Insensitive Semantics – A Defense of Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism

Herman Cappelen is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vassar College and the University of Oslo. He has published extensively in philosophy of language and mind, including articles in Nous, Mind, Mind & Language, Analysis, and Synthese. Ernie Lepore is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He is author of Meaning and Argument (revised edition, Blackwell, 2003) and, with Jerry Fodor, of Holism (Blackwell, 1991). He is editor of Truth and Interpretation (Blackwell, 1989), and co-editor, with Zenon Pylyshyn, of What is Cognitive Science? (Blackwell, 1999), as well as general editor of the Blackwell series Philosophers and Their Critics.

Preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Overview. Part I: From Moderate to Radical Contextualism. 2. Exegesis: The Methodology of Contextualism. 3. The Instability of Context Shifting Arguments. 4. Diagnosis: Why Context Shifting Arguments are Misused. 5. The Instability of Incompleteness Arguments. 6. Digressions: Binding and Hidden Indexicals. Part II: Refutation of Radical Contextualism. 7. Objections to Radical Contextualism (I): Fails Context Sensitivity Tests. 8. Objection to Radical Contextualism (II):Makes Communication Impossible. 9. Objections to Radical Contextualism (III): Internal Inconsistencies. Part III: Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism. 10. Semantic Minimalism. 11. Semantics and Metaphysics. 12. Semantics and Psychology. 13. Speech Act Pluralism. References. Index