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Insensitive Semantics - by Herman Cappelen & Ernest Lepore (Paperback)

Insensitive Semantics - by  Herman Cappelen & Ernest Lepore (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><i>Insensitive Semantics</i> is an overview of and contribution to the debates about how to accommodate context sensitivity within a theory of human communication, investigating the effects of context on communicative interaction and, as a corollary, what a context of utterance is and what it is to be in one. <br /> <ul> <br /> </li> <li>Provides detailed and wide-ranging overviews of the central positions and arguments surrounding contextualism</li> </ul> <br /> <p><br /> </p> <ul> <br /> </li> <li>Addresses broad and varied aspects of the distinction between the semantic and non-semantic content of language</li> </ul> <br /> <p><br /> </p> <ul> <br /> </li> <li>Defends a distinctive and explanatorily powerful combination of semantic minimalism and speech act pluralism</li> </ul> <br /> <p><br /> </p> <ul> <br /> </li> <li>Confronts core problems which not only run to the heart of philosophy of language and linguistics, but which arise in epistemology, metaphysics, and moral philosophy as well</li> </ul><p/><br></br><p><b> From the Back Cover </b></p></br></br>Since the end of the nineteenth century, philosophy of language has been plagued by an extensive and notoriously confusing literature on how to draw the distinction between semantic and non-semantic content. This debate, at its deepest level, is about how to accommodate context sensitivity within a theory of human communication.<br /> <p><br /> </p> <p><i>Insensitive Semantics</i> is a book about this debate, investigating the effects of context on communicative interaction and, as a corollary, what a context of utterance is and what it is to be in one. To this end, the authors defend a combination of two views: <i>semantic minimalism</i>and<i>speech act pluralism</i>. If these views are right, then many philosophers and linguists are guilty of some profound mistakes, with wide-ranging implications for philosophy of language but also epistemology, metaphysics, moral philosophy, and other branches of pilosophy.<br /> </p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"This book is an ingenious defense of two positions not widely thought to be compatible: truth-conditional semantics and semantic minimalism. Cappelen and Lepore's highly controversial views are already, and will continue to be, at the center of inquiry into the nature of linguistic communication." <i>Jason Stanley, University of Michigan</i><br /> <p><br /> </p> <p>"Cappelen and Lepore have performed a singular service in bringing together the threads of the contextualist debate, and in formulating a minimalist alternative to some current trends." <i>James Higginbotham, University of Southern California</i><br /> </p> <p><br /> </p> <p>"This is a pleasingly spare yet instructively sophisticated account of how Davidsonians can accommodate the massive context sensitivity of language use. Good stuff." <i>Paul Pietroski, University of Maryland</i><br /> </p> <p>"This is a book of considerable importance, which deals with a topic currently at the center of research in the philosophy of language. As a result, <i>Insensitive Semantics</i> has been and will continue to be widely discussed ...This book pushes the discussion of context-sensitivity forward in new and useful directions. Read it and learn from it." <i>Journal of Linguistics</i></p><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Herman Cappelen</b> 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 <i>Noûs</i>, <i>Mind</i>, <i>Mind & Language</i>, <i>Analysis</i>, and <i>Synthese</i>.<br /> <p><br /> </p> <p><b>Ernie Lepore</b> is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He is author of <i>Meaning and Argument</i> (revised edition, Blackwell, 2003) and, with Jerry Fodor, of <i>Holism</i> (Blackwell, 1991). He is editor of <i>Truth and Interpretation</i> (Blackwell, 1989), and co-editor, with Zenon Pylyshyn, of <i>What is Cognitive Science</i>? (Blackwell, 1999), as well as general editor of the Blackwell series <i>Philosophers and Their Critics</i>.</p>

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