A forgotten strand of reception history: understanding pure semantics

Synthese 194 (1):121-141 (2017)
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Abstract

I explore a strand of reception history that follows Rudolf Carnap’s shift from a purely syntactical analysis of constructed languages to his conception of pure semantics. My exploration focuses on Gustav Bergmann’s and Everett Hall’s interpretation of pure semantics, their understanding of what constitutes a ’formal’ investigation of language, and their arguments concerning the relationship between expressions and their extra-linguistic referents. I argue that Bergmann and Hall strongly misread Carnap’s semantic project and, subsequently, their misunderstanding is passed down through colleagues and students.

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Citations of this work

Wilfrid Sellars and the Foundations of Normativity.Peter Olen - 2016 - London, England: Palgrave-Macmillan.
The Realist Challenge to Conceptual Pragmatism.Peter Olen - 2015 - European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 7 (2):152-167.
Response to Critics.Peter Olen - 2019 - Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 7 (3).
Characterizing generics are material inference tickets: a proof-theoretic analysis.Preston Stovall - 2019 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy (5):668-704.

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References found in this work

The logical syntax of language.Rudolf Carnap - 1937 - London,: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & co.. Edited by Amethe Smeaton.
Introduction to Semantics.Rudolf Carnap - 1942 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Formalization of logic.Rudolf Carnap - 1943 - Cambridge, Mass.,: Harvard university press.

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