Leonard Linsky (November 13, 1922 – August 27, 2012) was an
American philosopher
American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophers affiliated with the United States. The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can neverthe ...
of language. He was an Emeritus Professor of the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
.
Philosophical work
Linsky was best known for work on the
theory of reference, and also as a historian of early
analytical philosophy
Analytic philosophy is a broad movement within Western philosophy, especially English-speaking world, anglophone philosophy, focused on analysis as a philosophical method; clarity of prose; rigor in arguments; and making use of formal logic, mat ...
.
He is often cited as an example of the "orthodox view" in the theory of reference. He questioned the "intensional isomorphism" concept of
Rudolf Carnap
Rudolf Carnap (; ; 18 May 1891 – 14 September 1970) was a German-language philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the Vienna Circle and an advocate of logical positivism.
...
.
Books
Authored
*''Referring'', London: Routledge & Keagan Paul, 1967.
*''Names and Descriptions'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.
*''Oblique Contexts'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Edited
*''Semantics and the Philosophy of Language: A Collection of Readings'', Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1952.
*''Reference and Modality (Oxford Readings in Philosophy)'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.
See also
*
American philosophy
American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophers affiliated with the United States. The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can neverthe ...
*
List of American philosophers
American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophers affiliated with the United States. The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can neverthe ...
Notes
Further reading
*
William Tait (ed.), ''Early Analytic Philosophy: Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein; Essays in Honor of Leonard Linsky'', Chicago, Ill.: Open Court, 1997.
*"Leonard Linsky”, article in ''Dictionary of Contemporary American Philosophers'', Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2005.
1922 births
American historians of philosophy
Analytic philosophers
21st-century American philosophers
20th-century American philosophers
American philosophers of language
2012 deaths
University of Chicago faculty
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