modal logic and related systems), algebraic semantics (connecting logic to abstract algebra), and game semantics (interpreting logical validity through game-t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proof-theoretic Semantics
Proof-theoretic semantics is an approach to the semantics of logic that attempts to locate the meaning of propositions and logical connectives not in terms of interpretations, as in Tarskian approaches to semantics, but in the role that the proposition or logical connective plays within a system of inference. Overview Gerhard Gentzen is the founder of proof-theoretic semantics, providing the formal basis for it in his account of cut-elimination for the sequent calculus, and some provocative philosophical remarks about locating the meaning of logical connectives in their introduction rules within natural deduction. The history of proof-theoretic semantics since then has been devoted to exploring the consequences of these ideas. Dag Prawitz extended Gentzen's notion of analytic proof to natural deduction, and suggested that the value of a proof in natural deduction may be understood as its normal form. This idea lies at the basis of the Curry–Howard isomorphism, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semantic Anti-realism (epistemology)
Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett (; 27 June 1925 – 27 December 2011) was an English people, English academic described as "among the most significant British philosophers of the last century and a leading campaigner for racial tolerance and racial equality, equality." He was, until 1992, Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford. He wrote on the history of analytic philosophy, notably as an interpreter of Gottlob Frege, Frege, and made original contributions particularly in philosophy of mathematics, the philosophies of mathematics, philosophy of logic, logic, philosophy of language, language and metaphysics. He was known for his work on truth and meaning and their implications to debates between philosophical realism, realism and anti-realism, a term he helped to popularize. In mathematical logic, he developed an intermediate logic, a logical system intermediate between classical logic and intuitionistic logic that had already been studied by Kurt Gödel: the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Logical Expressivism
Robert Boyce Brandom (; born March 13, 1950) is an American philosopher who teaches at the University of Pittsburgh. He works primarily in philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and philosophical logic, and his academic output manifests both systematic and historical interests in these topics. His work has presented "arguably the first fully systematic and technically rigorous attempt to explain the meaning of linguistic items in terms of their socially norm-governed use ("meaning as use", to cite the Wittgensteinian slogan), thereby also giving a non-representationalist account of the intentionality of thought and the rationality of action as well." Brandom is broadly considered to be part of the American pragmatist tradition in philosophy. In 2003 he won the Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award. Education Brandom earned his BA in 1972 from Yale University and his PhD in 1977 from Princeton University, under Richard Rorty and David Kellogg Lewis. His doctoral thesis was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Truth-conditional Semantics
Truth-conditional semantics is an approach to semantics of natural language that sees meaning (or at least the meaning of assertions) as being the same as, or reducible to, their truth conditions. This approach to semantics is principally associated with Donald Davidson, and attempts to carry out for the semantics of natural language what Tarski's semantic theory of truth achieves for the semantics of logic. Truth-conditional theories of semantics attempt to define the meaning of a given proposition by explaining when the sentence is true. So, for example, because 'snow is white' is true if and only if snow is white, the meaning of 'snow is white' is snow is white. History The first truth-conditional semantics was developed by Donald Davidson in '' Truth and Meaning'' (1967). It applied Tarski's semantic theory of truth to a problem it was not intended to solve, that of giving the meaning of a sentence. Criticism Refutation from necessary truths Scott Soames has harshly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luca Incurvati
Luca Incurvati is a logician and philosopher, currently an associate professor at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam. Incurvati's research areas include set theory, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of language, and metaethics. In set theory and philosophy of maths, Incurvati has argued for the iterative conception of sets, based on a methodology he terms ''inference to the best conception''. Incurvati is currently the principal investigator in the Amsterdam-based project ''From the Expression of Disagreement to New Foundations for Expressivist Semantics'', for which he was awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros. This project proposes a inferentialist expressivist treatment of disagreement, in particular arguing that the speech act of ''rejection'' is not reducible to negated assertion. For a paper produced as part of this project, Incurvati and coauthor Julian Schlöder received the 2019 Marc Sanders Prize in Meta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denotation
In linguistics and philosophy, the denotation of a word or expression is its strictly literal meaning. For instance, the English word "warm" denotes the property of having high temperature. Denotation is contrasted with other aspects of meaning including '' connotation''. For instance, the word "warm" may evoke calmness, coziness, or kindness (as in the warmth of someone's personality) but these associations are not part of the word's denotation. Similarly, an expression's denotation is separate from pragmatic inferences it may trigger. For instance, describing something as "warm" often implicates that it is not hot, but this is once again not part of the word's denotation. Denotation plays a major role in several fields. Within semantics and philosophy of language, denotation is studied as an important aspect of meaning. In mathematics and computer science, assignments of denotations are assigned to expressions are a crucial step in defining interpreted formal languages. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ned Block
Ned Joel Block (born 1942) is an American philosopher working in philosophy of mind who has made important contributions to the understanding of consciousness and the philosophy of cognitive science. He has been professor of philosophy and psychology at New York University since 1996, and a Silver Professor since 2005. Education and career Block obtained his PhD from Harvard University in 1971 under the direction of Hilary Putnam. He joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as an assistant professor of philosophy (1971–1977), and then served as associate professor of philosophy (1977–1983), professor of philosophy (1983–1996) and as chair of the philosophy section (1989–1995). He has, since 1996, been a professor in the departments of philosophy and psychology at New York University (NYU). Block received the Jean Nicod Prize in 2013, and has given the William James Lectures at Harvard University in 2012 and the John Locke Lectures at Oxford University in 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
