A Review of Semantic Holism and Fodor-Lepor Criticism Against It

Please enable javascript in your browser.

Khonsari, Sepideh | 2018

1339 Viewed

Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
Language: Farsi
Document No: 51343 (42)
University: Sharif University of Technology
Department: Philosophy of Science
Advisor(s): Azadegan, Ebrahim
Abstract:
Semantic Holism is one of the most effective and wide spreading topics in philosophy of language. W.V.Quine with his “Two Dogmas” article has coined semantic holism with his name. After Quine, semantic holism absorbed many attentions in the philosophy of language and also other fields. Even, in neural networks and artificial intelligence, holistic presumptions about meaning are accepted. Nevertheless, arguments for meaning holism and their validation has not tended enough. Fodor and Lepore, in Semantic Holism; A Shopper’s Guide, are trying to reconstruct arguments for semantic holism that had been presented by philosophers like Quine, Davidson, Dennet, Lewis, and Churchland and then criticize them. The writers believe that semantic holism has remarkable consequences which have not considered adequately. They mention that they criticize the arguments of semantic holists in this book, but they don’t want to reject the whole idea, they simply think the present arguments are invalid. The thesis aims is to make a clear reconstruction of meaning holist’s claims and arguments and author’s rejections, concentrating on Fodor and Lepore’s book
Keywords:
Semantics ; Philosophy of Language ; Holism ; Semantic Holism ; Analytic/Symthetic Distinction ; Intentionality ; Meaning Identity