Some Remarks on Putnam's Contributions to Semantics

Theoria 79 (3):229-241 (2013)
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Abstract

After a critical discussion of Putnam's early work on the analytic–synthetic distinction, this article discusses seven contributions that Putnam has made to the philosophy of language. These contributions are (1) to understanding the role of definitions in science and in ordinary discourse; (2) to recognizing the role of stereotypes in explaining meaning; (3) to acknowledging the minimal role of explicative understanding in having linguistic competence with natural kind words; (4) to distinguishing sharply between identifying natural kinds and determining their more fundamental natures; (5) to exploring a division of linguistic labour – a role for social interaction in determining reference, especially of natural kind terms; (6) to establishing a broadly unified causal account of the reference of ordinary natural kind terms and scientific physical magnitude terms; and (7) to reviving a conception of scientific language that allows for trans-theoretical reference and one sort of trans-theoretical meaning

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Tyler Burge
University of California, Los Angeles

Citations of this work

Inferentialism and Semantic Externalism: A Neglected Debate between Sellars and Putnam.Takaaki Matsui - 2021 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 29 (1):126-145.

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References found in this work

Individualism and the Mental.Tyler Burge - 1979 - In John Heil (ed.), Philosophy of Mind: A Guide and Anthology. Oxford University Press.
Is semantics possible?Hilary Putnam - 1970 - Metaphilosophy 1 (3):187–201.
From a Logical Point of View.Willard Orman Quine - 1953 - Harvard University Press.
The Analytic and the Synthetic.Hilary Putnam - 1962 - Critica 1 (2):109-113.
Two dogmas of empiricism.W. V. Quine - 2010 - In Darragh Byrne & Max Kölbel (eds.), Arguing about language. New York: Routledge.

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