Provides an account of how necessary subjective syntactic investments on the part of speakers affect the semantic contents of their words and the possibilities for their thought-contents.

Think of this paper as an exercise in applied philosophy of language. It has both semantic and deontic concerns. More than about the meaning of ‘marriage,’ it is about how one goes about determining the meaning of social kind terms like ‘marriage’. But it is equally about the place of philosophy of language in the legislative sphere, and inter alia, about the roles and responsibilities of philosophers in public life.

Two central tenets of externalist theories of word individuation are: the claim that some terms derive their meaning from causal connections to the world , and the claim that some terms derive them from intentional connections to the linguistic community . A normative conception of language underlies the latter claim . It is this conception which motivates the reliance on a principle of literal interpretation in interpreting ascriptions of intentional content. ;The new theory of grammar initiated by Chomsky yields radically (...) individualistic conceptions of language and of mind incompatible with those underlying communalist theories of conceptual content. ;The feasibility of the principle of literal interpretation postulated by normativist theories depends on the possibility of identifying the language of the subject. This condition grounds an important distinction between cases of deference to science and cases of deference to communal norms. For while our shared commitments to science are a function of our sharing the same world, and thus transcend language communities, commitments to linguistic norms differ essentially across language communities. ;The conception of language and concept acquisition underlying normativism leaves unexplained the facts of language change. Moreover, the problem of concept-individuation, which communalism seeks to solve by appeal to an individual's normative commitments, merely resurfaces as that of individuating linguistic communities. ;Subjectivism provides an explanation of language change, as well as an important insight into the historical chain picture of the reference of names. ;Moreover, the view that humans are innately endowed with concepts is problematic for an externalist theory of concept-individuation. I conclude that a relational theory of concept-individuation is inconsistent with Chomskian premises. (shrink)

Conventional behavior is behavior engaged in because of, or due to, convention. There are two senses of “due to”: the convention explains my behavior by actually causing it; or the convention explains my behavior by providing reasons I have for engaging in this behavior. Either way, behaviors cannot be explained by conventions unless the conventions exist; and conventions cannot provide me with (conscious) reasons for engaging in my behavior unless I know what they are. I argue that, far from causing (...) behavior, conventions are the results of behavior: conventions exist, in the sense in which they may be said to exist at all, only retrospectively. Moreover, as natural language speakers, we are ever at best in the position of thinking we know what the conventions are. But thinking one is acting conventionally is not the same thing as acting conventionally. Claims about the role of convention in linguistic competence interestingly both mirror and differ from claims about the role of genes in evolutionary theory, as I briefly pointout by way of conclusion. (shrink)

Ce livre s’inscrit dans l’un des axes du programme de recherches interdisciplinaires Generatio, porté par la Maison des Sciences de l’homme d’Aquitaine, qui a exploré « La construction des jeunes générations en Europe, xixe-xxie siècle ». Le titre de cet ouvrage est fidèle à son contenu : il fait le point sur les nombreuses recherches menées depuis les années 1980 dans le domaine de la place – quantitative et qualitative – accordée au masculin et au féminin dans les ouvrages de (...) littérature de... (shrink)

À travers des actes comme défiler, prêter serment, communier, et leurs mises en scène ritualisées, orchestrées par les détenteurs du pouvoir politique, l'objectif est de rassembler les assujettis sociaux et de leur administrer une double preuve, celle du bien fondé de leur obéissance au pouvoir et corollairement de leur harmonieuse association. Les cérémonies ritualisées visent à susciter une exaltation collective, à faire monter l'intensité émotionnelle tout en donnant à voir un idéal d'unité harmonieuse de la société, dans les mises en (...) scène jouées. Le but de cet article est de montrer comment les gouvernants ont toujours su, à travers les époques, créer des cérémonies rituelles pour mobiliser les individus, pour les conditionner, de façon à les faire adhérer en actes aux desseins du pouvoir politique, par une participation pleine et entière de l'âme et du corps.Through actions like scrolling, oath, communion, and their ritualized stagings, orchestrated by the holders of political power, the objective is to bring together social and subject to administer a double proof of the soundness of their obedience to authority and a corollary of their harmonious association. Ritualized ceremonies designed to elicit a collective exaltation, to raise the emotional intensity while providing an ideal view of harmonious unity of society, in the staging played. The purpose of this article is to show how governments have always known, through the ages, creating rituals to mobilize individuals to condition, so join them in the action plans of the political power through participation full of soul and body. (shrink)