Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Use theory, philosophy of language: the term was formed following a thesis of L. Wittgenstein in his Philosophical Investigations, § 43. (Original in German) You can explain the use of the word "meaning" for a large class of cases - though not in all cases of its use - as the meaning of a word is its use in the language." - This thesis applies to words and cannot be extended to whole sentences. See also use, word meaning, sentence meaning, language acquisition, meaning theory, reference._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Jerry Fodor on Use Theory - Dictionary of Arguments
III 4 FodorVsUseTheory/Austin: use theory it does not provide a complete grammar. It also does not show the semantic influence of the grammatical forms. There is no decision procedure as to which dictionary entry applies in a given sentence: then it is not possible to decide: when two words have the same use, when there is abuse. >Grammar, >Meaning. --- II 118 Use Theory/Ryle: sentences have no manners of use! Therefore sentences are a priori excluded from the study of philosophical language analysis. In addition: sentences do not belong at all to language, but only to speaking. II 121 Use Theory/FodorVsUse Theory: use theory cannot answer: 1. Under what conditions do two words or expressions have the same use? 2. How do we distinguish use from abuse? 3. What does it depend on whether a word has more than one usage? VsVs: the use theory could answer with language rules: two expressions have the same use if they follow the same rules. But that is not possible: >Language rules. II 122 Use Theory/FodorVsUse Theory: variant: use theory considers the circumstances because the semantic and syntactic properties are not sufficient. But the circumstances cannot be systematized! II 123 Use Theory/FodorVsUse Theory: use theory does not provide a theory of meaning, but only a characterization of the data that would be relevant for such a theory. Behavior provides only empirical material for semantic research. >Language behavior, >Semantics. --- III 223 Use Theory/Fodor: use theory must distinguish between object language ((s) as data material) and statements of the native speaker about his/her use (metalanguage). Problem: if the linguist wants to distinguish between true and false statements, he/she has to know a lot about the language beforehand >Radical Interpretation._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
F/L Jerry Fodor Ernest Lepore Holism. A Shoppers Guide Cambridge USA Oxford UK 1992 Fodor I Jerry Fodor "Special Sciences (or The Disunity of Science as a Working Hypothesis", Synthese 28 (1974), 97-115 In Kognitionswissenschaft, Dieter Münch, Frankfurt/M. 1992 Fodor II Jerry Fodor Jerrold J. Katz Sprachphilosophie und Sprachwissenschaft In Linguistik und Philosophie, G. Grewendorf/G. Meggle, Frankfurt/M. 1974/1995 Fodor III Jerry Fodor Jerrold J. Katz The availability of what we say in: Philosophical review, LXXII, 1963, pp.55-71 In Linguistik und Philosophie, G. Grewendorf/G. Meggle, Frankfurt/M. 1974/1995 |
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Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-27