A Refutation of Goodman's Type‐Token Theory of Notation

Dialectica 57 (3):330-336 (2003)
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Abstract

In Languages of Art, Nelson Goodman presents a general theory of symbolic notation. However, I show that his theory could not adequately explain possible cases of natural language notational uses, and argue that this outcome undermines, not only Goodman's own theory, but any broadly type versus token based account of notational structure.Given this failure, an alternative representational theory is proposed, in which different visual or perceptual aspects of a given physical inscription each represent a different letter, word, or other notational item. Such a view is strongly supported by the completely conventional relation between inscriptions and notation, as shown by encryption techniques etc.

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John Dilworth
Western Michigan University

Citations of this work

What it takes to make a word.Wade Munroe - 2022 - Synthese 200 (4):1-30.
What's in a Name?Don S. Levi - 2008 - Philosophical Investigations 31 (4):340-358.

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References found in this work

The Structure of Appearance.Nelson Goodman - 1951 - Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press.
Languages of Art.Nelson Goodman - 1970 - Philosophy and Rhetoric 3 (1):62-63.
The Structure of Appearance.Nelson Goodman - 1956 - Studia Logica 4:255-261.
A Counter-Example to Locke’s Thesis.Kit Fine - 2000 - The Monist 83 (3):357-361.

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