Truth, etc. is a wide-ranging study of ancient logic based upon the John Locke lectures given by the eminent philosopher Jonathan Barnes in Oxford. The book presupposes no knowledge of logic and no skill in ancient languages: all ancient texts are cited in English translation; and logical symbols and logical jargon are avoided so far as possible. Anyone interested in ancient philosophy, or in logic and its history, will find much to learn and enjoy here.
On the Pragmatics of Communication
Jürgen Habermas
Edited by Maeve Cooke
Jürgen Habermas's program in formal pragmatics fulfills two main functions. First, it serves as the theoretical underpinning for his theory of communicative action, a crucial element in his theory of society. Second, it contributes to ongoing philosophical discussion of problems concerning meaning, truth, rationality, and action. By the "pragmatic" dimensions of language, Habermas means those pertaining specifically to the employment of sentences in utterances. He makes clear that "formal" is to be understood in a tolerant sense to refer to the rational reconstruction of general intuitions or competences. Formal pragmatics, then, aims at a systematic reconstruction of the intuitive linguistic knowledge of competent subjects as it is used in everyday communicative practices. His program may thus be distinguished from empirical pragmatics--for example, sociolinguistics--which looks primarily at particular situations of use.
This anthology brings together for the first time, in revised or new translation, ten essays that present the main concerns of Habermas's program in formal pragmatics. Its aim is to convey a sense of the overall purpose of his linguistic investigations while introducing the reader to their specific details, in particular to his theories of meaning, truth, rationality, and action.
Contexts: Meaning, Truth, and the Use of Language by Stefano Predelli
Book Description
Stefano Predelli comes to the defence of
the traditional 'formal' approach to natural-language semantics,
arguing that it has been misrepresented not only by its critics, but
also by its foremost defenders. In Contexts he offers a fundamental
reappraisal, with particular attention to the treatment of indexicality
and other forms of contextual dependence which have been the focus of
much recent controversy. Predelli shows how his metasemantic approach
deals with a variety of important semantic and philosophical puzzles.
He analyses the relationship between indexicality and logical validity,
discussing well-known problem cases, and demonstrating the limits of
token-reflexive systems. He investigates the relationships between
truth-conditions and assignments of truth-values at particular points
of evaluation, and shows that so-called contextualist worries do not
undermine the traditional semantic approach. Finally, he shows that
semantic befuddlement about the interpretation of attitude reports is
based on an inadequate understanding of the scope of natural language
semantics. Contexts will be of great interest to all philosophers of
language, and to many linguists. (Amazon.com)
The Nature of Truth
Classic and Contemporary Perspectives
Edited by Michael P. Lynch
"What is truth?" has long been the philosophical question par
excellence. The Nature of Truth collects in one volume the twentieth
century's most influential philosophical work on the subject.
